Property of Gotta Dance Dirty
By now I am halfway through my course at Point Blank Online. This week’s lesson was all about audio effects and building scenes in the session view (more on this below). At this point in the course we have covered the basics of Abelton from its functions, instruments, and effects. The remainder of the course ahead will address arranging a track, polishing it with effects, automation, and finally mastering it.
Catch last week’s post HERE and read the full recap of Week #4 after the jump!
The first 4 weeks of the course have been information packed. I feel like each week I learn new elements in Abelton as well as expand on what I already knew about the software. Looking at the course now from the point of view of a novice, the information taught in the first 4 weeks could be overwhelming yet it is extremely important. In just one month student’s who take this course can move from a complete beginner to a high intermediate understanding of Abelton.
However, I feel that no matter what experience level you are at currently, it will be essential to review each lesson again after the course has finished. Point Blank understands this need and allows students to access their previous course materials for a full year.
Lesson 4’s main teaching points were audio effects and building scenes in the session view.
Although every active producer knows what audio effects are, it’s safe to assume not everyone understand the meaning behind all the parameters (most people fiddle around with effects until it sounds “good”). During lesson 4 each effect – from delays, chorus, filters, and reverbs- were broken down and explained thoroughly. The main benefit of understanding these effects is to enable the producer to bring life to their sounds by creatively manipulating the effects. Check out the video above to get an example of some of our course material on effects.
Finally our lesson ended with building scenes in the session view. This is an important step for producers as it gives a rough outline for building tracks and moving them into the arrange view. There is no “fixed” way to build a song (every producer has their own techniques) but the Point Blank instructor showed us a few ways to expand on our ideas. See the video above to fully understand how to build scenes in the session view.
Stay tuned for next weeks lesson!
This post A music production journal: week #4 appeared first on Gotta Dance Dirty.
