Recommended books/videos for learning Ableton?

Recommended books/videos for learning Ableton?

Hi all,

Having played with Traktor Pro (all as a result of DJTT, for which I’m very thankful for the advice & tips!) I’ve gotten to the point where I’m thinking about using Ableton, as it seems like down the line it is where I want to go with things (such as the clip launching matrix)

The only problem is, having near zero production experience, I find it quite hard to get my head around most of it, so I was wondering if anyone has any good books or videos (or both) which are a good place to get started, or even some intermediate/advanced stuff for later on too?

I found this stuff from the only previous thread I could find, does any have any opinions/experience of these?
http://www.musictechmag.co.uk/mtm/ableton-live-tutorials
http://www.groove3.com/str/ableton-live-training/
http://www.timespace.com/product/AVL8B-102/2/3/live_8_tutorial_dvd_bundle_1_%26_2.html

Cheers :slight_smile:

Hi Lantau!

I’m not an ableton user, but i did research sometime ago before choosing traktor as my tool.

In my researchs i found the Tom Cosm website: http://www.cosm.co.nz/
check it out

Sonic Academy. They have about 10 videos on each part of creating a track with sample projects. I found it very helpful. You might be able to get a torrent… but who knows.

Did you check out the tutorials in Ableton? They don’t seem bad either- if you have any luck with the book-search, please post your recommendations here; I’m not quite ready to start learning, but would like to know which books you found the most helpful.

I am in the same situation, a friend is going to run me through the basics, my mate I make tunes with now has Ableton as well so hopefully he can show me as well, on top of that another friend who produces solely on Ableton said to grab their tutorial DvD which you can buy for £35 so I am tempted to do that, although I am kinetically challenged! i have to be taught hands on to learn, so hopefully picking it up from my mates will be easier :slight_smile:

best of luck Lantau, I will probably pick up the dvd will let you know what it’s like.

youtube search user: abletoninc
it’s lives official account, they’ve got vids that teach the basics
from there you create your own work flow. learn it all, it’s worth the time.

  • also if your dead serious get suite 8 & NI’s komplete, the perfect combination to do anything…

Cheers for the feedback guys! Looks like both Ableton Tutorial DVD’s come in at £52 (or £35 each) and the Sonic Academy DJ and Production courses are also £35 each, which all seem like pretty good value so will have to have a think about which one to go for…

Look forward to hearing what the DVD is like Ciar2001 :slight_smile:

Cool, that looks like the best place to start for now, especially as it’s free

I had wondered what the difference between Live 8 and the Suite; what does Komplete do just to ask?

what does suite give you over straight up live?

as for Komplete your the second person to mention that to me in a matter of days, sticking that on my shopping list :slight_smile:

np Lantau will let you know as soon as I have it in my paws!

I forget what Live has (google it) but Suite comes with 11,000 instruments, effects, presets, etc. it’s pretty amazing…& Komplete…well it’s basically 70 gigs of bomb VST’s… (VST=Virtual Studio Instruments) you can find great freeware VST’s (for example at sites like vstplanet.com & dontcrack.com) but having all the best right there when you need them is priceless, yet to mention there so nice you’ll just experiment find something incredible and it will inspire a hole track.

http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com/ has a weekly mailing list, i wish i signed up when i first started.. im pretty damn capable of executing most tasks at hand required in the studio, but that dude can confuse the shit out of even me.. if he asks, never tell him his stuffs “a little more basic than my current level” now the shit he gives me is from light years away…

Cool will check out suits, but would you honestly recommend that to a complete beginner?

Honestly…not if your plannin’ to get KOMPLETE
Suite has alot more PRESETS but i set my own FX/Instrument settings…
so just Live + Komplete = 100%