Learn how to use one of the most powerful, flexible, and popular digital audio workstations on the market. Learn about the most essential tools for music production and sound design while you develop skills that can be used throughout all aspects of music and sound creation. Discover industry secrets for using and abusing Ableton Live to record sound, completely reshape samples, create strange and exciting new timbres, and harness Ableton Live’s extensive and unique toolkit. Learn about the endless possibilities of Max4Live to take advantage of thousands of custom devices and get started making your own instruments and effects from scratch.

• Become familiar with navigating and using Ableton Live’s clip and arrangement views.
• Know how to use Ableton Live’s samplers and instruments and when to use them.
• Learn unique uses of some of Ableton Live’s most unique features such as Warp Mode for unique sound design
• Become familiar with Ableton Live’s MIDI and audio effects and learn creative and oblique uses for creating unique timbres.
• Become comfortable using and finding Max4Live devices and some basics of Max/MSP for creating and modifying your own devices.

Week 1 – Getting Started

We’ll explore the central UI, get comfortable working with both clip and arrangement views, learn about programming with MIDI, and work with importing, recording, and manipulating audio clips. We’ll get comfortable moving around and customizing Ableton while exploring features that make Ableton unique to other DAWs. Along the way we’ll learn unique ways of using and abusing Ableton’s warp mode and MIDI editing tools, working with external VSTs, and explore Ableton’s vast toolkit for automation.

Week 2 – Synthesis & Sampling

Dive into some of Ableton’s most essential and interesting instruments. Learn how to harness Operator’s FM synthesis capabilities, use Wavetable to design custom lush pads and unique timbres, Tension and Drift to explore the possibilities of physical modeling, and turn Sampler into the ultimate tool for crazy sound design. At the same time, we’ll explore the fundamentals of synthesis, delve deeper into using audio clips as raw material, and find unique ways of using and abusing automation.

Week 3 – Effects & Processing

Learn to shape and transform your sound with audio and MIDI effects. We’ll explore essential tools such as reverb, EQ, and compression, as well as explore more oblique ways of completely transforming, warping, destroying, and reshaping sound. We’ll also explore the use of controlled randomness using Ableton’s MIDI effects for generative control and composition.

Week 4 – Max4Live and Integration

Take advantage of Ableton’s most underrated feature: Max4Live. We’ll explore where to get some of the most exciting and unique pre-built Max4Live devices and how to install and integrate these devices. Discover how you can build simple powerful instruments and effects from scratch in Max/MSP. Finally, synthesize everything we’ve learned to be able to comfortably jump right into using Ableton Live to make your own music, design your own sounds, and more.

Parish Bracha is an ex-neurobiologist, geneticist, English teacher, monk, philosophy student, radio DJ, and chronic hobby changer turned full-time audiovisual artist. He has been pseudonymously releasing music in various corners of the internet for over a decade and has developed a deep passion bordering obsession with chasing the most incomprehensibly alien sounds he can find. His work has been released and re-released on various record labels, discussed on TEDx, used in film, and discussed and featured in both a feature-length documentary and book. Parish’s current creative focus is on creating experimental electroacoustic music, audiovisual installations, Max/MSP devices, and live reactive visuals for performance, and finding beauty in sonic extremity.

Index scholarships are designed to benefit underrepresented groups, BIPOC members of our community, and those for whom the class price is not accessible. These need-based scholarships will go to the candidates who best demonstrate why they should be chosen for the free spot to our class based on the following criteria:

• Belong to groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the graphic design and creative industries
• Do not have jobs that would pay for these courses as professional development
• Cannot independently afford the class at list price
• Share our value of intentional community

The number of selected applicants chosen is subject to the discretion of Index and the instructor, but every course will select at least one. Apply for a scholarship here. Applications close September 17th.

We get that things come up, but we rely on headcounts in our programs to survive as a business. If you request a refund...

More than 4 weeks before class begins → 100% refund
More than 2 weeks before class begins → 50% refund
Fewer than 2 weeks before class begins → No refund

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