Beatmaking

Make a beat

Ableton made an excellent starting lesson for this: Getting started making music - Beatmaking

How can we do this in ableton?

let’s talk MIDI!

• download these project files here: Beatmaking Sets
• create a new midi clip on Track 1, double click it to edit
• make sure the grid is on fixed 1/16
• turn on Draw mode (shortcut: B)
• now you can “paint” a beat, like on the website.
• if you don’t hear anything, when you click, make sure you have turned on preview:
• to change how “hard” a sound is played, you can change the velocity of a note. Hold down cmd and click & drag up/down

make variations of your beat

• duplicate the midi clip with cmd-d
• edit the copy to have a variation

use a different drum kit:

• go into the browser, “Drums”, filter by Drum Kit:
• prelisten and select a Drum Kit an pull it on a blank Midi Track
• you also use the hotswap button to exchange the kit

make your own drum kit!

• create a new midi track
• drag & drop an empty Drum Rack on that track
• look for 4 sound: Kick, Snare, closed Hihat, open HiHat
• there is a “standard” way to place the sound on the notes:
  • Kick on C1
  • Snare on D1
  • closed Hi-Hat on F#1
  • open Hi-Hat on A#1

this is a list for all standard notes for Drums / Percussion:

choke-groupes

• to make the open HiHat stop if the closed HiHat is played you have to set those pads as the same choke group: