Beat Box: Creating Better DJ Effects in Ableton Using Phase Cancellation

DJ Effects using phase cancellation from Will Marshall on Vimeo.

In this video, Will Marshall uses racks in Ableton Live to non-destructively split high and low frequency bands in a project with a concept called phase cancellation. Using a low and high channel in the instrument rack, he assigns a cutoff knob in the macro control to control where each respective band is separated. A separate rack for the highs also utilizes a chain but also includes a utility effect that inverts the low signal, to cancel itself from the high signal so when an affect is applied it chops out the low signal completely (thus, the phase cancellation).

Why set it up like this? This is a great DJ effect for using a filter that is only applied to the higher frequencies, but WITHOUT affecting the bass or kickdrums.

If you want to experiment with this yourself, download Will’s rack here: http://bit.ly/5eT59L

Comments

[Will Marshall]

Thanks for the post! Your summary is really good - mind if I borrow bits of it?

[nickdawg]

Of course- great tutorial Will!