An old dog learning new tricks

Hello and welcome! I'm Casey, I am an electronic musician and producer baed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This is my first foray into blogging and I figured it might be a good thing for me to start doing, the grammar may not always be perfect but hey I do the best I can. I am still getting my sea legs with this so to speak and the first posts might just be text but I hope to learn how to add photos and links as I go. This blog will contain many posts about my experiences in the studio while working on tracks and or remixes, and contain my thoughts on gear as well as software, but it will also delve into my life outside the studio as well but without getting too personal. Anyway lets get going :)

Since getting back home from Europe I have really been buckling down studio work wise, I am bound and determined to master Ableton Live 9 and learn all the tricks in it that I can. it's been a bit of an uphill climb as save for a few in person pointers from some Live masters I know and a book entitled "Ableton Live 9 Power" that was purchased for me by a loved one I am pretty much on my own.

I have been told that the real key in live is knowing the workflow of it, that can be said for any digital audio workstation though. But in this particular case it could not be more true as Ableton while simple looking is actually deeper than anything I have ever encountered in my years doing this. It has two views one called "Session View" and "Arrange View" pictures taken of both these views from the project I am currently working on will be at the end of this posting below.

Now to even seasoned digital audio workstation users Ableton is alien looking once fired up. It starts in Session View, this view is more suited I think to someone wanting to use Live in a live performance setting as you are able to launch your midi and audio as clips on the fly as well as use any amount of midi controllers you like and assign multiple parameters from effects and synths, or anything else in live for that matter to said controller(s) which in the world of live electronic music is to put it mildly: AWESOME! Ableton has a reputation for being absolutely ROCK SOLID on stage which is important. I plan to learn more about how Session View works at a later time and utilize it onstage myself. Some colleagues of mine in Norway used Live 9 at a live show recently and said it ran like a champ and was great. That is exciting as no other DAW (for future reference DAW is short for digital audio workstation) has ever offered this kind of flexibility before Ableton came about. BUT there is a learning curve with regard to Session View, to someone like myself who has spent the better part of 2 decades with linear time based sequencers/DAW's Session View can be a bit overwhelming and even scary.

But luckily for all of us the folks at Abelton thought this through and rather than sticking with just one view they offer up another way to view your project: Arrange View. Arrange View is a linear timeline based view that shows your audio and midi in a manner more familiar to someone like myself. Arrange View lets you really dive in and edit parts be they midi or audio and arrange them in a manner many of us are used to. So lets get this straight then; In my opinion thus far Session View= for live shows, and Arrange View= for the studio. Both views offer benefits and the workflow of this program streamlines the music making process overall.


Now all that being said I find myself hungry for more knowledge of this program and it's many features, as well as unconventional ways of exploiting features. In other words using a feature to do something it was not intended to do. So in essence I am an old dog learning new tricks in this program, the book has been a helpful guide as has the lessons I have gotten from colleagues well versed in this program. I have found numerous tutorials on youtube that have proved most helpful as well. But I am having a bit of a tough time none the less as it's a new way of working for me in so many ways. I treat each session with Live 9 as a chance to expand myself both as a musician and a producer. At the time of this writing I am working on a track for a project called Penchant which is the stage moniker of singer/songwriter Denali H. It's a song she wrote on a guitar and it is being transformed into a dancefloor monster little by little, it's what you will see in the photos below. I am experimenting with a bass sound I got off of a synth called Massive using Live 9's features. I want to get that frenetic Electro House vibe to it. It's proving tricky but I am determined to get it right. Speaking of which I should stop blogging and get back to it.

So this will do it for this installment but I will post more as the days come. Please refer to the photos below.


I wish you all the best in your lives, good luck to you all in your endeavours. Until the next time!

Casey :)

Session View where midi and audio is put into clips and can be triggered at will by the user. Now while I understand how it work this view is still a bit alien to me.

Arrange View where the user can edit and arrange in a linear time based fashion. I find this to be more comfy and familiar.