Nicks Tutorials Sound Design In Ableton Live Sampling Tools

Today's electronic music and sound effects are a showcase for more than the compositional skills of the producer: They are a chance to present your listener with a world full of interesting sounds that help reinforce the message or aesthetic being conveyed.

So why should you care about learning how to create your own sounds using samplers, synthesizers, and audio effects? For one, the ability to control every timbral quality of the music that you use to represent yourself as an artist is a HUGE advantage nowadays. To realize your sonic vision, you need more than a great sample library! Additionally, a true understanding of your tools on a deeper level can catapult you from a consumer and recycler of other peoples' sounds onto a level where you have the last word on every aspect of your sonic vision. This is about innovation and setting yourself apart.

This is where these sound design tutorials come in. Using the native tools of Ableton Live plus the extremely flexible "Sampler" instrument, I have devised a set of lessons to help you take any ordinary sound and turn it into something completely new and useful. For 10 years I have been developing and using these techniques, helping others learn them as well.

Here are just a few of the things you will learn through these videos:
    * FIND out how to transform tiny, insignificant sounds into powerful drum hits through strategic uses of layering, tuning, filtering, and envelope modulation.
    * CREATE a pseudo-wavetable synthesizer out of a few tiny chunks of audio. You’ll also learn how to create rich melodic pads and lead sounds.
    * DRAMATICALLY alter and improve melodic sounds through slicing and reprocessing.
    * UNDERSTAND how to utilize a combination of modulating sampler and effects parameters to create evolving textures and soundbeds.
    * DEVELOP a clear way of dividing a large number of parameters into small, manageable groups of related sound-shaping tools.