Ableton Live is one of the best tools (DAW) available for home studio owners or live performers. I started my studio work with FL studio, which is another powerful program when it comes to midi and sequencing. I still use that a lot to begin my projects and arrange virtual instruments. However when you really want to record and do everything on the audio or take apart a original sounding track and respin it with a new sound there is no other tool that can come close to Ableton. Your creativity has no boundaries...literally!!
However when it came to setting up my music studio I did not have a whole lot of places to get advice from, spent months talking to people and researching online on how to set up the ideal home studio. Even on youtube there would be videos, but people would not want to give clear directions on how to set up a home studio.
So for all of you out there that want to set up a good home studio, hope to help you avoid all the hard work and frustrations I went through by providing information through this article.
To get started using Ableton for your studio. Here are the basic tools you will need for sure.
Studio Monitors - No matter who tells you what,a good pair of studio monitors are a must in any home studio. It does not matter the size of the monitors you get, mostly depends on your ear and what feels good for you in the mid range and higher frequencies, mixing bass is a difficult thing in a home studio and you are better off using the headphones for that.
The next piece of equipment that you will need will be an audio interface. For the longest time I used one of the Behringer usb based audio interfaces along with a 2 channel mixer. As time progressed I upgraded to a Tascam interface and a 10 channel mixer. I record Drums sometimes and need more than 6 channels. This will depend on you are set up and how much of recording you do. If you are just doing single channel of vocals, or instrument you could always go with the following products.
My very first setup which I highly recommend would be the combination of the following. A usb interface that will plug into the tape outs of a small mixer using a normal 2 channel RCA cable.
For the small mixer my choice would be the following product.
That should get you going very quickly, plus you will have good preamp on the mixer so the signal strength should be more than enough to the system.
For a one stop solution, you will need to spend a bit more and I can recommend the following devices.
Best - USB based entry level choices
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 - Reviewed here. One of the best interfaces that I have used. Completely stable and has much better pre amps and plugins than the competition in the price range.
Good -M-Audio Fast Track - Entry level audio interface, they are excellent for smaller bands who can record tracks seperately.
Good - Tascam US-100 - Another Entry level interface that has got great reviews. Again this will be one track at a time, or a vocal and an instrument together.
Final piece is a midi controller.
If you are a Drum programmer, then go with a pad type interface. I own an APC 20 which is specifially made for Ableton. It is a fantastic product for doing everything from playing to mixing to DJing.
If you are a DJ, then go with a usb DJ interface. I am not an expert on those, so use the amazon search above and have fun finding the products that will fit your needs.
If you are more of a piano player then get yourself one of the midi keyboards. I own an M-Audio Oxygen 49 and it has been working great for over 5 years now.
If you already own a entry level piano at home, good news you save some money.....I would suggest picking up the following device to hook your piano to the pc/mac. I run my entry level Yamaha PSR keyboard to my system using the EMU midi interface. There are other cheaper options available if you choose to go the non branded way.
Ableton live has great support and the install should go on both pc/mac without any hiccups. Once installed you should be able to play around with the software and follow the inbuilt help and templates to get you up and running.
My follow up post in the Ableton Basics will be how to record vocals into your PC.
Thanks for Reading!
You can check out my work here. I mostly do instrumental covers/ remixes of major songs from all around the world.
Disclaimer - These are products that I have used, am using or have seen in action. Just like any other review site, please read about the products before you purchase them. I am in no way affiliated to any of the product companies above or bear no responsibility if one of them does not work for you.
However when it came to setting up my music studio I did not have a whole lot of places to get advice from, spent months talking to people and researching online on how to set up the ideal home studio. Even on youtube there would be videos, but people would not want to give clear directions on how to set up a home studio.
So for all of you out there that want to set up a good home studio, hope to help you avoid all the hard work and frustrations I went through by providing information through this article.
To get started using Ableton for your studio. Here are the basic tools you will need for sure.
