Introduction to Ableton Live

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Below are the top discussions from Reddit that mention this online Coursera course from Berklee College of Music.

Offered by Berklee College of Music. The new version of Introduction to Ableton Live featuring Ableton Live 10 will launch on April 20! In ... Enroll for free.

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Taught by
Erin Barra
Associate Professor
and 6 more instructors

Offered by
Berklee College of Music

Reddit Posts and Comments

8 posts • 61 mentions • top 24 shown below

r/ableton • post
26 points • jmbarlow
Ableton Learning - Coursera/Berklee School of Music Massively Open Online Course is taking registrations.
r/abletonlive • post
18 points • Squealio
Free online Intro to Ableton course.
r/edmproduction • post
3 points • GifLurker
Ableton Course

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

I think I posted this last session as well - however I believe there's plenty to learn here and it's a good way of getting the younger producers involved with wonderful tech such as Ableton.

Happy learning!

r/FL_Studio • post
2 points • TINDERBIOSETUP
FL Studio Beginners Tutorial

Does anyone have a tutorial for FL Studio that shows how the program works? I initially started out with Ableton, not having any music experience beforehand. I used this coursera class https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live Which was able to help me a lot with using ableton, but I decided I didn't really like the setup and wanted to use FL. Does anyone know of any classes, YouTube videos, or tutorials that are like this? Most things I find online are just how to do a certain thing, which is nice, but I need the basic lay down of how FL Studio works and what buttons do what which would really help me work faster and understand the program better.

r/ableton • comment
2 points • felipesabino

If you have no idea where to start, I guess coursera's Introduction to Ableton Live is a good place to do so

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

Edit: typo

r/ableton • post
8 points • smcnally
Specific tuts/docs/videos you'd recommend for working with analog/manually-created beats?

I record myself playing beats on MIDI keys and pads, tapping fingers, or hitting things with sticks as a basis for many ideas. Grabbing a few good measures, slicing the bits down to something I can loop and record over is very hit-or-miss for me. It's usually labor intensive and I'm sure better techniques and workflows would help me capture the groove without making it over-mechanical or exhausting my time & ideas in the process. Of the available resources, which would you recommend to focus for this kind of beats work?

I've been a poor/scattered student of plenty of resources like Tom Cosm thanks to this sub. The Live intro course from Berklee / Coursera / blend.io) was good time spent even ~10 years into using Live.

So many cool things to explore and so many fun rabbit holes to go down -- to maximize time for playing, recording, and fleshing out ideas, I'd really appreciate your feedback specifically around recording and editing beats created by hand by an old n00b playing guitar/bass/drums/piano ~rock & roll.

r/synthesizers • comment
1 points • jtn19120

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live/

r/ableton • comment
1 points • MyCleverNewName

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

I took this course when I switched. Absolutely loved it and ended up binge watching the videos a few times. It's on Live 9 but I imaging most of it translates to 10.

When I was done, I couldn't imagine life without Ableton! heh

You can take the course for free. There is a paid option with some extras but the free option gets you all the content.

That site has some other fantastic music related courses as well.

r/ableton • comment
1 points • NumarkNV

Thanks for the heads-up OP, I too, had already used the 30 day trial so thought this wouldn`t be available to me. Its great to see Ableton extending the trial to people who have already tried it.

I trialed it originally as part of a free coursera course, "introduction to ableton live".

Which as far as I`m aware, is still available on coursera:-

ableton-live course

Its well worth taking IMHO, and gives you a good overview of the software.

r/ableton • comment
1 points • junglizer

There are some good courses for free on Coursera, both Ableton specifically as well as digital audio production in general.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

r/edmproduction • comment
1 points • rahulrdb18

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

try this beginner free course

r/ableton • comment
1 points • slowdownwaitaminute

Coursera has a free introductory course through Berklee that'll get you started.

r/abletonlive • comment
1 points • alanwolf2000

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

r/musicproduction • comment
1 points • subderberry

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

You won't get a diploma enrolling for free (LOL) but it's an actual music course from Berklee.

There's also udemy.

https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?src=ukw&q=ableton&p=1&price=price-free

r/WeAreTheMusicMakers • comment
1 points • Dejaproducer

These courses just barely started. Enroll! will help a ton..

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live https://www.coursera.org/learn/music-theory

r/ableton • comment
1 points • peakymike

This is really cool and well structured introduction - https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

You don't have to pay. Just audit a course for videos.

r/ableton • comment
1 points • LosConeijo

Hello! I have the same background as you and the first thing I did once I decided to use Ableton was following this base course https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live so that I was able to understand what Ableton is.

