About This Course

Ash takes you through our Ableton Live Beginners Bootcamp. If you are a complete beginner to music production, If you don’t know what a MIDI channel is, how to get samples into your DAW or how to get Ableton to make a sound - full stop, then this is the course for you.

The course is suitable for absolute beginners who have never used Ableton before and is full of gems for those that have been in the game for a long time. He covers the key skills and techniques for going from a blank project to a tune that you can be proud of. Next stop, Beatport no.1 ;). 

Kreature explains things as simply as possible, whilst giving you the info you need, so you can concentrate on getting creative and writing bangers.

You will learn how to:

• Navigate and use the main functions of Ableton.
• Get your own samples into the DAW and start creating.
• Use MIDI and Audio. 
• Add groove and reverb to your drums to bring them to life. 
• Create a Bassline in Ableton’s Operator, 
• Stay in key.
• Use Sidechain Compression.
• Add synths and FX to your track.
• Test out ideas in Arrangement View.
• Add a vocal. 
• Use Ableton Live’s: Sampler.
• Use a reference track.
• Use arrangement view to extend your ideas into a full track
• Use tricks and techniques to create tension and keep the listener interested throughout your track. 
• Use automation.
• Create a pre-master and export your track out of your DAW.

Lessons: 

1. Introduction

Kreature fills you in on his accolades, wealth of experience in the game and what the Ableton Live Beginner Bootcamp is built to achieve. Complete beginners and those further along in their journey can all benefit from this course.

Kreature gives you a tour of Ableton Live and how to get started with its basic functions, beginning with building basic drum loops in audio and Midi. 

2. Tour of Ableton Live :

Kreature shows you around Ableton so that you can get stuck into making bangers. He breaks down the browser, how to add your own samples, adjust your preferences, top bar functions and some of Ableton’s crowning features: Session and Arrangement View. 

3. Midi and Audio Channels :

Kreature takes you through the two main types of channels in Ableton Live: MIDI and Audio. He starts to programme a simple drum loop in MIDI, adds some top loops to audio channels and also shows you the basics of using EQ Eight (but more on that later).

4. Setting up Drums and Basslines : 

Kreature gives an overview of what has been covered in the Ableton Live Beginner Bootcamp so far: navigating your way around the DAW, programming your own drums: kicks, claps, hats and shakers on sixteenth notes and more. Setting you up to take your music production journey to the next level.  

5. Adding Groove to Drums and Reverb to a Clap :

Groove is an essential element of most electronic music, it gives a real life feel, brings the funk to your tracks and makes you want to dance. Kreature shows how to add groove with velocity changes and swing using Ableton Live’s Groove Pool. Next he shows how to add reverb to a clap to give it presence in your mix.

6. Creating a Bassline in Ableton Live’s Operator :

One of the really fun parts of music production is creating your own basslines. Kreature shows you how to use presets in Operator to start building your track. He shows you how to write basslines in key, how to create different styles of bassline to give your track a certain flavour and adjusting the filter cutoff to personalize your sound. 

7. Creating loops :

Ash recaps what we have covered in the Ableton Live Beginner Bootcamp so far. 

In this lesson Ash shows you how to start progressing your track and get out of a loop. He goes through the basics of Sidechain Compression and how to add more musical elements to your tracks such as synth leads and vocals. He also explores how to change these sounds with Ableton Live’s Audio FX.

8. Sidechain Compression and Busses: An Introduction

Kreature introduces the basics of sidechain compression, a powerful production tool for electronic music. He shows you how to set up sidechaining with Ableton Live’s Stock Compressor, triggered by your kick. As a bonus he shows you how to group your kick and bass together to easily manipulate their volume as one. 

9. Progressing Your Track: Adding Synths and Audio FX :

Ash shows you how to take your track further and start to shape your sound. He adds a synth lead with Ableton 11’s: Poli and shows you how to change the sound by adjusting parameters such as wavetable position. Finally he goes through some of Ableton Live’s stock Audio FX: Arpeggiator; Echo and more. 

10. Building Out Your Arrangement in Session View :

Kreature shows you how to start building out your track and get a feel for how it will sound in a full arrangement, duplicating scenes and removing others to build an intro and breakdown. He shows you how to stay in key using Ableton 11 AND earlier versions plus how to use call and response in your tracks to keep things exciting but not too crowded.

11. Adding a Vocal and Using a Sampler :

Ash shows you how to add a vocal to your track to give it another dimension (watch and you will know!). Next, he shows some basic warping and how to play samples in Ableton Live’s Sampler, showing how to make sure you are playing the right notes and how to chop samples up. 

12. Moving into Arrangement View :

Ash gives a quick round up of what has been taught so far in the Ableton Live Beginner Bootcamp.

In this section of the course Kreature moves the project into Arrangement View and shows you how to quickly create a simple, but finished track. He shows you how to use reference tracks effectively, how to record an idea from Session View into Arrangement, getting to grips with automation plus adding new sounds and variation to the existing elements of your track. 

Finally Ash talks you through a proud moment in any producer's journey, exporting your track from the DAW so you can listen anywhere you like. 

13. Using a Reference Track :

Kreature moves over to an arrangement view and gives you a quick tour. Next he talks about reference tracks, why you should use them, how to use them and how to add one to your project. Finally he shows you how to record your track ideas from session view into arrangement so you can progress your track further. 

14. Progressing Your Intro :

Ash shows you how to develop your track further and start working on your intro. He teaches how to automate FX to create transitions, adding risers and reversing samples and finally how to programme a bouncy snare roll.

15. Working on the Rest of the Track :

Kreature progresses the production process further. He shows you how to reuse sounds throughout your arrangement, add more sounds such as top loops and new bass flavours, how to edit and keep things organized, using Auto-Filter to reduce energy and much more.

16. Exporting Your Track :

In this final section Ash shows you how to make a basic premaster with a decent volume level. He explains what headroom is and how to find the peak volume of your track. Finally he shows the process for exporting your track out of Ableton and the best settings to get your track sounding sweet. 

If you’ve made it this far, well done. You’ve completed the Ableton Live Beginner Bootcamp and you’ve completed your first song!

17. Live Q&A Part 1 :

• Will Ableton always automatically sync the tempo of a sample to the project? 
• Why isn’t my hi-hat repeating? 
• What audio record settings do you use?
•  How do you save your track?

18. Live Q&A Part 2 :

• Is there a big difference between the scale function between Ableton Live 9, 10 and 11?
• How do we apply the key we want to the whole track and not only in the basslines?
• When I browse in places I can only see WAV files, no MIDI?
• How can I do what you did with EQ3 to my bass?

19. Live Q&A Part 3 :

• Should you minimise the number of samples you have at the start? 
• How do you develop your sound?
• Should we be sidechaining every element including the bass? 
• Why should we cut out lower frequencies if we are using sidechain and when?

20. Live Q & A Part 4 :

• What would a typical track arrangement look like with more time?
• What are the best ways to do automation?
• Is there any way to make the default volume in channels set to - 6db?
• How do you convert 32 bit plugins to 64 bit. 
• Can you automate different parts of Drum Rack?
• Are reference tracks good for understanding your genre when you start out?