How to make EDM music with Ableton Live?

What is electronic music?

The DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation), digital audio workstations have become more accessible and easier to use over the last two centuries. It just needs a laptop and computer with enough power to run the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software. Anybody can make beats with Ableton Live and other software, and try their hand at trance, trap or work and mess around with funky and crazy baselines and can do so many things with relatively no experience in music.

History insight of Ableton Live

The earliest Digital Audio Workstations first came out in the 1970s but were anything but commercially available. First Generation Computers were only in beginning to appear in homes and offices and the bandwidth was very less to handle anything more than a few tracks downloads. The late ‘80s and early ‘90s saw many upgrades, but the evolution of electronic dance music was still a few years away in that era.

As microprocessors improved, so did the Digital Audio workstation in multiple versions. Different companies began increasing versatility in DAW design and in music sound designs, such as increasing the number of tracks that could be created. Samplitude, Cubase and Pro Tools were some of the earliest music digital workstations in the market.

Experimenting with Music

It’s really fun playing with creating loops, drum machines, and producing midi notes. The advancement of mobile technology means you can have a small music studio on your tablet, laptop or even your phone.

Getting started with Ableton Live

However, if you’re looking at creating amazing electronic music as a hobby, it will take a few days or a week to learn music production from basic to advanced. Ableton Live is the best choice for Live electronic DJs and professional music producers and beatmakers.

Ableton Live is the best tool for smooth performances for live DJs. Because it can be easily run from a laptop, it’s really easy for DJs to take their act on the tour. If the venue is already added with multiple gears that you are known with, moving from a different stage to different shows is as easy as packing headphones, a computer bag, and an external hard drive for heading to the next gig.

But perhaps when you will start learning music production with Ableton Live, you will get to learn electronic music in deep as from basic beat making to sound design. Once you understand how to work with the DAWs dashboard, the software will work smoothly from making to rending.

Features of Ableton Live & Comparison with other software

There are multiple free digital audio workstations options on Google Play or Mac App Store, including Audacity, Garage Band, Cakewalk, etc. If you’re looking to learn a DAW and develop your skills to make your weekend productive make beats with Ableton live and other software Ableton is the right choice for learning music production from basic. The price tag is also affordable, but you can try multiple DAWs to see which one is best suitable.

There are some differences between conventional DAWs and Ableton. Some of the crucial ones are:

The main session view and its interface-

All DAWs are developed, designed to help you create electronic music, house music, hip hop, beat making in Ableton Live. You can start with one DAW, experiment with sounds and create amazing songs with it.

Begin it with DAW

Before mixing and mastering in Ableton Live DAW, consider starting with a producer version of the Ableton DAW. Often bundled with hardware, Ableton allows beginner producers to enhance and work on their skills and creative urges before moving onto more loaded, advanced software.

Now, creating full-fledged techno, dubstep, and other forms of the popular genre. But it’s probably will be the best, most cost-friendly, efficient way to go.

This means when you start working on official songs, try mastering multiple-track sessions or just creating a new midi track first in song. While the Ableton interface is easy to use, you’ll need to work and skill up yourself with what the interface gives you. even if you never worked with music before, It can be not very clear.

So, spend the time learning all the instruments and plugins, the faders, and other functions of Ableton Live DAWs. There’s no shortcut for this, so just get on it and do it. Once you’ve built a solid foundation and basic skills, consider adding additional gear to your studio.

Ableton Live is designed and modelled to let your work go smoothly in production. Midi keyboards, microphones, DJ consoles, audio interfaces, monitors, and more electronic equipment can be integrated right into the software directly, enabling you to create a setup and style that reflects your unique music tastes and artist artistry.

A drum rack right out of the gate?

You may or may not need one at all – it mainly depends on how you want to create your song structure and tracks. Find something like perfect drum sound that works perfectly and stick with it.

Suppose you find some obstacles with drops, transitions, breakdown or other aspects of electronic dance music. In that case, there are many YouTube tutorial videos and multiple online message boards to find your solutions. You may also find some local electronic music artists, DJs, producers who can answer your doubts.

Make sure it’s an organic and productive conversation. If you are interested in learning your music craft, many musicians don’t mind sharing their experiences and few tricks of the music industry. If you keep on messaging them or too pushy, you may not get proper answers from them regarding your questions.

Get your music in front of everyone

You should have the proper foundation and skills with appropriate instruments and gear, now you have a few tips, and you have Ableton Live in your laptop. Now get into creating the best tracks! As you’ve been learning Ableton Live for a long time, you’ve probably worked on many unreleased musical ideas; sound designed samples, chords or harmonies. Start putting them all together in song and see how they work together and looks in the form of final audio.

That crazy or maybe weird drum beat you created few weeks ago may not work; the loop that was so smooth and trendy a few days or weeks ago might need a tweak and eq arrangement here or there for a perfect sound. Continue to play with the new instruments and plugins, you must have something in your song that gets people up and grooving while listening to it.

Sooner, you’ll start getting feedback of other people. Get in touch with fellow electronic music producers and industry professionals enthusiasts and get their impressions in your song. If you were able to make a Long-term relationship with the other musician and professionals, run it by them and see what they think about your track.

Wrap up

Take all that useful information and feedback regarding your track, pour it back into your music, do corrections, and then do it all again and finalize the new song version. This will be potentially the first stop on your way to make your career in electronic music stream using Ableton Live digital audio workstation. Work accordingly to it and make the most out of all tutorials available to you on the internet, YouTube, and then finalize and release your best tracks on all platforms. You can also check out a beginner’s guide on “ how to make electronic music on FL studio”.