anybody got ableton "certified" ? is it useful?

[alex.the.forge]

There is only one certified Ableton Live trainer in Canada (something the guy boasts about extensively in his course bookings etc). I'm sure he has fine credentials, but Canada is the second biggest country in the World and Australia, a country with half the population of Canada has SEVEN certified trainers.

There are a lot of Canadian Live users who might well be interested in taking the certification courses even though they're expensive (I certainly couldn't afford it).

The Canadian dude does his Live masterclass thing at a reasonable rate (only slightly more than other non-official trainers) but if you are an experienced user already there is no motivation to go, you don't get anything official to say you were at an 'Ableton' approved event and probably just get generic certificate from the college where he teaches which doesn't help you get more of an official recognition as a Live user anyway.

Ableton could offer a compartmentalized online course, with several units to focus on and graduate people this way, instead of allowing SAE/Berklee and others to coin in on their business. That would be better because you could do things chunk at a time with a long term goal and not have to outlay so much cash up front.

Still, it probably serves them fine as it is right now. Those who have the certification and payed so much to get it and worked for it deserve to have a certificate and a name, even though there are people out there who are just as knowledgeable.

Australia is closer in population to Canada than half - 21 mil these days, isn't Canada about 30?

I was the only one here for a bit as I got mine in Berlin before it was offered here, then another guy who was already certified in the UK moved over, making 2, then the others were pretty much all SAE guys already teaching specific Ableton courses and they all came on board at once... I have a feeling me and the other guy from the UK prompted the others to make it happen as it suddenly became a lot more important for them to be "official".... I don't think it would have mattered otherwise as they were already pretty well established

As for cost, it may have changed but (@Tarekith) - it never used to be that much - but as sub funk said you need to contact them really

[leedsquietman]

Canada has a 34 million population. Second biggest in terms of landsize is what I meant. It has 2 very highly populated cities in Toronto (5.7 million with the GTA included and 2.7 million in Toronto itself) and Montreal (4 million with suburbs and surrounding area), with Vancouver pushing 2 million and Calgary and Edmonton pushing 1 million.

Given our close proximity to the USA, we ought to have more than ONE certified trainer.


I think Ableton need to run a training course in Canada - I think they did one in Italy recently and a number of trainers graduated from that.

[aizo]

I wonder how many Japan has. I see a lot of guys using Live here. Hmmm If I can pass my proficiency exam this year maybe this is something I can get into......*ponders*

[alex.the.forge]

Canada has a 34 million population. Second biggest in terms of landsize is what I meant. It has 2 very highly populated cities in Toronto (5.7 million with the GTA included and 2.7 million in Toronto itself) and Montreal (4 million with suburbs and surrounding area), with Vancouver pushing 2 million and Calgary and Edmonton pushing 1 million.

Given our close proximity to the USA, we ought to have more than ONE certified trainer.


I think Ableton need to run a training course in Canada - I think they did one in Italy recently and a number of trainers graduated from that.

My point was more that I'm not sure there would be that many here if me and the other guy from the UK hadn't got our certification overseas first and made it so that were certified trainers already here. The other guys seemed to be doing alright without it so I'm not sure it would have been that important... that's a total guess on my part though, but I'm not sure you can directly compare it to Canada like that.

Ableton doesn't have an office here, and it was handled by a distributor that also handles about 50 other brand names, so I doubt it would have been that high on the priority list if there wasn't a demand, and I'm not sure there would have been one if there weren't already some here.

I guess in Canada they'd have to travel to NY and I guess that would put people off doing it.....

[alex.the.forge]

I wonder how many Japan has. I see a lot of guys using Live here. Hmmm If I can pass my proficiency exam this year maybe this is something I can get into......*ponders*

doesn't look like there's any at the moment http://www.ableton.com/pages/education/ ... d_training

[leedsquietman]

Thanks for the information.

[alex.the.forge]

I think they did one in Italy recently and a number of trainers graduated from that.

The guy who ran it was in Berlin at the same certification event as me - Ableton only have 2 offices worldwide so they have to farm it out to a degree..... so I guess if there is not enough going on in Canada then maybe it might be an idea to contact the Canadian distributor

[rekloos]

ok, so it seems to me that are 2 ways of getting certified:

1- by a facility/institution that specializes in Ableton courses and has been officially [??] approved
by the Ableton team [e.g., the ones listed on Ableton site]

2- by a facility/institution that offers Ableton courses along with their other audio production etc.
courses [e.g., Berklee...]

there are also online trainers which give either plain courses for people who want to learn the software
but also the capability to get certified, which is not necessary officially Ableton approved.

does that sound about right?

[benoit-1842]

My goal is to teach ableton live in Ottawa or Montreal... This software is becoming extremely popular in the Ottawa region but nobody have the certification in the area to teach it. I would be ready to take the course for mastering it... I think Ableton needs to take a look at the canadian scene who's in complete expansion....

[beats me]

at only 1 or 2 dudes being certified in entire countries. If they aren't wiping their ass with cash then that should show you the value of being certified.

[H20nly]

^ no doubt!!

...they could use the Apple method to make even more... charge 33% extra and spend 75% of that on mad advertising. *use the rest for beer.


*Apple Inc's alcoholic beverage consumption may vary

[leedsquietman]

I don't know how the Canadian guy Noah got his certification in the first place, but it seems to be enough for him to earn a living teaching music out of the Rich Media Institute College. I don't know if he's in full residency there and/or doing other training courses other than Live, but AFAIK he ain't having to work in a factory most days.

[beats me]

I don't know how the Canadian guy Noah got his certification in the first place, but it seems to be enough for him to earn a living teaching music out of the Rich Media Institute College. I don't know if he's in full residency there and/or doing other training courses other than Live, but AFAIK he ain't having to work in a factory most days.

I still think it's hilarious that in all 4,500,000 square miles of Canada there is 1 dude that has Ableton's official stamp of approval.

Should this be looked at as a measurement of demand? Let's ask Noah.

[beats me]

In other news I just started going through the same book that is used to certify people in Logic. This cost me all of $40 and the book is written so well that doing it with an instructor is almost zero value added other than instant feedback. I don't know if there is an official Ableton certification book available to the general public.

I can see the interest in getting certified in certain programs but what I don't see is shelling out thousands of dollars in a certification program that takes place over a single week or weekend. Nobody is going to be proficient in that short a period of time and that's a ridiculous amount of money to pay for reference books.

[benoit-1842]

I totally agree with you... I've read everything possible on ableton 7 and 8, I'm already a teacher, so I think i'm ready to teach the software....