How to make amapiano in Ableton Live 12
Amapiano is built around the log drum: a pitched, percussive low hit that slides between notes and doubles as the bass. Under it, a soft kick and constant shakers; over it, jazzy electric-piano chords. Here it is step by step in Live 12, then the one-line version.
1. Set the tempo
Amapiano sits between about 110 and 115 BPM, usually 112 or 113. Click the tempo field in Live's Control Bar, type 113 and press Enter.
2. Add a MIDI track with a drum kit
Insert a MIDI track (⌘ Shift T). In the browser, open Drums, pick a kit and drag it onto the track. Any kit with a soft, round kick, a dry rimshot, an open hat and a shaker works. The log drum gets its own track later.
3. Make a clip
In Session View, double-click an empty clip slot on the drum track. Live makes an empty MIDI clip and opens it; the pattern below is one bar. Set the grid to 1/16 with the grid chooser at the right of the Clip View header (⌘ 1 and ⌘ 2 narrow and widen it), so each beat has four steps and the bar has 16.
4. Program the drums
Switch to Draw Mode (B) and click the notes in. Most Live kits follow the General MIDI layout (kick C1, snare D1, clap D#1, closed hat F#1, open hat A#1); check the pad names in yours.
- Kick on every beat, soft and round: steps 1, 5, 9 and 13.
- Rimshot on beats 2 and 4: steps 5 and 13.
- Open hi-hat on the off-beats: steps 3, 7, 11 and 15.
- Shaker on every sixteenth, quietly.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | ||||||||||||||||
| Rimshot | ||||||||||||||||
| Open hat | ||||||||||||||||
| Shaker |
Dimmer cells are notes played softer.
5. Swing the shakers
Amapiano shakers lean back. Drag a swing groove from the browser's Grooves onto the clip, and it applies at once. Then raise its Timing in the Groove Pool (⌘ ⌥ 6) until the off-beat sixteenths sit late.
For more movement, add a conga in a clave-like figure on steps 5, 8, 11 and 13.
6. Build a log drum
The log drum is a short, low hit that drops in pitch fast. In Operator (Live Suite): a sine on oscillator A, Pitch Envelope On pointed at oscillator A with the Pitch Env amount set so each note starts high and falls quickly, a short decay, and Glide (G) on with a short Glide Time so notes slide into each other. Add Saturator for body.
Without Suite, a log drum sample in Simpler does the job.
7. Play the log drum
There's no single log-drum rhythm. It lands on off-beats and on the "and" of the beat, and it changes from bar to bar. A starting point: beat 1, then steps 7, 11 and 15. In the next bar, move a note, slide between two pitches of your key, or try a 3-3-2 (steps 1, 4, 7, 9, 12 and 15).
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | ||||||||||||||||
| Log drum |
A starting point, not a rule: vary it in the next bar.
8. Chords
Amapiano chords are jazzy and warm: minor 9ths on an electric piano, held for a bar or two. Live's Electric (in Standard and Suite) suits it. In F minor, try Fm9 to B♭m9.
Or ask Amable
Amable does these steps in your set when you ask in plain words:
set the tempo to 113, load a drum kit and make an amapiano groove with swung shakers
add a log drum bassline on a new track, in F minor
add minor 9th chords on electric piano
It writes the pattern into a clip and fires it. Want to learn it instead? Ask it to walk you through it, and it guides you one step at a time, checking your set before the next.
Free trial, no card needed. Needs Ableton Live 12.