Complete beginner needs help. A lot of it.
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  1. #1
    Tech Student
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    Default Complete beginner needs help. A lot of it.

    Hey,

    So here's the situation. I was interested in getting some electronic components into my music at the moment (I've been a guitarist for 8 or so years, currently in a band etc.) and after some advice from a friend, he recommended that a good way of starting out was buying a midi controller and learning the ropes from there.

    So I took his advice, bought an Akai MPK Mini (pretty low budget here...) and got a demo version of Abelton Live 8 to run it through. And here's the issue.

    I don't know how to work this thing. At all. I've managed to connect the device up, get it recognised, and it even shows that it's receiving signals from it. But I can not get a single bit for noise from it.

    Now I understand the whole midi idea that programming and mapping is needed to assign notes/samples/drums to the controller. But I also have no idea how to even go about this.

    Can someone, anyone, give me some kind of guide, or step by step instructions of how to set this up, and program it, just something really basic to get me started?

    Someone please help out, I'm feeling more idiotic by the second.

    Cheers.

  2. #2
    Tech Guru Chilly's Avatar
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    Default

    Watch some of the built in tutorials in Ableton Live

  3. #3
    Tech Guru jprime's Avatar
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    select a channel in Ableton Live, and open up the IO for this channel (see those pretty yellow little buttons on the right? One of them is marked IO)

    Set that channel's input that corresponds to your soundcard's input.

    Make Sure "IN" is highlighted on that channel; rather than "Auto" or "OFF"

    If you still have issues, check your Preferences, and make sure the Soundcards input/output are all configured correctly.

    ^^That's a great way to get your guitar hooked up


    As far as midi goes - what are you trying to control? Instruments in Live? VSTs?

  4. #4
    Tech Guru Coldfuzion's Avatar
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    The best way to get started with Ableton is YouTube. The learning curve is steep. With no help at all, it's going to be a giant pain in your ass to figure it out. I would suggest posting on the Producers section of the Forum as well as checking YouTube. There are a lot of knowledgeble people on here. You just need to know who to prod and poke .

    Just a rule of thumb, people will tend to help you more if you seem to help yourself.

    Here's a good place to start:
    http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...+tutorial&aq=f

    There's also a copy of Ableton Live Lite for sale on the Buy/Sell forums for $70.
    http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/sho...880#post259880

    Good luck!

  5. #5
    Tech Student
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    cheers for the quick replies guys, I will get started and start looking through these, hopefully I can make some progress!

    as for what I'm trying to do, the answer is... well I don't really know haha! I'm just looking to maybe work in some synth, sampling or drum beats into the music I'm making with my band at the moment (it's post-rock with a bunch of other sub-genres shoved in) but I'm really just looking to explore any electronic influences at the moment.

    thanks again guys, I may have to drop more questions in if I remain clueless!

  6. #6
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    sorry, felt the need to share this little victory...

    I MANAGED TO MAKE A SOUND WITH THIS THING!

    This, for me, is a massive success, so thank you for this alone.

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