I have a book coming out in February, co-authored with the illustrious VJ Manzo, called Interactive Composition: Strategies Using Ableton and Max for Live.
VJ and I have been working together for years to try to quantify and transcribe the way that music is being written today. Our work continues, and our shared passion could be described as defining the methods that modern musicians are using to write popular music.
If you want to learn how to use Ableton Live to make the sorts of music that Ableton Live users make, Interactive Composition is your starting point. It’s both a book of tutorials as well as a snapshot of electronic dance music and production styles and culture. Look for mini-versions of lessons from the book in the months leading up to its release on this page. The book contains 11 amazing projects and many more techniques and sub-projects to explore in your classes or personal work. Each project is dense with techniques like synth-building, patch programming, sampling methods, and more.
In the meantime, check out the amazing cover design job by Oxford University Press:
(For those asking: the subway map on the cover recalls both the visual nature of Max for Live patches as well as the vertical & modular nature of the interactive composition process, as well as reminding us of how cool subways are).
The book won’t be released until February, but you can pre-order it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and direct from Oxford University Press.
Buy a set for your class today!
WILL KUHN 