Recording: Setting up Ableton Live for Recording

I wrote this beginners guide last year on the DV247 music forum, but for some reason never thought to re-post it on here. I think it's a useful guide to getting more from Live once you've got the default install up and running. Re-reading it has reminded me about a few features that I rarely use, so it could be worth a read for anyone using Live out there. Any edits on the original have been made in the classic square brackets.


Recording in Ableton seems a little different at first, but it's pretty straightforward really. Here's a proper beginners guide that should guide you through the whole process and a vague overview of some recording options should you want to play around with it.

Check your input settings. (Skip to the next Bold italic title if you think your all set there)

Go to: Options -> Preferences... -> Audio. Here you'll want to set up the drivers and settings for recording. Under Driver type you can pick MME/DirectX or ASIO. Mine is an ASIO compatible device, so I use ASIO for the lowest latency recording. Then pick your device from the Audio Device list which will contain any installed ASIO compatible drivers including ASIO4ALL and ReaRoute ASIO.

You also have input and output config. In those you can enable and disable any of the inputs and outputs of your interface. Hardware setup brings up a driver settings box for your device, but that could be slightly different depending on your interface. Once your happy here you can get into the actual process of recording!

The Recording Process

To start with, open your project in the "Session View". This gives you a good place to check levels on all of your channels.

Each channel has an I/O box. If it's not visible look towards the bottom right of the screen, above the clip/audio effects box. You'll see a little circle with I-O written in it; click it and the box should be shown/hidden.

"Audio From" is your input for that channel, and you can choose stereo or mono sources including routing inside Live. Auto monitoring isn't always as intelligent as it could be, so set Monitor to "In".

Now as long as you've got your input coming in on the input channel you've selected you should get some level through it. If not then check your input levels and that your devices are definitely receiving.

If so then you're ready to record. Arm your track using the button at the bottom of the channel strip. The rectangular button with the dot in it. To start recording simply press the play and then record buttons on the transport.

Now, you can either record in the "Session View" and create a clip on this grid, or you can record to the "Arrangement View" and create a clip on the project in the a more traditional [timeline] setting. Experiment with both. I use each in different ways for creating and playing to loops or composition.

Additional Settings

Now you may be wondering how to record to more than one channel at a time. This is a by default not allowed, you'll see you can only arm one track at a time. Go to Options -> Preferences...-> Record | Warp | Launch. Here you'll see an option called "Exclusive" if you deselect Arm you'll be able to arm as many tracks as you like, up to the limit of your version.

Hope that covers what you might have wanted to know!


If you found that useful (or not) please feel free to comment.