How long would it take me to learn ableton?

[Jay Pace]

Ableton users - how easy to master is this program?

I want start working on a liveset, and I'd like to know how to dj with it.

I've never really taken the time to look at it and I have no real idea how it works.

Was going to buy a bitsream controller to use with it. Looks the business - any thoughts?

[RDR]

Depends how you manage your learning J

go at it for 2 hours a night and your looking at a month to sort it fully.

A serious recommendation is to go on the albeton forums and to visit the tips and tricks section of their forum... its massive and got loads of tips.

my first recommendation is to learn the warp markers first and the screen layouts, they're not that much fun to get around...

[Jay Pace]

Hmmm. I've not got 2 hours a night! Suspect this is going to take a while...

I did a courses on reason and cubase when I was unemployed - time well spent and now I know them inside out. I'd love to get to grips with ableton but I'm not sure when I'll get the chance...

[BloodStar]

I completely swtiched to Ableton a few months back. Previously I was working in Cubase, but now when I am more familiar with Ableton I never look back.
You can do everything like in other DAWs, but to me it seems to be more "musical" in terms of workflow.. Work with MIDI is bit weak, but hopefully they will improve it one day.
Overall, I dont think it will take you too much time to learn it.

As for the Bitstream, yeah, I've got one and it is great,. Solid construction, no cheap plastic. It has some nice features, like built-in Arp and LFO, ribbon pad, X/Y joypad,. Crossfader seems to be bit flimsy, but I am not using it too often. It can emulate Mackie Control, you can easily edit all parametrs in Bitstream editor and waveidea is updating firmware reguilarly so they are adding new interesting features...

[Jay Pace]

Great advice mate, many thanks.

[dirty_bass]

to DJ it will take no time at all.

To make a PA will take much longer (if you are gonna do it properly), but still I guess a couple of months of hard work will get your first pa out.

Or you can bell me up, and I can come round and show you how??!!

[AcidTrash]

I gave up on Ableton after hours of trying to get it to properly beatmatch. For a programme supposedly designed for it its a bit of a head****. may have to reconsider when my TBx303 arrives next week.

[techno_smack]

ableton is the best!

u will never learn it all. but doesnt take long to get some wicked noises coming out.

if u used cubase or fruity or reason anyway, try rewiring it to start off with and then use he abelton mixer and effects etc

[SlimboyPhatt]

to DJ it will take no time at all.

To make a PA will take much longer (if you are gonna do it properly), but still I guess a couple of months of hard work will get your first pa out.

Or you can bell me up, and I can come round and show you how??!!

Mr Bass,

Im very intrested on how to use it for a P.A Properly. I have had a mess about with it, but just wondered if you could give me / point me in the direction of some good tips on the best way to set it out ? Such as how much of its live instrument wise etc.

Any help appreciated :)

[dirty_bass]

You can have as many live instruments as you want
your only limitation is the power of your computer, and of course, the amount of arms and fingers you have.

I find 8-12 tracks of audio and 2-3 live vst synths is about as much as I can physically handle without automation or getting in someone as a partner to do a live pa with me.

I think the secret to a live PA is making it sound like a DJ mix. A lot of PA`s go from kickdrum, to full mix, back down to kick drum, and then next tune repeat process. This kills the momentum in my opinion, so you don`t want to have too many synths and so on running at once as it will impede your ability to make good transitions from tune to tune.


The real secret of making a good pa, I think, is how you split your tunes down so they can go into ableton, and how you place them into the clip view.

I set my stuff out very logically so I can visually see the progression any tune would normally make.

I can then play any tune in any order, but always have a good logical visual structure on the screen so I can work out what to do next, or go wild and never get too lost.

Producion wise it`s no different to making a tune, all the parts should go in pre-eq`d so it all fits together in the mix nicely.

It`s too much for me to go into fully on a forum really, but I can take some screenshots I guess and wack em up so you can see my basic structure.

I am now doing 1-1 ableton Live PA sessions for people now though, so if you are really serious you can book me for a full day and I`ll show you the lot.

[Mindful]

It`s too much for me to go into fully on a forum really, but I can take some screenshots I guess and wack em up so you can see my basic structure.

Please do.

[TechMouse]

Can't be arsed carting your decks to Argentina eh Jay?

I'm learning at the moment too.

Got our new night coming up next month, and I'm starting simple (Ableton DJ set with extra loops and stuff) and looking to add to it as I go along.

