How to Make Synthwave in Ableton Live (Stock Plugins ONLY!)

How to make a Synthwave style track using only Ableton Live 11 stock instruments and effects.
#synthwavetypebeat #ableton
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:18 - Drums
04:46 - Sound designing a retro keys patch with Wavetable
07:05 - Creating a chord progression
08:26 - Bass sound design and bass progression
10:41 - Adding an arp
12:10 - Arrangement tips and final beat
More Content HERE:
Spotify: spotify.link/MIrtfJPFPyb
Instagram: / khartbeats
Interested in learning more about lofi techniques? Check out this blog by Coffee Shop Producers
coffeeshopproducers.com/2023/...
My usual gear:
Ableton Live 11
Novation SL61 MkIII
Beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X headphones
Shure SM7B microphone
Gibson Les Paul Studio
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[@burdeninmyhand]

I think this is exactly what I was looking for! Synthwave is awesome! I have no Ableton, no instruments, no nothing, but a desire to learn all this stuff!! Love you!!!

[@khartbeats]

Synthwave is indeed awesome! Glad you enjoyed and have fun learning 🙂

[@Peloissaan]

The simplicity of this was exactly what i needed to start learning the synthwave genre!!!! Thank yoou sooooo much!

[@khartbeats]

Thanks! Happy to help!

[@4m0nr3]

I CAME TO SAY THIS. MANY THANKS!

[@PaulEubanks]

Fantastic video. Simple, to the point, no BS. A+, no notes.

[@khartbeats]

Thank you!! I really appreciate it.

[@gravity00x]

something about the square wave and the saw wave together brings back NI massive 2012 electronic music vibes.

[@royjones3127]

Thank you!

[@Ali-fl5mb]

Your channel is such a wee gem. So glad you came up on my home page!

[@khartbeats]

So happy to hear that! Thank you!

[@ezsniper218]

Awesome tutorial. Thank you!

[@JohnBassHeartBeatSounds]

wow this sounds awesome!

[@jul8803]

Love the shades.

[@DiceDiceTheBand]

Super cool. Thanks!

[@khartbeats]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@JonValtandtheEvilRobots]

Excellent!

[@khartbeats]

Thanks so much!

[@Bairdogg]

Learning so much from these videos, thank you!

[@khartbeats]

That’s great! I’m glad the videos are helpful 🙂

[@JRTAdvancedEnglish]

This is the best synthwave tutorial out there! I love your clarity. These are great techniques. Thank you!

[@khartbeats]

I’m happy the tutorial is helpful! Thanks so much!

[@diegobeccaris4270]

The thing i love the most about ypur videos is that you explain everithing you do❤

[@dontricera8774]

That was awesome!!!🤩

[@khartbeats]

Thank you! 😊

[@thesuperself5320]

love your content, keep grinding. your channel is gonna be huge!

[@khartbeats]

Thanks so much!! 😊

[@isuruabeykoon66]

Fantastic tut!

[@khartbeats]

Thanks so much!

[@katblacklucky13]

Excellent tutorial, thank you

[@khartbeats]

Thanks so much!

[@unkelj]

Thank you for great tutorials🙂

[@khartbeats]

Thanks for checking them out 🙂

[@alcatrek]

Am lucky to have discovered this channel. So much insight is helping me with in my Ableton Journey. Thank you!

[@khartbeats]

That’s great! I’m glad the videos are helpful!

[@clem0057]

nice tuto thank you

[@khartbeats]

Thanks!

[@professorfroopynoopers1171]

You're amazing, this is absolutely preem, thank you 🙏🙏

[@khartbeats]

Thanks so much 🙂

[@MaterialMike]

Great tutorial I’ve just discovered you and I’m looking forward to watching more

[@khartbeats]

Awesome! Thanks so much 😊

[@michaelcartner4246]

This video is great. Informative, easy to follow along, no filler content or superfluous clips, and now I'm inspired to create some music!

[@khartbeats]

Awesome! Thank you so much!

[@BedlamAndBones]

You just got a new subscriber. This was great!

[@khartbeats]

Thanks so much!

[@atashbeats8055]

This was major kick A. Thank you K.

[@khartbeats]

Glad you enjoyed, thanks!

[@Bashanvibe]

You make it look so easy!!! I hope to get my knowledge on your level!!! I know it takes time!!!

[@khartbeats]

It definitely takes time! Watch a ton of tutorials and spend time inside Ableton experimenting. It pays off!

[@Bashanvibe]

@@khartbeats most definitely!!! Respect 👊🏾

[@JohnBassHeartBeatSounds]

nice shades! mmm tempted to have a play with this genre :)

[@khartbeats]

Thanks! You definitely should...it's a fun one!