Next steps will depend more on what you want to do. For instance I had to study lot of sound design and how synth works because I am making my first EP which will be my first work without any guitars inside. At the moment I am trying to understand how to mix and master, although I have realize that I am more of a songwriter and maybe I will pay someone for the mix and master. But you see, YouTube is full of videos and tutorial and once you start looking for a specific topic (I don't know, maybe how to use reverb!?) you will soon understand there is another topic to learn, and so on.

The best advice I had here was to start doing something and make it being side by side with learning.

r/ableton • comment
1 points • _codes_

If you want the structure of taking a course, this one from Berklee is free right now, and pretty good: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

r/WeAreTheMusicMakers • comment
1 points • UprightJoe

Based on what you've posted, I'd definitely recommend a trial of Ableton. You might still be able to get into this free class (starts today): https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

​

The trial period is long enough to get you through the class (or at least it was when I took it)

r/ableton • comment
1 points • fsbbeats

If you just want to learn the basics of Ableton and how to use it, I'd recommend this free course from Berklee College of Music: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

r/musictheory • comment
1 points • Tony__C

I use Ableton, so a lot of my links are Ableton-centric, but there are definitely plenty of resources out there for whatever DAW you go with. Some thoughts:

1) As mentioned getting a keyboard will open things up hugely, but you should definitely go ahead and make stuff on the piano roll and playing it with your computer keyboard in the meantime.

2) A DAW is a great way to learn theory. With the piano roll you can create music piece by piece and 'play' things you physically won't be able to yet. That experience will inspire you to get better at physically playing music. Along with that, it has a strong visual element that closely corresponds to notated music. Would make it easy to pick up if you ever wanted to.

3) I don't know what DAW you plan on using, but there is a great bookbook called Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Production (sample chapters are on there too). While centered around electronic music and Ableton, it is just a useful book. It presents common problems with the music making process and offers actionable solutions. It has several long entries on harmony and melody that would be good for you as a beginner. It also looks real nice.

4) Theoretically, trap is pretty simple. A lot of it will be about learning rhythm which is a great place to start. Melodically, the music tends to use simple minor+chromatic melodies.

5) Definitely use the resources you've been linked, but you can probably find some DAW centric theory lessons on YouTube as well. Ableton has a great free online theory learning resource here. The way they present it directly applies to Ableton, but is generic enough to simply be a good tool for visualizing theory. For DAWs, YouTube is great, but also take a look into some courses. For Ableton, there is a Coursera course from Berklee and sites like Dubspot. I wouldn't be surprised if there was as Coursera for a number of DAWs

A lot of the initial work is in memorizing stuff like the 12 notes, sharps and flats, and keys, so no harm in getting started whenever.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I'd be happy to try and help. If you need any help with the production side in terms of gear, software, etc., feel free to shoot me a PM!

r/edmproduction • comment
1 points • scarflicter

Ableton's got some cool resources of their own that are free right now:

- Ableton's Learning Music site

- Ableton's Learning Synths site

- Ableton and Coursera's Introduction to Ableton Live

Also, if you don't have Ableton already, they extended their Live 10 trial to 90 days.

r/ableton • comment
1 points • pottering_theverb

Yeah, the manual is really good, every Live user should read the first 20 chapters, it is faster to read than it looks.

There is Ableton's page with vids:

https://www.ableton.com/en/live/learn-live/

There are some MOOCs:

https://www.kadenze.com/courses/sound-production-in-ableton-live-for-musicians-and-artists-v/info

https://www.coursera.org/learn/ableton-live

Ableton's own pages for generic non-Live music making:

https://learningmusic.ableton.com/

https://learningsynths.ableton.com/

https://www.ableton.com/en/one-thing/

https://makingmusic.ableton.com/

There are many youtube channels, I subscribe to many (maybe dozens?), can't really pick just a few.

And don't forget the Info View (little panel bottom-left) and Help View panel (the Panel to the right, Live starts with it open the first time you use it, can be accessed through the menu Help)

r/ableton • comment
1 points • Niv-Drizzit

Start here on Ableton's website for a nice spread of solid tutorials from a wide variety of producers.

Check out ELPHNT's website. He's got great, no nonsense tutorials, neat free stuff, and he's featured regularly on Ableton's own site, which is an invaluable resource unto itself.

Check out the many free courses from Coursera on music production from top-tier accredited institutions. ALL classes on their site have the option to be audited for free, even though they really want your money; you just won't get a certificate of completion, or access to certain assignments and tests. Courses are typically grouped into tracks, which appear to only offer paid plans, so you MUST go to a course's individual page in order to find the audit option. Here is a link to their Intro to Live course from Berkley, which is super beginner friendly. Personally, I have learned a tremendous amount over the years on this site from top universities on subjects as wide ranging as coding and web design, entrepreneurship, philosophy, medieval manuscript preservation (yeah, I'm weird), linguistics, and much much more, so it's also a great general resource for learning, period.

