In Ableton Live you have the option of triggering your loop with a midi controller or with the keyboard on your computer. In this post, I’m going to talk about triggering... [more]
I was initially inspired by the Page CXVI recording of this tune, using some of the drum groove they put on it for the verses. Then I came up with the intro riff, and lastly the chorus, which was the hardest part of the whole arranging process. Writing a good chorus is much harder than it seems! I based the loop around some great Rhodes and Wurlitzer sounds from Soniccouture (their Electric Pianos sounds found in the Ableton online store). I beefed up the bass line with a thick low end pad and the piano drone was a tweak from a free Live Pack from Ableton
(Otisto 23/Dume Poutet, still available on the Ableton site); I shifted it to the "and" of 2 instead of right on the downbeat, and then I doubled the track with just the reverse reverb to make the drone extra drone-y. The track is rounded out with a nice delayed Wurlitzer sound (again from Soniccouture), sleigh bells, tambourine, and finally some glockenspiel for all you hipsters out there.