Ableton Live - Quick Tip #1

Side-chain Compression in Ableton Live 
When Ableton updated Live to version 9, they made some great changes to the standard Compressor device, which included altering the various compression algorithms. While this update device is mostly superior to the the previous Live 8 compressor, there are some situations where the old device excels. Most notably for clean side-chain compression. Thankfully we can easily access the Live 8 compressor in Live 9, and we still get the benefits of the new interface. In fact I have the Live 8 compressor saved as my default, knowing that I only need to click the 'Upgrade' button to change to the Live 9 one.

I find the FF1 model type, which stands for feed-forward, to be the best for side-chain compression tasks. It is very clean, even at extreme settings, while the Live 9 compression models click very easily.
I also find the FB model, which stands for feed-back, to be very useful on drums as an alternative to The Glue (Or even in conjunction with The Glue).  

Live 8 Compressor Preset

You can open the Live 8 compressor in Live 9, by dragging the device preset file above into any session. To save the Live 8 compressor as your default, just right click on the Device Title Bar to access the context menu, and select 'Save as Default Preset'. Alternatively you can save it as a preset if you would prefer to leave the Live 9 compressor set as your default.