Page 9 - ACCENT AU T3 2017

Cover Story

Debunking the strange side of Ableton

with Johann Dreyer

hen doing music technology on the market. The endless possibilities strument or effect and the audio or midi Session view
presentations one of the most and workflow become very obvious very component of the track depending on
Wcommon questions, asked by quickly. which track is selected.
secondary school teachers, is about im- If you click on a MIDI clip the piano roll will ap-
plementing Ableton into their curriculum. 5 steps that will help you and pear. If you click on an audio clip the waveform
Particularly, which five things to show your students to get started editor will appear.
their students to get them started with 1 Read Chapter 4 – Live Concepts Session View
the program.
When you’re in the In session view the tracks are repre-
For anyone who has worked with con- Ableton program, sented in a vertical fashion with sever-
ventional DAW’s, the first sight of a new you can access the al “clips”, followed by the audio routing, Arrange view
Ableton session could be confusing, manual by click- monitoring, sends, panning and finally
daunting or perhaps even scary! I know ing the “Help” drop the fader module (rec/solo/track on/off When one starts “dropping” these instru- When you drag a Drum Rack into the MIDI clip and support through the Ableton Live
for me personally it was a case of open- down in the toolbar. included in fader module). ments and effects into a track they ap- the piano notes will be replaced with drum User groups, which is a great network-
sounds from the chosen Drum Rack.
ing the program, staring at the session Go to “Read the Live pear in the bottom part of the screen. ing platform to meet other producers and
view screen for about 3 minutes, and Manual”, and then Think of this view as your sketch pad, 5 Building Instrument Racks see how they produce music.
then closing the program, instantly mov- Chapter 4. This chap- playing with different ideas, sequences The signal runs from left to right and will In Australia see http://bit.ly/2f6FrTU
ing it to the too hard basket. Fast forward ter covers the very basic functions like and arrangements. be processed accordingly. Ableton will As noted in Step 3 you can place any and
3 months and I gave it another go, this finding sounds, instruments, buttons Each cell can be a different variation of automatically put the instrument at the as many effects and dynamic processors There is a lot of detail that has not been
time I lasted about 5 minutes trying to and/or functions. It will teach you about the same instrument, noting that only start of this “chain” but how you process as you wish into the signal path of your discussed or touched on in this article,
generate sound; but again, a “no go”!! the basic concepts of Ableton, and even one cell in a vertical line can play at any the signal post instrument is what makes track. This is the moment that wizard sta- and I hope to delve into more specifics in
Ableton fun!
Then a close friend, who is a certified about mapping parameters to external given time. tus can be achieved! future articles!
Ableton trainer, explained some basics hardware and exporting audio. To the right in the Master Section we You are able to group effects together For more info about Ableton,
that led me to create this “secret” code Another great function that compliments have a play button with numbers. This and then chain different groups together, including education licenses
that cracks Ableton for beginners. this process is the “Info View” that is ac- is known as the Master Scenes and this as well as map macros to hardware con- contact Music EDnet
Step 1 - Read Chapter 4 of the manual cessible at the bottom left hand of the button will launch all clips in the horizon- trollers or have them automated by other
(Live Concepts): screen. When your cursor hovers over a tal lines. effects. 1300 723 700
This will familiarize you with all the as- Any number of clips can play together This is where the real power of Ableton info@musicednet.com
pects (concepts) and elements that make within the horizontal aspect (they don’t shines through and deserves a more de-
Ableton tick. It’s not too detailed, just have to be in line). tailed explanation than this article can
enough to put everything into perspec- Arrange View afford.
tive. Info view Instruments and effects are processed from Left
The arrange view is the more tradition- to Right Where to now?
Step 2 – Learn the 4 main environments There are a lot of really good resources
al timeline view with tracks in a horizon-
Fancy word for screens and the shortcuts tal fashion. Both time (min:sec) and bars 4 Programming MIDI that students can tap into for inspiration
that navigate between them. and beats metering is available at the top and tips:
and bottom of the arrangement screen The simplest way to start programming YouTube: “Pointblank” and “Dubspot” al-
Step 3 – Drag instruments and effects respectively. MIDI is to double click in a MIDI track
into tracks. button or area, there will be a descrip- ways have a great range of intro videos
tion of the functionality of that item. This You can import or record audio or MIDI clip while in Session view. The MIDI clip and genre specific tips and tricks.
Notice how some are not ‘allowed’ in cer- function can be accessed with [?] short- in either view! The same goes for mixing will appear and you will see the piano
tain tracks. cut or by clicking on the disclosure trian- and effects processing, whatever works roll that will enable you to start pencil- Lynda.com: One of the online courses on
offer is the Ableton Essential Training
Step 4 – Start programming MIDI. gle at the very bottom. better for your personal workflow! ling in the sequence you wish to play. You that covers over 8 hours of tutoring bro-
can either double click with your mouse
Step 5 – Build your first “Instrument 2 The Live Environments 3 Loading Instruments and Effects or use the [b] short cut to use the pencil ken into very manageable sections touch-
rack”. tool. ing on everything Ableton and music pro- Johann Dreyer
duction.
This normally gets a bit confusing but
Some call this wizard status Loading instruments and effects is as When you hit play on the clip, the MIDI Johann Dreyer is the Campus Manager at
with a bit of practice using the shortcut easy as dragging and dropping them into sequence will start playing back and Online Magazines: “Attack Mag”, SAE Institute - Adelaide. Teacher, Electronic
These 5 steps could be explained and il- keys, you will master the Ableton visual a track, but keep an eye on the cursor! looping. The velocity and quantization “Music Radar”, “Music Technology” and Music Producer, DJ and Sound designer ...
lustrated in great detail, but can also be universe. can be modified to give your MIDI a more “Electronic Music” are all great resources Johann Graduated with a Bachelor in Audio
covered in 2-4 sessions depending on For example when you attempt to drop natural feel. with free plug-ins and step-by-step tutori- Production, holds a Cert IV in TAE and a
Marketing Management Higher Diploma.
the speed of delivery and the allocat- Ableton has 2 main arrangement views an instrument onto an audio track you Clip MIDI Piano Roll als.
ed time slots. I have found that for most and a dual focus view that you can have will see the global “No Entry” sign. Johann has been teaching Music produc-
high school students engaged in a 3-day displayed in any combination and change Ableton will allow you to drop the in- Face to Face: SAE Creative Institute tion and Technology based performance at
SAE (School of Audio Engineering) for the last
short course, by day 2 they will be able easily with your [tab] and [shift]+[tab] correct item onto a track but will then (Adelaide) offers a 10-week short course 5 years and created the Ableton Live User
to create tracks, program MIDI and insert buttons. change the track to suit. in Ableton. groups in Byron Bay and the Gold Coast.
effects on those tracks. [tab] – switches between Session and Audio Tracks: Only audio effects and au- There are also other institutes through- He specializes in Ableton and Hardware inte-
I have found that once these basic tasks Arrangement views. These are the top 2 dio can be dropped onto them. out Australia and New Zealand that offer gration into performance and production.
are illustrated, then implemented and views that show the vertical clips or the MIDI Tracks: Only instruments, audio ef- a broad range of Ableton and production Johann has released and performs live elec-
understood by the students, the program traditional time line. This is arrangement fects and midi effects can be dropped based courses. tronic music with “We Play Machines” and
“AfrikanAmerikan” as well as his personal
starts to unfold into one of the most in- focused information. It is also worth mentioning that there are LoCoJo project.
tuitive and fun music production toolkits [shift]+[tab] – switches between the in- onto them. Certified trainers who offer private tuition

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