What is Ableton Live?

In a nutshell, Ableton Live is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that can be played like an instrument.
In this respect it is unique, as it makes it possible to interact with sequenced music like you would with a group of musicians: you can speed up or slow down the music at will, you can decide to repeat a section, skip another, you can set the conditions for a certain amount of improvisation and then regain control at any moment, all of this without having to stop the music.

Imagine being James Brown... there you are, on stage, the Godfather of Soul, singing, doing the cool moves, and at the same time directing the band: "Take it to the bridge", "Hit Me!", "On the count of three...", " Slow it down", etc. (search YouTube if you are too young to know who wasThe Hardest Working Man in Show Business).

Now imagine having the same level of control with your laptop, choosing which parts will take care of themselves (like when your musicians have memorised intro, verse, chorus, and you just need to call for those parts) and which elements you want to play and improvise yourself.

Thomas Bangalter, one half of Daft Punk says "I use Live anywhere, anyhow. I use it on my laptop as a notepad for remembering and experimenting with musical ideas, and as a personal-computer game — because I have more fun with it than most video games." (the full interview is available on Ableton's website).

Aside from this, Ableton Live it has the same features you would expect from any other top DAWs, and better in many respects: it has 64bit internal resolution, it comes with an impressive collection of high quality plugin devices (virtual instruments and effects), a large sample library, it supports external plugins (VST and AU on Mac, VST and DirectX on PC), it is Rewire compatible (it can operate as both host or slave) and since 2009 its functionality can be radically augmented with Max for Live, a special version of Max/MSP which is available as an optional add-on.

If you are a regular reader of www.gearslutz.com and similar forums, you probably know all this, but knowing your equipment is not the same as knowing when to use it: a course or customised session can show you how to use Ableton Live to achieve better arrangements, better sound (mixing and mastering), better performances.

If instead this explanation makes only partial sense (or no sense at all) don't panic: that's what the courses are for, we can start from zero and take you to producing music very quickly.

 

To see which courses are available follow the links on this page or go back to the main Ableton Live Course List – if you have any questions that are not answered on these pages please do not hesitate to contact us by phone, email, or chat.