Using Video as Music Composition Tool in Ableton Live
January 31st, 2010
With my Muvi digital camcorder I decided to capture some footage on the London Underground with the intention of maybe taking some of the interesting elements and using them within a video to accompany an existing piece of music. However when I started importing the clips into Ableton Live I quickly realised that it is possible to edit the video like audio clips. This then got me thinking that I could create a piece of music inspired by the video clips and using the sound as a musique concrète source. Here is the video of said experiment:
What I learned from this experiment was:
- The music and video components need to be edited independently of one another so that they stand up on their own
- Composing visual elements helped me to build a basic structure to the music a lot quicker than starting with a blank arrange window
- Ableton Live can stretch video easily to get things in time
- Using the source audio from the video with added FX adds another layer of detail to the music
Very P Schaefer…! (i mean that as a compliment)