This course is designed for those interested to learn the basics of music production, you will be making your own original tracks on your own computer.
Read more.Instructor
Jason Allen is a PhD in music, and was recently named one of the semi-finalists for the Grammy Foundations "Music Educator" award.
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Who this course is for:
- Beginner students looking to explore audio production.
- Experienced producers looking to create a solid “foundation” of tools.
- Anyone curious about how music production works!
What you’ll learn:Â
- A brief history of Digital Audio
- Music Production: hardware, buying hardware, and what to look for
- Software: The DAW
- Working on the Grid: Rhythm and Meter
- Working with Audio
- A brief history of MIDI
- How MIDI works
- MIDI Effects
- Working on the Grid: Incorporating MIDI
- Working with Loops
- Drum Programming
- Introduction to Synthesis
- Synthesis with Samplers
Requirements:Â
- This course starts at the very beginning, and is designed for students with little or no prior knowledge of music production.
Software version used in the course:Â
- This course is NOT specific to any DAW program.
- I’ll be using Ableton Live Suite 10 and 11 in this course as my main DAW, but if you are using any other program you will be able to follow along just fine. That includes Logic, FL Studio, Pro Tools, Reaper, Reason, Cubase, or any of the others. My method in this class is to teach concepts, so whatever I do, you will be able to do it in your own software.
This course is “5-Star Certified” by the International Association of Online Music Educators and Institutions (IAOMEI). This course has been independently reviewed by a panel of experts and has received a stellar 5-star rating.
This class is for anyone who has wondered what music production is all about. Especially:
- Aspiring Producers: If you are just getting started with music production, this course will be the swiss army knife that you will keep in your belt forever.
- Musicians: If you have wanted to improve your compositions by understanding the tools of electronic music production, recording, and sound design work, this class is for you.
- Producers: If you are making tracks that rely on presets, and want to learn how to craft your own sounds, this is the course for you.
- Songwriters: Improve your compositions by understanding how to use the latest tools in your songs, and record them!
In this class, we start with the very basics: What kinds of tools do I need to produce music? We explore the various tools, then we start to learn how to use them for making professional music. By the end of this class, you will be making your own tracks on your own computer (no matter if it is a Mac or a PC!)
This course follows the tried-and-true curriculum that I’ve used for my Music Technology 101 class at my university position. I’m excited to be able to make it available to you, at 0.001% of the cost of a University class.
The goal of this class is for you to learn how to make original music on the tools you already have, or can get access to inexpensively.
If you are ready to start making professional-sounding tracks, this is the class that will start you on that journey. Get started today.
Dr. Allen is a university music professor. In 2017, Star Tribune Business featured him as a “Mover and a Shaker,” and he is recognized by the Grammy Foundation for his music education classes.Â
Our Promise to You
By the end of this course, you will have learned music production extensively.
10 Day Money Back Guarantee. If you are unsatisfied for any reason, simply contact us and we’ll give you a full refund. No questions asked.
Get started today and learn more about music production.
Course Curriculum
| Section 1 - Welcome And Overview | |||
| Introduction | 00:00:00 | ||
| What We Will Cover | 00:00:00 | ||
| What Is An Ableton Certified Trainer? | 00:00:00 | ||
| How To Use This Class | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 2 - A Brief History Of Digital Audio | |||
| Analog Audio | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Oldest Known Recording Of A Human | 00:00:00 | ||
| Edison | 00:00:00 | ||
| Bell Labs And Max Mathews | 00:00:00 | ||
| Advances Since Mathews | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Difference Between Analog And Digital | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 3 - Hardware: What Gear Do I Need? | |||
| Mac Or PC? | 00:00:00 | ||
| Laptop Or Desktop? | 00:00:00 | ||
| The ADC And The DAC | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Audio Interface | 00:00:00 | ||
| Speakers Or Headphones? | 00:00:00 | ||
| Microphones | 00:00:00 | ||
| External Hard Drives | 00:00:00 | ||
| My Setup At Home | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 4 - Software: The DAW | |||
| What Is A DAW? | 00:00:00 | ||
| What To Look For In A DAW | 00:00:00 | ||
| A Highly Opinionated List Of Common DAWs | 00:00:00 | ||
| For The Money… | 00:00:00 | ||
| The 4 Sections In Every DAW | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Timeline | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Mixer | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Effects Section | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Transport | 00:00:00 | ||
