hi if you new around here I'm Sanjay C. in this video you'll learn how to set up
Ableton Live, load drum kits, instruments, and effects, and then export your song to
share with the world. discovering every little feature in Ableton is going to
take a long time, but today I'm covering the basics to help you start creating
music quickly. There's lots more to learn so make sure you subscribe to my channel
for more tips on making music and the latest music gadgets. after you've installed
Ableton Live, open it and we'll take care of some basic setup. if you're Ableton
Live looks lighter in color than mine, you can change. it I'll show you how to
do it in a second. there are two things you need to setup before we get started.
first, go to "Preferences" and in the Audio tab you want to select your input and
output device. if you have an audio interface, you'll select that as your
input and output device. right now I don't have my audio interface connected,
but you can also just select your internal speakers and microphone. if
you're looking for a good audio interface check out my comparison of the
Focusrite and Native Instruments interfaces here. next, if you have a MIDI
controller keyboard like a Native Instruments keyboard, Akai controller or
the Arturia Minilab Mk2, like I'm using today, you want to make sure that
your keyboard can take advantage of controlling Ableton Live. go to the
Link/MIDI tab and select your keyboard under one of the control surfaces over
here. and you may need to select it under input and output as well. This kind of
differs for different keyboards. now, a MIDI controller keyboard makes
controlling virtual instruments and even the virtual mixer in Ableton a lot more
intuitive. so if you're looking for a good $100 controller check out my video
here, comparing six of the best out there. if you want to change the look of
Ableton Live to something kind of like what I have, click the Look/Feel tab and
change the theme. I have mid dark selected right now but I also really
like dark. alright, basic setup is done. let's make some music!
when you first open Ableton Live it opens in what's called "Session View"
which is Ableton's signature mode for looping clips. it's what makes Ableton
Live really special. if you've worked with other DAWs you're probably more
familiar with Ableton's "Arrangement" view which
looks like this, setup in a timeline mode that you might be more familiar
with. you can make music in both views and you can switch between the two by
pressing the TAB button on your keyboard or using the buttons up here.
we're feeling adventurous today so we're diving right into Session View. Its
gonna loop everything we record which is really great for coming up with new
ideas. you'll find lots of drum kits on the left browser. click drums and then
select any kit from the list of drum kits. I'm gonna select 808 Core Kit.
you'll see that it's loaded the kit at the bottom of track number one. and
you'll also notice that it's armed the track with this red button here. If you're
using a MIDI keyboard, press a key and you hear drum sounds right away. if you
don't have a keyboard you can actually use your computer keyboard like a piano,
keyboard go to the options menu and make sure that Computer MIDI keyboard is
checked now. change your tempo to 80 BPM and hit the metronome button up here.
this is gonna give us something to keep time with. all right time to record. in
Ableton session view, ignore the big record button at the top. instead we're
going to use the small record button in the first clip slot of the drum track.
click that record button for a count-in and start playing. hit the stop button at
the top or the spacebar on your computer keyboard to stop.
turn the metronome off and let's play that beat. you'll hear that it just keeps
looping which is great again because those drums are just gonna keep playing
while we add other instruments and layer this into a beat or even a full song. now
if you didn't get your beat perfect, don't worry.
double-click the clip you just created and you'll notice that the MIDI notes
have been written in for all the drums you played. you can even see the list of
the drum hits on the left side. now if you made a mistake you can move notes
here. you can even draw notes in. I'm gonna draw in the hi hats. I'm just
double clicking the mouse. now you notice that my timing on the drums that I
played on the keyboard isn't quite perfect.
you can "Quantize" your drums which means getting all the notes right on the mark
of the metronome by selecting all. I do a CMD+right-click this area and
click on quantize. so now you notice that some of the notes shifted. let's listen
again. well everything's playing in time. boom! you can actually create your whole
beat by just drawing in the notes in a clip. keep experimenting you can always
undo a mistake you've made by clicking CMD+Z or using the undo menu here.
now Ableton Live is just one part of your music studio. to learn more about
the other components to setup a music studio, watch my video on music studio
essentials here. everything you need to start making music on any budget.
alright let's record an instrument sound next. click on sounds on the left side
these are instrument sounds included with Ableton Live. you can also use any
other virtual instrument plug-in you have installed by finding it in the
plugins folder right here. for now let's just choose a sound included with
Ableton from the Pad menu. I'm gonna select ANA PAD.
this time I'm gonna drag it onto MIDI track 2. now I'm gonna play a few chords
but you can really play anything. make sure it track 2 is armed and we're gonna
hit the record button on the first clip slot under that track 2.
all right if you make a mistake you can delete that pad clip by just clicking it
and pressing the delete button and start all over again. or you can open this clip
and adjust the notes here as well. you'll see the MIDI notes have been written in
for what you played with your keyboard. here's a quick tip if you use the Fold
button it'll just show you the notes that you played and I'll just get rid of
all the other notes. this is really good for adjusting things if you need to do
it just a little. you can also quantize this just like we
did with the drums. now you'll see that all the notes are perfectly aligned.
