Ableton Live Tutorial: Top Keyboard Shortcuts from a Certified Trainer

[TaiwanDjEds]

LUv it

[comfyman]

Hey, wondering do you know way of setting up a midi controller to control too synths at one time?

So they both play the same note?

[KaiDune]

did you take the ebook down??? :(((((((((

[DJVespers]

@KaiDune It's back up. Check the blog page of my site and sign up for the list :)

[rafaelikenaga]

couldn't find the book anymore??

[bellabambina18]

Hi dude. I am studying electronic music at university and we are just about to start ableton this semester. Your shotcut guide seems very useful but unfortunately your website is not loading on on my computer. Got a friend to try for me and it's not loading on his either. Is there any way I can get the shortcut guide without going to the website?

[DJVespers]

@bellabambina18 Hey hey. My site is down at the moment. If you PM me your e-mail address I'll attach the e-book for ya. Cheers.

[ThatGOONfromLA]

what a beautiful studio setup.

[joeblack949]

when recording audio and midi in session and arrangement view. Once someone is familiar with most of the options in preferences, can configure their controllers properly, and are comfortable working with midi and audio clips, the manuals not nearly as rough as people expect. It's very no frills, concise and to the point. I'd recommend a flip through it for anyone who hasn't and doesnt feel totally lost. If it only does one thing it will for sure give you some good questions to research/ask

[skateboardkid]

how do i get the follow actions to be the same as the loop length???? yeah right huh

[DJVespers]

@skateboardkid That requires some getting used to for sure. Mess around with it and see what you come up with.

[phiegnux]

i got the confirmation email in regards to the ebook but i havnt yet recieved the link to actually download it yet. an help?

[joeblack949]

@phiegnux i happen to know vespers is super busy right now, if you havn't received the ebook, which is def possible, there have been a few hiccups, send me your email address and i'll check it in the system and send it right out to you.

[TranceForTheFuture]

Your free e-book has helped me tremendously to speed up my workflow in Live. Thank you Vespers for doing the dirty work and saving all of us lazy guys from reading the tiresome manual. Very much appreciated!

[DJVespers]

@TranceForTheFuture You're very welcome!

[IIHOGZBREATHII]

Hey, thanks for the reply!! Yeah, I figured that was the problem. For some reason I thought Ableton could perform some magic on that short sample. I will try as you mentioned and fine tune that loop and see if I can get said loop to sound clean.

Kind of you to respond. I'll let you know how it went.

Thanks again.

[binarrhea]

The keyboard has always been the fastest and most effective interface. Read The Fucking Manual (RTFM)

Big up to Vespers, great job!

[IIHOGZBREATHII]

I guess I'm missing something here!! Maybe the wave form is too short...i don't know. I use simpler if I need drum hits or sound fx. But to play sustained bass notes for a count of 8 I could never figure it out. Oh well....

[djwhupass]

@IIHOGZBREATHII your sample is probably too short to play it for sustained length. to fix that, make sure your sample is looped in the simpler/sampler and that the start and end point are right at the zero crossings to eliminate clicks.

[IIHOGZBREATHII]

@djwhupass, it works nicely!! I never thought I could find a sweet spot to loop. Like I said, I had tried everything even looping but, It never occurred to me that I could find that spot where I would not hear that click. AS YOU INSTRUCTED, I did, and it works!!! Wow, if I could, i'd hug ya but I can't. So, a very big thanks for your time and tip. Thank you , thank you and thank you!!

Yeah, you did just show me the Magic of Ableton!!

[djwhupass]

@IIHOGZBREATHII no problem. i'm pretty new myself but i'm always happy to help if i have the ability.

[IIHOGZBREATHII]

@djwhupass Very nice!! I'm glad you understood what I was talking about. I didn't know how many ways I could explain the same thing  before anyone got a clue. Whupass, that's funny!!!

[IIHOGZBREATHII]

Hey, thanks for the reply. I'm still just getting a hit. Yes, I can play around with notes on the keyboard. which is great!! Now imagine if you are a bass player with a bass guitar connected to an amp and you need to play that open E note. Meaning you pluck that note and it keeps playing or ringing until you put your hand over it to stop it. On the keyboard I would like to be able to hold down a key and have that note keep playing until I let go of it. I want a long BOOOOOOOOM not a short BOOM.

[DJVespers]

@IIHOGZBREATHII Hey bro. You can do this with your ADSR envelope on most synths. Just make sure your sustain value is up and tweak your release time. Cheers!

