Ableton Forum

Hi all,

I'd like to find out what the community think are the best books available for learning Ableton Live 9.5? I have been recommended Jake Perrine's books but wanted to see if that is generally thought of as the best guide please?

Thanks,
Jamie.

There's some great integrated lessons in Live's Help menu. I'm pretty sure you won't need any book after this.

The best book for learning Live is the User Manual.

If you are making electronic dance music I would recommend the "Secrets of Music Production" book, quite good all in one guide to basic concepts.

For mixing check out "mixing AUdio" by Roey Izhaki.

im a member of this awesome site https://www.facebook.com/techprotorial better than any book

yeah buy the book version of the manual, its in the shop

login wrote:The best book for learning Live is the User Manual.

^

Being someone who actually likes to read technical manuals I tend to re-read the manual on long flights when I couldn't be bothered with anything else. Always something in there to pick up on.

I liked the Computer Music magazine LIVE special, which is available via appstore, extremely useful although I would rank myself as an medium experienced user.

I wish there was some kind of service that would offer something like a comprehension test and based on your answers will only show you features and processes you aren’t already aware of.

beats me wrote:I wish there was some kind of service that would offer something like a comprehension test and based on your answers will only show you features and processes you aren’t already aware of.

a "did you know?" feature for those who probably don't

this is actually a cool idea. it sounds like it would take years to create for multiple DAWs, but cool none-the-less.

H20nly wrote:

beats me wrote:I wish there was some kind of service that would offer something like a comprehension test and based on your answers will only show you features and processes you aren’t already aware of.

a "did you know?" feature for those who probably don't

this is actually a cool idea. it sounds like it would take years to create for multiple DAWs, but cool none-the-less.

As somebody who hasn’t really used Live in a couple years and just upgraded from Live 8 Suite without M4L to 9 Suite I’d really like to know what I can do now that I can’t do in Logic or 8 without having to go through the entire manual or tutorials that will show me a lot of what I already know. At the same time, something more in depth than just “What’s new”.

beats me wrote:

H20nly wrote:

beats me wrote:I wish there was some kind of service that would offer something like a comprehension test and based on your answers will only show you features and processes you aren’t already aware of.

a "did you know?" feature for those who probably don't

this is actually a cool idea. it sounds like it would take years to create for multiple DAWs, but cool none-the-less.

As somebody who hasn’t really used Live in a couple years and just upgraded from Live 8 Suite without M4L to 9 Suite I’d really like to know what I can do now that I can’t do in Logic or 8 without having to go through the entire manual or tutorials that will show me a lot of what I already know. At the same time, something more in depth than just “What’s new”.

The "what's new" section of the manual has links to the whole section of said feature.

login wrote:
The "what's new" section of the manual has links to the whole section of said feature.

But new from what? Live 8 to Live 9? Live 9 to Live 9.5? Or somewhere between those?

Forget the name, but there is a brilliant book for Logic that I also believe is used for certification. It’s not just pages upon pages of features. It comes with files and has you work through the process with lessons. IMO you learn better through practice with a direct start to finish goal.

And not just a goal set by you. There are probably a ton of useful features you will probably miss out on if you aren't looking for them and just skimming through to what you think applies to what you are doing at the time.

beats me wrote:
But new from what? Live 8 to Live 9? Live 9 to Live 9.5? Or somewhere between those?

All of them, the new for 9,5 are the last ones.

And yeah sometimes is better to learn with a goal nevertheless I think reading the User Mnaul from start to finish is a good idea.

^ yeah but his original idea you chimed in at the tail end of was for a test that would let you know what you were not competent with in the DAW... so instead of reading a bunch of "Looks What's New" tripe that you can get from any magazine (online or print) that is essentially an advertisement and/or hype... you actually get to hone in on skill sets you could use help with to take advantage of said new feature(s) of the DAW/VST.

essentially, "Look what's new... AND... let us teach you how you use it"

Reading the manual may work for some people, but I know there are a ton of things that just go over my head if I’m just reading about it and not applying it on the spot or I’ll just glaze over reading about it. Doesn’t mean those things won’t be useful at some point though.

ADSR has a couple “make this track” courses that uses tools I have, usually Logic, Maschine, and Massive. I’d probably miss a lot of features and processes just reading about them individually or seeing them in a specific feature/process video, but using all those in the process of creating a specific song I learn a lot on how I can apply those to my own productions.