Ableton Course | £449
Introduction to Music Production in Ableton
You will cover all of the essential music production skills needed to create and perform tracks in any style on this unique software which has revolutionised the creative process in music production. As well as being a perfect introduction to music production for beginners, the course serves more experienced self-taught Ableton users, as you fill in the blanks thoroughly with one of our team of industry active professionals, who will show you how to produce and perform music in Ableton, just as they do. This six-week course takes place at the Arthaus in London and the price is only £449.
First we show you how to get creative with your clips in session mode. Bit by bit we walk you through each step, so by the end you will be arranging and producing your very own tracks, as well as remixing and mashing up other artists.
If you miss any sessions due to holidays or illness, we can engineer it so you can come back on a future cycle and catch up. All courses come with extensive notes put together by our expert course developers and you also get an industry recognised certificate on successful completion. Check out the testimonials at the bottom of this page to see what recent learners thought.
Al Riley, Martin Delaney and Irfan Nathoo are our Ableton specialists. Check them out on our Instructors page and Google, Ableton choose Al in their six quotes for their ’What people say about Live’ section here: http://ableton.com/live
The courses are designed for optimised learning so you take in the content in a day, recap in between sessions at home, and come back to us a week later for the next session of learning. This makes use of an educational practice called The Spacing Effect
To enrol, call or send us an email telling us which course you would like to do, when it runs and we will organise the rest. You can pay securely through Google Checkout if that suits you.
Week 1 – The Basics
- What sets Ableton apart from other DAWs
- Getting set up: Audio and the preferences window
- Session view vs. Arrangement view: applications of each
- Live concepts: clips / scenes / browser / library
- Intro to Racks
- The concept of Ableton’s unique warp engine
Week 2 – Sampling, Recording and Working with Audio
- Warping in practice
- Clips: clip view and clip properties
- Editing in arrangement view
- Routing Midi and audio
- Effects: Live’s effects and using third party effects
- Group tracks and clip grouping
Week 3 – DJing and Live Performance
- Preparing tracks and harmonic mixing
- On the fly DJ effects
- Using resampling as a creative tool
- Using MIDI controllers effectively / mouse-free control
- Live loop recording and resampling
- One to one on your first Ableton production
Week 4 – MIDI Tracks and Composing with Virtual Instruments
- Instruments: Simpler / Sampler / third party instruments
- Setting up a MIDI keyboard or drum pad controller
- Racks: instrument racks / drum racks / effects racks
- Programming and mangling drum patterns
- Getting creative with MIDI effects
- Multitrack warping
Week 5 – Automation & Hands On Control
- Clip envelopes vs. mixer automation
- Creating build-ups and breakdowns with automation
- Music theory – what we teach is not difficult and is well worth knowing
- MIDI control: remote control / map mode
- Key map mode
- One to one on your first Ableton production
Week 6 – Advanced Techniques
- Using the looper plugin for complex live layering
- Making a ‘mash-up’ and warping acapellas
- Syncing Ableton with external hardware and other DAWs
- Advanced clip actions: Follow Action, Legato and Sample Offset
- Balancing, introduction to mixing and sidechaining
- One to one on your first Ableton production
Early Summer 2012
| Date | Time |
| Thursday 10th May | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 17th May | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 24th May | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 31st May | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 7th June | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Thursday 14th June | 11.00 – 18.00 |
Midsummer 2012
| Date | Time |
| Sunday 24th June | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 1st July | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 8th July | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 15th July | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 22nd July | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Sunday 29th July | 11.00 – 18.00 |
Early Autumn
| Date | Time |
| Tuesday 21st August | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 28th August | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 4th September | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 11th September | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 18th September | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Tuesday 25th September | 11.00 – 18.00 |
Late Autumn
| Date | Time |
| Saturday 6th October | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 13th October | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 20th October | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 27th October | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 3rd November | 11.00 – 18.00 |
| Saturday 10th November | 11.00 – 18.00 |
End Of Year
| Date | Time |
| Monday 12th November | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Wednesday 14th November | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 19th November | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Wednesday 21st November | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 26th November | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Wednesday 28th November | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 3rd December | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Wednesday 5th December | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 10th December | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Wednesday 12th December | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Monday 17th December | 18:45 – 21:45 |
| Wednesday 19th December | 18:45 – 21:45 |
“I came into the Ableton course a bit worried as I had never used the program before, but was quickly put at ease by the friendly atmosphere. Our instructor Irfan was great, really enthusiastic and patient, he was happy to go over things again until you got to grips with it and his knowledge and skills were inspiring. I have never been one for learning from a book or online tuition, and the hands on approach of the course was perfect, having Irfan there to help if you have any queries or even the other guys in the class were always happy to help each other out when they could. I left the course feeling confident about making my own tracks on Ableton and also djing on Ableton.” Stuart Galloway – Ableton
“I found the teachers very good and the weekly sessions meant I wasn’t overloaded had time to digest practise etc” Hugo Danino – Ableton
“I found the Ableton course highly enjoyable and informative. I went from knowing nothing about Ableton to putting together live sets and even my own tracks. The instructors were brilliant, and it was great to have two from completely different backgrounds. The class sizes are small so it’s almost like having a personal tutor in the sessions. It’s easy to ask questions or recap if you miss something. I would most definitely recommend this course to anyone who’s serious about getting to grips with Ableton and producing music.” Beat a Maxx – Ableton
“They have multiple tutors on the courses who work in different areas of the business so you get different perspectives. In just six weeks you are able to fully understand and work the programme with great tips from industry people who really know their stuff. It’s brilliant!” Jenny O’Malley – Logic and Ableton
“Ive been DJing for years now and realise that the only way to progress these days is to produce my own releasable music. As a beginner, I tried out some private tuition from a bloke I found on Gumtree. I wasn’t getting much out of it at all and I even started to question myself. I did the Ableton diploma course at Garnish after a friend recommended it. The course is brilliant, our instructor Irfan was amazing, his enthusiasm when teaching is something else. Also very comforting knowing that he had released a new dance album I was already well aware of. A great mix of people on the course, and per hour, only a third of the price of the private tutor I had in the first place! I’ve just finished my first track, it’s such a wicked feeling 
I can’t recommend the course enough!
Melvo Baptiste – Ableton and EMP