Ableton Forum

I have Ableton Push and Live 9 Intro. I don't now anything about music. How do you start with producing music? How can I learn the basics?

Really?

Google

FFS

DarkSunshine wrote: How do you start with producing music? How can I learn the basics?

First you grow a thick skin, and then you go onto a music related forum and ask "Now that music thing, how does that work anyways, show me, teach me, HELP ME"

Sorry, a little more effort on your part is needed, before others start to write huge walls of text to help you help yourself

http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorials/Ab ... pplication should buy a streaming account, books from Michael Hewitt http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Hewitt/e/B001I7U4SM/ first three ones and watch the FFL videos from
https://www.youtube.com/user/pointblankonline/playlists 2015, 2014, etc. and the Ableton Live Tutorials ones

worth to mention http://www.dancemusicproduction.com/ too they have quality stuffs

Thumbs up for the Michael Hewitt books, those are great for getting up to speed and apply to "modern" composition as well...

one more, IMO worth to know a bit about the history of the Electronic Dance Music something about the roots, the genres etc. http://www.amazon.com/Keyboard-Presents ... 00GQZQ8TU/ a quite book about it, help to get the bigger picture

you must have money! that's an awfully big purchase for someone who doesn't know anything about music.

there's tons of online courses you can drop a wad on to get you started if that's the case.

Ableton Live, believe it or not actually comes with some tutorials & lessons to get you started. They're in the help menu under "Help View"

There are actually some major differences and similarities between the different aspects of music when you delve into the world of Ableton Live. It kind of helps to decide what is most important to you, or what you're after.

These can depend on what type of music you enjoy in what context, how you listen to it, and your personal ambitions.

There is djing
Live performance (either of traditional instruments or modern style performance either of live mixing or triggering samples / playing synths, looping, etc etc)
Experimentation
Production
Arrangement (of larger parts/and for desirable outcomes)
Music writing (harmony/melody, notes)

So you have to put down on paper. What do you like. What do you want to sound like. List the things you really really want to accomplish and then put those in order so you can choose your priorities. Be honest with yourself and be as detailed as possible. If there is a particular musician you admire, maybe note that down, and why, or if you like a part or sound you hear in several songs that you recognize and love. Or a video that you think is cool. Then you have places to start digging into, and asking yourself.

You can do live music and know nothing about mastering
Or you can do djing or arrangement and know very little about music theory

Of course for either of those, knowledge in all departments IS helpful. But you can't do everything at once.

Once you know your goal, you can work at tools. You might want books and a keyboard of you're curious about writing music. If you're into djing, learn how to warp and learn fx. Learn how to do transitions and observe song structures. If you want to perform finger drumming, you might want to look at others who do it and maybe offer sets of samples and demonstration videos so you have place to start.

Deleted post.

I was in the same boat as you a few years ago. When the Ableton push dropped, I saw all the cool videos and thought to myself "damn, I think I could do this" so I copped it without much second thought. Only two years later; between work and graduating college, do I feel I understand enough audio to make a decent production.

There are plenty of good free and paid resources out there. I would say at your level, stick to the free tutorial material on youtube. There are endless amounts of them; both good and bad...but many are pretty good.

Assuming there is a certain sound you want to go for; I would start searching for related terms on youtube and google. EG: "How to produce blah blah blah house/techno/trap etc". It sounds dumb, yeah, but the point is it will give you a general idea as to what that specific genre's production/composition might entail.

I was fortunate enough to be given a free eternal subscription to Lynda.com through my school, so I watched hours of their tutorials on Ableton, and that helped me out a LOT. They're a paid tutorial service that can teach you just about anything software related. However, if you're in some kind of an arts/technical college, I would check to see if it's available through your school portal.

Feel free to hit me with any questions. I've some experience, but I do still consider myself a beginner. I can point you in directions resource-wise if needed.

Good luck on your journey; that is if you feel it is yours to take.

One last tip, no matter what you do, or how you sound starting off, it is important to always make yourself productive. It's not even as hard as it sounds. Set a light, but mandatory workload just so you can hear yourself outside of the studio.

Something like:
Make sure you put together and render one track or more every other week.

The quality is not important, and it can be something brutally repetitive, and too quiet to even hear, or obnoxiously loud, sloppy, random. Whatever you do, you can always make a better track the next time around. It is just important to hear music in a way where you are consciously aware of how you sound, and then when you're back at it, you'll be more aware of these little things. It'll also break your fear of failure, which can be a major obstacle. And developing good habits early on will make it easier for you to stick to it.

Have fun

yur2die4 wrote:One last tip, no matter what you do, or how you sound starting off, it is important to always make yourself productive. It's not even as hard as it sounds. Set a light, but mandatory workload just so you can hear yourself outside of the studio.

Something like:
Make sure you put together and render one track or more every other week.

The quality is not important, and it can be something brutally repetitive, and too quiet to even hear, or obnoxiously loud, sloppy, random. Whatever you do, you can always make a better track the next time around. It is just important to hear music in a way where you are consciously aware of how you sound, and then when you're back at it, you'll be more aware of these little things. It'll also break your fear of failure, which can be a major obstacle. And developing good habits early on will make it easier for you to stick to it.

Have fun

Seconded

DarkSunshine wrote:I have Ableton Push and Live 9 Intro. I don't now anything about music. How do you start with producing music? How can I learn the basics?

Make music. You can't get around that. Experiment, talk about music, read about music, breathe music, let yourself be consumed by the process. Listen to music and then listen some more. Express yourself and make what you want to hear in this world.

this makes me remember the first time I had ableton and never produced music.. of course push wasn't out then to make my life easier but oh the days of being new to the game...

also, I personally got into making music with loops. A lot of people look down on that but it just gives you the idea for how arrangements work. Check out loopmasters and buy a sample pack or two and just start dropping them in ableton and try to make something sound cool.

Macprovideo.com and lynda.com are websites that have excellent videos for teaching software. Lynda is rather expensive.