Main motivating factor is to be able to beatsync with the VJ software for AV stuff, though eventually I want it to be 100% original stuff.

[Jay Pace]

Stevie D - sounds like a plan. We have an overdue appointment with some beer as it is....

A bit sketchy on taking decks to argentina. Would love to, but its going to cost me £££s to ship them, and i may end up having to pay import tax to get them into the country. Which would suck balls. At the moment I'm looking at selling everything and buying stuff again. Which also sucks balls...

[RDR]

You can do everything like in other DAWs

sorry man, thats not true.

there's LOADS of things missing from it.

ill give you one.

In place editing.

[BloodStar]

sorry man, thats not true.

there's LOADS of things missing from it.

ill give you one.

In place editing.

What you mean by In place editing?

[SlimboyPhatt]

You can have as many live instruments as you want
your only limitation is the power of your computer, and of course, the amount of arms and fingers you have.

I find 8-12 tracks of audio and 2-3 live vst synths is about as much as I can physically handle without automation or getting in someone as a partner to do a live pa with me.

I think the secret to a live PA is making it sound like a DJ mix. A lot of PA`s go from kickdrum, to full mix, back down to kick drum, and then next tune repeat process. This kills the momentum in my opinion, so you don`t want to have too many synths and so on running at once as it will impede your ability to make good transitions from tune to tune.


The real secret of making a good pa, I think, is how you split your tunes down so they can go into ableton, and how you place them into the clip view.

I set my stuff out very logically so I can visually see the progression any tune would normally make.

I can then play any tune in any order, but always have a good logical visual structure on the screen so I can work out what to do next, or go wild and never get too lost.

Producion wise it`s no different to making a tune, all the parts should go in pre-eq`d so it all fits together in the mix nicely.

It`s too much for me to go into fully on a forum really, but I can take some screenshots I guess and wack em up so you can see my basic structure.

I am now doing 1-1 ableton Live PA sessions for people now though, so if you are really serious you can book me for a full day and I`ll show you the lot.

Yes would be very intrested in seeing the screenshots, and quite possibly in the 1 on 1 tutition. What sort of damage ? send me a pm about that if you can.

The other thing that inruiges me is how much is really "played Live". For a classic example I was at Mass a few weeks ago and Kevin Energy was doing "Nu Energy Collective Live" (With too much poor scratching as usual)

The thing is he was obviously playing some of the riff's live, but there were some riffs he was trying to make us believe he was playing live, with absolutly no chance he was, far tooo complex, and it just annoyed me.

What are your thoughts on this and do you actualy play any sounds live Dirty?

[RDR]

What you mean by In place editing?

I pro tools or logic or cubase you can right click on any part and edit it right there with cut copy, paste or any other editor type tools.

ableton has to use an external editing program to achieve this.

[dirty_bass]

Yes would be very intrested in seeing the screenshots, and quite possibly in the 1 on 1 tutition. What sort of damage ? send me a pm about that if you can.

The other thing that inruiges me is how much is really "played Live". For a classic example I was at Mass a few weeks ago and Kevin Energy was doing "Nu Energy Collective Live" (With too much poor scratching as usual)

The thing is he was obviously playing some of the riff's live, but there were some riffs he was trying to make us believe he was playing live, with absolutly no chance he was, far tooo complex, and it just annoyed me.

What are your thoughts on this and do you actualy play any sounds live Dirty?

Ok, I`ll send a pm

As for live, well obviously, techno is sequenced music, you`ll never play in time enough to sound good, so I don`t actually play any notes live. I have been thinking about playing basslines live in my dubstep pa, but not in techno.

What is played live is mixing the various sounds in and out, and controlling the individual filters and effects over them, as well as tweaking the vst`s live.
It would be physically impossible to play live notes in as well as controlling all the audio, vst`s and effects, so no matter what you do, something would have to be automated.

As for Kevin energy playing live, I think he is in the lab 4 camp, where essentially it is all pre-recorded, and they just mime to the noise.Horrible and dishonest.

[SlimboyPhatt]

As for Kevin energy playing live, I think he is in the lab 4 camp, where essentially it is all pre-recorded, and they just mime to the noise.Horrible and dishonest.

I agree, its disgusting!!! I have heard mixed views on wether K90 actualy does it live or not too. I think he does ( although I know he has a back up Dat)

[dirty_bass]

I know K90 used to be all dat, I saw him from backstage miming before, so I know he`s been a faker, wether or not he still does I don`t know.

Faking is rife in the trance scene though.