Slynk's YouTube channel is a great resource, as other's have said. He has a great tutorial on simpler and sampler that will give you a hint at some of the neat stuff live can do.

Since everyone is rightfully saying YouTube is a great resource, I'll also suggest searching for your favorite producers in general because there are so many out there that have videos featuring song creation techniques, signal chains, and workflow advice that aren't explicitly tutorials, per se. Don't be turned off if they're using another DAW because it can be a fun challenge to figure out how replicate whatever they're doing in Ableton.

Another thing you should do is check out the various free synths and plugins out there before plunking down cash on ANYTHING. Be patient and learn how to use your tools properly before going crazy with VSTs. There are SO MANY articles out there on free synths and they are easy to find, but they might have some small quirks, such as Helm (super great, but I have my gripes), and the PG-8X (which sounds AMAZING, but is a pain to install properly on a Mac and you have to download the presets separately, as well as load them in from the file browser every time you fire it up). Synth1 is another great option and if you look around a bit there's a zip file floating around out there with 25,000+ presets (it is also a pain to set up, but worth it). For most free synths you'll need to learn how to install VSTs (not difficult), and be aware that if you have a Mac the OS will try to reject most of them, which you can remedy by going into your System Preferences under Security & Privacy and clicking "Allow," sometimes several times in a row. And don't forget to hit "Rescan" in your Ableton preferences if it happens to be open during any installations.

I'll also recommend Valhalla's Supermassive because it JUST released, It is amazing, and it's free. Reverb/delay heaven.

If you must spend your hard-earned cash, Serum is totally worth it, and there's a $9.99/month rent-to-own plan. There are folks that would vehemently advise against the RTO purchase model for VSTs, and for legitimate reason, but if you're strapped it is an option.

Here's some things not to do:

Don't get caught up in too many RTO plans. If you wan't to pay $50+ a month for a handful of VSTs, go for it. But you probably shouldn't.

Don't develop DAW envy. Sure, you just got Suite, but believe me, this is real. Live isn't the only game in town. You might see other producer's using Logic or FL Studio or whatever to great effect. Having multiple DAWs can be great, but it's also expensive, both from a monetary and time/learning perspective. Get a handle on what you have first. Live is so deep it will make your head spin, repeatedly, and if it's not having that effect, you either need to experiment more, or find better tutorials.

Don't let frustration get the better of you. For the most part, whatever you want to do can be done in Live. But, for many, the learning curve is steep. Others have said read the manual. Do that. If you want to master Live, the manual is not optional.

Don't fall down the sample pack/preset rabbit hole. There is an entire universe of amazing samples and presets out there, but Live is already chocked full of great stuff. The demo tracks for these sorts of things can be very seductive, but be warned, you're basically being sold the promise that you too will sound just as slick and polished, or even better. What they don't tell you is that without knowing the production techniques, good luck at even coming close to the demo; many of the presets and samples won't sound great on their own without some help from effects or layering or whatever they used; however, there are quality packs out there that include project files for their demos, and these can provide an excellent opportunity to deconstruct everything they've done to get the sounds that appeal to you. I'm not saying never buy sample packs or presets, just don't get trigger happy, and, as ever, learn what you have before moving forward. Also, when you do inevitably pay for presets, it's useful to reverse engineer them to see how they were made so that you can start to make your own.

Don't be too persuaded by producers that preach formula over creativity. Music with wide appeal can most certainly be reduced to a set of interchangeable variables that will do the trick almost every time, if you know what you're doing. But if you want to keep yourself interested you'll most likely need a certain amount of innovation in your music making, so experiment constantly. If you're in it for money, then, yes, by all means learn the "shortcuts," but don't be fooled that there's a short way around to truly great music. It all depends on your expectations. Personally, I value creativity above above everything, which does admittedly involve a fair degree of emulation, so I spend my time evenly between experimenting and figuring out how other producers created sounds I really like. But don't be caught up in purest ideology either. It's ok to be in it for the money. It's ok to be in it for fun. And it's ok to be in it for both.

And finally, don't let tutorials be the end all go to for developing who you are as a producer. The incredibly prolific producer Savant once said, "watch tutorials, sound like everyone else." I'm not his biggest fan, but I respect what he does, and, in a sea of sound-alikes, he keeps his sound evolving. Also, it's ok to sound like others if that's your thing. Bottom line, do what YOU want to do.

Some of the above advice is rudimentary, so forgive me if it's too simplistic or obvious, or others have already said as much.

Good luck with Ableton Live, and, more than anything, have fun!