[DJaRiENai]

@0.36 too much pot smoking dude

[IIHOGZBREATHII]

Anyone!!? how does one take a sample and play it as a note. I grabbed a sample that sounded sweet but the sample only plays as a hit!!! This is a bass sound I'm looking for not a hit!! I want to play that sampled sound as an instrument with sustained notes-not a hit!!! Thx!

[listensilenthaastile]

@IIHOGZBREATHII You need to stick your sample into the ableton instrument SAMPLER. Then you can play it across your midi keyboard :) - and of course sampler allows you to edit real time your sample.

[biggtimemusic]

Theres no keyboard shortcuts in this video LOL ;)

[BillyLongacre]

haha, there will always be haters...keep up the killer tutorials, and keep jammin...thanx!

[DJGrahamG]

good video and i'm going to work on this. i like your video they really help me out :)

[sQuntoDubstep]

dont be disrespecting the manual now

[DJVespers]

@sQuntoDubstep LOL. Fuck the manual is what I say. What a difficult way to learn. VIDEOS :)))))))

[limbertimbre]

Yo I love dubstep and I hate books. Holla.

[joeblack949]

@DJVespers call me sick but I kind think the ableton live manual is a really good thing not to be scared of. I certainly wouldnt reccomend it or any of the training exercises that come with ableton to anyone just learning ableton literally with no experience. if it weren't for my buddy alex(who's now collabing with crystal castles, sitting down with me for ~30mins and giving me a quick tour. I had alot of confusion re: Record/Overdub/Return to Arrangement and how they effected each other

[DJVespers]

@sQuntoDubstep Or....video manual? Hmmmmm, there's an idea. Prolly not to far off.

[joeblack949]

@sQuntoDubstep i have to agree with you both. A book is no way to learn music. In the beginning especially I think even videos aren't the best. Ask around if you have buddies who know the program well, ask them to sit down for 30 minutes and show you the basics, as I gurantee you you'll have 5 questions about everything they show you and getting them answered on the spot is awesome! Def seek out at least 30-60minutes of one on one with an expert. you'll get ALOT more out of the videos. :D

[ryandmca]

i have to agree with dodgecharger. i've made some vids, know how easy it is to ramble. key is to force a sense of urgency, then you're pacing will come out perfect. lose the self promoting, and lose the intro vid. also you've really got to lose this whole "ableton certified trainer" stuff, it's getting sort of pretentious.

don't get me wrong i love your stuff, just would love to see you cut some of the fat out and leave just the meat. constructive criticism to make an awesome resource better.

[DJVespers]

@ryandmca Thanks for the feedback mate. I explained below that the reason the intro and branding is there is because my videos are embedded many other places than just Youtube and seen by people who've never seen my channel before. I always make sure that they can find their way back to my site so they can join the community. I checked our your vids and channel, good stuff - I think perhaps you could have more subscribers if you did a bit more self promotion. It's a fine balance. Namaste.

[SychovskiBeat]

Vespers, great video as usual! It's so true about learning the program or get stuck in frustration cause I don't know how to adjust this or record that, and you go dick around with a couple of menus and go - f%&k it! I already forgot what I wanted to hear in the first place! So anyway, thanks to you, I am totally just dedicating my time to just learning, and saving whatever result comes out of my "learning sessions" for later. And I feel so much more confident with Live-8 Thanks again man!

[pengam2006]

one of the best channels on the tube... cheers dude.

[DJVespers]

@pengam2006 Many thanks! Glad to have you on the channel.

[awakeningbasterd]

Thank you!

[DJVespers]

@awakeningbasterd Thanks for watching!

[Leon3th]

I like shortcut to thang you for that keep up good work

[DJVespers]

@Leon3th Comments always help! Thanks for posting.

[djemptyx]

Excellent vid. Excellent book. But I'll add...DO read the Live bible regardless for the small hints & asides found in nooks & crannies of the documentation. I have added colour-coded tabs to certain iimportant sections dealing with certain instrumentss and fx. I put it like this. I use my Live manual like a college textbook, even highlighting and adding notations. A tip to learn an instrument or fx inside out is to design a visual help aid for yourself (or someone else). I did this w Operator

[rbsn1155]

Hey vespers, I just wondering how do you get ableton live to fit on two computer screens? I can only get it on one screen and not on both.

[DJVespers]

@rbsn1155 On PC you can extend your desktop, on Mac you just set your displays so they don't mirror. Then you drag the bottom right corner of Live to extend to the right. Cheers!

