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Get started making music

learningmusic.ableton.com

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Re: Get started making music

#131

Post by andrewstuart2 »

hxta98596 wrote: post #89

Anecdotal: there's a few different approaches to learning songwriting that seem to click for beginners. The "build up" approach is the most common and is what this link offers: It first teaches beats, then chords, then melodies and then, in theory, vocals etc. These lessons in this order make sense to many people, but not everyone. If you're interested in learning to make music and the lessons in the link are confusi…

Is this a common distinction to acknowledge in general education environments? You pretty succinctly described the struggles I've tended to have in my education, and described it in a refreshing/revealing (for me) way.

I love looking at systems and peeling back the layers to find out what makes something tick. That's not an approach to learning that I really encountered until I entered the workforce and was met with complex systems that I needed to understand. And I loved it!

Re: Get started making music

#132

Post by maldusiecle »

whiddershins wrote: post #113
maldusiecle wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This takes like a second. Drag a sample into an audio track (in arrangement view), copy it, paste it again where the last sample ended, repeat until it goes on as long as you need. Do you not know how to use Ableton at all?

Ignoring the ridiculously insulting tone and just pointing out: using your method, what happens if I subsequently change the tempo in the file?

It breaks. But now you're just adding arbitrary conditions. If you want it to loop without breaking when the tempo changes, load it into Simpler, turn off warping, and create loop points around all of the audio that you want. And then create a single MIDI note holding it on for as long as you need. Or if you need something really unusual, load a looper plugin into Ableton--there are tons. You're acting as if problems that only require a few minutes of cursory thought are impossible to solve.

Re: Get started making music

#133

Post by whiddershins »

maldusiecle wrote: post #107
whiddershins wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's arguing from authority and ignoring the meat of my point. I know Robert Henke created Ableton Live and it was a tremendous innovation when it came out. Over time it gradually expanded features but never dealt with a variety of things that might be development intensive but would in no way break the workflow. For example: Support advanced midi stuff. Like, any of it. Why is it so mind bogglingly inconvenient fo…

It's not arguing by authority, it's arguing by counterexample. Robert Henke doesn't represent all musicians, but he is a musician, so it's not possible that Ableton doesn't reflect the perspective of any musician. All the things you mention relate to a certain workflow. It's not my workflow, it's not every musician's workflow. It'd be great if Ableton had good SysEx support, but it's not accurate to say it has a "com…

You are taking a quote out of my sentence in such a way that it changes the point of what I was saying. I am confused about your motivation.

Do you think I don't know why Ableton Live is a great tool?

I do know it is great. And I feel I understand the tool deeply enough to give real criticism regarding unnecessary limitations.

Re: Get started making music

#134

Post by exabrial »

Guys if you haven't seen Sonic PI (http://sonic-pi.net/), this is also a great tool! You can write beats using a Ruby DSL and it runs them real time.

I sat down and did this in an hour: https://github.com/exabrial/sonic-pi-beats/blob/master/house...

Sam Aaron is the guy behind the project, he does a lot of ambient type stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1m0aX9Lpts

Re: Get started making music

#135

Post by jameskegel »

adamnemecek wrote: post #97
Kiro wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will this be for electronic music?

Ofc! Im working on this cause I wanted to make some electronic music but none of the current daws really let me express myself the way I want.

Cool, I added myself to your list. What would you say makes your interface different than others?

Re: Get started making music

#136

Post by adamnemecek »

somedumbguy22 wrote: post #112
adamnemecek wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you interested in anything particular? I can provide a lot more detail but I think that none of that will do it any justice. Sign up and check it out when it's out.

Will this have any support for external VSTs like Massive?

ofc, This is kinda standard. Generally I'll try to go well above and beyond what possible today.

Note that I'm on the core team of AudioKit https://github.com/audiokit/AudioKit which is a platform for AudioUnit development so I know all about how dope plugins are :-).

Re: Get started making music

#137

Post by etatoby »

_pergosausage wrote: post #108
hxta98596 wrote: post #89

Anecdotal: there's a few different approaches to learning songwriting that seem to click for beginners. The "build up" approach is the most common and is what this link offers: It first teaches beats, then chords, then melodies and then, in theory, vocals etc. These lessons in this order make sense to many people, but not everyone. If you're interested in learning to make music and the lessons in the link are confusi…

What you said about learning melodies and beats and chords kind of confused me. Do people actually learn how to make up music? I always thought it was just some natural ability that people have. For as long I can remember if somebody told me to write a song I would just spit it out after a while. Am I unuiqe in this respect?

When somebody asks me how to solve a particular database problem, or an IT problem, or how to write an algorithm to do something, I will think about it in the back of my mind and "just spit it out after a while," unless it's something difficult enough to warrant a literature review.

That doesn't mean that those subjects aren't covered in detail in textbooks and university courses, or that people cannot learn how to do it.

Re: Get started making music

#139

Post by exabrial »

hxta98596 wrote: post #89

Anecdotal: there's a few different approaches to learning songwriting that seem to click for beginners. The "build up" approach is the most common and is what this link offers: It first teaches beats, then chords, then melodies and then, in theory, vocals etc. These lessons in this order make sense to many people, but not everyone. If you're interested in learning to make music and the lessons in the link are confusi…

Are the free instructions like this out somewhere (build-up and peel-back)?

Re: Get started making music

#140

Post by csa »

_pergosausage wrote: post #108
hxta98596 wrote: post #89

Anecdotal: there's a few different approaches to learning songwriting that seem to click for beginners. The "build up" approach is the most common and is what this link offers: It first teaches beats, then chords, then melodies and then, in theory, vocals etc. These lessons in this order make sense to many people, but not everyone. If you're interested in learning to make music and the lessons in the link are confusi…

What you said about learning melodies and beats and chords kind of confused me. Do people actually learn how to make up music? I always thought it was just some natural ability that people have. For as long I can remember if somebody told me to write a song I would just spit it out after a while. Am I unuiqe in this respect?

You probably have learned most/all of your musical knowledge implicitly.

Some people have a great ear for music and can write solid songs without formal training in music. Other folks come at music from the more theoretical side, although usually with a lot of implicit knowledge of and experience with music as well.

For most people who are not formally trained in music, their songs can be improved upon on a technical level by someone who has deeper theoretical knowledge (learned either explicitly or implicitly).

For a good discussion of this, check out Tim Ferris' podcast interview with Derek Sivers. Derek talked about how he had learned a lot about music implicitly. In one summer, a teacher of his formalized that knowledge so efficiently that he was able to test out of lot of classes (1.5 years worth?) once he went to Berklee School of Music.

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