10 Easy Ways to Create Lifts and Drops in Ableton Live

What would a song be without some well-placed lifts and drops! Finish up your track of any genre with these 10 useful tips by Ableton Certified Trainer LNA.

1. Super Simple Drop

The easiest way to create a drop is to highlight a bar and delete everything on it. Try it e.g. between the verse and the chorus. Leave it as it is or fill it with something simple like a clap or a hit.

2. Vocal Chop Drop

Take the last word (or another appropriate part) of the vocals and chop it rhythmically making it shorter and shorter. Consolidate it (CTRL/CMD + J), open the clip envelopes and transpose it down an octave.

3. Small Lift in a Drop

Make a drop by deleting a bar like on tip number 1. Find a cymbal sound with a long enough decay, open the clip view and reverse the clip by clicking the reverse button.

4. Auto Filter Drop

Choose Auto Filter and drag it on the master track to affect the whole song or on a group track to affect a specific group of tracks. Automate the frequency control and add breakpoints to create a drop.

To add an extra effect, add a hit into the drop – in that case don’t use the master track for your Auto Filter or you won’t be able to hear the hit.

5. Drum Lift

Add a drum kit on an empty track and draw a kick drum on every beat of the bar. Make another two clips with the drum hits doubling twice in speed. Layer different sounds and loop the clips as desired.

When you’re ready, right-click to freeze and flatten the outcome to convert it into audio. Finalise by transposing it in the clip envelope editor just like on tip number 2.