[@threeMetreJim]

Really like your channel, nice and chilled with a different style from the usual. I saw one channel (estuera) saying synthwave was an 'imaginary' genre and wasn't a thing in 80's mainstream music. I looked into this, and it's possibly memories from older 80's movies. I've pinned the style down to a guy called Alan Silvestri, who wrote soundtracks for a few of the 80's 'feel good' PG and under 18 rated movies.

[@khartbeats]

Thanks so much! I do think a lot of modern synthwave is a mash up of a lot of nostalgic (and probably overused) elements from 80s music and culture. Especially offshoots like Vaporwave that are almost a mockery of the culture. Either way, I enjoy all of them 🙂

[@josipvulic5471]

oh, simplicity is where it's at, love the synth wave lesson! thank you

[@khartbeats]

Glad you like it! Thanks!

[@terminationshokv]

This is great. I was liking some vst plugin sounds, but I wanted to make those kinds of sounds in Live with stock plugins. Five minutes later, I had some really great stuff. It took me so long to learn some of the other things like Simpler. I’m really glad to hear your concise explanation of these tools.

[@khartbeats]

That’s awesome. I’m glad the video was helpful!

[@MugenLord_inNeonLights]

This tutorial triggers me to make my own synthwave tracks.Love your build ups.😎

[@khartbeats]

You definitely should! Thanks so much 🙂

[@MhBeatsRA]

So nice ❤

[@khartbeats]

Thanks!

[@MhBeatsRA]

@@khartbeats welcome ❤️❤️❤️

[@martijnvanderveen9448]

Yes, just what I was looking for! You make it seem so easy. Can you do a tutorial on mixing vocals? That would be great!

[@khartbeats]

Thanks! I’ll see what I can do 😊

[@matthewcassette]

Great work! It would be cool to see a retrowave tune with those guitars you have 😎🤟

[@khartbeats]

Thanks! Great idea…I’ll have to work on a retrowave track like that 👍

[@Xopher30]

I like how you incorporate theory in with production.

[@khartbeats]

Thanks! I'm kind of a nerd about it, so I have to add it haha. Glad some people enjoy it :)

[@Jbro-pn4nk]

This is huge realizing I can make all these sounds with Ableton stock plugins. Also, you didn’t move too fast and made sense. Thank you!

[@khartbeats]

Thanks so much! And yeah, stock Ableton is pretty awesome. I’m usually a lot more creative when I limit myself to the stock instruments/effects.

[@iHOiD]

👏👏👏

[@Magooch86]

I come from a rock music background using Pro Tools etc, but only just now getting my head around creating MIDIs in Ableton so this helped a lot, thanks 😊

[@khartbeats]

That’s great that it’s helpful. Thanks!

[@chigbungus5257]

I've been using Ableton for a little over 4 months, and the midi is so much fun to play around with. Once you get comfy in there with hotkeys and stuff it's so easy to mess around and experiment

[@thomlev5217]

amazingly clear , could you make a tutorial about the song "pulsar" from Kavinsky??The composition and the sound of this song is amazing..

[@khartbeats]

Thanks so much! I can add something similar to that to my list of future videos.

[@DDayter]

awesome work. Wish i could get use to Ableton. I purchased it but could never get use to the work flow. Synth Wave is one of my favorites to make.

[@khartbeats]

Thanks! I started on GarageBand, so Ableton was my first "real" DAW. It definitely has a steep learning curve and took me a while to develop a good workflow.

[@Critical_Path]

Holy crap this content is good

[@khartbeats]

Thank you!

[@scole402]

I would love to see more Live Stock videos!

[@scole402]

Wtf livestock lol

[@khartbeats]

More on the way…and livestock made me chuckle 😂

[@casicadaminuto1]

Great tutorial! I have a question: why did you always make an effect chain with a separate one for dry and separate for wet signal?

[@khartbeats]

This is basically just a way of doing parallel processing. So instead of setting up a return track for one channel, I usually just do it on that channel.

[@PULSEMusicGroup]

Haven't Been on the channel in a while and it is awesome to see the growth on the channel! Well deserved and earned. Great vibes K!!! This is vibes of my favorite show Stranger Things and I am an 80s kid! Blessings!

[@khartbeats]

Hey, thanks so much! I’m definitely a fan of 80s music, movies and vibes! I appreciate you stopping by 🙂

[@PULSEMusicGroup]

@@khartbeats Always! Have to support you sis! You have been doing a great job and I appreciate seeing that consistency! That's what makes it here! Blessings!

[@amaxlevin]

8:42 "...and done, we made a bass" 😸 Thumbnail image is sick.

