The way I start my tracks the most often is by finding a good chord progression. Sometimes however, I like to change things up and to start by playing around with vocals. In this 10 step guide I’m about to show you a really simple workflow to get started with your new track.   Step 1: Find and download an acapella Having a killer vocal line to work with is key. It’s not always an easy task to find the vocals of your favourite song. Fortunately, there are plenty of great vocal recordings you can choose from, (and to...

1 - „Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working“ - Pablo Picasso  As a music producer you constantly have to deal with lack of inspiration. „I’m not inspired, so there’s no point in opening that DAW“ - that’s what your mind tricks you to say to yourself. As a result, you start procrastinating and never finishing music (or never even starting out). The solution to this problem is to find the inspiration by actually working. It doesn’t mean that you have to find it just by working inside your DAW! It can get very boring to stare at...

In this case, we’re building a gate effect in Ableton Live. Taking a pad sound as source, we are routing the signal into a second audio track (instead of routing it to the master channel). That second audio track plays a "dummy" audio clip - an empty audio file basically. But this dummy audio clip contains the relevant track volume modulation. We can create several of those "dummy" audio clips and draw in different types of volume modulations (e.g.: 16ths, 8ths, etc). That way we can easily switch between different ideas and concepts and speed up the creative workflow.     ...

Here are two great websites for building and finding (even more complex) chords: Build any chord: You know the name of the chord (e.g. Piano above), you just don't know how to put it together.  Go to this website and it will help you visualize the chord: http://www.onlinepianist.com/chords/ Identify any chord: You have a chord, you see all the notes, but you don't know how it is called.  This website has a nice "Chord ID" function: http://www.scales-chords.com/chordid.php Find your scale http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/vpc/piano_chords.htm  PML Course about harmony and chord progressions: http://productionmusiclive.teachable.com/courses/harmony-and-chord-progressions   Keywords: How to find, name and build chords

In this tutorial we are showing you how to design a powerful future bass saw using Ableton Operator plus some of Ableton's built in effects:   Basic Steps: Operator: set up basic oscillators (Saw 64, SawD and Square 32), adsr shapes and filters in operator (see video) Ableton effects: add in Compressor, EQ, Reverb and Frequency shifter   Additionally, we’re offering this template: go to template (works with Ableton Live Standard + Operator (Version1) or Ableton Live Standard & Serum VST (Version 2)).   Watch Tutorial:   Keywords: how to make a future bass lead sound, future bass saw, powerful lead melody sound, operator power...

  Ask audio had their members perform a poll and name their favorite DAW / Studio Software. Around 25 000 people responded, and here are the results for 2015:   #1. Ableton Live 23.14% #2. Logic Pro 16.95% #3. Pro Tools 15.13% #4. FL Studio13.63% #5. Cubase 9.03% #6. Studio One 3.80% #7. Reason 3.46% #8. GarageBand 2.49% #9. Sonar 1.99% #10. Digital Performer 0.92% #11. Bitwig Studio 0.77% Other 8.70%   Source: https://ask.audio/articles/the-top-11-most-popular-daws-you-voted-for Keywords: Most popular DAW, most used DAW Ableton ----    

Ok, so lets list a couple of movies you might find inspiring being a musician, producer or DJ: Movies: Can A Song Save Your Life (2014) Ray (2004) High Fidelity (2000) 8 Mile (2002) Berlin Calling (2008) - available with English subtitles Walk The Line (2005)   Documentaries: Hans Zimmer Documentary:       These are some we like, don't hesitate to post some interesting ones to our facebook or twitter:  

Julian asked us on our Youtube Channel how to make an EDM pitch tape stop effect like Avicii "Levels" or "3lau - How you love me". So we sat down and put some bangin' EDM sounds into an Ableton Live project. Now you can get this sort of effect with VST plugins like "Effectrix" or "Glitch". However, you can also use some of your Ableton built-in effects to get there.   Steps: Melody: Create a massive EDM hook melody and make sure it ends with a long note Frequency Shifter: Load an instance of "Frequency Shifter" and place it in the fx section of...

If you're producing with Ableton Live (or any other DAW) on a regular basis, you should start preparing a customized quick start default template. You can easily save the first 10 minutes of every session and jump right into the creative process. Grab our "PML Default Template with Mixing Racks" here: http://bit.ly/pml_s_tmp_default We are going to share our personalized default template with you:   PML Default Start Template - Contents: Sidechain: Regardless of the type of track, we always use sidechaining at some point, so we have a special "ghost" sidechain track prepared. Drums: If you're continuously working within the same genre...

Whats new? Improved sampling with a fully renewed "Simpler" Great new analog-modeled Filter algorithms  "LINK" option - Midi-Clocking via WIFI RMS and Peak values on Meters More precise waveforms New coloring options New Max for Live essentials Library of included sounds Ableton Push 2 Walk-through video on our youtube:     Improved sampling with a fully renewed "Simpler" Simpler received almost a full rework, a new interface, a bigger break-out display, new warping, filtering and slicing options and it now offers 3 different modes.  1. Classic Mode - playback sample, loop mode, automatically warped (pitched samples keep their length) 2. One Shot...