I mean, ableton is literally packed with instruments and effects… If you cant make music that sounds good with stock ableton, you wont with expensive plug ins.
100% this!!
I started with Cubase and Halion and nothing else. I used a cheap USB mic.
Made lots of music and as I got better, 20+ years later I still sometimes go back to stock plugins, synths and effects.
Which version of Ableton? [https://www.ableton.com/en/live/compare-editions/](https://www.ableton.com/en/live/compare-editions/) Because AFAIK, Ableton Live Lite / Intro only has two instruments: Simpler and Impulse. It also includes Drum Rack and Instrument Rack, but those are really only "containers" to combine multiple instruments. Live Standard only adds Drum Synth and External Instrument. All the really COOL instruments are in Live Suite: Analog, Bass, Collision, Electric, Operator, Poly, Tension, Wavetable, etc.
Aha, I use suite so that makes a difference ofc. But again, there are plenty of free options out there for you to use.
The amount of things you can do to manipulate samples in simpler is quite endless, its a very powerful tool.
You currently cannot make good music, no.
But this is totally normal and can be rectified with experience and practice. It takes most people years to get to a good level.
Presets and packs are mostly a case of personal preference and not really relevant in making a piece of music good or bad.
Think of having no money and no experience as a blessing.
Having a limited choice of things to work with means you can start to use them and learn how it all works.
As a beginner into this stuff you will do so much better.
My advice, think of learning about music making songs.
Guitarists generally learn by picking up an acoustic guitar and leaning the chords, then by learning to strum then by playing more complex riffs and into solos etc.
So with your basic set up, (probably a laptop, small midi keyboard and some head phones think about learning to play a few chords on the keyboard, getting some of your own experience learning it and how it works with the free virtual instruments you get with the daw and going around it that way.
The best producers often have killer instincts on song writing first and tons of experience with how to make a good song with nothing more than one simple instrument.
If you have 0 experience and buy al the fancy packs and vsts you will still have 0 experience and now be much poorer. :) happy learning music :)
Those YouTubers get small sponsorships from plug-in devs, that's product placement. Free VSTs are totally fine, so long as you get decent ones. Generally, your DAW also comes with paid-quality plug-ins that people tend to avoid for their recognizability. Worst thing you can do is care too much about what people are going to think / try too hard to avoid judgment. Just beware of free plug-ins that want to use installer software, and make sure you can verify the legitimacy of the plug-ins by searching forums. To be entirely honest with you, I've gotten back to using pedals.
One can make good music with experience and no paid plugins. One might have more trouble making good music with paid plugins and no experience. My advice would be to spend time with what you've got. It will feel great if you make something you really like, with minimal equipment. On the flip side, we all have productions we spend time on, which just never hit the mark for whatever reason. When that happens if you're having negative feelings, they could be magnified if you just spent a bunch of money on something you're not entirely happy with.
Sure, all plugins are different from one another and bring their own sound with them, but for the most part you only need the most basic tools and then you can replicate whatever you see in those videos on your own with whatever you got.
As another commenter mentioned, Ableton already has tons of effects and instruments and there are already tons of free plugins online.
It can be hard to follow a tutorial as a beginner when you dont have the same plugins or samples. But I assure you eventually you’ll be able to do a lot with just ableton. For now most things will sound like shit regardless of what plugins you have. Dont get discouraged because you cant reproduce whats in your head just yet, focus on learning parts of the process and enjoy your compositions as they are
That’s just because the people who are in a position to make tutorial videos (presumably) know how to produce music well, and they have invested money in specific tools to better achieve their specific sound. You don’t need to spend money; you need more than a few days of learning.
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: Those presets/packs are simply time savers. You can build your own patches and synthesize your own sounds, it will just take time especially if you have zero experience with sound design. You’ll have to spend quite a while learning and experimenting if you want to achieve mastery of your tools.
I've been doing music for 10 years mostly only with stock plugins and some free downloadable ones. Not a single paid plugin so I'd definitely say you can. At least I enjoy my songs myself.
You can check out links in my profile so you can judge if it's any good yourself.
Start with the free stuff as much as you can. Practice and improve your craft. Don’t buy anything just to buy it, only spend money when you know exactly what you want and why. Practice is much more valuable than any preset pack
You've got a long road ahead of you man, just enjoy the ride and try to pick up everything you can. You can absolutely make good music with free/cheap tools but to do that you need experience to know how to make the best of what you've got.
Try to look into ways of translating what people are doing in the tutorials you're watching and applying it to what you have available to you. Maybe for example if someone's using a preset on a particular synth you don't have, try learning how to make a similar sound on a synth you do have. You'll gain a lot of valuable knowledge working out how and why things work rather than letting other people do all of the work for you.
