Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers

Awesome book, full of useful suggestions, many along the lines of Eno's famed suggestions, but with good prose further explaining each idea/approach. A few are tailored to "making beats" or similarly tied to modern music production, but there's much useful material here for classical music composers (e.g. me), too. I got the kindle version, as the paper version look way over priced (probably more of a "coffee-table quality" book, but this is such a practical book that I'd buy a reasonably priced "normal quality" paper in an instant, even after owning the kindle version). I'd love to be able to make notes in the margins, and find these kinds of books more useful in physical form.

Essential reading for any musician, not just electronic ones. This book is an easy read. I don't work in a DAW, which gets a fair bit of attention here, but I still found it to be full of suggestions that pushed my creative boundaries and let me look differently at the process of making music.

Solid with useful tips and concepts. This is the book to refer to when creativity is fleeting. A must have for musicians.

Some interesting ideas if new to music production. Over all , I found most ideas an experienced producer already practices. Several useful suggestions, though.

I'm going to find the time to come back and give this a proper review, but in the meantime, 5 stars. This book is everything I thought and hoped it would be from the previews at the Ableton site... and more, much more. Never before have those vague "unanswerables" about creativity been so well answered, at least as it pertains to electronic music production. This book is definitely focused on electronic production (not EDM genres in specific) - the composition side, the neglected one. Anyone who struggles with writing music in general, electronic or not, will benefit - but parts are definitely specific to music made by computers. I'm already demonstrably better as a composer and have an easier time getting started after reading through one time, and I expect I will be re-reading and referencing back to this book over and over for a long time to come. If you've got any doubts, read the preview chapters on the official makingmusic.ableton site - though many of the best are reserved for the book itself. Proper review forthcoming. Note: This is NOT specific to Ableton users in any way - no matter your DAW, this will not exclude you. I use Maschine and found zero conflicts in that regard. Ableton is used for screenshots of the sequencer patterns, nothing more.

I've been making music for a long time & making music with computers since 1998. I wish I had access to this book in 1998. I'm going to be going back to this well again & again. Highly recommended. Also, even though the author works for Ableton, it's really in no way is a how-to for Abelton, it's much more DAW agnostic & really about the unique challenges making music with computers bring.

The format of this book is quite intriguing. He sets up situations that musicians find themselves in and gives concrete, doable and creative methods to fix those problems. I’m still a newbie and his simple approach made so much sense. In the world of video everything, it was refreshing to simply sit down and read a chapter whenever I had time. It’s not a page turner like a novel but I did read it slowly so as to absorb his principles. Not sure there are other books on this topic to compare with but I’m certainly glad I invested in it and appreciate his sharing this gem with fellow musicians and music lovers. His writing style was comfortable and inviting; like someone you would love to meet in person.

I randomly picked up this book for my kindle before a long flight thinking it's probably a bit elementary but perhaps it would keep me entertained on my trip back home. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how structured, clear, and practical the information is laid out in this book. The author knows what he's talking about, and this book is chock full of useful ideas and production concepts. I also appreciate that it's straight to the point - there's little to no fluff or anecdotal nonsense from the author. I think any producer at any level would find something beneficial from this book. Highly recommend.

OK, I'm a frustrated 'disco dad', worked in the rave scene in the hippest clubs and record labels in the 90s. I occasionally tried production in 97 (failed - though my attempts at marrying Basic Channel and UK Garage like Dem 2 and Ramsey and Fen meant I de facto invented dubstep!!!!! But it was crud....), again in 09 with the UK Bass scene that revivified my love in rave, but my skills were crap so I gave up. Got back into raving again with all the fancy new takes on hardcore from techno and house folks (hey Special Request, Denham Audio, LMajor, Shed, etc) and lockdown made me try again, built a wicked studio but the all the 'what the fudge do i do now' questions hit me.... This book is the antidote. Some seriously good tips and tricks here. I still haven't invented the next new thang but I am having mad fun break chopping and the tricks here have enabled me to come up with basslines, chords and stabs in a day that I failed to do in years over the, er, years... Big Up! (I actually boycott all Amazon except Kindle coz I hate evil but you can get this book here much cheaper than the official Ableton site)

Some great stuff here. Everything applies to traditional music production in one way or another. In fact, many of these strategies are transferable to other art forms, i.e. the section on finishing. Some great ways to get unstuck.

Tips muy interesantes relacionados con todo el proceso de creación, gestión, maduración y finalización de proyectos de audio. Además no tiene por qué leerse de forma lineal, lo cual lo hace más accesible y atractivo. Muy recomendable, incluso para usuarios avanzados.

I've always loved to read about making music. While others have always focused on the technical part of production, this one talks of creative techniques. To the people new to music production I recommend it strongly. IT WILL SAVE YOU SO MUCH TIME. And for the more experienced ones, I'm a self taught producer and i have spent last 7 years practicing music production. This book could have saved me so much headache. Reason : It has every creative technique you'll ever hear from the vast source of knowledge that is the internet. You tend to forget those over time. This right here is a reminder of all those good techniques.

Excelente libro de tips para evitar un "creativeblock" musical y muy obviamente patrocinado por Ableton.