Massive anxiety attacks on starting to use Ableton, help!

[Piplodocus]

Yep, Angstrom's on the money there. ?

If you can't seem to find one, then just smoke one of these and then start making music:

Wow! That's bigger than my Millennium joint was!

Booze/pot can be fun and can aid music making since they can stop you feeling so uptight about your "sacred masterpiece you must produce today and will instantly dethrone the best producers in the world". You may end up "going with the flow" more. But equally they can lead to being unable to play your instrument with any tight groove unless you're very well practiced, and can lead to hours of crap that seemed great at the time, but is actually total shit. Sometimes the "shit" is good general practice (which you'll need lots of), and good fun though, and some great ideas can come from it.

So I wouldn't necessarily recommend drugs and alcohol, but if you're that uptight a few puffs on a J could help, as long as it won't just make you useless and paranoid!

[Tone Deft]

to what Angstrom said, it's like when you get into a band and start listening to their catalog of albums. you get to the early stuff and it's unlistenable, yet their current albums are blowing your mind. at one time they sucked but they recorded, went on tour and kept at it. over time the band probably changes members, styles and instruments.

it's also been said that you have to lay a lot of turds before one of them is golden.



somehow I get the impression the OP is 'zzzzzzzz'. wait for it...

[oblique strategies]

2 tips from a book I'm reading:

1) it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become expert in something
2) successful people statistically have more failures than unsuccessful people simply by virtue of 'daring to fail'

...so just get involved and start making those mistakes!

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter.
Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."
~Samuel Beckett

[sunrise600]

holy...SHIT!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry guys, I am speechless. I left the forum after my last post feeling empowered and feel I have a great guide right here in this forum post. As I was cleaning some dishes I glanced at my faded screen and thought, "I wonder if anyone else has posted?"

I ran over and to my BIG SURPRISE, there was another page of comments!!! I have read every single one more than twice, and really thought about what you guys have said. Never ever ever did I expect this kind of constructive feedback. I have printed off alot of the advice and hung it up on a wall nearby and whenever I feel skiddish I read your guys' comments and it really helps.

I haven't tested it too much due to working 15 hour days this week at work (one of those weeks which is like armageddon). But this weekend I have cancelled on plans and am going to sit down and have some FUN. Yes, fun. Not make a track, not have to play music, etc... but I am going to have some fun with music and try to do some fun examples (as mentioned in this forum). I have also put together other ideas.

Before I used to question my desire to make music due to the anxiety and inability to do anything. However, the moment after I read all of the advice and leaned back in my chair, I smiled and felt a huge rush of "HOLY SHIT I WANT TO DO THIS OH AND THIS AND THAT WOULD BE COOL AND OH MY GOD WHY ARE THERE ONLY 24 HOURS IN A DAY?". In a way, I feel as if all of that creativity has been accumulating in my system, trying to find an outlet. Therefore, when I even crack the door open to my creativity, it excites me on levels beyond the highest drugs.

Alright, that was alot, but I just wanted to thank you all so much. If you have any more advice, or comments, FEEL FREE PLEASE to comment. This post will hopefully not get lost and can maybe help others like myself out. Thanks alot guys, i'd buy you all a beer and cheers to you if I knew you.

[c33]

Lots of good advice. And yeah, I think Angstrom is on the money.. except I find being critical of my work, both during and after the creative process, a necessary tool. It's only counter-productive when it's, well, counter-productive , and I usually know when it's not serving me. It's not about putting myself down.. it's about being able to recognize something's not working, that it's absolute shit, etc., and holding my music to the same standards as I do any other music I listen to.

In addition to the being ok with the suck factor, I would just go back to basics. Start with a couple built-in lessons before you begin this weekend. Maybe exclusively work in Arrangement or Session View for a while. Trust me, every time you get deep into a project with Live and put in some hours, there's no way you're not going to learn.

Have fun!

[Dhak]

As someone who has been using Ableton for less than a year I can certainly understand where you are coming from. It really is overwhelming to think of all of the possibilities, technical issues, etc when it comes to learning a complex software like Ableton.

The thing is, there is really no point in learning anything at all if it is not something you enjoy doing. Bottom line: Have fun! I think people get way too tied up in the technical sides of things and forget about the creative process and flow of emotion that is the whole reason why most people make music in the first place.

I too have watched different Ableton tutorials, read books, etc. and the thing that I have learned is that to produce great music (which should be something YOU enjoy listening to, not based on everyone else's opinion), you really don't need to use these overly technical tricks that you often see videos on. If you learn the very basics of Ableton and just go run with it for a while you will find that you create your own ways to come up with musical ideas. For example: You don't need to spend months learning how to use Ableton's Sampler to get a good sample. People have been sampling for years using nothing but shitty tape recorders or cheap hardware samplers. Things really don't need to be so complex, and I find that many of these super technical things are more of a hindrance than anything else.

The problem with these kinds of forums is that people get way too sucked into the technical and gear side of things ("which new synth should I buy even though I already have 4?") and never wind up making any actual music.

