Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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kena.cwb
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Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:14 pm

Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by kena.cwb » Sun May 27, 2012 10:06 pm

Hi. I basically use Live to program drum loops with some bass lines in order to create 2 or 4 bar loops that I use as a backing track to play guitar over it. I do understand the basics of Live, but I get confused or undecided about which way to go, eg: should I use Simpler or Impulse or a Drum Rack to prepare my drum set? Should I create my own bass sound with Operator? or slice a bass loop to midi?

Is there a book or tutorials target for just what I'm aiming for? I'll appreciate any tips. Regards :-)

djadonis206
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Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by djadonis206 » Sun May 27, 2012 11:08 pm

macprovideo.com olav's videos are where it's at.
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UltimateOutsider
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Location: Portland, OR

Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by UltimateOutsider » Mon May 28, 2012 1:37 am

Bill Burgess' videos (also at MacProVideo) are quite good as well. Specifically the Battery 3 one. Even though it's ostensibly about Battery 3, it's primarily about programming rhythms, and what makes grooves work.

He also did their Live 8 Core videos.

kena.cwb
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Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:14 pm

Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by kena.cwb » Mon May 28, 2012 2:58 am

Thanks guys, but I'm just realizing that there's a lack of tutorials aimed to musicians. Probably because Live is known to be the DJ's software and most of the tuts are target to create electronic DJ type music. Of course we can make analogies and extract the info in order to apply it to whatever we want.

lazyriverzz
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Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by lazyriverzz » Mon May 28, 2012 12:19 pm

Hey man.... Try Tom Cosm in New Zealand (Google it).... You can't go wrong with him 8) I have learned sooooooooo much from his tutorials...The Dogz Bollox 8)
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simmerdown
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Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by simmerdown » Mon May 28, 2012 2:13 pm

use drum racks

use operator

use loops

its that simple...i got into live to make bass jammalong tracks, then got lost in alll else it can do, a cautionary tale, lol....looperman.com has 100's of bass loops of all kinds, if you want to jam with real drummers and musicians online check wikiloops.com

kitekrazy
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Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by kitekrazy » Mon May 28, 2012 3:32 pm

lazyriverzz wrote:Hey man.... Try Tom Cosm in New Zealand (Google it).... You can't go wrong with him 8) I have learned sooooooooo much from his tutorials...The Dogz Bollox 8)
http://www.cosm.co.nz/

It looks like he does tutorials the right way by adding project files. Tutorials seem affordable.

Also Live's site has good enough tutorials to get you started.

I've bought tutorials from SWA and Groove 3.

http://www.groove3.com/str/ableton-live ... 09b91e3cbf

Don't forget youtube.

UltimateOutsider
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Location: Portland, OR

Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by UltimateOutsider » Mon May 28, 2012 8:10 pm

kena.cwb wrote:Thanks guys, but I'm just realizing that there's a lack of tutorials aimed to musicians. Probably because Live is known to be the DJ's software and most of the tuts are target to create electronic DJ type music.
So folks who make electronic music aren't musicians?

Live and all the instruments/effects included in the Ableton Suite are just tools. The purpose of most of the tutorials involving Live and other similar products is to explain how to use those tools. It doesn't matter what form of music you're attempting to make; when you learn how to use the tool it's up to you to apply that to the music you're making.

All of the videos/resources mentioned so far will equip you to make those choices, but it sounds like you're looking for something more concise and targeted.

phonographiq
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Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by phonographiq » Mon May 28, 2012 9:41 pm

+1,000 for Bill Burgess / MacProVideo. I've watched these for years and still get something out of them every time. He's clear, concise and trips over the "okay, uhm, so..." stereotype in tutorials perhaps 4 or 5 times through roughly 4 hours of material.

The only thing is that the musical examples he uses, that is loops or melodies he'll demo, are so awkward, heh.
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kena.cwb
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Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:14 pm

Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by kena.cwb » Mon May 28, 2012 10:11 pm

UltimateOutsider wrote:
kena.cwb wrote:Thanks guys, but I'm just realizing that there's a lack of tutorials aimed to musicians. Probably because Live is known to be the DJ's software and most of the tuts are target to create electronic DJ type music.
So folks who make electronic music aren't musicians?

Live and all the instruments/effects included in the Ableton Suite are just tools. The purpose of most of the tutorials involving Live and other similar products is to explain how to use those tools. It doesn't matter what form of music you're attempting to make; when you learn how to use the tool it's up to you to apply that to the music you're making.

All of the videos/resources mentioned so far will equip you to make those choices, but it sounds like you're looking for something more concise and targeted.
Yes they are, just not the classic type of musician I'm referring to ... probably those 'classic type' won't be using Live as well, instead sticking to sw live Cubase or Pro-Tools ... I just think Live has much more power/possibilities than those mentioned ... and although I'm primarily using it for basic stuff, I believe in the long run when I get better with the sw I'll be using it for different things too, that's why I stick with Ableton. Sorry for the 'musician' thing ... we're all musicians after all :-)

shacoca
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Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:24 am

Re: Right Book or Tutorial wanted

Post by shacoca » Mon May 28, 2012 11:28 pm

have you checked out this series at the Ableton website?
http://www.ableton.com/movies?type=building_a_track
it seems geared toward "traditional" musicians. :wink:

tom cosm is great! but he might be a little overkill for what you're looking for. great teacher though. i've also found the DubSpot vids on youtube helpful.

as to which of the zillion methods to use, i think for what you wanna do, starting out by slicing some pre-fab loops to MIDI is a good jump off point. it gets you right into the Drum Rack way of working and you'll learn Simpler by default. you'll get some decent mileage out of just that much before things start getting stale. then when you branch into something new, you likely be able to incorporate it into a drum rack workflow you're already comfy with.

and yeah, Operator. just wade in as easy as you want. no fear. it'll be worth it.

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