Working with Ableton Live 8

So, I took the plunge and added Ableton Live 8 to my studio for music production. So far I'm liking it. I have been watching videos from their site as well as YouTube vids from other users showing their work flow. It seems to be just what I needed. Now the thing is learning how to use this DAW.

I have been using the Internet to search for help in various arenas in order to better hone my skills. Obviously dedication to the DAW and constant usage will help the most, but it also pays to learn some tips, tricks and shortcuts to speed the process along. Watching tutorial vids or product feature overviews gives the basic user some insight as to what the DAW can do for you, but it's not always the best way to learn. For me, I needed to get some more real world usage help.

As I bounced around from site to site, sifting through the myriad of search results, I happened to come across some info from Vespers, a Glitch Hop DJ from Canada, who is also a certified Ableton Trainer. He had some of his tracks available for download along with a PDF he put together with some tips he uses in his Ableton studio setup. It was a mix of things that I already knew alongside some new tricks that I was unaware of. All in all, I learned a lot from reading the document and I'll be referring back to it to brush up on the keyboard shortcuts and MIDI mapping section.

Now that I have a MIDI keyboard from school to use, I can start to program settings into the knobs and buttons and get my Live sessions setup in hopes of working more efficiently. Vespers made a very good point that when you know your DAW and your hardware, you spend less time worrying about how to accomplish certain tasks and you can focus more time on creating music. This will pay off for me big time since a large part of my frustration has been not knowing how to get certain effects and/or sounds from my DAW. And by the time I figured it out, so much time had passed that I had forgotten what I was trying to accomplish. Talk about a total waste of time!

So, I feel that Vespers, along with so many other successful computer music producers, have become so by putting the time and effort in to learn the tools of their trade. I'll be spending some time learning keyboard shortcuts, macros and creating Racks and Session Templates.

Does anyone else have a secret about how they learn?