I was reading COSM's description, and I was messing around with his template, the idea and some of the sounds seemed dope. I still don't have an easy understanding as to how to integrate them into one of my sets, and it would seem weak for me to drop my song's into his.

Anyone here use these? And how do you play them out live with something like a trigger finger?

its basically a way to split clip automation from the actual clip itself. instead of everything in one channel, you are routing audio to a second channel and using clips to play effect automation. that way you can play certain clips in your set and simultaneously trigger effect clips seperately

i use it extensively in my live setup. it is a great way to control effects for predetermined lengths of time. i have not found a use for them in production though.

How do you create the dummy clips and trigger them? COSM has 3 SEND knobs, I dunno his shit looked bulky and complicated. I'd like to start using these things soon but I haven't heard a thorough enough breakdown.

It pretty easy

Two Audio Tracks

route one into the other and use the track receiving the Audio to automate the effects

here is where I learned

http://www.thecovertoperators.org/Artic ... the-basics

you can avoid using the sends if you reroute the audio to another track with the effect you want to use a dummy track to control.

you will need a blank clip to return the effect to the off position so you don't hear it all the time. but I prefer to not mess around with using the sends for my dummy clips.

and +verb I use dummy clips in production to save my sexiest curves so i dont have to re-pencil click them in every time. One of the most irritating things about ableton for me right now is how cumbersome the draw tool is.

What i did way back when i used his elaborate template I mapped the the dummy clips i would use to some pads on a bank in the trigger finger. mapped the macros i wanted to use to the knobs.

For the first set of sends (bt rpt, delay, and something else i forgot) i used the normal way he teaches in his tut for the template. I later did some simpler key mapping... i now do what sugar pill says... except i route them to separate channels so the dummy clips are only effecting the track i choose.

For the second set of sends ( grain delay, reverb, redux) I mapped the b send on the last bus channel from the A group... so that when i wanted those massive grain delay builds i could just trigger the clip with a pad on the trigger figner, fade up to send the audio to B...i really only used the grain delay.... then you could slam it back down when the next track dropped... worked pretty seamless...

but... his setup was pretty elaborate. The template I play on now is I heavily modified (stripped down and simpler) version of his with a drum rack added full of samples, a track for just crops/acapellas and i added 2 extra audio channels with mapping to a uc33 incase another DJ wants to play off my laptop...just needs flash drive and his ASDs...!!!

Word to saving automation curves in Dummy Clips.. Good video on that at Next Step Audio..

As for DJing, I have never done it in Live, will definitely check out The Bridge someday, but for now...

But I could see having a couple of automation clips of filter sweeps or interesting gate effects loaded onto a single send to be useful.
Using added effects on the track might be a little different, but I suppose you could just bypass any effect you don't want and leave only the desired effect running.. This way you could keep them all on one send, and then group your dummy clips according to the effect they are used by and a stop clip in between..

Of course, not having DJed with Live, this is completely hypothetical and more than likely a waste of both of our time.

since i initially wrote this post i have started a small collection of clips with curves for use in production. you are very right in that it speeds up the process immensely. i hate using the pencil tool in ableton also. yet recently, more and more i am writing complete tracks inside logic 9... and i find myself wishing i could drop in an automation clip inside the project.

with that said, i am looking forward to some free time this summer to use maxforlive for lfo routing midi parameters. there are already some devices out there, but none working exactly how i want them. while live's sequencer can be a bit primitive compared to other daws, the fact that M4L is a reality now and we have access to the live API is incredible!

its a little cumbersome but I export automation as midi and recopy it to my dummy clips, especially for smoother curves.

Ive been considering a switch back to logic, not sure if im ready to go there, but I definitely pop in there to use some tools that I can export things from.