- A good PC/MAC can be desktop/laptop - anything with at least 1.5-1.8Ghz of speed with at least 4GB of RAM will work. I have run ableton live with just audio tracks on an Atom based netbook :) and have got no lags even on that system. If you use a lot of VSTs and effects then read on.
- My iMAC runs on 2.5Ghz Intel Core i5. It came with 4GB of memory, since I use a lot of VSTs when I compose I recently upgraded the RAM with an 8GB kit giving a total of 12GB...dont think i will ever need more. The system is a lot more faster after the upgrade. Shop Amazon Computers - New Laptops for 2012
- Ableton Live -- whichever version you can afford is good, the version shown below is great starting point and is powerful enough for you to make stunning tracks. I downloaded their tool online and once I used it...had to have the full version.
- If you have a laptop/desktop and do not have the space to put studio monitors I highly recommend investing money to get any one of the headphones listed below.
- Audio Technica Monitor headphones - ATH m40fs - I own these, swear by them, many of my youtube videos have been mixed using them. For example check the following songs out. Song 1 and Song 2.
- Audio Technica has also released an M35 headphones and looking at the specs for the headphone, they should work well too.
Studio Monitors - No matter who tells you what,a good pair of studio monitors are a must in any home studio. It does not matter the size of the monitors you get, mostly depends on your ear and what feels good for you in the mid range and higher frequencies, mixing bass is a difficult thing in a home studio and you are better off using the headphones for that.
-
M-Audio AV40 - I own these and do all my rough mixes on them, around 60 videos on my channel originated on these. They are very good with mid range and highs, but when it comes to mixing lows, you will need to use your headphones or get a subwoofer.
Stepping up further, M-Audio B5 - don't own them...but have heard good things about
them
The next piece of equipment that you will need will be an audio interface. For the longest time I used one of the Behringer usb based audio interfaces along with a 2 channel mixer. As time progressed I upgraded to a Tascam interface and a 10 channel mixer. I record Drums sometimes and need more than 6 channels. This will depend on you are set up and how much of recording you do. If you are just doing single channel of vocals, or instrument you could always go with the following products.
My very first setup which I highly recommend would be the combination of the following. A usb interface that will plug into the tape outs of a small mixer using a normal 2 channel RCA cable.
For the small mixer my choice would be the following product.
That should get you going very quickly, plus you will have good preamp on the mixer so the signal strength should be more than enough to the system.
For a one stop solution, you will need to spend a bit more and I can recommend the following devices.
Best - USB based entry level choices
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 - Reviewed here. One of the best interfaces that I have used. Completely stable and has much better pre amps and plugins than the competition in the price range.
Good -M-Audio Fast Track - Entry level audio interface, they are excellent for smaller bands who can record tracks seperately.
Final piece is a midi controller.
If you are a Drum programmer, then go with a pad type interface. I own an APC 20 which is specifially made for Ableton. It is a fantastic product for doing everything from playing to mixing to DJing.
If you are a DJ, then go with a usb DJ interface. I am not an expert on those, so use the amazon search above and have fun finding the products that will fit your needs.
If you are more of a piano player then get yourself one of the midi keyboards. I own an M-Audio Oxygen 49 and it has been working great for over 5 years now.
If you already own a entry level piano at home, good news you save some money.....I would suggest picking up the following device to hook your piano to the pc/mac. I run my entry level Yamaha PSR keyboard to my system using the EMU midi interface. There are other cheaper options available if you choose to go the non branded way.
Ableton live has great support and the install should go on both pc/mac without any hiccups. Once installed you should be able to play around with the software and follow the inbuilt help and templates to get you up and running.
My follow up post in the Ableton Basics will be how to record vocals into your PC.
Thanks for Reading!
You can check out my work here. I mostly do instrumental covers/ remixes of major songs from all around the world.
Disclaimer - These are products that I have used, am using or have seen in action. Just like any other review site, please read about the products before you purchase them. I am in no way affiliated to any of the product companies above or bear no responsibility if one of them does not work for you.
Hey I just came across your blog! Cant wait to see what follows. Keep up the great work man, I'm sure a lot of us can benefit from this!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Prahlad :)!
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