Point Blank Music School: Week 3

Week 3: Music, Bass and Midi Effects

• Sounds: browsing, tricks, REX and Midi files
• Simpler: loading sounds, start points
• Programming bass parts in different genres
• Compression: basics
• Simpler: filter, LFO, velocity, Live 7 Legacy
• Riffs, chords and scales, arpeggiator
• Racks: chains, instruments, drum racks

It's week 3 in the Point Blank Online Ableton Course and things are getting more melodic. While the first two weeks were reserved primarily for beat making, this week we learned how to use the simpler tool and how Ableton can transform an audio clip into midi, which is an extremely awesome feature. Learning how to fiddle with the simpler tool turned out to be quite easy, since most of the knobs and dials that Ableton offers are somewhat repetitive across the various tools, like e.g. impulse. So while the course gradually becomes more technical, there are times when you can find the time to breath because of the similarities across Ableton's UI.

This week's masterclass was planned just with a days notice. While that was not a problem for me, I can understand if some would be challenged by this. Due to the holiday break, the course is theoretically a week behind, which seems to have tricked Point Blank's online schedule a bit. Also the course instructor Freddy Cuin is a travelling musician with a busy schedule, so a lot of things have to add up and sometimes scheduling suffers a bit. That being said, the masterclass was pushing this weeks syllabus and extended on some area, however I found this to be very good and I learned some extra tips and tricks that is not covered in the course material. Like every week so far, Freddy covers the subjects at a fast pace, but it is still possible to keep up and if not, the masterclass can be reviewed later when uploaded to the course forum.

I have also continued to work on my own track which I previewed here earlier and next week there should be another 1-2-1 session with Freddy Cuin, which will hopefully bring me one step closer at making a nice sounding piece of music. 

More info on the course I am taking: CLICK HERE (via Point Blank).
Also visit Point Blank to see all their programs and offerings: www.pointblanklondon.com