Splice
Reducing ambience with Ableton's multiband dynamics
Vaughn Oliver demonstrates the power of Ableton Live's Multiband Dynamics plugin for reducing ambience in percussion and drum tracks. He highlights the often-overlooked 'reduce ambience' preset, which acts like a gate to tighten up sounds by selectively controlling different frequency bands. This technique is particularly useful for cleaning up loops with excessive noise or reverb, allowing you to target specific areas like the low-end decay of a snare while preserving the high-end. Oliver encourages exploring stock presets within your DAW before turning to third-party plugins, as they can offer surprisingly effective solutions for noise reduction and gating. By experimenting with these presets, you can unlock powerful processing capabilities without additional costs.