Making Electronic Music with Ableton is an introductory course in the use of Ableton 10 Live software, for creating and performing electronic music.

The course is designed to give participants the skills to get started with Ableton, and create electronic music, including sampling, sequencing, synthesis, effects and mixing, as well as how to perform live. Participants will also learn about the concepts that underpin digital music.

There are no formal entry requirements for this course. However, basic computer literacy and an interest in sound is desirable.

This courses is suited to individuals interested in sound design and creating electronic music, specifically with the use of Able 10 Live.

The course will cover a breadth of topics from an introductory level and will include:

• An introduction to Ableton; navigating the Ableton workspace; session and arrangement views.
• The sequencing and the building blocks of electronic music, which includes working with MIDI; clips; automation and aleatoric techniques.
• Making sound from scratch through synthesis, which will cover waveforms and harmonics; types of synthesis; Operator, Analog and Wavetable.
• Learn how to record and sample, with a focus on working with samples in Ableton Live; warping; syncing and looping; sampler and simpler; slicing beats; sample rate and bit depth, and recording external inputs.
• How to extend your sound through effects, working creatively with these and building effects racks.
• The course will also look at live performance with Live, working with clips and how to use MIDI mapping.

On completion of the course, participants will be equipped with the skills for music creation and performance, and will be ready to start their music production career with the use of Ableton.

Dr Adam Parkinson is a Senior Lecturer in Sound Design at LSBU and an electronic musician and sound designer. Under the alias Dane Law, he has released electronic music on labels such as Opal Tapes, Quantum Natives and Conditional Records. He has performed across the UK, Europe and North America, and featured on the cover of “The Wire” magazine.

The course will be taught entirely online via our learning platform. 

This course total approximately 12 hours, and will run one 3-hour session per week, for the duration of 4 weeks.This course total approximately 12 hours, and will run one 3-hour session per week, for the duration of 4 weeks.

There is no formal assessment for this course. 

For information on our policies (payment, cancellation, terms and conditions, etc.) visit our general information page.

If you have a question that we haven’t answered here, please contact lsbushortcourses@lsbu.ac.uk and we will respond to your query within 24 hours.