First things first: We need to understand the difference between MIDI Effects and Audio Effects.

Our first MIDI effect is the arpeggiator - it was probably the most widely used MIDI effect we have, so pay attention!

Next up is Chord - a way to generate harmonies automatically.

We've seen a few different kinds of Racks in other classes, this is the same basic concept, just with MIDI Effects.

In this video we look at the Note Length effect - a quick tool to adjust the duration of all our MIDI notes in a clip.

Pitch! Transpose your MIDI notes in this quick effect.

One of my favorites - give some life to your MIDI clip by adding some random elements.

One of the most powerful MIDI effects, and most complicated. With this we can change the sound of an entire passage with a single effect.

Altering our velocities is great, but check out some of the random functions in here to make your MIDI clips sound a little more human.

There are three main types of Audio Effects - In this video I'll explain the difference, and why they fit into these three groups.

Time-based effects are mostly delays and similar effects, but there are a few surprises.

First in our list: Simple Delay. Pretty much just what it sounds like!

The Ping Pong Delay is a little more complicated delay.

More complicated still, this one is sort of three delays in one.

This is your first granular effect - these are a little more complicated, but with a little practice it will be clear.

A classic chorus effect! Nothing too fancy here!

The Flanger effect is a favorite for builds, and guitar players in the early 90s.

Ok - this one is important. You are probably familiar with Reverb, but let me explain to you the details of what Reverb is, and how to use it.

One of the oddities here - this is a sort of a glitch plugin. It is fantastic for making beats and dense textures.

This is primarily for live performance, but can have some uses in production as well.

Frequency-based effects are primarily EQ, and filter type effects. Again, there are a few surprises in here.

A very simple EQ! Nothing too fancy here - but this little effect is super useful.

A little more complicated EQ - this one is much more useful for production.

Time to get a visit from our old friend the LFO.

Simulate classic instrument (guitar) amplifiers with this list of amps.

Nothing goes better with the Amp simulator than a cabinet simulator!

Things are starting to get a little more complicated now!

A tube amp emulator, for that warm distortion sound.

Now we get serious with distortion.

A transposer, with a little more under the hood.

Even more distortions!

A Phaser is a way of playing with the phase of our signal. I'll show you how this works (and what that means) in this video.

Emulate the sounds of classic video games with this effect.

Another complicated one - but really powerful on percussion sounds (my personal favorite!)

A little more warmth.

A classic vocoder (not an autotune!)

Dynamic Effects (effects that alter our volume in various ways) are some of the most abstract effects, and therefore they tend to be harder to understand. Stick with me in this section and we will get them all sorted out.

Compressor is the most fundamental dynamic effect. Most of the other dynamic effects are variations on the compressor.

The Glue Compressor is new in Live 9, and is a subtle (sounding) effect that helps tie things together.

This effect keeps our signal from going to high - we set a "ceiling," and we don't let anything go above it.

Take a 3-band EQ, add a compressor to each band, and you have a Multiband Compressor.

Kind of an upside-down Limiter - when the signal is loud enough, the gate opens. If it isn't loud enough, the gate is closed.

A bit of an oddity here, but panning is a way of adjusting the volume for each speaker.

If you want to take the signal out of your computer and into another effect (like a guitar pedal) this is the way to do it.

Want that classic vinyl crackle? Slap this bad boy on a track.

This is a visualizer: It shows us (with our eyes) what we are hearing (with our ears).

I love this plugin for programming samplers. I'll show you the trick in this video.

This plugin is exactly what it sounds like: A utility to help us with some common audio clip problems.

Thanks for hanging out with me in this class! Just a few quick final thoughts before we end.

You've come this far... maybe you are willing to go a little further...

In Ableton 6 we are going to start talking about putting all of these together in some audio effect racks. These are super powerful, especially for DJing and performing. Here is a preview from Ableton 6 on how these work. 

There is so much more to learn!