Some of my favorite artists right now use very minimal and even primitive set ups. A guy like Burial who is massively popular (yet is highly reclusive and has never done a live show) makes almost all of his music on an old shitty audio editor called Soundforge. He makes gorgeous music on a program that most people would laugh at.

So in conclusion: Don't get so caught up in music theory, programming, and other technicalities. It's certainly good to know these things but is DEFINITELY not required to produce incredible music. I couldn't tell you one cord or note from the next, but I know what sounds good to me and when I am listening to others music I could care less that the melody is in F minor.

It's great to read and watch tutorials but, for me anyway, I have learned a lot more by just using ableton and not being afraid to experiment.

It's not about the tools either, it's what you do with them. A carpenter with a $10 hammer and nails will create something much more beautiful than a clueless average joe with thousands of dollars of the latest high powered equipment.

[Tone Deft]

OP - keep record ON while you have a session. all too often we're picky about when we hit record and wait until we hit a good moment then keep jamming or stop and redo a take and you get that "fear of the red light", a topic we've discussed here where you freeze up from seeing that the record light is on. midi is especially light on disk space to record, there's no reason to not record midi all the time.

as you make progress, save your work every so often with different names for revision control such as
my_song_rev1
my_song_rev2
my_song_rev3
my_song_rev4

in case you screw up you can go back a rev. often late night jams or work at the end of a long session your ears can get tired and you make poor decisions.

have fun!! remember, in YOUR studio, you RAWK, you're the Superstar headliner, you're the shit. screw everyone else.

[regretfullySaid]

Soundforge isn't shitty or laughable. If it was, Burial wouldn't have used it. It's not even that old.
I've tended to like Audition more though. Though hardly need to use either these days.

OP - keep record ON while you have a session.

YES. I bet a lot of people can vouch for saying they've fooled around in session and got into a zone but didn't record it, or even prepped themselves to record, and then they recorded and the vibe wasn't there.
That's why I'd record other people practicing for recording, because they don't think they're being recorded and are looser about it. Sometimes the auditions sounded better than when they knew they were being recorded. So, subconsciously hit record and tell yourself that the Record light isn't on:p

Also, because of that, you now have something laid down. I've found that I finish stuff quicker by looping sections between 1 to 4 bars; refining those sections and moving onto the next section, instead of going through the whole length of the song and refining. It's very similar to traditional songwriting/arrangement imo.

[c33]

It was only about a year ago last December that I first tried Ableton for 30 days. I didn't purchase Live and start working with it again until this summer. Besides attempting to record a few songs in various studios over the past ten years (with little to no success because I'm kind of a perfectionist and there was only so many hours I could pay an engineer/stranger--who more often than not I didn't click with--$50-75), using Audacity & my Yamaha Motif (which actually probably helped to prep me for a real DAW), this is the first time I have a proper home studio setup.

I think there's a nesting phase that you have to go through.

If I moved to New Delhi tomorrow it would take months before I comfortably knew my way around - It's no different with a massive piece of software like Ableton. And I'm far from being fully "nested."

Good points about the record button staying on. I usually deliver my best takes BEFORE I press record. Still getting over that hump.

[craftycurate]

I tried Ableton twice before I decided to go for it. The first time I downloaded a demo (in the days when you couldn't save) it didn't grab me so I uninstalled it.

The second time, I started playing with the presets, worked through ALL the built in tutorials, and suddenly, I had the bones of a track, and I thought "I could do something with this". And then I was hooked, and I bought a copy and I've been hooked ever since. But it wasn't until I got a sound I liked, even if it was a looping 4 bar riff, that I was hooked.

It was the same with a whole bunch of other creative outlets for me - 3D rendering, Adobe Illustrator ... give it a decent go and see if it takes off for you.

So my ha'porth would be:

1. Work through all the Ableton tutorials - even the "boring but necessary" ones.
2. Play with all the preset sounds - there are a lot more of them now than there used to be
3. Play with effects
4. As others have said it really does not matter if it's a pile of crap to start with - just create, and see.
5. Watch videos, "how they do it" artist vids etc - loads on Youtube and Abes site.
6. Load up an MP3 of your favourite track and just kick the heck out of it and see what you can make.

[sunrise600]

Hey Kenny,

Definitely a good idea mate as I am not well versed with grooves at all. I should maybe make a list of things to learn in periods of time when I don't feel like churning some creative gears. Grooves will definitely be on there!

[pencilrocket]

To complete your song will be best learning pattern. Though Live offers easy clip trigger I don't think you should spare all of your time to just play loops, fiddle knobs or chopping prepared loops. If you just wanted to be DJ that would be okay, but if you want to compose your music I think you should learn a little bit of the basic of music theory and arranging. General consumer who buy songs listen 3 to 5 mins of the song from radio or these kind of media. You are to express your originality, grab listners' ear and be remembered by them in that little moment. It's not an easy task.

[evon]

I think you definitely have to learn some music theory.

If you cant find this interesting I doubt you will stay long in this.

In fact the urge to learn should be very strong. You should find yourself wanting to learn everything. Especially that now it is so easy and free.

Start reading, visiting forums, experimenting...its a long lovely and sometimes lonely road that leads to nowhere, whether you become successful or not, so just enjoy yourself along the way.