ABLETON FOR MUSIC PRODUCERS AND AUDIO ENGINEERS
Lesson 9: Composition and Instrumentation

This course digs into instruments, sounds, and track composition, and also covers templates and mockups. Placeholder sounds are an invaluable tool when focusing on composition. They are similar to what’s in your head, but not exact–usually a preset which has some of the desired characteristics or qualities that one is looking for.

This serves as a great starting point for when you’re trying to quickly get ideas out of your head without having to stop and focus too much on the particular sound itself. After all, using most basic instruments is just a rough guideline, and executing ideas is more crucial than becoming hung up on specific nuances in the mix. Placeholder sounds provide an invaluable stepping stone to manifesting soundscapes of your imagination.

Orchestration is a true art that has been perfected by many over the years. It involves blending different instruments to create new and exciting sounds. Without orchestration, no symphony or other piece of music could be the same. The combination of various instruments, such as strings and woodwinds, is what gives those musical masterpieces their unique tone and texture.

Studying orchestration offers musicians the opportunity to truly understand how all of the components within a piece of music combine to form a fuller sound. This can be both challenging and rewarding, as mastering orchestration requires numerous hours of practice as well as studying works from legendary composers.

In this course, you’ll work with mockups, templates, and default sets to help save time. Your assignment for this course will be to create a mockup using the drum kit, bass, and three other instruments to help you become quicker at finding presets to create rhythm, bass, lead, and harmony clips and loops.