This course is completely FREE. To view Level II and Level III, as well as watch more advanced Ableton courses in electronic music production, DJing and synthesis, sign up for a membership at Noiselab. Noiselab is the top online school for electronic musicians.

The purpose of this course is to teach you what a DAW (digital audio workstation) is, why Ableton Live is a unique DAW, the difference between the Session View and Arrangement View, how to work with midi instruments and audio material, and much more.

In this course you'll develop a strong understanding of the program's interface and its many preference settings. Understand how to use Live's browser to quickly sample sounds in your tracks without having to spend time inefficiently searching your computer. We'll also discuss the build blocks of Live - clips. All musical elements in Live are contained in either audio or MIDI clips, so it is very important for us to understand what clips are, how they function, and how they can be used to create full compositions. Clips are the key to us creating and capturing our ideas.

You'll also learn about import settings, clip launch quantization, clip envelopes and follow actions. We'll cover the basics of the drum rack, as well as basic MIDI clip editing, draw mode and automation. Then we'll show you how to use MIDI and audio clips together in numerous ways and the usefulness of working with scenes.

This is the first level in a 3-part series. Sign up for a Noiselab membership to access Level II and Level III. Level II will cover basic music theory and composition techniques, and Course 3 will focus on EQ, effects, creative sampling techniques and export settings. After completing these 3 courses you’ll be able to combine all of these elements into making a song.