Learning Ableton

Johnny K · #1 10-22-2018, 07:11 AM

Hi all. I need a good soup to nuts guide to Ableton Live 9. Something that will help me add skills as I learn the software. I've watched a million youtube videos and they're helpful, but having a one stop guide book will suit me better.

Right now I am winging it by the seat of my pants. (see the Show Tell Post I just made and you can see what I mean)

Please throw out some recommendations for a decent books.

thanks.

rick-slo · #2 10-22-2018, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny K

Hi all. I need a good soup to nuts guide to Ableton Live 9. Something that will help me add skills as I learn the software. I've watched a million youtube videos and they're helpful, but having a one stop guide book will suit me better.

Right now I am winging it by the seat of my pants. (see the Show Tell Post I just made and you can see what I mean)

Please throw out some recommendations for a decent books.

thanks.

I use Ableton Live 9. Read the manual carefully:
https://cdn-resources.ableton.com/80...9Manual_EN.pdf

Johnny K · #3 10-22-2018, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick-slo

I use Ableton Live 9. Read the manual carefully:
https://cdn-resources.ableton.com/80...9Manual_EN.pdf

LMAO. Thank you for that brutally honest reply.

I do have it, was hoping for a guide that does what the manual does and offers a few tricks that maybe you dont get.

rick-slo · #4 10-22-2018, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny K

LMAO. Thank you for that brutally honest reply.

I do have it, was hoping for a guide that does what the manual does and offers a few tricks that maybe you dont get.

Not brutal, just simple. We have all been there. For "tricks", though not really tricks, you might peruse or ask questions on the Ableton Forum.

Johnny K · #5 10-22-2018, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Not brutal, just simple. We have all been there. For "tricks", though not really tricks, you might peruse or ask questions on the Ableton Forum.

Ooooh. They got a forum. Thanks for that!

muscmp · #6 10-22-2018, 04:59 PM

i use logic, reason and ableton. sometimes starting in one and ending in one other.

ableton is a fantastic DAW. I haven't upgraded to 10 due to the high upgrade price but i still use 9 quite a bit.

most all of the DAW have their own forum. that way you can learn from people who know more than you, or, help others who know less than you.

ableton's support is excellent also, i've had a couple of vst/plugin problems and they have helped me considerably.

play music!

[J.K.] · #7 10-31-2018, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny K

Please throw out some recommendations for a decent books.
thanks.

Man, from one Johnny K to another: I don't know if books will help much.
I also had a tough time approaching Ableton because so many of the YouTube videos were all strict electronic music, and I use it for recording guitar and processing effects (I also learned to program with Max over the past year and have put a half dozen devices up for that). I would describe myself as an experimental traditionalist, not an EDM musician.

I went to the local library and checked out a few of the big name books (Ableton Power, Producing Music with Ableton, and some other one), and read them as I was tinkering around. None were particularly helpful other than giving me a basic idea of the UI. It really took me a couple months of recording something, adding a couple effects (and then grouping the effects in racks and saving the presets I liked), and going back and forth like that before I could make much sense of it. The two views (session and arrangement) were super disorienting to me for a while, and I couldn't explain why.

Honestly, buying the user manual to have by my desk was more useful than any other books, but considering it's all online, it eventually became easier to just search there for most of my questions.

If you're serious about learning it, I'd suggest just trying to make single, incremental goals. Learn how to record something. Learn how to use effects. Learn how to edit things in the interface. Learn how to maybe program a drum track either for the song itself or to replace the metronome so you have something more natural for a click track. Every step of the way you'll have questions, but all the answers are out there with a quick google search. If anything, the hardest part is weeding through all the posts from kids trying to make boring techno tracks to find other people who use it in a more practical or broad way.

muscmp · #8 11-01-2018, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [J.K.]

Man, from one Johnny K to another: I don't know if books will help much.
I also had a tough time approaching Ableton because so many of the YouTube videos were all strict electronic music, and I use it for recording guitar and processing effects (I also learned to program with Max over the past year and have put a half dozen devices up for that). I would describe myself as an experimental traditionalist, not an EDM musician.

I went to the local library and checked out a few of the big name books (Ableton Power, Producing Music with Ableton, and some other one), and read them as I was tinkering around. None were particularly helpful other than giving me a basic idea of the UI. It really took me a couple months of recording something, adding a couple effects (and then grouping the effects in racks and saving the presets I liked), and going back and forth like that before I could make much sense of it. The two views (session and arrangement) were super

disorienting to me for a while, and I couldn't explain why.

Honestly, buying the user manual to have by my desk was more useful than any other books, but considering it's all online, it eventually became easier to just search there for most of my questions.

If you're serious about learning it, I'd suggest just trying to make single, incremental goals. Learn how to record something. Learn how to use effects. Learn how to edit things in the interface. Learn how to maybe program a drum track either for the song itself or to replace the metronome so you have something more natural for a click track. Every step of the way you'll have questions, but all the answers are out there with a quick google search. If anything, the hardest part is weeding through all the posts from kids trying to make boring techno tracks to find other people who use it in a more practical or broad way.

other than the unnecessary swipes at other people's usage of ableton, i'd say this is spot on.

play music!

Johnny K · #9 11-01-2018, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [J.K.]

Man, from one Johnny K to another: I don't know if books will help much.

If you're serious about learning it, I'd suggest just trying to make single, incremental goals. Learn how to record something. Learn how to use effects. Learn how to edit things in the interface. Learn how to maybe program a drum track either for the song itself or to replace the metronome so you have something more natural for a click track. Every step of the way you'll have questions, but all the answers are out there with a quick google search. If anything, the hardest part is weeding through all the posts from kids trying to make boring techno tracks to find other people who use it in a more practical or broad way.

So far this is what I've been doing. I seem to be learning a couple new things every time.

Thanks all for the help so far.

EDIT: Here is a couple of cool things I learned so far. If you speed up a 12/8 slow blues beat from 72 (the tempo at which I laid it down) to 120ish, you get Hypnotized by Bob Welch. Also A little compression and a reverb effect in Ableton called FOYER on the kick drum track set at 50% wet gives the drum track a very subtle and very cool When The Leeve Breaks vibe without being overpowering. My kick drum mic picks up a little snare so I get a very subtle snare chorus/echo effect.