ABLETON FOR MUSIC PRODUCERS AND AUDIO ENGINEERS
Lesson 3: Recording and Editing MIDI

What is MIDI? It stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Officially born in 1983, it is a protocol that does not contain audio. Rather, it works by telling sound-generating devices (synths, samplers, etc.) how to generate sounds. Highly flexible, MIDI does not take up a lot of space on your hard drive and makes changing and editing performances and sounds easy. Although it can be frustrating for new users at first, MIDI is your friend. Be patient with MIDI.

MIDI is incredibly versatile and can be used to create a wide range of musical variations. Whether you’re just starting out with MIDI in Ableton Live or are an experienced veteran, knowing the different ways to create MIDI Clips will help you broaden your sound palette. You can Record, Import, or Insert MIDI Clips, as well as use Audio Clips for additional creativity.

Additionally, Ableton Live uses Draw Mode —On or Off— instead of numerous editing tools like other DAWs do, making editing easier and faster than ever. In this course, you’ll learn more about Recording MIDI in Session View, using MIDI effects in Ableton Live, and all the tips and tricks accumulated over years of audio experience!

For course three, your assignment will be to create at least three clips using the operator track recording method, the impulse or drum rack recording method, and three more tracks using the edit method on impulse or drum. You’ll also need to MIDI map at least three things to a controller. You’ll also perform drum loop analysis on previous work.