No discussion of Ableton should omit high profile users like Imogen Heap or Zoe Keating.
Get Started Making Music
151–160 of 202 posts
Re: Get Started Making Music
#152I got into programming as a kid through a desire to make music (my first program was a "song" written in pascal, playing a series beep tones at different frequencies and durations.) I got into trackers (fast, impulse, buzz) in my teens, and then synths. These days I have a strong preference towards "hardware"* only music making -- I spend most of my waking life staring at a screen, so I find it satisfying to step awa…
I'd recommend you check out the Tennage Engineering OP-Z. It's a neat little thing that can do a bunch of the stuff you mentioned, but in a crazy small form factor.
Re: Get Started Making Music
#153Ableton is great and paved the way for a more creative and intuitive workflow! I switched from Cubase very early on and never looked back. That is, until I found Bitwig ( https://www.bitwig.com ) which supports Linux! They also deserve a shout out taking it even further!
To all guys commenting here - Are you guys hobist, programmers or professional. Why you use these tools? Just asking out of curiosity. Thanks
These tools are the industry standard for creating and recording music digitally.
They are suitable for hobbyists to professional level.
I personally am a hobbyist musician and programmer by profession. I'd imagine many others here are like me as well.
Re: Get Started Making Music
#154I want to make music that sounds like the band "Chinese Man".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqjeNSNuNPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9QU5-9DFC4
Can we do it using Ableton? How does one even approach trying to do something like this?
Re: Get Started Making Music
#155I want to make music that sounds like the band "Chinese Man". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqjeNSNuNPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9QU5-9DFC4 Can we do it using Ableton? How does one even approach trying to do something like this?
Yes, you could definitely make this in Ableton. Basically, all you need is samples (recordings of instrument sounds, either individual notes that you put in whatever order you like, or recordings of someone playing a whole musical phrase, preferably something that loops well) and a sequencer of some kind, which is the main function of Ableton. There are also effects and mixing and mastering techniques that can drastically change the sound of music, but all you need to get started are some samples and a sequencer.
Re: Get Started Making Music
#156As a dev, I find Ableton incredibly frustrating. The Live Object Model (LOM) allows custom automation and software control. But it's half-closed, and half-open.
Access is through Max for Live, which is a dataflow language "programmed" by joining little object blocks to other object blocks - like Scratch. There's unofficial Python support, but it's poorly documented.
Many things are possible, but many other things aren't possible - even though they're available on Push, so obviously the hooks are there.
It would make me unbelievably happy if Ableton opened up the LOM and included a properly documented hook for absolutely every important feature - preferably one that could be used from any language, maybe via OSC, rather than M4L.
To be fair Live at least has a LOM, while other sequencers/DAWs don't. So that's a plus. But it's still a shame it isn't more complete - because that would make all kinds of cool things possible.
Re: Get Started Making Music
#157Very cool and interesting website. I recently bought a Maschine MK2 to get into the music making thing. It surprised me how easy to use it is. My wife is a professional acoustic musician, and although she firstly was a bit hesitant with this 'instrument' she quickly turned around. And we started making music together. It's perfect for me since it is very well arranged, the buttons make sense in my head. I play a bit…
I'm a Maschine user as well, but I've got a background in guitar, having played in rock bands from my early teens through mid-20s.
I've always been intrigued by MIDI, but always felt "limited" by piano-style keyboard MIDI controllers. Maschine really helped me break open my writers block and made playing music fun again.
I can put Maschine in front of my 5 year old and he can figure it out. It makes more sense to him than my 61-key MIDI controller does.
Re: Get Started Making Music
#158I got into programming as a kid through a desire to make music (my first program was a "song" written in pascal, playing a series beep tones at different frequencies and durations.) I got into trackers (fast, impulse, buzz) in my teens, and then synths. These days I have a strong preference towards "hardware"* only music making -- I spend most of my waking life staring at a screen, so I find it satisfying to step awa…
I'm in the same boat. However, I love the flexibility of a DAW. My "hybrid" solution is the Ableton Push (small LCD screen, but not a monitor) and Komplete Kontrol S88 keyboard. Still get my soft synths, but I can do a ton without even looking at my monitor. I have both facing my window rather than my screen, and it's surprisingly easy to get in the flow.
Re: Get Started Making Music
#159As a dev, I find Ableton incredibly frustrating. The Live Object Model (LOM) allows custom automation and software control. But it's half-closed, and half-open. Access is through Max for Live, which is a dataflow language "programmed" by joining little object blocks to other object blocks - like Scratch. There's unofficial Python support, but it's poorly documented. Many things are possible, but many other things are…
I agree, their object model and developer experience leaves a lot to be desired. I wanted to control Live via OSC so I made a little library to do it via node:
https://github.com/BrandesEric/AbletonJS
It's a work in progress that, sadly, I have left dormant for awhile, but you can basically use Node/JS to control live (even over a network). It does rely on the internal JS implementation and you have to add the max plugin to a track before you can start coding against it, so still not anything to write home about.
Re: Get Started Making Music
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Better" is relative. People will learn that by looking at what other artists are doing and figuring it out themselves, and they will remember it better for that reason. Everyone I know who is into making music (which includes a large mix of professional and non-professional musicians) started out in electronic music by putting interesting sounds together, and then by imitating what their favourite artists have done.…
Thank you for your comment, the post formulated extremely well what i was thinking about for a long time, but couldnt express in such a clear way. I found this holds true for me with many things, not just music or any arts in general. That’s how it worked for me with learning computer science as well. I found that lecture slides and book chapters were waaaaay more useful for me after i attempted the relevant homework…
Honestly, it's something I've had to relearn. I got so used to reading academic sources and theory, and then realising later I hadn't properly grokked the information fully. It's taken me a long time to realise I should just start by digging in and using the sources as references when need-be.
The last paragraph of your comment is absolutely how it feels.