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.
