Course Description

Ableton Live 101: An Introduction to Ableton Live 10

Course Overview

This digital media course teaches the basics of producing music with Ableton Live 10 software. Designed for the audio enthusiast with relatively little Ableton Live experience, Ableton Live 101 course guides students through the fundamentals of music production in Ableton Live. The textbook and included exercises are designed to familiarize students with the practices and processes they will use to compose, record, remix, improvise, edit, and produce music using this popular music production platform.

This course is targeted at intermediate high school and college-level learners. It covers studio setup and configuration, basic Ableton Live controls, creating Ableton Live sets, importing and working with audio and MIDI files, recording audio and MIDI, making selections and navigating, editing audio and MIDI, basic mixing, and exporting a final stereo mixdown.

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to do the following:

• Explain audio characteristics of waveform, frequency, and amplitude

• Explain the role of sample rate and bit depth in digital audio

• Configure appropriate audio settings in Live preferences to optimize performance

• Recognize the importance of the folder and file hierarchy used by an Ableton Live Set

• Recognize available Ableton Live software and hardware options

• Recognize and navigate the Ableton Live user interface and tool set

• Use proper recording and mixing techniques for audio files and MIDI sequences in the Arrangement View and the Session View

• Accomplish common audio production tasks

• Compile Live Sets from audio clips, loops, and samples

• Utilize multiple options for importing media into Ableton Live

• Employ navigation and editing skills in a multi-track Live Set

• Recognize the characteristics of MIDI data and explain how it differs from audio

• Explain the role of virtual instruments devices in Live MIDI production

• Employ mixing techniques to create a balanced blend for a stereo production

• Apply basic automation to create real-time dynamic changes in a mix

• Add EQ and dynamics devices to and Ableton Live mix

• Export a mix as a bounced stereo file