Song Sketch 2 for Ableton Live

Song Sketch 2 is a song arrangement tool for Ableton Live.

Song Sketch is a Max for Live device that makes it possible to quickly turn a song idea into a full song. In Song Sketch, you can load, edit and create your own arrangement patterns and apply them to your music. You can also import existing arrangements from the Live Arrangement View.

The Song Sketch workflow allows you to work and experiment with arrangement early in the process of making a song. For example, when composing your parts you can use Song Sketch to evaluate your song idea and different arrangement options. You can also use Song Sketch to quickly set up a draft arrangement as a starting point for a track.

Song Sketch 2 includes a total of 168 arrangement templates in 14 different styles: Hip Hop, House, Deep House, Techno, Dance & Mainstage, Pop, Drum & Bass, Trap, Reggae & Dancehall, Trance, Reggaeton, Downtempo, Disco and Rock & Country. Add-on templates are also be available in the shop.

The Song Sketch workflow takes you from a loop to a full track in a few steps:

• Start with your loop. Start with the loop that you are working on. You can use midi- and audio clips of different lengths. For each track or group of tracks, you can use either just one scene of clips or several different scenes.
• Apply an arrangement pattern. Load a template with an arrangement pattern for the genre. You can either use preset templates in Song Sketch, or you can create your own templates. In Live 11, it is also possible to import the structure of an arrangement into Song Sketch.
• Assign parts. When loading a template, your tracks will be matched with the different tracks in the template. Before placing the arrangement, consider how the tracks are assigned and make the adjustments that you like.
• Define scenes. You now have a draft arrangement to start working from. If you are using several scenes, for example if you like to use a different chord progression in choruses, select in which section each scene should be used.
• Play back the first draft. Click the "To Arr" button to place the arrangement onto the Live Arrangement View and play back to hear the first draft.
• Edit. Edit the song structure in Song Sketch, for example by changing the length of sections, adding new sections, drawing bars and adding automation.
• Play back and continue your workflow in the Arrangement View. Update the Live Arrangement View and listen to your result. You now have a starting point for a track and can continue your workflow in the Live Arrangement View, for example to work on layering sounds, creating variation throughout the track and adding automation.