Comprehensive Ableton Course Outline

1. Views

• Views
• Arrangement View
• Arrangement Mixer Basics
• Transport Bar
• Session View
• Track mixer
• Detail View
• Clip View
• Device View
• Info View
• Browser View
• The View
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Key Map Mode
• Midi Map Mode
• Arrangement Grid
• Loop
• Shortcuts
• Favorites
• Preferences
• Look and Feel
• Zoom
• Color Scheme

2. Tracks and Clips

• Types of Tracks
• Audio Basics
• Creating an audio track
• Adding clips to tracks
• Starting and Stopping Transport
• Setting Volumes
• Transforming Audio Clips
• Moving Clips
• Chopping clips
• Lengthening and shortening
• Waveforms
• Midi Basics
• A Midi Track
• Midi Clips
• Midi data
• Instrument Device
• Creating a midi clip
• Creating midi notes
• Headphones ON
• Duplicate midi clip
• Fold button (clip view)
• Multiply and divide by two
• Loop Mode
• Clip Length
• Velocity
• Audio Clips
• Splicing Audio Clips
• Transpose and Detune
• Clip gain
• Warping
• Seg BPM and Transport BPM - A Tale of Two Clocks
• Leader Mode in Ableton (Tempo Mapping)
• Re-Pitch Mode
• Transients
• Beats Mode
• Tones Mode
• Texture Mode
• Complex and Complex Pro
• Using warp markers
• Warping a song
• Aliased vs Unaliased Clips
• The length of a clip
• Clip length that is independent from its length in the arrangement

3. Music Theory

• Overview of Music Theory
• Pitch (High vs Low)
• The Piano
• One Octave of Notes
• Piano on its side
• Midi piano roll
• Keys and Scales
• Discovering the key of your chord progression
• Find a scale that matches with that key
• CHALLENGE
• Scales v2
• Scales and Emotion
• Some scales to construct
• Have Ableton emphasize a scake
• Scales
• Constructing a scale
• Modes
• Stable Notes
• Time
• Measures and Bars
• Beat Subdivision
• Abeton Beat Scheme
• Grid Resolution
• Tempo
• Metronome
• Time signature
• Chords
• Triads
• Midi Chords and Chord Progressions
• Hook Theory Chord Progressions
• Melody
• Melody and Contour
• Half Steps and Whole Steps
• Major, Minor, Perfect (and tritone) Intervals
• Songs for Interval Recognition
• Form
• Massification
• Adele's Rolling in the Deep

4. Orchestration

• Instrumentation Overview
• Bass
• Choral Instruments
• Rhythmic Chordal Istrument
• Textural Chordal Instrument
• Drums
• Midi Drum Patterns
• Melodic Instrument
• Sound Effects
• Reverse Cymbals
• Sweeps and Risers

5. Editing and Recording

• Recording Apps
• iPhone
• Android
• Recording onto Tracks
• Record Enabling (Arming) tracks
• Preferences
• Preferences - Audio
• Preferences - Record & Warp & Launch
• Count-in
• Midi Tracks
• Computer Midi Keyboard
• Overdub (midi)
• Audio Tracks
• Choosing the Input Source
• External Device
• Chosing the Input Channel(s)
• Stereo vs Mono Input
• Built-in system audio example
• 32-input audio interface example
• Resampling
• Use Cases
• Freezing and Flattening
• Monitoring
• Monitoring Controls
• In
• Off
• Auto
• Monitoring introduces latency within Ableton
• Punch-in, Punch-out, Pre-Roll
• Quantization
• Sloppy Timing
• Quantize Settings
• Reconciling Arrangement and Session View
• Important Buttons
• Automation
• What it looks like
• Simple Volume automation
• Setting Automation
• Breakpoint Creation Method
• Automation Handle Dragging Method
• Shape
• Automating Other Devices
• Automated Parameters
• Re-enabe Automation
• Indicator for when automation is disengaged
• Automating Devices on and off
• Automating Dry, Wet
• Automation - Final Thoughts
• Recording automation live
• Recording System Audio
• VB Cable - Windows and Mac
• Soundflower - Mac
• Asio4All - Windows
• Download Youtube Audio
• Groove
• Base
• Quantize
• Timing
• Random
• Velocity
• Extracting Grooves from Clips
• Applying the Groove
• Committing the Groove
• Clip length that is independent from its length in the arrangement

