Project 5 - Creating Your First Remix
Hey everyone and welcome to another music making project! This time we’re creating our first remix by following along with a Youtube tutorial. Try to create your own song through the process and use the tutorial to guide you through the steps. However, the point isn’t to create the perfect remix, its to experience and learn from the process. So, don’t get hung up trying to make everything perfect, just keep making music!
I followed along with Will Darling from EDM Tips on Youtube. Will makes some awesome Ableton tutorials and I already included one of his videos on Project 1 – Ableton Crash Course. He’s incredibly organized and does a great job of displaying the techniques he uses in his videos which helps tremendously when following along.
In first couple minutes of the tutorial, Will directs viewers to Acapellas4U.co.uk to find and download an acapella which will be the basis for the track you make. I would suggest heading over there first because you’ll need to register with the site before downloading your audio files. Additionally, around the 22 minute mark of the video, the host goes into some more advanced Ableton techniques by breaking out an instrument rack and stacking a second synthesizer onto his first one. So, if you if you’re unfamiliar with Ableton’s synths, I would circle back to one of my previous posts or head to EDM Tips and check out their videos before diving into this one.
During the section of his video titled, “Program Bassline” (4:50 – 10:30), Will explains how to tune different tracks in Ableton which is something I’ve been trying to figure out, so I found that section extremely helpful. While writing my bassline, I wanted to mix up the notes to add more interest but realized that I need to brush-up/actually learn some music theory. So, I also referenced this guide: “What Are The Chords In The Key Of F Major?” on piano-keyboard-guide.com. It has some really helpful diagrams that show the different chords which was really helpful for making sure my bassline is in key.
Ableton - Piano Roll Scales
When editing a clip in Ableton, producers can either illuminate the notes of the scale they’re using or collapse the available notes so that only notes within the scale are shown.
-In the example on the right: Neither of the Scale buttons are active and a full piano roll is shown.
-In the example below: This button highlights the currently selected scale.
-In the example on the bottom-right: Both buttons are active and Ableton only displays the selected scale within the clip being edited.
I found that using both buttons to collapse the available keys made it much easier to create and rearrange patterns until I found a bassline that worked with the acapella I chose.
Notes
During the portion where he adds additional effects to the vocals around the 29:00 minute mark, I didn’t catch exactly how he set up his auxiliary channels so I dropped the Reverb, Utility, EQ, and Delay all on the same audio track as my vocals and that seemed to work fine. If you have a helpful explanation or link, feel free to share it in the comments, if it adds to the learning environment then I’d be happy to publish it so everyone can benefit.
Tip: When Will is adjusting Analog and Operator both in an instrument rack, I found it helpful to turn both of Analog’s Oscillators up by 1 octave each for playing with Keyboard as MIDI. It seemed to bring give the keyboard MIDI keys a good range for playing and adjusting the sounds which were initially way too low to be heard.
Tip: When Will brings the automation lane into his track for his bass group, he does so rather quickly. Pressing “A” on your keyboard when not using it as a MIDI controller will toggle automation in Ableton 10 and later.
Tip: Will covers some tips for distributing remixes at the end of his video, I’ve never released a track to date, so I found it helpful getting some insight from an expert so stick around for those if that’s something you’re working towards.
Ultimately, it took me a lot longer to work through this video that I thought it would. Will’s video is packed with great information and if you follow along, pausing the video as you go, then you can create another full song which is great practice. Furthermore, Will covers all of the different Ableton tools we’ve been working with, so its a great opportunity to leverage what you’ve already been working on and get more practice with Ableton’s synths and automation. Be patient, work through the video, create your song. You’ll never learn to make music without sitting down and producing, so get out there and make some music!