Wow two tracks in just a few minutes! you're doing great!
let's keep going. let's create a new MIDI track with a piano sound. press
CMD+shift+T to create a new track or you can right-click anywhere here and click
insert MIDI track. I'm gonna select the grand piano sound but there are tons of
other virtual instrument plugins that sound amazing. I review lots of plugins
on my channel and if you like to watch my review on a few of them click on the
video here. for now load the Ableton grand piano. alright our track is armed
let's record something.
awesome now you notice that our sounds are kind of all at the same volume and
the piano is getting a little hidden in there. you can use the faders right here
to adjust the volume of your individual tracks. let's adjust some of them
now. the bottom bar in Albeton either shows you the clip that you recorded
like we previously saw or the device you used to record it like you see right now.
you can switch between the two views by either double clicking the clip like I
do here or you can use Shift+Tab. now it sounds decent but let's add a delay
effect to make it sound even cooler. the audio effects are in the left browser as
well. you'll find lots of effects to add to your sound
now. we're gonna choose delay. double click it and you'll see it added right
next to your piano device. now you can change around the parameters here but
let's just see what it sounds like just with its default setting.
that's pretty interesting. but I'm gonna change some of those notes that I played.
let's shorten this note.
get rid of that.
now you can adjust a lot more of these parameters down here. there's so much you
can do with any of these devices and effects or sounds in Ableton Live. if you
want to experiment with more of the audio effects try something like a
chorus or a flanger. or just throw anything on there and just go crazy. the
last track we're going to record before we export our song is an external sound.
now you see a couple tracks right here labeled "Audio." audio tracks are different
because you can't play them on a keyboard like we did with the MIDI
tracks. instead we record audio directly into them or load an audio file like a
sample on top of them. now I've got a microphone right here connected to my
audio interface. you may have an electric piano connected or maybe an external
synth. I'm gonna record my voice now. in the middle of the audio track you should
see "Ext In" and 1. that shows which input of your audio interface that track is
listening to. make sure the track is armed and let's record.
all right so I've recorded that track. if we double click that clip let's see what
that looks like. now you see it looks different. we don't have our MIDI notes
because we actually recorded an audio file. let's play it back.
all right, it sounds okay, but I'm gonna add reverb because adding reverb
just makes everything sound better. let's go to the audio effects again, and I'm
going to choose a reverb right here.
alright that'll do for now. and when you press play you'll notice that all the
tracks keep looping. this first row might be the first portion of your song. you
can create more variations in the next row or you can even copy and paste
elements from the first row. now you can trigger any of these clips
separately. press the stop button here that'll stop all our clips from playing
and let's play them one at a time. let's start with our pad.
the best part is that Ableton always keeps these things in time which makes
it really good for performance. now in our last step we're gonna arrange this
into a song and then export it. let's record our performance from the session
view into the arrangement view. this time we're going to use the big record button
at the top. we're going to stop all our clips and then start recording while
triggering different clips like I showed you just now.
Press stop once you played it through enough. now watch this. press the Tab key
on your keyboard to switch views to Arrangement and then press this little
red play button here. now we're controlling everything from arrangement
view. now typically once I record my session into the arrangement view,
I usually just stay at the arrangement view until I finish the entire song. in
the arrangement view you'll see everything be recorded and you can even
stretch things like the drums. you can keep them playing and you can add more
of the pad. you can even say I want the grand piano here but I'm gonna add
another copy and paste it over here. and you can start arranging your song. you
can also with each of these individual tracks now shown in rows rather than
columns. you can still see your devices and effects and you can adjust things as
much as you want. and from here you're going to be using the top transport
buttons our play, stop, and record.
if you want to adjust volumes from this area, your fader button is now this
little clip thing here. you can adjust it up and down.
pretty cool. now when you've got your song arranged out you're ready to export
it and share it with the world, make sure first that you click somewhere off of
one of the clips. then go to File and click Export Audio Video. click the
export button at the bottom and choose a name for your song. Ableton will export
all the sounds and the effects and everything right into an audio file. now
open that file from wherever you've saved it. cool.
We're on iTunes. Not quite! but you can share this file with your friends or
upload it into SoundCloud or even Spotify if you're ready. now you can
always go back to your song even after you've exported to tweak everything from
the drum beat to the effects to the MIDI. but don't forget, you've got a ton of
ideas and beats and songs in you. finish something, share it, and move on to
something new. you'll keep learning the more you create. here's a bonus tip. the
box at the bottom left. let me open it because I have it closed. Press the triangle
here if you don't see this box. this box will give you tips on anything you hover
over. this is a great way to keep learning with these little tips in
Ableton Live. have fun and make the music you love. and hey check out one of these
videos next. see you guys later.