Ableton and MainStage for the Marching Arts
A step-by-step guide to optimizing your ensemble's electronics setup
Electronics that enhance rather than impede:
Learn the subtleties of mixing, routing, sound design, and sample/soundscape integration to help your ensemble achieve a cutting-edge sound.
Master your gear:
Someone needs to know how to do it, why not you? Become the electronics guru for your ensemble!
Get the most out of your rehearsals:
Learn how to make informed adjustments to your samples and synths the moment they’re needed.
Capitalize on your current setup:
Integrate Ableton or MainStage to work seamlessly with the gear you already own to achieve a modern, sophisticated workflow.
Key Takeaways:
1. Electronics that enhance rather than impede:
Learn the subtleties of mixing, routing, sound design, and sample/soundscape integration to help your ensemble achieve a cutting-edge sound.
2. Master your gear:
Someone needs to know how to do it, why not you? Become the electronics guru for your ensemble!
3. Get the most out of your rehearsals:
Learn how to make informed adjustments to your samples and synths the moment they’re needed.
4. Capitalize on your current setup:
Integrate Ableton or MainStage to work seamlessly with the gear you already own to achieve a modern, sophisticated workflow.
Take Your Marching Audio Setup
to the Next Level
This course provides all the knowledge and techniques necessary for fully and effectively using a laptop to manage and augment your ensemble’s electronic setup, and is intended for all skill levels! No matter how unfamiliar you are with Ableton and MainStage right now, following the steps laid out in these videos will have you working with these popular Digital Audio Workstations like a pro in no time!
Take Your Marching Audio Setup
to the Next Level
This course provides all the knowledge and techniques necessary for fully and effectively using a laptop to manage and augment your ensemble’s electronic setup, and is intended for all skill levels! No matter how unfamiliar you are with Ableton and MainStage right now, following the steps laid out in these videos will have you working with these popular Digital Audio Workstations like a pro in no time!
Compression and EQ
Compression and EQ can be powerful tools when you’re fine-tuning your audio effects and synthesizers. Learn how to tweak your EQ to fine tune your electronic audio’s frequencies and dial in compressors to keep your soloist and synth levels in check and sounding just right every time.
Reverb, Delay, and More Effects
From effect order and input/output processing to send/return effects and dry/wet balance, I’ll cover all the techniques I use to achieve the best sound out of the front ensemble and, in particular, soloists.
Creative Sample Playback Strategies
Managing complex sampling setups is somewhat of a specialty of mine, and in this course I give you all the tips, tricks and techniques I’ve developed over years of organizing and implementing complex sampling setups. By the end of this course you’ll be able to quickly set up and manage your soundscapes, samples, and audio effects with ease and confidence. No more hastily watching YouTube tutorials in the middle of rehearsals!
Mix Buss Setup and Routing
Learn how to route multiple channels to busses to apply processing, consolidate channels, and set up custom monitor mixes. Understanding the ins and outs of bussing is a must-know for anyone working with electronic audio, and once you understand the concepts of this incredibly useful technique, no audio routing challenge will stand in your way!
DAW Fundamentals
Learn the basics of Ableton and MainStage without being overwhelmed! This course will familiarize you with these complex Digital Audio Workstations, breaking down the fundamentals of how to use them while not focusing on unnecessary parts of the software that won’t be useful to you as a band or percussion director.
Advanced Digital Audio Routing
What’s easier than unplugging an audio cable, rerouting it through your front ensemble, plugging it back in, and adjusting your cross-patching on the mixer? Achieving the same result with a few clicks of the mouse. I’ll show you how to use Ableton and MainStage as advanced audio routing platforms that will augment and simplify your overall cabling setup.
Synth Programming
Learn what it takes to make your synths stand out from the crowd. Often underutilized as a simple string patch in the background, the sonic potential for using software synths in the marching arts is absolutely endless. Nothing can help your band sound as massive and cinematic as a properly-programmed synthesizer!
Integrating Kontakt 6 Sampler VST
Kontakt 6 from Native Instruments is the premiere sampling VST on the market today. It’s packed with extremely high quality playable sample instruments, and in this course I take you through from start to finish how to most effectively integrate this powerful piece of software into your synth setup. No more are the days of wondering “Is that supposed to be an orchestral string patch, or a distorted oboe?”
