Compositions from previous students: ATIAM Tunes

Courses

Set up - To do before the first session

During this course, you will compose music using Ableton. It is, therefore, mandatory to have a personal computer and headphones. It is also recommended to have a mouse for convenience. If you don’t have some of the equipment mentioned above, feel free to email me, and I will bring you additional equipment.

Don’t forget your headphones!

Also, please download the trial version of Ableton via the link provided above. You will have access to the software for 3 months, which is plenty of time since you will have to send me your project on January 1st.

The course is divided into two 4-hour sessions. The time will be divided between explaining the concepts and free playtime during which you will experiment. My goal is to give you a solid foundation to be able to compose and express your creativity through Ableton while reinforcing your knowledge in sound design, composition, and mixing.

If you have time and if you wish, you can have a look at these websites, which will give you a very decent intuition about:

Download the samples you can use during this course here: Mixed samples

You can also download samples you like here.

Remember that the PDFs given alongside each course cannot replace the trials and experiments you will do during the courses. They act as reminders if you are looking for shortcuts, particular functions, or processing techniques.

Basic Notions

The first course aims at introducing the basic concepts of Ableton, while giving the essential elements to make your first track. You can find:

  • Basics:
    • Introduction to Ableton
    • Music Composition overview
    • Description of the interface of the session view
  • Session View:
    • Presentation of Audio Clip
    • Clip properties
    • Usage of Warping and Quantization
  • Composition:
    • Presentation of the arrangement view
    • A dive into the audio effects and particularly Eq and Compressor
    • How to export your track

    PDF associated to this course Here

Advanced Notions

The second course presents deeper technics to compose your music, especially how to make your own audio samples. You can find:

  • Sound Design:
    • Sound Design Concepts
    • Synthesis Sources
    • Presentation of Midi
  • MIDI:
    • Impulse & Simpler Instrument
    • MIDI Effects
    • Instrument Rack
  • Mixing Concepts:
    • Tips & tricks for mixing
    • Plug-in
    • Recording and resampling

PDF associated to this course Here

Project

Artistic theme of this year: ILLUSION

The goal of this assignment is to compose an entire track using Ableton. It must last less than 15 minutes and has no restrictions regarding the genre.

You must provide a .wav file of your creation alongside the Ableton project and all the samples you used to make it. Please attach a README.txt to introduce your artistic intention and the processing you did.

Any creative experiment will be valued.

Full subject Here