My Top 10 Tips After 10 Years In Ableton (these changed everything for me)

I've spent the last decade using Ableton to make all of my music, and all of the music for my clients. It's the most user friendly DAW in my opinion and I couldn't recommend it more.

I hope you're able to learn something from the last 10 years of my experience in this program that you can apply to your own workflow.

My hope is that these tips will save you years of learning time because I know if I had this video 10 years ago it would have changed my life.

Thanks so much for watching and remember to comment any questions as I read all the comments!

0:00 Ableton is life changing
0:43 1.Staying organized
2:26 2. Mixing over mastering
3:17 3. Use delay to widen sounds
4:41 4. Sends and returns
7:33 5. Utilize EQ on effects
8:30 6. Mix as you go
10:42 7. Utilize "audio effects" and "instrument racks"
13:12 8. Use sidechaining
15:36 9. Use OTT
17:36 10. Use Ableton's warp features.

[keysLA]

Usually when people post things about “life changing” anything, it’s usually just helpful. This is actually life changing

[DippsBhamrah]

Your intro is exactly my life and career. Ableton Live made me so confident that I can be a full time musician and media entity that I quit my full time job 12 year ago. It not an overstatement to say that downloading and realising how I can/could/would use the program made me into the artist I never thought I’d be.

Just wanted to share as your intro hit me in the feels 👍🏽

[MarkBarlow]

Sometimes when meeting your heroes you walk away disappointed by their character, but this dude has been a hero to me and consistently astounds me by his character. Ethan produced my first record, "Soul Hymns" and he's an absolute wizard & so genuinely kind. I hope all y'all take his course, there's soooo much gold in it that'll improve your creative process forever. ILY ETHAN

[chandlergunn]

Awesome refresher on some things I forgot over the years. Love watching videos like these to pull me out of some writers block. Thanks for the tips!

[its_zaheer]

Been mixing a particular song for the past month or so and I could never get it quite right! This video just allowed me to finally get past the production block I've been having. Thank you endlessly. I believe this is the best music production video I have ever found. SO MANY JEMS!

[meilstone]

Great tips, two more important topics to add:
1. Do proper gain staging at the beginning and when adding new audio tracks/clips
2. Save clips (.alc file) from session view (similar to saving fx chains), this saves all the clip settings and effects as well as the midi information

[freddirkse]

Awesome tips Ethan, thank you!
I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds mixing while you're producing intuitive. Half the fun is making the mix sound good as you go.

[bentonalexander]

Been using Live since 04. Good stuff here! My best tips- keep a folder of your favorite presets and instruments. Learn your hot keys. Both those things will increase the speed of your work flow dramatically.

[Nedjmeddine]

By far one of the best Ableton Tutorials, really you have given me so much knowledge, ready to start applying all this tomorrow ! Thanks again

[brettinabox]

I watched this and the intro to Ableton video. You are such a good teacher to explain what and why on everything. So nice when we understand more to customize going in.

[iby_ibyyy]

This is so incredibly useful for people who have just started using Ableton, I already use most of these techniques but you explained them so well I WSH this was something I discovered when I first started. Will definitely be recommending this video to my friends!

[alexandrosbitoulas]

That is very generous of you to share all this, Ethan! So many thanks!

[Etakit]

Lots of solid tips here! I'd highly recommend utilizing hotkeys, like cmd + A to select all (all of your effects for instance), cmd + F to find (for effects, instruments, etc.)

[michaelalvarado]

I’ve been producing idiom for a little under a year now, and these tips are really gonna change everything for me. Thank you so much for sharing with us. This will go a long way.

[lorenzomicheletto]

OTT omg!!! it just made my piano or other front sounds of my songs sound so clear!!! Excellent video, you have a very good way of spreading the message with good examples! Many thanks Ethan!

[TheMrb]

This is a fantastic video for anyone of any skill level, but it’s quite literally a perfect video for beginners. You will notice a pretty huge difference in your mixing/production if you implement these tips. Great stuff 👍

[deansykes]

That "Select All and Save" tip was amazing!!!

[rcarter]

One of the best overall tutorials I’ve ever watched! Thank you for sharing! I’m new to ableton so thank you for the tips!

[Soldiernate]

Finally a clean simple description of that side chain compression....thanks Ethan!

[SefaDrums]

Thank you for all of these amazing tips! This is the video everyone needs when getting started with Ableton 🙌🏼❤️