Submixing Channels to Expand Routing Capabilities
I’m sure many of us have found ourselves in a situation where we have just a few more channels of audio than we have audio inputs on our mixer. At this point you have two options: a pricey mixer upgrade that you still might outgrow someday, or what is often the more elegant solution: submixing through software. In this course I’ll take you through how to consolidate channels in Ableton and MainStage to juice your electronic setup and get the most out of your gear!
Advanced Live Synth and Sample Processing Techniques
Here is where I really give away the farm: I utilize a number of extremely useful MIDI-routing techniques that allow you to fine-tune your synth and sample sounds on a per-sound basis on the fly! Got a synth sound that needs some hissy higher frequencies lowered just for a few bars so it’ll fit within the ensemble? No problem, I’ll show you how. Have an audio sample that is overly bass-heavy, but you don’t have time to use audio editing software to fix it? I’ll show you how to do it right there in the DAW in a matter of seconds. What I discuss here will change how you approach your electronic setup.
Audio Hardware and Software Setup
I cover the ins and outs of how to set up your audio interfaces and DAWs for optimal audio playback. Learn the delicate balancing act of buffer size vs latency, sample rates, and utilizing multi-channel audio interfaces to get the most control and flexibility out of your electronic audio setup.
MIDI Controller Setup and MIDI Mapping Techniques
Learn how to get the most out of your MIDI controllers: I cover split keyboard setup, MIDI mapping to trigger sample playback and momentary audio processing activation, MIDI program change messages, and more!
Course Outline
| Module 1 | Intro |
|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Introduction |
| Unit 2 | Why Use a DAW |
Ableton Live
(basic modules)
| Module 1 | Getting Started with Ableton |
|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Ableton Basics |
| Unit 2 | Setting up your Audio Interface |
| Unit 3 | The Interface to Mixer Connection |
Ableton Live
(adv. modules)
| Module 1 | Audio and MIDI in Ableton |
|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Audio and MIDI Clips |
| Unit 2 | Warping and Automation |
| Unit 3 | Setting Up and Using MIDI Controllers |
| Unit 4 | Basic Audio Processing |
| Unit 5 | Working with Grouped Channels |
| Unit 6 | Basic Audio Effects |
| Module 2 | Triggering Samples Using Ableton |
| Unit 1 | MIDI Mapping |
| Unit 2 | Creative Sample Playback |
| Module 3 | Kontakt and Advanced Synth and Sample Techniques |
| Unit 1 | Using Native Instruments Kontakt 6 |
| Unit 2 | Advanced Synth Setup Pt. 1 |
| Unit 3 | Advanced Synth Setup Pt. 2: Voice-Specific Processing Chains |
| Unit 4 | Sample-Specific Processing |
| Module 4 | Submixing and Effects |
| Unit 1 | Using Ableton as a Submixer |
| Unit 2 | Creating Monitor Mixes |
| Unit 3 | Soloist Effects and Processing |
| Module 5 | Ableton Live 11 |
| Unit 1 | Utilizing the New Features of Ableton Live 11 for the Marching Arts |
| Module 6 | Wrap Up |
| Unit 1 | Ableton vs. MainStage |
MainStage 3
(basic modules)
| Module 1 | Getting Started with MainStage |
|---|---|
| Unit 1 | MainStage Basics |
| Unit 2 | Setting up Preferences, MIDI and Audio |
| Unit 3 | Edit Mode |
| Unit 4 | Layout and Perform Modes |
| Unit 5 | Creating a Blank Template and the Concert/Set/Patch Hierarchy |
MainStage 3
(adv. modules)
| Module 1 | Customizing your Concert |
|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Creating Screen Controls |
| Unit 2 | Creating and Editing Synth Patches |
| Unit 3 | Using Kontakt 6 in MainStage |
| Unit 4 | Kontakt 6 and Alias Channels |
| Unit 5 | Triggering Samples with MainStage |
| Module 2 | Routing and MIDI |
| Unit 1 | Effect Sends, Aux Channels, and Patch Busses |
| Unit 2 | Assigning and Mapping |
| Unit 3 | Using MIDI Program Changes to Select patches |
| Module 3 | Wrap Up |
| Unit 1 | Ableton vs. MainStage |