[deejayseki]

i think your vids are amazing, and especially the fact that you give some backround about yourself and we get to learn a bit about you as well, and you put it all into perspective, so just like to say everything you do is appreciated, and your e-book rocks got it last week and try n do a bit of shortcut practice everytime i log on, so keep rocking and keep up the tutes :D big thumbs up from Australia

[dodge70chargerrt]

Thanks for the hard work with the free ebook. Consideration for your next videos: get to the point. Re-watch the video yourself and notice that you dont get to the main topic until just over 3min in (75% the way through). If you want to keep your audience I highly suggest cutting out the jargon and getting to the point (thats what youtube is all about).

[DJVespers]

@dodge70chargerrt Mate, the whole video is just over 4 minutes. Learning music production takes focus and dedication. If people need such instant gratification that they can't stay focused for more than 3 minutes, then what does that say about their ability to stay on task with working on a track for 40 plus hours? Learning takes time. Mastery takes focus. I refuse to dish out tiny little sound bites without the overarching background and philosophy of what got me there.

[torment3d]

@DJVespers fucking choice response.

[Rusty511]

@DJVespers Thanks mate, another awesome video. I wouldn't listen to people like dodge70chargerrt, who obviously have the attention span of a 3 year yr old. All your words are appreciated, mainly because you talk about your own personal experience which in my opinion, is the best way of teaching.

would love for you to check out my tunes on soundcloud - soundcloud(dot)com/rustique, I have your videos to thank for a majority of what i've accomplished so far.

[JimmyGr90]

@dodge70chargerrt @DJVespers I have to agree with dodge. Also, 20-25% of the video is advertising. We know you're Vespers, so there's no need spending so long reminding us who you are and what you do every time ;-)

[DJVespers]

@JimmyGr90 Hey mate, with respect, I know that you know who I am, but keep in mind that these vids get picked up and posted by other people on tons of Facebook pages, blogs & forums. It's important that people who are seeing them for the first time get a quick intro and some guidance on how to track back to my site. Advertising is selling things, this is just basic branding that helps me connect with more people. You can always fast forward past it ;)

[ansiaaa666]

@dodge70chargerrt one of the good things about Vesper's tutorials is that he doesn't only tell you that some feature exists, but he goes further trying to teach how you can use that feature and why you should use it.

if someone wants to know keyboard shortcuts, he could just read the manual. this video shows to people that don't use them, why they should and how to get the best benefits from them.

[DJPaggos]

My main DAW of choice is FL Studio.

I use keyboard shortcuts in FL, but with ableton i think im just going to use it for strictly live performance.

Hopefully i get that to fit into my workflow..but my workflow is so sloppy...but works. haha...though sometimes ill have an idea and it'll be short..then idk what to do next. i have 150 project files with about 2 mins in...that are just sitting there haha.

[eArtrash]

Good stuff, can never know too many shortcuts :]

[DJVespers]

@eArtrash For sure mate! Stoked to have you on the channel. Love your vids. Are you Certified yet? You should be :)

[eArtrash]

@DJVespers I havent really looked into it properly, yet! Maybe later this year if I have the finances I might go for it, but until then I'm of cowboy status haha :]

[DJVespers]

@eArtrash Well, you deserve it. Let me know how I can support you. The world needs more educators like you. Cheers!

[eArtrash]

@DJVespers Thats very kind of you bud, I am humbled. Thank you :]

[3dgod]

i masturbate thats mastering?

[DJVespers]

@3dgod No, that's a waste of time and energy mate. Save your energy for production. 

[3dgod]

@DJVespers but i suck at mastering but im great at masturbating i might find a way to cross over my skill the opposite way whats you think

[adehaan11]

has nothing to do with the video, but what speakers are those?

[DJVespers]

@adehaan11 Mackie HR824 mk1s. Sick sick lil puppies. Love em.  Cheers!

[adehaan11]

@DJVespers thanks :D

[oliepwns]

@DJVespers I ended up buying a pair of those on craigslist for 350. They work awesome.

[KNUTKASE5000]

what helps me more than the basics are the ctrl + alt + (s, r, b, l, m, g, & i) the help have screen space quickly instead of searching for the little triangles quickly

[DJVespers]

@KNUTKASE5000 LOL, super intuitive, that's actually my next video. It's a whole chapter in my e-book called Maximizing Screen Real Estate. Cheers!