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Tune your 808 in Ableton Live
Drop the 808 you play in Live. Read its note here, save it tuned, then set Live's sampler so a C plays a C. Sampler has a Root Key; Simpler has none, so there you transpose from C3, and this page works out by how much.
Mika reads the note. Ableton calls it an octave lower than he does. Neither of them is wrong.Pick a WAV, AIFF or MP3 of one hit. It is read in this browser.
or drop a file on this card
Root note
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Next: move your chords to that key, or find the root note of any other one-shot.
In Ableton Live, step by step
- Read the 808 above. Leave the target on the nearest note and save the tuned WAV: the cents are gone, the length is the same.
- With Sampler: drop the tuned WAV into Sampler, open its Sample tab and set Root Key to the note the line under the result names. Detune stays at 0.
- With Simpler: Simpler plays a sample at its own pitch when the note is C3. Set Transpose to the semitones the line under the result gives (60 minus the note's MIDI number; Simpler goes to ±48). Detune stays at 0.
- Play the note in a MIDI clip: you hear it at that pitch, and a C plays a C.
Keeping the original file instead? Detune moves the sample by up to 50 cents in either device: set the cents this page reads with the sign turned round, so 23 cents sharp is −23.
Checked against Ableton's Live 12 manual, Live Instrument Reference: Simpler (original pitch on C3, Transpose ±48 semitones, Detune ±50 cents, glide, pitch bend ±5 semitones) and Sampler's Sample tab (Root Key, Detune ±50 cents); and Sound on Sound, "Simpler Pleasures".
Why Live says F0 when this page says F1
Live names middle C, MIDI note 60, C3; this page calls it C4, the scientific way, with A4 at 440 Hz. So everything in Live's MIDI editor and Root Key menu is named one octave lower than here: an 808 at F1 (43.65 Hz) is F0 in Live. Live's note range starts at C-2.
The line under the result gives the note in Live's numbering. Counting by hand: take one off the octave.
Glide and bends in Simpler
Simpler has a glide function: a new note starts from the pitch of the last one and slides to its own. With Transpose set right, every slide ends on the note you wrote. Simpler also follows pitch bend, up to five semitones either way.
Detune is ±50 cents in both devices: enough for the cents, never for a semitone. Anything bigger goes on Transpose, or on the target note here.
Then make something of it
The note goes into Brumm as a bassline on an 808, in a running club track. The WAV is yours: 24-bit, mono; a WAV keeps its sample rate.
Audio: a file you choose, opened in this tab; once it is chosen, no request leaves the page. The sound is analysed in this tab and never sent. Nothing about the audio reaches the visit count.