Producers share their essential Live 11 tips…

KSHMR

“Really understand Audio Effect Racks. They allow you to essentially make your own plugin that incorporates effects in instruments you already use and simplifies them for the purposes you need.”

MAYA SHENFELD

“Know that there isn’t one way or a right way to do things. Some of my favourite music was produced in Ableton in a way that might be considered “wrong”, though this can often lead to the most exciting results. When I started making music with Ableton I didn’t know much about parallel compression, side chains, gating... but I had a great time producing. I kept on making music, recording, sound designing, and then the technical details came later. So, I’d say, make it about music-making first, and the rest will come along.”

JUAZ

“Learn your keyboard shortcuts! I can’t tell you how many sessions I’ve been in with amazingly talented producers, when all of the sudden in the middle of my workflow they stop me and say ‘how did you do that without grabbing the mouse?!’

Yes, trying to memorise shortcuts on a keyboard can be a pain, but the exponential amount of speed you’ll gain when working after learning just a couple is really unparalleled. My advice would be try to learn one a day, or just a few a week – after a few months, a year, two years, you’ll have just about all of them down and your workflow will be lightning quick.”

GIORGIA ANGIULI

“Don’t be fully focused just on production, use Ableton Live as a real instrument for playing live music – it has infinite possibilities. Explore the Session View and you will have a lot of fun. One of my favourite effects is Corpus and in Ableton 11 it rocks even more.”

JOACHIM PASTOR

“Always listen to an instrument or sound in context, never solo. Also, when you A/B a plugin, like a compressor for example, just close your eyes. It really works.

PREQUEL TAPES

“Always bounce everything to audio. Never leave plugins plus effects running, like this Live sounds a thousand times better.”

KAYLA PAINTER

“It’s simple, but try using a blank Scene (where you take out the stop buttons) and then editing the launch tempo of that Scene. This is a really basic way of building in tempo changes to tracks and ideas without losing the flow of what you are doing, and helps seamlessly blend one idea (or track) into another when you are playing to an audience.”