← The Two Views
Mission 08 · World 2
Clips 101 — MIDI vs Audio
Two clip types. Wildly different powers.
Every sound in Live lives in a clip. Master clips, master Live.
+70 XP
// WHAT IT DOES
A clip is a container for sound. Audio clips hold a sample; MIDI clips hold notes that play an instrument.
Click a clip → its Detail View opens at the bottom: loop length, pitch, gain, warp, envelope.
Think of it like → A clip is a Tupperware container. Same shape on the outside, totally different contents.
▸ WHY YOU CARE
- • Tweak any clip without touching the rest of the song.
- • Loop a 1-bar clip into 32 bars without copying it 32 times.
// SEE & HEAR IT
MIDI CLIP
NOTES + INSTRUCTIONS
Stores: pitch, velocity, length per note. The instrument creates the sound at playback. Editable forever.
AUDIO CLIP
RECORDED WAVEFORM
Stores: a sample. Pitch is baked in. Transpose & stretch are post-process — you can hear artifacts.
TRY THIS: change the MIDI instrument — same notes, totally different timbre. Then transpose the audio clip — hear the artefacts? That's why MIDI is editable forever and audio isn't.
▸ HOW IT WORKS
Clip → Sample/Notes → Warp/Quantize → Envelopes → Track → Mixer.
▸ Signal flow — watch the dot
▸ SIGNAL FLOW
Glowing dot = your signal travelling through Live.
▸ LISTEN FOR
- • Loop length changes immediately repeat-trigger.
- • Clip envelopes alter playback only inside the loop.
▸ WALKTHROUGH (3 steps)
- 1. DO: Double-click a clip.▸ LISTEN: Detail view shows the waveform / piano roll.
- 2. DO: Drag the loop brace to make it shorter.▸ LISTEN: Clip loops at the new length.
- 3. DO: Open Envelopes → choose Volume → draw a fade.▸ LISTEN: Clip volume rides the curve.
▸ COMMON MISTAKES
- ✗ Confusing clip Length with Loop length.
- ✗ Drawing track automation when you wanted a clip envelope (or vice versa).
// QUIZ (QUICK)
Question 1 / 30 correct
MIDI clips contain…