| Nearly Universal Key Commands | 00:00:00 | ||
| Care And Feeding Of Your DAW | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 5 - Working On The Grid: Rhythm And Meter | |||
| What Is The Grid? | 00:00:00 | ||
| Horizontal = Time | 00:00:00 | ||
| Vertical = Tracks | 00:00:00 | ||
| How DAWs Handle Meter | 00:00:00 | ||
| Vocabulary: Downbeats, Upbeats, And Offbeats | 00:00:00 | ||
| Elements Of The Beat: Kick, Snare, Hi Hats | 00:00:00 | ||
| Building The Worlds Most Basic Beat | 00:00:00 | ||
| Placing The Kick | 00:00:00 | ||
| Placing The Snare | 00:00:00 | ||
| Placing The Hi Hats | 00:00:00 | ||
| Having Fun With Hi Hats | 00:00:00 | ||
| Looping And Consolidating | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 6 - Working With Audio | |||
| Audio Is Finicky | 00:00:00 | ||
| Looking At Waveforms | 00:00:00 | ||
| Sine Waves | 00:00:00 | ||
| Clipping | 00:00:00 | ||
| File Formats | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Sample Rate | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Nyquist Theorem | 00:00:00 | ||
| What Frequencies Do We Really Need? | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Bit Rate | 00:00:00 | ||
| Standards For Sample Rate And Bit Rate | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 7 - A Brief History Of MIDI | |||
| The Dawn Of Electronic Instruments | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Theremin | 00:00:00 | ||
| What Happened To Leon? | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Moog | 00:00:00 | ||
| Wendy Carlos | 00:00:00 | ||
| What Happened In 1981 | 00:00:00 | ||
| The MIDI 1.0 Spec Is Born | 00:00:00 | ||
| MIDI Instruments Today | 00:00:00 | ||
| MIDI Guitars | 00:00:00 | ||
| Other Uses Of MIDI | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 8 - What Is MIDI? | |||
| MIDI Is A Protocol | 00:00:00 | ||
| MIDI Is Not Audio | 00:00:00 | ||
| MIDI Channels | 00:00:00 | ||
| Anatomy Of A MIDI Message | 00:00:00 | ||
| Note On Errors | 00:00:00 | ||
| Velocity Tracing | 00:00:00 | ||
| Advantages Of MIDI | 00:00:00 | ||
| Adjusting Notes | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 9 - MIDI Effects | |||
| What Are MIDI Effects? | 00:00:00 | ||
| Arpeggiator | 00:00:00 | ||
| Chord | 00:00:00 | ||
| Note Echo | 00:00:00 | ||
| Note Length | 00:00:00 | ||
| Pitch | 00:00:00 | ||
| Random | 00:00:00 | ||
| Scale | 00:00:00 | ||
| Quantize | 00:00:00 | ||
| Can You Use Audio Effects On A MIDI Track? | 00:00:00 | ||
| Printing MIDI Effects | 00:00:00 | ||
| Here Is That Goofy Track | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 10 - Working On The Grid: Incorporating MIDI | |||
| MIDI And Audio Are Friends | 00:00:00 | ||
| Velocity Editing | 00:00:00 | ||
| Automation | 00:00:00 | ||
| Panning Automation | 00:00:00 | ||
| Binary Automation | 00:00:00 | ||
| Audio Effect Automation | 00:00:00 | ||
| MIDI Effect Automation | 00:00:00 | ||
| Tempo Automation | 00:00:00 | ||
| Automating Anything | 00:00:00 | ||
| Walkthrough Of A Whole Track | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 11 - Working With Loops | |||
| Finding Loops For Free | 00:00:00 | ||
| File Types | 00:00:00 | ||
| Automatically Warping Loops | 00:00:00 | ||
| Fixing A Poorly Warped Track | 00:00:00 | ||
| Let’s Do That Again…. | 00:00:00 | ||
| Transients | 00:00:00 | ||
| Breaking A Loop For Fun | 00:00:00 | ||
| Flattening Loops | 00:00:00 | ||
| Stacking Loops | 00:00:00 | ||
| Making Your Own Loops | 00:00:00 | ||
| Creating A Loop Library | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 12 - Introduction To Synthesis And Sound Design | |||
| Sound Design In Ableton Live | 00:00:00 | ||
| Workflow: Working With Live’s Instruments | 00:00:00 | ||
| Quick MIDI Refresher | 00:00:00 | ||
| MIDI Clips | 00:00:00 | ||
| Fold To Scale | 00:00:00 | ||
| Important Key Commands | 00:00:00 | ||
| Sound Design Basics | 00:00:00 | ||
| Synthesis Types | 00:00:00 | ||
| Synthesis Elements | 00:00:00 | ||
| Live’s Analog Synth | 00:00:00 | ||
| Basic Outline | 00:00:00 | ||
| Programming Analog | 00:00:00 | ||
| The LFO | 00:00:00 | ||
| Saving And Loading Patches | 00:00:00 | ||
| Analog Patch From This Section | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 13 - Synthesis With Samplers | |||
| The Sample And The Sampler | 00:00:00 | ||
| Exploring Samplers | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Simpler And The Sampler | 00:00:00 | ||
| Using Simpler (Classic Mode) | 00:00:00 | ||
| Simpler In 1-Shot Mode | 00:00:00 | ||
| Simpler In Slice Mode | 00:00:00 | ||
| Using Sampler | 00:00:00 | ||
| Multisamples And Zones | 00:00:00 | ||
| Sampler Orchestra Library Example | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 14 - Starting From Scratch | |||
| Let’s Make A Track | 00:00:00 | ||
| Where Do We Start? | 00:00:00 | ||
| Using A Guide Track | 00:00:00 | ||
| Programming The Drums | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Harmony | 00:00:00 | ||
| Adding Strings? | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Bass | 00:00:00 | ||
| The Super Top Secret Of Making Tracks Quickly | 00:00:00 | ||
| Section 15 - Wrap Up | |||
| What Comes Next? | 00:00:00 | ||
| Thanks For Watching! | 00:00:00 | ||
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