[@khartbeats]

That is definitely the quickest way to make a bass 😆 and thanks! I wanted a super synthwave thumbnail, too.

[@blewsyboy]

As an amateur who doesn't always want to spend $ on all the latest gadget software/plugins beyond the already expensive DAWs (even though I have and continue to spend lol ), your videos give me a lot to learn from, just with the stock plugins, and this is soooo rare! Thanks!

[@khartbeats]

It’s hard not to spend money on the new, shiny plugins lol. I’m glad this video was helpful!

[@JonValtandtheEvilRobots]

Any DAW (especially the expensive version with all the extras) has pretty much everything most of us REALLY need. :)

[@ONMYWAY81]

So great to watch. By any chance do you still have the ALS file to this?

[@khartbeats]

Thanks! And unfortunately, no ALS. I was trying to clean up my Ableton installs and somehow deleted all of my older projects and this was among them. It was a sad, sad day.

[@ONMYWAY81]

I definitely understand. Bummer that happened. @@khartbeats

[@SoundDesignPresetandTricks]

great video! you just added completly different bass notes on bar 3 and 4 than the lowest chord notes right ?

[@khartbeats]

Thanks! A lot of times I'll use the 3rd or the 5th of the chord rather than the root (lowest) note. It can make the bass a little more interesting.

[@Cers10]

on point, but why ist the track in mono?

[@FizzyBubbele00]

Wow....very nice....Is there a way to download this set? I try to recreate this, but i'm just a beginner with ableton.

[@khartbeats]

Thanks! I don’t have downloads for this project, unfortunately.

[@Kneoxcs2skins]

Hi, Im new and I got a question, which instruments are you using of the wavetable? especially for the bass and for the keys. great tutorial btw :)

[@khartbeats]

Hey, thanks! So the instrument is actually Wavetable…that’s the name of the synth. The bass and keys are pretty similar. They both use sawtooth waves in the Wavetable instrument.

[@Kneoxcs2skins]

@@khartbeats oh thanks and one more question if you dont mind, why after I duplicate the wavetable it doesnt show on the matix the filter 1 freq?

[@briefcasemanx]

You are very knowledgeable, how long have you been using DAWs to make music?

[@khartbeats]

Thank you! I've been using Ableton for a few years now, but I've played one instrument or another and been involved with music for a long time.

[@DJPatrickBushman2024]

hi k.hart question can you make techno or techhouse track with ableton stock and stuff gr

[@khartbeats]

I can work on something along those lines.

[@ikinteractive939]

Hi, how do you drop multiple sample in quarter like you do in the video ? there is a shortcut ?

[@khartbeats]

I edited it. There’s no easy way to do it with audio samples. I just dropped one in then control D to duplicate them.

[@JaguarPanda]

Nice tutorial, i wish you had let the track finish playing before cutting the video to see how you arranged it

[@khartbeats]

Thank you! And yeah, I’ve started focusing more on arrangement in my more recent videos. Lots of people were asking for that 🙂

[@komnerfrantornet]

How do you get that swell-effect? After every kickdrum it sounds like chords with a rising volume, and like a swelleffect

[@khartbeats]

That’s most likely the side chain effect you’re hearing. Every thing is ducking in volume when the kick drum hits and then it comes back up.

[@komnerfrantornet]

@@khartbeats thats so cool. Do you go through that in the video aswell? Or is there another video covering that?

[@khartbeats]

@@komnerfrantornet I showed it kind of quickly around 2:17 in this one. Basically using the compressor on side chain mode to drop the volume of the track based on the kick. I did this same thing to almost every track here.

[@komnerfrantornet]

Do you that for the basstrack also?

[@khartbeats]

@@komnerfrantornet yep! Probably the most important one!

[@Unclethunder_]

I have Ableton Intro. Can this be done inside that or would it be best to just upgrade to standard or the big dog price?

[@khartbeats]

Intro is pretty limited…if you see yourself continuing music production, I’d say go for Suite. It really has a lot packed into it. You could also stick with Intro and pick up some free or cheap 3rd party plugins to fill some of the gaps.

[@Unclethunder_]

Thanks. I think I’m going to just get suite. I’m just doing this as a hobby but it really makes it easier when watching videos like yours to be able to just pull the things up that you are. I really enjoyed your video! I’m going to be doing a deep dive on your channel. Already subbed.

[@khartbeats]

@@Unclethunder_Awesome, thanks so much!

[@enricopetrucci2422]

what ableton theme are you using?

[@khartbeats]

It’s the davy preset from the free themes pack from Sonic Bloom. If you search for her name on here, she has a video showing them with a link to download the pack.

[@roadblokMusic]

no fl studio disliking the video

[@khartbeats]

Not today 😆