ABLETON FOR MUSIC PRODUCERS AND AUDIO ENGINEERS
Lesson 10: From Session to Arrangement

Once you’ve got a few beat, bass, and melodic ideas in your Session View, it’s time to start laying out a song. There are several ways you can move data from the Session View to the Arrangement View. The fastest way is through a simple copy and paste, although you should be mindful of where you paste within the track. MIDI needs to be pasted into a MIDI track, audio in an audio track.

There are also drag-and-drop and Tab drag and drops methods of moving clips around. There’s no one way to do it, some just like certain methods more. Other methods of arranging are Performance Record and Transport Record Functionality. In this course, you’ll learn quick editing techniques in the arrangement view to get your clips in the order you want.

Learning how to make a song is no easy feat, but one great way to get started is by imitating the structure of a commercial track. Simply import the desired track into Live’s Arrangement View and use Locators to mark each of its sections. By closely studying this structure, you will gain insight into how successful songs are created that can guide your own songwriting process.

As you work through your own version of the commercial track, feel free to play around and add your own personal touch! Your homework for this course will be to practice analyzing tracks and creating basic outlines from what you learn. You’ll want to start with the main elements—drums and bass–as well as one other synth element that stands out in the original track.