Make Hit Music!

Define audio as sound energy traveling in a medium as a wave, and cover audible frequencies, pitch, decibels, clipping, and distortion shaping music.

Explore MIDI basics, the language that lets computers and electronic instruments communicate. Discover how MIDI data carries pitch, velocity, and tempo, and how changing the instrument sound preserves the notes.

Create and duplicate audio and MIDI tracks, insert software instruments, and use the piano roll to arrange waveform. Learn audio files versus instrument tracks and Mac shortcuts.

Use loops to write and arrange hit music by dragging drum loops into an audio track, previewing them, adjusting tempo, duplicating tracks, and pan drums with keys.

Record melodies with software instruments and loops, swap sounds while keeping notes, preview options, and arrange MIDI clips across the project.

Record drums and MIDI clips in Ableton Live by building a drum rack and loading sounds. Sequence notes in the piano roll, adjust timing, and add reverb for feel.

Learn to use a computer keyboard to trigger software instruments, practice keyboard mapping to controls, and adjust octaves with z and x for faster workflow.

Explore how an equalizer manipulates frequency spectra to boost or cut hertz ranges, adjust gain, and color sound, with practical tips for targeting 85 hertz, 300 hertz, and other frequencies.

Learn how to use high-pass, low-pass, bandpass, and notch filters to pass or cut specific frequencies and shape sounds for cleaner, more focused mixes.

Explore reverb by hearing how sound reflections create space, from dry signals to hall or room reverbs, and adjust low cut, high cut, size, and decay.

Explore how to stack instruments and layer samples to create custom sounds and colors, adjust parameters, and save these instruments to your library for recall.

Blend multiple kick drums to create a punchy kick by combining the low end of one with the high end of another, using low-pass and high-pass filters to avoid clashes.

Create trap hi-hats with a drum rack, layering high hats and using an arpeggiator to vary note rates from eight to sixteenth notes for a dynamic groove.

Learn how to create a pumping synth effect using compressor and side chain compression guided by a four on the floor kick drum, with adjustable threshold for punchy dynamics.

Learn to create a dubstep wobble bass in Ableton using an operator with a square wave, routing through a low-pass filter around 300 Hz, with a pitch envelope.

Create pluck lead synth by pulling an 808 drone into simpler, using a kick drum and high-pass around 85–90 hz, then applying big-room reverb and a compressor for punchy dynamics.

Learn to execute a filter sweep using white noise and automation of the filter frequency to build tension and introduce sections. Enhance the sound with reverb for a bigger intro.

Explore major and minor scales with a C major example. Learn whole step and half step pattern, and how lowering the third, sixth, and seventh degrees creates a minor scale.

Explore intervals that shape scales, from half steps to octave, naming major, minor, perfect, and tritone intervals, with ear training and memory songs like Jaws and Beethoven.

Explore how three notes played together form chords by stacking thirds. See major and minor chords, and how diminished uses two minor thirds while augmented uses two major thirds.

Learn how chord progressions in a key establish a melody, starting from the tonic in C major with one, four, and five chords, cadence, and resolving back to the tonic.

Explore chord inversions in a C major progression, learn root position, first inversion, and second inversion, and discover how rearranging triad notes colors the harmony.

Demonstrates recording and layering clips with a metronome and piano roll, inserting mini clips, and copying a Fat Albert theme to build the intro beat and drums.

Build a beat by selecting sounds, duplicating clips, and aligning drums with kick on 1 and snare on 3, while adding piano, hi-hats, and rising notes before beat drop.

Build verse one by inserting a miniclip, layering a piano line across eight bars, duplicating tracks, and adding cello, synth, and a subbase to create dynamic variation.

Duplicate the chorus after verse, double its length relative to the intro, add new piano and string elements, and build up the arrangement toward verse 2.

Create verse 2 by layering new drum sounds and samples over duplicated piano chords, then copy and paste patterns into the chorus to build the arrangement.

Apply an EQ and compressor to the master track to tighten the whole mix and support mixing and mastering.