ABLETON FOR MUSIC PRODUCERS AND AUDIO ENGINEERS
Lesson 5: Completion 101

The purpose of this course is to provide you with a big-picture overview of the process of going from start to finish with a song. Future courses will explain in greater detail but after this course, you’ll know enough to start with a few clips in session view and then export your finished product from Arrangement View.

Taking the time to make sure you properly name and organize your clips, tracks, and scenes will pay off big time down the road. It may not seem important at the moment, but when you are working on a complicated project, having a clear understanding of which clip is which can save lots of headaches. Get creative with how you use Scenes – making sure that all your clips have their own home while still ensuring they play nicely together.

Live has only one mixer meaning the Session and Arrangement Views share the same tracks. It’s useful to note that only one clip can play at any given point on any track, regardless of which view it originates from, but many clips can reside on each track. Finally, when recording into Arrangement View, be sure to press the Record Button as this feature starts multi-track recording at once.

Through this two-part project in course 5, you’ll create four distinct tracks – two audio and two MIDI (of which one is drums with Impulse). For each track, you will use a different virtual instrument from Ableton Suite and feature two clips for each track – all named and color-coded. You will incorporate four scenes into your project with appropriate names and colors, three KEY Mappings, and three MIDI Mappings.