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Tutorial - Blue Cat's Digital Peak Meter Pro In Ableton Live
Tutorial - Blue Cat's Digital Peak Meter Pro In Ableton Live

In this tutorial you will learn how to use the DP Meter Pro plugin (DPMP)'s real time capabilities in Ableton Live: use it to let any instrument influence the parameters of any effect for any other instrument. This tutorial shows these capabilities with Blue Cat's free effect.

Note: if you are on Mac, you have to use the VST version, because Live does not support MIDI output for Audio Units.

Step By Step

01 - insert the DPMP on the source track (select the track and drag and drop the plug-in):

Step 01 - insert the DPMP on the source track (select the track and drag and drop the plug-in)

02 - Select the DPMP preset settings in the main menu (right click on the background):

Step 02 - Select the DPMP preset settings in the main menu (right click on the background)

03 - Enable the DPMP Midi output for the transformed peak envelope, and set the CC number:

Step 03 - Enable the DPMP Midi output for the transformed peak envelope, and set the CC number

04 - insert the effect you want to control on the target track (we are using Blue Cat's Stereo Chorus here):

Step 04 - insert the effect you want to control on the target track (we are using Blue Cat's Stereo Chorus here)

05 - Select the chorus presets settings in the main menu:

Step 05 - Select the chorus presets settings in the main menu

06 - Enable the chorus MIDI input for selected parameters, set MIDI Channel to Omni (0) and MIDI CC to the same value as for the DPMP output:

Step 06 - Enable the chorus MIDI input for selected parameters, set MIDI Channel to Omni (0) and MIDI CC to the same value as for the DPMP output

07 - Insert a MIDI track:

Step 07 - Insert a MIDI track

08 - Switch to the 'Session' view:

Step 08 - Switch to the 'Session' view

09 - Select the source DPMP track as input, and the chorus destination track as output (for an external device, use the MIDI output port):

Step 09 - Select the source DPMP track as input, and the chorus destination track as output (for an external device, use the MIDI output port)

10 - Hit the play button, the selected parameters are now being changed according to the source track envelope:

Step 10 - Hit the play button, the selected parameters are now being changed according to the source track envelope

11 - Hide the RMS curves on the DPMP to monitor only the peaks:

Step 11 - Hide the RMS curves on the DPMP to monitor only the peaks

12 - Tweak the Amount and offset parameters of the DPMP:

Step 12 - Tweak the Amount and offset parameters of the DPMP

13 - Tweak the Chorus MIDI response curve parameters (Min,Max,Response):

Step 13 - Tweak the Chorus MIDI response curve parameters (Min,Max,Response)

14 - Tweak the DPMP MIDI output response:

Step 14 - Tweak the DPMP MIDI output response

15 - Enjoy and play:

Step 15 - Enjoy and play
You are now able to use the DP Meter Pro plugin with Ableton Live: you can now use this methodology with other effects. All combinations are possible, and you can even use external hardware devices as targets of the DPMP MIDI CC messages!

Any questions, comments? You want to submit your own tutorial to win a free license? Please post on our Forum!