Ableton for Music Creators and Artists
Course 14: Virtual Synths

Plug-ins are virtual devices like synthesizers, effects processors, drum kits, and more. In the last course, you began to get familiar with synthesis, particularly subtractive synthesis. In course 14, you’re jumping further into synthesis, laying out the types of patches, and explaining why they’re useful to you as an EDM creator and artist.

From there you’ll get into building a one-shot patch and a looping patch, a series of settings that tells the synthesizer to playback in a particular way. For homework, you’ll create five, one-shot and synth loops using the amp envelope and basic waveforms in Ableton. If possible, you’ll use these sounds in your current song production.

You’ll also familiarize yourself with third-party instruments including Reaktor by Native Instruments, digging further into Ableton’s instruments (Collision, Electric, and Tension), and getting in deep with Operator. You’ll learn more about MIDI effects’ arpeggiators, followed by a taste of how the arpeggiator has been used in popular music in songs by Giorgio Moroder, Massive Attack, Daft Punk, Gesaffelstein, and more in your listening library!

The course 14 digital field trip will look at monitors/speakers from Barefoot. Monitors are one of the most important parts of any recording studio because they reflect the true sound of the music. Review Barefoot’s monitoring systems, their features, and how they help audio engineers balance the audio for any sound system. The course will also review the current trajectory of your marketing plan, and end with a review, blog entry, and quiz.