How to create music with Freedrum & Ableton

What is Ableton?

As one of the most used DAWs by music producers, Ableton can also be used for performing live. Which is perfect if you want to use Freedrum for that. If you’re familiar with Ableton then you know it can be used for both macOS and Windows. What’s also good about it is that it’s free for the first 90 days, which is really nice! In this guide, we’ll explain how to use Freedrum with Ableton.

Windows

If you’re using Windows and haven’t set up your Freedrum sensors yet, you need to do that before they can be connected to Ableton. Click the link to read more on how to set up with Windows → Setup with Windows

iOS

And if you’re using macOS, you can click on the link to read more on how to set up with macOS → Setup with macOS

How to get started

As soon as you have connected your sensors, you are good to go! Simply open up Ableton and start by choosing the sound you want to use. They have a different variety of sounds which you can find on their list at the left of the screen.

Just choose an instrument and then click which sound you’d like to use. And simply just drag and drop to the track that says MIDI on the top. Now you are able to play with your Freedrum sensors.

You can of course choose another sound if you’d like that. Then you just repeat the same thing again. 
Sometimes a small popup window will come up and ask if you’re playing with a MIDI keyboard or Drums. You can simply click on “Drums”. If you click on the other option, that works great too!

Record

And when you’re ready to record, you click on the circle on the left in the MIDI track.
There is also lots of fun effects to add to your tracks. On the left of the screen, you click on “MIDI Effects” and find yourself an effect, and then just drag and drop to the same track. But this time you need to think about where in the track you drop the effect. You simply drop it below the instrument sound. And the effect will be added.

It is as simple as this to start using Freedrum with Ableton. If you haven’t used Ableton Live before but would like to start, then this would be an easy first step to use it. It may look complex in the beginning but as you start to look around and learn it you’ll get used to it. And everyone’s process of learning is different. 

If you have any questions or thoughts on using Freedrum with Ableton, feel free to reach out to us!

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