How to create music like a pro?

For those who are dabbling in music, whether as songwriters or musical pieces for movies or video games, knowing the professional tools with which one works is a fundamental step.

Many times it happens that those who are beginning to explore this activity have difficulty inserting themselves into work environments where they can learn from contact with colleagues . They are usually alone trying to understand what the workflow is and what IT tools are used.

In these cases, it is advisable to explore the different music courses available. Many are specifically dedicated to teaching the use of the Ableton Live program, an essential tool for music production and composition.

But what exactly is Ableton Live? What are its main attributes? What is it for?

In this article we will take a tour of the central characteristics of the program that has become an essential for those who work professionally with music.

Created by and for musicians

Ableton Live is what is known as a DAW, an acronym that corresponds to the categorization in English “Digital Audio Workstation”. In Spanish it could be translated as “digital audio workstation”.

As an audio sequencer, its features include the ability to compose, record, arrange, mix and master music.

The first version of Ableton Live appeared in 2001. Its origin is related to Monolake, a German electronic music group made up of Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke.

These two musicians had developed a homebrew program for their live performances that was later refined to become Ableton Live, a commercially-created software that is compatible with Windows and macOS and developed in C ++.

From its origins comes one of its main characteristics that differentiate it from other DAWs, this is that Ableton Live is designed as a musical instrument for live presentations, so it includes a series of characteristics that give it this functionality beyond those that they typically correspond to an audio sequencer.

Main features of Ableton Live

Most professional software is multi-functional and can, for that reason, be complex and overwhelming for newcomers. Ableton Live is no exception in this regard. For that reason, there are several music courses that focus on teaching how to use this program and will facilitate the experience for beginners.

The program offers two views, one called “Session view” and the other called “Arrangement view” . “Session view” is geared towards live performances and allows you to trigger music clips that were previously arranged or whose order of playback is set in an impromptu way in a live session. While "Arrangement view" offers the typical timeline for music clips that is used to record music and later edit it.

The program is marketed in three editions. "Intro" is the edition that includes the fewest features since, as its name implies, it is intended to be an introductory or basic use of the program. The "Standard" edition improves the base version and "Suite" is the most complete version of the software.

This difference becomes palpable in the instruments that the program has available. While the "Intro" edition includes only four instruments; the “Standard” edition allows the inclusion of external instruments that must be purchased separately; and the “Suite” comes with all the instruments already incorporated. In addition, there are some differences in terms of the functionalities and effects of each edition of the program.

Technical requirements for using Ableton Live

A fundamental question for those who are interested in starting to experiment with Ableton Live or even take music courses on this program, is to meet the technical requirements to be able to use it.

According to the website of the company Ableton, to install Live 11, Windows users require version 10 of that operating system and an i5 processor, as a minimum. You also need 8GB of RAM, a monitor with a resolution of 1366x768 and a sound card compatible with ASIO drivers.

For the installation of the basic edition, 3GB free on the hard disk is required and up to 76GB for the versions that include additional instruments and effects. For Mac users, the OS version must be OS X 10.13 onwards.

What is Ableton Live for?

As mentioned above, Ableton Live has two views that roughly define its main functions: creating music and presenting live.

Session view is where you can explore, test, and build with different music clips. It is also the part of the program that most connects with its origins, since it is designed for those who are interested in performing live concerts. This part of the program will allow you to shoot audio clips during a presentation. It works almost like one more instrument that can be played at the desired time to make a certain sound.

While "Arrangement view" is the part dedicated to creating music. In this section you can combine MIDI, loops, effects to achieve musical pieces. This is the most complex part of the program, since many functionalities are included and to take advantage of the program it is necessary to investigate each of its possibilities.

Is it necessary to have knowledge of music theory?

Many people wonder if to use Ableton Live it is necessary to know how to read sheet music, have knowledge of music theory, understand about harmony and composition.

This knowledge will undoubtedly be very useful when creating compositions with the program. For those who have a more intuitive relationship with music, it can be very useful to take music courses that replenish the basic notions of music theory that they will need to make the program perform at its best and achieve the song they imagine professionally.

Fortunately, there are music courses that combine the teaching of Ableton Live with some basic notions of music theory in their syllabi. At a minimum, the user must have knowledge of musical notation, musical scales, intervals, chords, harmonic progressions, harmonic rhythm and musical motif in order to create a song or piece of music.

Later, to mix the sound, you will also need knowledge of audio editing, such as equalization and compression.

So, for those who have already studied music, Ableton Live will be a simple program that they can discover starting from a solid base of musical knowledge. While for those who do not have previous knowledge it will be necessary to resort to the offer of music courses to go beyond the basic use of the program.

In short, for those who are interested in developing in music production and composition, whether it is to release their own songs or to work in the burgeoning entertainment industry, Ableton Live will offer all the features they need to end up with professional sound material. . As an additional feature, this program, unlike other similar ones, also offers the possibility of performing live presentations.

For either of the two functionalities, previous knowledge in music is necessary to become a professional user, so it is recommended to invest in music courses for those who start from a more intuitive link with the sound arts.