Ableton Forum

I really don't understand Ableton it is very confusing I need help. I have alot of questions and the first one is , how do I make beats with it. I have an Akai MPK mini BTW and it is confusing too. Second question is what is arp suppose to be. Third one what is a preset suppose to be. Fourth one what is MIDI suppose to be. Fifth is how do I set my Akai MPK mini up to ableton. Sixth is what is octave suppose to be. Those are my question I dont understand anything about Ableton and this is very frustrating being sooo confused about this! Please help me.

Also, nothing at all helps on Youtube so dont suggest me any help from there.

,

One thing at a time. If you take your time, you can learn a lot fast.

First learn what is going on with the browser. And how to drag things in from it. The manual will be helpful if you get lost.

Then practice dragging things into the slots in the 'Session View' and learn how to play and stop them. This works great with audio clips. Don't worry yet if they don't sound good, just figure out How to make them go.

Spacebar is a quick shortcut to make the whole program stop or play!

Lastly, in the browser is the instruments and fx section.

In instruments, pick out one of the Racks. You can double click it and it should pop up in your set.

Sometimes Ableton Live arms a track right away when you open it, and pressing keys will let you play the instrument. (If not, look up info on how to use the Mute, Solo, Arm buttons)


In Preferences, go in the MIDI tab. Your controller might show up in the bottom section. Make sure the stuff for it is On.

When you tap keys, to see if Live is seeing the code being sent, on the top Right of the screen, little squares will light up.


Hopefully this gets you started! If you can do all this, I will be happy to give you more things to try out



If you can't get the midi controller to work, you can also use your Qwerty. Turn on the Keyboard looking button on top of the screen and asdfghjkl will play notes in tracks that have synths that are armed.

Triali wrote:I really don't understand Ableton it is very confusing I need help. I have alot of questions and the first one is , how do I make beats with it. I have an Akai MPK mini BTW and it is confusing too. Second question is what is arp suppose to be. Third one what is a preset suppose to be. Fourth one what is MIDI suppose to be. Fifth is how do I set my Akai MPK mini up to ableton. Sixth is what is octave suppose to be. Those are my question I dont understand anything about Ableton and this is very frustrating being sooo confused about this! Please help me.

You win.

i have ableton live intro 8 and i still not getting what arp and octave and MIDI is.

there are tutorials built into Live.

Arp makes repeated note patterns when you hold a key.

Octave is doubling or halving the frequency of a tone, or basically going up and down the register of notes in increments of 12.

MIDI is like sheet music signals except using computer code. You can run signals through wires or in programs. The midi doesn't make sound on its own. When midi code goes to an instrument, it tells it what pitch to play, how loud to hit the note, and when you press and release the note for duration. It can get more complex than that and you can use midi also to control faders and dials and even other crazy things.

and also how do i record loops? i figured how to put sounds on.

In Session View, in the boxes, the square buttons in them (stop) turn into circles (record). Hit one and it'll store your notes you play. Hit it again and it'll start over without having to stop the program.

It helps to either play a loop at the same time to know how fast Live's tempo is (or your best will not sound good), or turn on the metronome. And you just play along.

Clip launching is quantized so it waits or te first beat to start before it starts stops or loops.

now i need to know how to make record loops.

this has to be a put-on

I'd suggest watching this:
http://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE1D3B22F79C3A67E

And then seeing if you get the basic idea.

simmerdown wrote:this has to be a put-on

i'm thinkin so too.

kudos to your2die4 though. good man.

I try to show people the basics of the program. Sometimes they first look at it and feel like they are on some other planet. If I can give them the basics, and a good tutorial, I can send them on their way. And then they can piss off their parents when they make the floors rumble and the windows squelch haha

I'd hate for someone to be put off of such a brilliant program so quickly.

I am typing this all on my phone btw haha