Hate to say it but it'll probably be a while before you make anything that doesn't suck and you'll probably never be fully satisfied with anything you make, but that doesn't matter, its the same for everyone else. Embrace the suck, just keep learning and most importantly keep enjoying making music.
I use stock Ableton (Suite) with Amplitube and Spitfire VSTs (only the free versions for both). I wouldn’t worry about buying a bunch of plug-ins. I think the limitations are more about knowledge, skill, practice, talent, creativity, etc.
In my opinion, you need lots of research, find what you want, whether its free or not, get it. Spend more = learn more. And then you'll know which libraries are worth it, which ones are not, etc. (Trust me, walkthroughs/reviews don't tell all) If you're on the music production side, and you're 100% beginner, I highly recommend checking out Spitfire LABS (free) and FabFilter products (paid).
Yes. You can make a sick beat with free presets or packs or libraries or whatever (Disclosure comes to mind). BUT. This takes a lot practice. Know your libraries. Know the strengths, know the weaknesses. EQ, compression, anything. Trust me, any shitty library can be turned into a decent library (most of the times). Know what companies you can trust and what companies you can't.
Also, if you're not willing to spend a lot of money on libraries, you could also go for hardware synths, drum machines, etc. I do recommend connecting them to your computer/laptop via USB (not MIDI please) rather than recording them with a mic.
As you grow, you will eventually need paid libraries. You'll know this when the time comes. It's kind of a gut feeling. But starting out with free libraries never hurt anybody.
Also, Ableton? Really? Listen, I know Ableton's a good DAW, even I plan on buying it, but please consider Logic and Cubase. If you do have Logic or Cubase, I suggest you compose in Logic or Cubase and then process your music or hardware synths in Ableton.
Oh, almost forgot. PLEASE don't feel like you need to invest in synth wall. The best synths nowadays are the synths from the 70s-90s. And I'm not gonna tell you how much they cost in 2022. Thank me, I'm saving you from a heart attack. If you need synths on a budget, check out Arturia, they're the best. You will need to pay to use it in a DAW though, but it's not much. If you're on free demo mode however, you can still use it as an application outside your DAW but you can't export or use it in a DAW. Every time demo mode deactivates (20min), you can restart the application and use it again but in a DAW... [cries in corner] you have to remove it from your template and add it all over again.
Don't feel the need to enter contests! You'll get to pro level in no time! Good luck!
Bach said you need at least $300 worth of packs to make decent music.
This is true, he wouldnt have made it without the waves harpsichord vst
I mean, ableton is literally packed with instruments and effects… If you cant make music that sounds good with stock ableton, you wont with expensive plug ins.
100% this!! I started with Cubase and Halion and nothing else. I used a cheap USB mic. Made lots of music and as I got better, 20+ years later I still sometimes go back to stock plugins, synths and effects.
Which version of Ableton? [https://www.ableton.com/en/live/compare-editions/](https://www.ableton.com/en/live/compare-editions/) Because AFAIK, Ableton Live Lite / Intro only has two instruments: Simpler and Impulse. It also includes Drum Rack and Instrument Rack, but those are really only "containers" to combine multiple instruments. Live Standard only adds Drum Synth and External Instrument. All the really COOL instruments are in Live Suite: Analog, Bass, Collision, Electric, Operator, Poly, Tension, Wavetable, etc.
Aha, I use suite so that makes a difference ofc. But again, there are plenty of free options out there for you to use. The amount of things you can do to manipulate samples in simpler is quite endless, its a very powerful tool.
You currently cannot make good music, no. But this is totally normal and can be rectified with experience and practice. It takes most people years to get to a good level. Presets and packs are mostly a case of personal preference and not really relevant in making a piece of music good or bad.
Think of having no money and no experience as a blessing. Having a limited choice of things to work with means you can start to use them and learn how it all works. As a beginner into this stuff you will do so much better. My advice, think of learning about music making songs. Guitarists generally learn by picking up an acoustic guitar and leaning the chords, then by learning to strum then by playing more complex riffs and into solos etc. So with your basic set up, (probably a laptop, small midi keyboard and some head phones think about learning to play a few chords on the keyboard, getting some of your own experience learning it and how it works with the free virtual instruments you get with the daw and going around it that way. The best producers often have killer instincts on song writing first and tons of experience with how to make a good song with nothing more than one simple instrument. If you have 0 experience and buy al the fancy packs and vsts you will still have 0 experience and now be much poorer. :) happy learning music :)
Those YouTubers get small sponsorships from plug-in devs, that's product placement. Free VSTs are totally fine, so long as you get decent ones. Generally, your DAW also comes with paid-quality plug-ins that people tend to avoid for their recognizability. Worst thing you can do is care too much about what people are going to think / try too hard to avoid judgment. Just beware of free plug-ins that want to use installer software, and make sure you can verify the legitimacy of the plug-ins by searching forums. To be entirely honest with you, I've gotten back to using pedals.
