Ableton Core Skills

20-hour Ableton Live course covering DAW operations from first launch through live performance.

1. Welcome! An introduction to Ableton Live lessons and what to expect from your learning experience.
2. Workflow and Glossary Essential keyboard shortcuts and terminology for working efficiently in Ableton Live.
3. 1. An Overview of Live A bird's-eye view of Ableton Live — what it is, what it does, and why it works the way it does.
4. 2. Topology and Navigation Basics Learn to navigate Ableton Live's interface — selecting, moving, zooming, and toggling between Session and Arrangement views.
5. 3. Getting Stuff In There How to import audio, MIDI, and other content into your Ableton Live project.
6. 4. Playback: Session, Scenes, and Arrangement Understanding playback mechanics in both Session and Arrangement views, including scenes and clip launching.
7. 5. Recording Basics The fundamentals of recording audio and MIDI in Ableton Live.
8. 6. Recording: Punching, Overdubs, and Looping Advanced recording techniques — punch-in, overdubs, loop recording, and comping.
9. 7. Clip Editing: The Basics Fundamental clip editing operations — selecting, moving, trimming, and manipulating clips.
10. 8. Warping Live's warping engine — tempo syncing, warp markers, warp modes, and timing correction.
11. 9. Quantize and Groove: Finessing Performances Quantization, groove templates, velocity editing, and the art of perfecting timing.
12. 10. Housekeeping File management, preferences, browser organization, and exporting in Ableton Live.
13. 11. Instrument Basics What software instruments are, how they work, and a tour of Live's built-in instruments.
14. 12. Synthesis Building sounds from scratch in Ableton Live — waveforms, filters, envelopes, and LFOs using Simpler and Analog.
15. 13. Sampling Sampling fundamentals in Ableton Live — sources, copyright, Simpler's three modes, and building sampled instruments.
16. 14. Plug-in Basics What effect plug-ins are, how they work in Live's signal chain, and how to manage them.
17. 15. Racks and Chains Audio Effect Racks, Instrument Racks, and Drum Racks — chains, macros, and parallel processing in Ableton Live.
18. 16. Audio to MIDI Converting audio recordings to MIDI data in Ableton Live.
19. 17. Slicing Samples Beat slicing techniques in Ableton Live — slicing in Simpler and slicing to Drum Rack.
20. 18. Working With Effects Insert effects, send/return routing, sidechaining, freezing, and exporting in Ableton Live.
21. 19. Effects: Specialized Specialized effects in Ableton Live — distortion, vocoders, resonators, beat repeat, and other creative tools.
22. 20. MIDI Mapping, Key-Mapping, and Controllers Mapping MIDI controllers, keyboard shortcuts, and external hardware to Ableton Live's parameters.
23. 21. Automation and Advanced Arrangement Concepts Drawing and recording automation, locators, tempo changes, fades, and arrangement techniques in Ableton Live.
24. 22. Advanced Session Advanced Session View techniques — clip envelopes, launch modes, follow actions, and session automation.
25. 23. MIDI Effects Live's MIDI effects — Arpeggiator, Chord, Scale, Pitch, Note Length, Random, and Velocity.
26. 24. Live Performance Using Ableton Live for live performance — DJ sets, looping, backing tracks, and performance workflows.
27. 27. Sources and Further Reading Curriculum contributors, glossary, and further reading for this guide.