60 Minutes to Music

Mid Semester Check Point for Electronic Music Lab

By Benjamin Ang
Work in groups
Identify who is:
comfortable with beats?
comfortable with tunes or chords?
comfortable with moving around the software?

Work with someone who can complement your abilities or

inabilities
1. Make a Beat (15 minutes)
either use the drum / kit core 808 or 909 (Ableton Live 9) to
make a new beat (refer to Lesson 1)
or use the drum clip from the demo Ableton set that you
downloaded previously
if you use this clip, you have to make changes to the beat
make 3 variations of your beat
you have 15 minutes
2. Make a Bassline (15 minutes)
select from either Make copies of the bassline
Instruments / Operator / clip and change them to
Bass C (1 bar)
Instruments / Analog / Bass G (1 bar)
and make a bassline clip A (1 bar)
using the key of C F (1 bar)
OR use the bass clip from
the Ableton set you
downloaded previously
(then you must make
changes to the bassline)
3. Add instruments (15 minutes)
select from either
Instruments / Operator / Synth Lead
Instruments / Analog / Synth Lead
and make a SIMPLE riff / tune in the key of C
The riff / tune should fit your bassline roughly
you have 15 minutes
Stop for instructions:
How to make a song structure
Common song structure Common dance remix
Verse Intro (beats only)
Chorus Section 1
Verse Section 2
Chorus Breakdown
Bridge Section 1 or Section 2
Verse Breakdown
Chorus Drop
Out tro (beats only)
Tips on song structure
Add something new or remove something every 8 or 16 bars
Make copies repetition is your friend
Use rolls or gaps to signal the end of one section
Use drum crashes to signal the beginning of another section
4. Make a structure (15 minutes)
Turn the tune into a radio edit (up to 4 minutes long)
beats, bass and lead start immediately
copy and paste sections to get verse, verse, breakdown,
verse (or your own variation)
use crashes (from kit 909) and filters to mark out the sections
you have 15 minutes