Whether you’re an absolute beginner – or just want to help turn on a friend or bandmate to computer music production – starting at the very beginning is indeed a very good place to start. So, it’s nice to see Ableton’s official channel this month covering the very first steps of working with their flagship Ableton Live.
In fact, even if you don’t own Live, you can make use of the demo version and try this out. I typically find that getting audio interfaces working properly is the biggest hurdle for first-time music users. (Okay, sometimes it stumps us advanced folk, too, but ideally we have it working!)
There are many commercial online training services for Live, but since spending more cash may be a disincentive to getting things going, a free videos are an ideal way to get a taste. (Then, when you’re ready, schools like Dubspot and training series like MacProVideo – the latter relevant to Windows users, too – can get you going, just to name a couple.)
Huston Singletary, the clinician in this video, is one of the most knowledgeable Live experts inside or outside Ableton – and a really nice guy, to boot – so I look forward to his series.
A parallel discussion in a Live group on LinkedIn got some similar ideas going. Much to my delight, that included not just the generic stuff, but also how to work with wind controllers and “glitch up your sax.” Here are some more videos for you:
NYC-based training house Dubspot has a ridiculous, ridiculous number of training sessions — check the Dubspot channel, choose Playlists, and then Ableton Live. But since the theme here is supposed to be getting started, I’ll be choosy.
Thavius Beck, one of my other favorite Ableton clinicians, covers the basics of chopping – an ideal place to get started once you have worked out how to record:
Mike Hatsis covers keyboard shortcuts:
And as an excellent illustration of how this can all fit together, DJ Kiva shows an integrated dub performance using the APC40 controller. It’s a nice place to close here, because it shows a bit of where you can take all of your new-found skills.
Found a tutorial that’s helped you get starting with Ableton Live? Specific software for which you’d like to see a beginning tutorial – or, perhaps, that hasn’t been covered to death in the way that Ableton has? Basic techniques you’d like to learn that aren’t specific to a certain tool?
Let us know in comments, or contact us directly.
365 Days of Knowledge! Lastly, the best free resource for learning Live I’ve ever seen – more tips than anywhere else, more useful beginner knowledge than anywhere else, and the most you could hope to get free even with a manual included?
http://www.heatercore.net/livetipslist.html