Electronic Music Fundamentals

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For years I've been teaching Ableton Live and Max in the college classroom. As a University Professor, my classes are sought after, and, frankly, expensive. I believe Ableton Live can be learned by anyone, and cost shouldn't be a barrier. This class uses the same outline and syllabus I've used in my college classes for years, at a fraction of the cost.
This is a general course for people with little or no experience producing electronic music. This course will cover all general aspects of music making (key, pitch, form, harmony), through basic audio concepts (waveforms, frequency spectrum, etc.) ending at basic concepts of synthesis and MIDI.

What will I learn in this Course?

  • The basics of electronic music production
  • How digital audio works
  • Recording audio
  • How MIDI works
  • Production workflows

Course Outline

  • Digital Audio Production
    • Overview & Philosophy
    • Recap
    • A Brief History of Recorded Audio
    • Video 2: The History of Recorded Audio (more-or-less)
    • Recap
    • Hardware & Software
    • Video 3: Hardware & Software
    • Recap
  • All About MIDI
    • MIDI
    • Video 4: MIDI Basics
    • Recap
    • Producing with MIDI
    • Video 5: Producing with MIDI
    • Recap
  • Putting it All Together
    • Working with Loops
    • Video 6: Working with Loops
    • Recap
    • Odds & Ends
    • Video 7: Odds & Ends
    • Recap
    • Synthesis Basics
    • Video 8: Synthesis
    • Recap
  • Wrap Up
    • Closing Thoughts
  • Open All · Close All

Course Information

Estimated Time: 2 Hours

Categories: , , ,

Course Instructor

Jay Allen Author

J. Anthony Allen is an Ableton Certified Trainer, and a PhD in Music Composition and master of Electronic Sounds. His music has been heard internationally in film, radio, video games, and industrial sound, as well as the concert hall and theater. He currently is an adjunct professor of composition at the University of St. Thomas, and is the CEO and co-founder of Slam Academy in Minneapolis.

 

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Digital Audio Production

Overview & Philosophy

Welcome to the class!
Orientation

A quick overview of the class.
Recap

Let’s summarize the main points.
A Brief History of Recorded Audio

As you might guess, this is one of my favorite things to talk about.
Video 2: The History of Recorded Audio (more-or-less)

Here we go – a whirl-wind tour of digital audio.
Recap

That was a lot of information! Let’s do a quick recap.
Hardware & Software

Electronic music production as come a long way since Max Matthews.
Video 3: Hardware & Software

What kinds of hardware and software do we need in order to make some music? In this lesson we explore the options from several perspectives – including price.
Recap

Lot’s packed into that video, so let’s unpack the highlights.

All About MIDI

MIDI

You can kind of think about all the work we do as producers being the crafting of 2 kinds of material: Audio and MIDI.
Video 4: MIDI Basics

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) – how to use it, how not to use it, and how to incorporate it into your music.
Recap

Another recap!
Producing with MIDI

In this lesson, we are going to look at building some music using the piano roll editor in Ableton.
Video 5: Producing with MIDI

Now that we know how MIDI works, let’s talk about how to make some music with it.
Recap

Another recap!

Putting it All Together

Working with Loops

In this video: Working with loops. We talk about file types, file formats, and other general production tips.
Video 6: Working with Loops

Let’s dive in and make some tunes using loops!
Recap

Let’s recap that sucker!
Odds & Ends

In this lesson: Reason (another app), ReWire (a way for apps to talk to each other), Flattening (a way to simplify your session) and Exporting (a way to finish your tracks).
Video 7: Odds & Ends

A few more things to cover before we wrap up.
Recap

You guessed it! Another recap.
Synthesis Basics

Synthesis, generating our own sounds in a synthesizer from scratch, is a very important aspect of Electronic Music. It’s fairly tricky to learn and can be daunting. In this lesson, I try to simplify synthesis into it’s four most important aspects.
Video 8: Synthesis

Let’s dive into synthesis and learn all about the basics of making sound with synthesizers.
Recap

Recap! Last one!

Wrap Up

Closing Thoughts

Hurray – you made it to the end of Electronic Music Fundamentals – Online!

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