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Getting started
What you need to start
A computer that runs Ableton Live 12, headphones you already own and your phone. What can wait, and why I’d wait.
People often ask me what to buy before they start making music. My honest answer is: almost nothing. The list is short, and you probably own all of it already.
The short list
- A computer that runs Ableton Live 12. Live is the software I teach. Ableton has a free 30-day trial of Live 12 Suite, its fullest edition, so you can start without paying for anything.
- Headphones you already own. No studio headphones needed.
- Your phone. For recording sounds during the day.
That’s it. Here’s a little about each.
Your computer
Check your computer against the list on the ready page.
If your laptop is a few years old, don’t rule it out before you’ve tried. Install the trial and play a sound. You’ll know quickly.
One thing to plan for: the trial lasts 30 days. After that, Ableton says you can still open what you made, but you can’t save or export it any more. So use the month, and decide which edition you want before it ends. The course works in Live Intro, Standard or Suite, so you don’t need the biggest one.
Your headphones
Whatever you have is fine to begin with. I write in the evenings, when the house needs to stay quiet, so I work on headphones almost all the time. The course is built that way too. Even the mixing lesson is called “Mixing on headphones”.
If you have wired headphones, use them. Ableton’s own help pages note that Bluetooth headphones add a delay compared with wired ones. It won’t stop you listening back, but it makes playing notes in time harder.
Your phone
This is the part people don’t expect. A lot of the music in the course starts as sounds you record during the day: a spoon on a mug, a cupboard door, rain on the window. The voice recorder on your phone is enough.
I’ve written a separate article on how to record those sounds and what happens to them at night.
What you don’t need yet
A MIDI keyboard. A small piano-style keyboard that plugs into your computer. It’s lovely to have, but you don’t need one to start. In Live you can draw notes in with the mouse, and you can play notes on your computer’s own keyboard.
An audio interface. A small box that connects microphones and speakers to your computer. You’ll want one if you start recording with a proper microphone. Until then, your headphones and your phone do the job.
My advice is to wait. Make music for a few weeks first. Once you know what slows you down, you’ll know what to buy, if anything.
In the course, Lesson 1, “Setup night”, goes through what you need and why a keyboard and an interface are optional. Lesson 8, “Daytime capture”, comes back to interfaces and microphones once you’re recording your own sounds.
Where to start
Download the trial. Plug in your headphones. Keep your phone in your pocket tomorrow and listen for one sound worth keeping.
Then do Lessons 1 to 3. They’re free, and they’re the quickest way to find out whether this way of making music suits you.
