Ableton Live Class 8: 'Master Class'

The last class of Ableton Live Level 1: Remixing is the 'Master Class'. As we sat back and watched everyone's remix play in front of the class on the projection screen, we analyzed each others' songs by discussing their composition, arrangement, and sound design. Adding to the comments, our instructor Jon showed us his recommendations and edits to improve our remixes.

Before I say things," Jon stated, "you say things - what were you going for - what do you want to say about your remix." The responses were as varied as the musical styles, but mostly we gave examples of challenges we had in creating the remix:

Having the volume in the headphones match the sound in the monitors (Jon recommends that the best set up is constantly going between headphones and monitors to give your ears a 'reality check'. Unless you have a professionally built recording studio, most people produce in a small room where bass is going to bounce around. Jon suggest we go to a music store to listen to a variety of monitors before spending a lot of money on a pair that does not work for our specific environment)

The difficulty in getting the sound in our head - out in the song (To get to the level of a synthesizer programmer, where you want to go beyond tweaking factory patches and develop specific sounds all your own, is a five year process. Jon reassured our patience that by taking these classes, especially Ableton Live Level 2: Composing & Sound Design we should we should be able to do it sooner)

DubSpot instructor Jon Margulies

While we went over the songs, I noted a couple of instructive comments Jon suggested:

*When fading in a synth part in a slowly evolving song, let it stay there for a minute, establish it, then duplicated time before you change it with a slow movement in the auto-filter, a very subtle automation that keeps the ear engaged

*Put a little breath in by deleting small sections, it's not so much of what you have, but what you don't have

*It is common for beginners to pull down the master level to avoid 'clipping' (type of distortion unique to music recorded digitally, when the sound is too loud, the waveform of the music peaks, and creates a static like type of distortion). To avoid clipping in the master level, Jon told us to get the volumes under control in the very beginning by lowering the mixer volume levels to increase headroom on the master. For example, mix engineers start with all their faders down, then bring up most important sounds in a track when mastering. In Ableton Live Level 2, and 3 we will go in to deeper detail on mastering volume

*By thinking of music visually from left to right, and front to back, you will understand that the reverb effect has a way of pushing a sound hard to the back (very wet sound) where a delay effect pushes back, but not as much (more dry sound).

The DubSpot Blogger Jass

Personally, making a remix was an encouraging, yet challenging process. By taking classes at DubSpot, I have more confidence than ever in knowing how to create music in Ableton Live, but at this point, I lack confidence in knowing exactly what style of music I want to create. For my remix of "Billy Says Go", I contemplated in turning the song into a warm lush ambient tune, or a dark and dirty after-hours version; after playing around with the clips, I decided to go for energized buzzing sound. Am I happy about what I created? No. However, I am more motivated than ever to create music; by breaking down my own mental walls, I no longer think that musical producers are magicians – that only "they" can mysteriously create these wonderful songs. Heading into next week's DubSpot Ableton Live Level 2: Composing & Sound Design reassures my self-confidence that more mental walls will be coming down.