6. Playback and Export

• Audio, Midi Setup
• Audio Preferences
• Audio Output
• Asio4All...
• Audio Input
• Input,Output Config
• Recording Preferences
• Count-in
• Midi Controllers
• Midi Keyboard
• Push vs Keyboard
• Audio Interfaces
• Cue Audition Button
• Volume
• Exporting Audio
• Choosing correct range for Export
• Collect all and Save
• Ableton Project File Structure
• Saving

7. Instrument Devices

• Racks
• Instrument Racks
• Controls
• Chan
• Device
• Drum Rack
• Show,Hide Devices
• Assigning multiple chains to one cell
• Changing pitch of samples
• Octaves
• Envelope (ADSR)
• Warp
• Applying effects to specific cells of the drum rack
• Sends and Returns
• Choke Groups
• Simpler
• 3 Modes
• Classic
• One-Shot
• Slice
• Envelope (ADSR)
• Amplitude Envelope
• Filter Envelope
• Pitch Envelope
• Loop Setting is Correct
• LFO
• Rate
• Shape
• Warp
• Gate
• Trigger
• Simpler to Drum Track
• Analog
• Oscillator Section
• Oscillator Type
• Pulse width modulation
• Sub & Sync
• Routing
• Wavetable

9. Audio Effects

• Audio Effects
• EQ Eight
• Bands of an EQ
• Individaul bands of an EQ
• Frequency (filter cutoff)
• Gain
• Q
• Filter Types
• Unfiltered
• Low Pass Filter
• High Pass Filter
• Bell Filter
• Notch Filter
• Low shelf
• High shelf
• Delay
• Delay times
• Time Mode
• Sync Mode
• Stereo Link
• Delay Modes
• Repitch
• Fade
• Jump
• Filter
• Feedback
• Spin (Chorus)
• Later Reflections
• Diffusion Filtering
• Dry & Wet
• Chorus
• Reverb
• Decay Time
• Reflections
• Dry & Wet controls
• Ableton's Reverb Device
• Reverse Reverb
• Predelay
• Input Filtering
• A modulating delay time
• Size
• 2nd delay
• Early Reflections
• Feedback
• Compression
• Downards Compression
• Upwards Compression
• Threshold
• Ratio
• Attack Times
• Fast Attack Times
• Slow Attack Times
• Release Times
• Knee
• Peak vs RMS
• Sidechain Compression
• Sidechain Mode
• Reacting to Input
• Ableton set
• Headroom and Makeup Gain
• Saturator
• Drive and Output
• Base Frequency
• Second filter
• Analog vs Digital Distortion
• Gate
• Turning On & Off the Gate
• Envelope
• Lookahead
• Sidechain gate
• Causing Gate to be triggered by seemingly silent signals
• Gated Reverb
• Flipped Gate Effects
• Resources
• Beat Repeat
• Interval
• Grid
• Variation
• Audio Effect Rack
• Chain Selector Experimentation

10. Midi Effects

• Midi Effects
• Scale
• Chromatic Scale
• In D
• 7 note scales
• Transpose
• Arpeggiator
• Style
• Rate
• Gate
• Repeats

11. Vocoder

• Vocoder Template

12. Routing

• Basic Routing
• Input
• Output
• Track Group Output
• Return Tracks
• Defauly return tracks
• Sends
• Dry & Wet
• Can't find sends or returns?
• Serial vs Parallel

13. Novation Launchkey

• Overview
• SHIFT function
• Manual
• Master Volume
• Individual Track Volumes
• Arpeggiator

14. My Favorite Shortcuts

• Loop

15. Session View

• Classic Use
• Quantization Menu
• Follow Actions
• Linked vs Unlinked
• Defining two follow actions