I'm now taking this course a second time because it is so absolutely helpful and has really given me a free and friendly place to learn how to use Ableton and get started on music production!

This is a great intro class, designed to be completed within the Ableton trial period. Ableton should pay Erin a commission on sales that come out of this course, because I imagine it's bringing them 100s of new sales!

The materials (mostly videos) are excellent and easy to follow. I learned a lot in this short class and would love to see an "intermediate" Ableton class in the future.

My only complaints are related to the collaboration software that you need to use for this course, blend.io. Site navigation in blend.io can be painfully slow, and the site is buggy. I would have preferred to simply share information via dropbox or some other file sharing method.

The peer review process is a great idea, although I think it's really tricky to do this in a music/art, because there is so much subjectivity and not much of a rubric. (There are some quantitative questions just to verify that the student follows instructions, but the open feedback is totally open). But, overall, the peer review works pretty well and gives students an additional incentive to turn in a quality product.

While I did not have time to complete the final assignment I did find this course useful for creating a firmer understanding of Ableton Live. The peer review process is a great idea and something which I found to be both engaging and useful for networking with fellow artists.

The content of the course I feel is probably useful to someone with no prior knowledge of DAWs, but this is not my first DAW. As such the course felt a little slow and the assignments a little unchallenging. Personally my peer review experience ranged from listening to fully fleshed out ideas to listening to uninspired loops of nonsense. I still feel as though I benefited from the process, however, and I gained an invaluable resource in Blend.

I would love a next level - fleshing out some of the ideas touched on throughout the course, as well as exploring other ideas such as sidechaining.

Gives a soft view and precise information about what to do and how to do in Live.

If you are looking for some input to start recording yourself or to start creating any kind of music, i strongly recommend this!

Some of the quizzes aren't very helpful early on, but it's a beginner class, so I think it's pretty good! I've been using Ableton for a while and still learned some new stuff.

Offers a nice introduction to Ableton and its Usage. However it would have been lovely if this was a longer course.. Loved the way of instructions and the topics covered.

It's amazing that we live in an age where you can take online classes like this for free.

I went from not knowing my way around Ableton to being able to make simple tracks in a few weeks.

The course load is pretty light, but it makes it easy to stay motivated and keep up from week to week.

The instructor has her quirks, but don't we all. I feel like this course is great for introducing someone who has prior experience with writing music and using DAWs to Ableton Live. However, for someone who already knows the basics of Live, this probably won't be of too much use.

I thought it was well structured and well planned, in terms of the walkthrough how Ableton works and the progression of skills, but I thought it was badly communicated. With good courses, the communication is concise and focused. These lessons seemed too familiar. The transcribed text reveals the poor delivery.

Sorry, don't want to be mean.

Thanks, though, I've learned a lot.

Great introduction to a tool I knew already.. however that being said.. some of the quiz questions were just not very well written / clear. Compared to what I'm used to in Coursera, I'd request Berkelee to go back and polish this course a bit more. Also, the use of 3rd party services is a bit off putting.. especially ones as invasive as the ones used by this course.

I did not understand the submitting process till the fourth week. I feel that you could have offered a more detailed description . Doing the review in the fourth week did not do justice for my peers.

I personally think that I've learnt more from Google and YouTube then in this course. You can join the course for certification. Other then the certificate, I find this course not much of value.

This is a course for total beginners in Ableton (or for the ones that want to review its fundamentals). In 3 weeks you get a pretty complete overview of how the program works and the possibilities that include. To develop further such posibilities you need other courses/tutorials, or in some cases just more hours of experimentation. The videos and teacher are good, everything well and clear explained. Also they show you how to do the things in several ways: in the two displays of the program (arrangement and session view) and how to compose in a more technical or more creative way. I'll recommend this course to any of my friends that want to start with Ableton.

Real a great course if you are looking to learn the basics of Ableton Live 9 or just need a refresher after the break. Erin does a wonderful job of explaining the basics with out overloading you with to much information. Each assignment is to make a song. It starts with basic stuff and works toward more advanced stuff near the end. It's helped motivate me to put more time into making music and use the tools and software that I have at my disposal.

A personal thanks to Erin, this class is just what I needed!

This course covers a lot of ground in a short period of time, and does it in a way that makes it easy to quickly leverage the power of Ableton in production and live performance. I appreciated the simplicity and thoroughness of the videos, and the assignments kept me motivated. It's a great class for complete beginners, as well as intermediate users in need of a brush up. Erin has a good approach to teaching: she's efficient and clear, and her basic examples don't overwhelm the student.

Great course! For very short time you'll learn so many amazing things. You will know in depth one professional software for music composition. You'll create 3 compositions which will be placed in musical website and hundreds or thousand of other musicians will hear it and vote for it. You will be part of wonderful group of other musicians like you taking part in the same course. You will be able to discuss with them important subject's... Great course. Thank you, Erin, David!

For anyone getting started this is a great course to do it with. I'm retaking this course as a refresher since I took the same class in the beginning of the year. I've been very busy so I forgot some functions. The videos & explanations make it very easy to get reacquainted. Plus what's more fun than getting some more production in, hearing your own creations & everyone else's for that matter. =)

A very nice experience. I expected an entry level course, but Erin organised a well rounded path. I got a new effective approach to the Ableton Live 9 software.

I recommend to develop carefully your assignments: you will improve your own skills by comparing your solutions with those of the classmates. In addiction you'll find some "veteran" student willing to help.

Good luck!

This was an excellent primer on Ableton Live. The course is well laid out and each week builds upon the previous to help engrain and learn the concepts presented. Erin does an excellent job of presenting the material. Personally, for me the course helped in expanding my sound not only as an artist but a producer and audio engineer. I cannot recommend this course enough.

A short and cosine course to get you going. The instructor comes across engaging in the videos and her passion for music shows and motivates.

Recommend this course to everyone new to Ableton Live and specially if you are into making electronic/computer music.

May be a follow up course more geared to recording, arranging for say Jazz musicians or students would be great.

Great course. In just three weeks I learned enough to make track 5 minute long in just a few hours. And it sounds pretty decent for anybody after just three weeks. And I'm not considering myself any kind of genius, course is really great.

I already recommended it to few of my friends and I would recommend it for anybody.

Thank you Coursera for this great opportunity.

The instructional video modules were so well organized and executed. I appreciated how each one addressed just one or two learning objectives -- made it very easy to go back and locate info I needed to complete assignments. The instructor was very thorough and competent -- made it interesting and fun as well as effective at teaching the course objectives.

As thorough as possible given the time constraints. Erin Barra did a terrific job of condensing the material . I ended up appreciating the appeal of Ableton Live -- which is to say, a non-linear, clip-based DAW. The program (and Push) is endless, and I'm still learning all sorts of things. Good to have this basic foundation to work from. Thanks....!

If you're looking for a way to start with Ableton, this is definitely a way. I already had the very basics, but until this course I had no idea of the possibilities of Ableton. Still, I was hoping for more info on blending the sound together, using compressors and so on, and this is really just an introduction, but it was very useful nonetheless.

Wonderful instructions! Erin has a very clear way of communicating ideas to people at all levels of Ableton proficiency. I got so much of out this course. Also, in the male-dominated arena of electronic music I felt safer taking a course with a female instructor. I'd absolutely recommend this course to my friends.

Erin was a great instructor. I had a bit of previous experience with Ableton so it definitely filled in some gaps! I think the Max Live section wasn't necessary (as not all people have access to that) so that time could've been spent on more mixing info. Overall, great course and would highly recommend.