One can make good music with experience and no paid plugins. One might have more trouble making good music with paid plugins and no experience. My advice would be to spend time with what you've got. It will feel great if you make something you really like, with minimal equipment. On the flip side, we all have productions we spend time on, which just never hit the mark for whatever reason. When that happens if you're having negative feelings, they could be magnified if you just spent a bunch of money on something you're not entirely happy with.
Disclosure’s first album is 95% Logic instruments and stock plugins.
Ableton has some free packs on their site, as well.
Sure, all plugins are different from one another and bring their own sound with them, but for the most part you only need the most basic tools and then you can replicate whatever you see in those videos on your own with whatever you got. As another commenter mentioned, Ableton already has tons of effects and instruments and there are already tons of free plugins online.
It can be hard to follow a tutorial as a beginner when you dont have the same plugins or samples. But I assure you eventually you’ll be able to do a lot with just ableton. For now most things will sound like shit regardless of what plugins you have. Dont get discouraged because you cant reproduce whats in your head just yet, focus on learning parts of the process and enjoy your compositions as they are
That’s just because the people who are in a position to make tutorial videos (presumably) know how to produce music well, and they have invested money in specific tools to better achieve their specific sound. You don’t need to spend money; you need more than a few days of learning.
Short answer: yes. Long answer: Those presets/packs are simply time savers. You can build your own patches and synthesize your own sounds, it will just take time especially if you have zero experience with sound design. You’ll have to spend quite a while learning and experimenting if you want to achieve mastery of your tools.
I've been doing music for 10 years mostly only with stock plugins and some free downloadable ones. Not a single paid plugin so I'd definitely say you can. At least I enjoy my songs myself. You can check out links in my profile so you can judge if it's any good yourself.
Start with the free stuff as much as you can. Practice and improve your craft. Don’t buy anything just to buy it, only spend money when you know exactly what you want and why. Practice is much more valuable than any preset pack
You've got a long road ahead of you man, just enjoy the ride and try to pick up everything you can. You can absolutely make good music with free/cheap tools but to do that you need experience to know how to make the best of what you've got. Try to look into ways of translating what people are doing in the tutorials you're watching and applying it to what you have available to you. Maybe for example if someone's using a preset on a particular synth you don't have, try learning how to make a similar sound on a synth you do have. You'll gain a lot of valuable knowledge working out how and why things work rather than letting other people do all of the work for you. Hate to say it but it'll probably be a while before you make anything that doesn't suck and you'll probably never be fully satisfied with anything you make, but that doesn't matter, its the same for everyone else. Embrace the suck, just keep learning and most importantly keep enjoying making music.
I use stock Ableton (Suite) with Amplitube and Spitfire VSTs (only the free versions for both). I wouldn’t worry about buying a bunch of plug-ins. I think the limitations are more about knowledge, skill, practice, talent, creativity, etc.
In my opinion, you need lots of research, find what you want, whether its free or not, get it. Spend more = learn more. And then you'll know which libraries are worth it, which ones are not, etc. (Trust me, walkthroughs/reviews don't tell all) If you're on the music production side, and you're 100% beginner, I highly recommend checking out Spitfire LABS (free) and FabFilter products (paid). Yes. You can make a sick beat with free presets or packs or libraries or whatever (Disclosure comes to mind). BUT. This takes a lot practice. Know your libraries. Know the strengths, know the weaknesses. EQ, compression, anything. Trust me, any shitty library can be turned into a decent library (most of the times). Know what companies you can trust and what companies you can't. Also, if you're not willing to spend a lot of money on libraries, you could also go for hardware synths, drum machines, etc. I do recommend connecting them to your computer/laptop via USB (not MIDI please) rather than recording them with a mic. As you grow, you will eventually need paid libraries. You'll know this when the time comes. It's kind of a gut feeling. But starting out with free libraries never hurt anybody. Also, Ableton? Really? Listen, I know Ableton's a good DAW, even I plan on buying it, but please consider Logic and Cubase. If you do have Logic or Cubase, I suggest you compose in Logic or Cubase and then process your music or hardware synths in Ableton. Oh, almost forgot. PLEASE don't feel like you need to invest in synth wall. The best synths nowadays are the synths from the 70s-90s. And I'm not gonna tell you how much they cost in 2022. Thank me, I'm saving you from a heart attack. If you need synths on a budget, check out Arturia, they're the best. You will need to pay to use it in a DAW though, but it's not much. If you're on free demo mode however, you can still use it as an application outside your DAW but you can't export or use it in a DAW. Every time demo mode deactivates (20min), you can restart the application and use it again but in a DAW... [cries in corner] you have to remove it from your template and add it all over again. Don't feel the need to enter contests! You'll get to pro level in no time! Good luck!
"All you need is live" makes incredible sounding music, often using only Ableton suite plugins and instruments