Ableton essentials

[Bunford]

After having it for a while but not really having the time to delve into it, I'm now about to immerse myself in the world of Ableton.

Just wondering, anyone got any essential Live Packs to add into it, any essentials tutorials, tips, shortcuts etc?

I'll be using it to probably make some promo mixes, remixes and create some of my own tunes. It'll be mostly in the area of electro house.

[Nesquigs]

MASSIVE....

troll around abletons site. tehres a bunch of packs for free. that and google.

welcome to the good fight my friend. ive been trying to slay the live beast for the last few months.

im getting there :P ----- almost ready to have a "real" go at making my own track... not just fucking around with different sounds.

[rishi]

Live Packs never really impressed me. I teach Ableton for a living and here is what I would do if I were you.

Download a sample pack of electro house from loopmasters or the like

Learn how to warp audio

Learn how to edit audio - cut, copy, paste, delete

Learn how to use Drum Racks

Learn how to use Simpler

Learn a few basic effects- ping pong delay, reverb, beat repeat

Practice

Enough there to make awesome mixtapes and write edits, remixes and original material.

Know a few things really well rather than be overwhelmed by a lot.

[Pagaille21]

After having it for a while but not really having the time to delve into it, I'm now about to immerse myself in the world of Ableton.

Just wondering, anyone got any essential Live Packs to add into it, any essentials tutorials, tips, shortcuts etc?

I'll be using it to probably make some promo mixes, remixes and create some of my own tunes. It'll be mostly in the area of electro house.

Check out the abletoninc youtube page for some great tutorials.
The best thing i can recommend (and what i tell my students) start with just audio (warping, launching clips, making audio)
then midi
then fx
then production
more production techniques
and always get someone else to master

if you are djing, simply do a couple of mixes then expand with samples etc

hope it helps, pm me if u have any questions

[photojojo]

Know a few things really well rather than be overwhelmed by a lot.

Great advise!! There's so many different things you can do with Abelton, but a large portion of it you don't really need, especially just getting started.

[Bunford]

I'll soon have a VCI-100 (already got it at 1.4), Launchpad and LPD8 (coming soon) as MIDI controllers.

My hope was to use Ableton as a live DJ tool, using other people tracks, having all my cue points set etc, as well as able to incorporate my own, or even parts of my own creations, into a mix.

I'm hoping to use the Launchpad as is. Use the VCI-100 in a custom mapping as a "real" DJ controller, for jogs, crossfader, volume etc as well as some effects. Then use the LPD8 as a sampler, looper and effects controller (having the many parameter knobs giving the ability to tweak any effects to death pretty much on the fly).

I've used Cubase and Nuendo years ago as a basic home demo recording tool, but not really used anything for a while so I feel a steep learning curve ahead!

[djsakebomb]

The main VST you'll need is Massive. That coupled with Operator and you can make pretty much all sounds you'll need. I'd suggest buying drum sample packs, in particular the Deadmau5 Xfer pack and the Vengeance pack.

Another thing you need to understand with Ableton is it's not your traditional DJing software. There aren't cue points in the tradition sense of the word and there's no jogging in the traditional sense either.

With that said, you're going to absolutely love Ableton

[-AyeAreTee]

Live Packs never really impressed me. I teach Ableton for a living and here is what I would do if I were you.

Download a sample pack of electro house from loopmasters or the like

Learn how to warp audio

Learn how to edit audio - cut, copy, paste, delete

Learn how to use Drum Racks

Learn how to use Simpler

Learn a few basic effects- ping pong delay, reverb, beat repeat

Practice

Enough there to make awesome mixtapes and write edits, remixes and original material.

Know a few things really well rather than be overwhelmed by a lot.

Do you have any direct videos or tuts that you can share for this by any chance?

[ctrld]

Know a few things really well rather than be overwhelmed by a lot.

what he said.

that's a wall many people (including me) have run into. you have an insane amount of things to try, but learn using them one at a time. once you've got the hang of the workflow in general, everything else is play - but a lot of preliminary work is involved and it's gonna take a while before the results are satisfactory. you have to be ready for this - but this goes for any DAW and DJing software anyway, so I'm kinda stating the obvious here.

oh yeah, if you're just starting out - don't be afraid of the lessons and the manual. the folks at ableton did an excellent job with those, familiarize yourself with them to get a solid basic knowledge. reverse-engineer the demo sets to understand how a particular effect was achieved. for everything else, just google "whatever you want to do" + "tutorial"