Drum Dog

Learn the APC64

Drum Dog's lessons for playing drums on your Akai APC64 in Ableton Live. Nine short lessons, about 15–20 minutes each.

APC64 manual (PDF) · Your APC64 deck

Your progress

Tick a lesson when you can do its practice without looking here. Ticks stay in this browser only.

Before you start

  1. Plug the APC64 into a USB 3.0 port on the PC with its USB-C cable. If you use a hub, it must be a powered one.
  2. Flip the power switch on the back. The pads light up.
  3. Open Ableton Live, then open Options → Settings → Link, Tempo & MIDI.
  4. In an empty Control Surface row, pick APC64, and pick APC64 for its Input and Output too.
  5. Leave MPE off for the APC64. Close Settings.
Which Live? The APC64 comes with Ableton Live Lite: up to 8 tracks, plenty for these lessons. Until your Lite serial comes through, you can practise in the installed Live by choosing Save/Export Disabled on its welcome window: everything works except saving.

From the APC64 User Guide, 2.0 Setup and 4.0 Tutorial.

The controls you'll use

ButtonWhat it does
SESSION VIEWThe grid shows your clips: columns are tracks, rows are scenes.
NOTE MODEPlay notes. On a drum track the grid turns into a 4×4 drum pad layout in the bottom-left corner.
STEP SEQBuild beats step by step, like a drum machine.
TRACK SELECT 1–8Pick the track the pads play. SHIFT + these set launch quantize (8 BARS … 1/32).
PLAY / STOP / RECORDTransport. Press STOP twice to go back to the start.
Encoder (the knob)Turn to choose, push to select. Pushing it on its own turns the metronome on or off.
TEMPOTap in time to set the speed, or hold it and turn the knob.
FIXED LENGTHRecording stops by itself after a set length. Hold it and turn the knob to set the length.
QUANTIZEHold it and tap a clip to snap its notes onto the beat.
UNDOUndo in Live. SHIFT + UNDO is redo.
CLEAR / DUPLICATEHold, then tap a clip, step or track to clear it or copy it.
RECORD ARM MUTE SOLO CLIP STOPChoose what the row of buttons under the grid does to each track.
Scene LAUNCHThe buttons on the right start a whole row. SHIFT + the bottom one is STOP ALL.
Touch fadersSlide a finger to change volume, pan, sends or the selected device; choose which with the buttons beside them.

From the APC64 User Guide, 3.1 Top Panel.

1

First sound

15 min · 4.0 Tutorial, 5.2.3

Goal: hear the drums and know where the kick, snare and hi-hat are.

  1. In Live's Browser (left side), open Drums and drag a kit (any name ending in "Kit") onto an empty MIDI track.
  2. On the APC64, press NOTE MODE, then that track's TRACK SELECT button. The track arms itself in Live.
  3. The 16 coloured pads in the bottom-left corner are your drums. A pad flashes green while you hit it.
  4. Hit each of the 16 pads and say out loud what it is.

In most Ableton kits the pads sit like this (yours may differ slightly: trust your ears):

Crash?row 4
Tomrow 4
Percrow 4
Percrow 4
Tomrow 3
Tomrow 3
Open hatrow 3
Percrow 3
Tomrow 2
Percrow 2
Closed hatrow 2
Tomrow 2
Kickbottom
Rimbottom
Snarebottom
Clapbottom

Practice

Eyes closed: hit kick, snare, closed hat, clap. Then open your eyes and check.

2

Keep time

15 min · 3.1 (TEMPO, encoder)

Goal: play steadily with a click. Steady matters more than fancy.

  1. Push the knob (encoder) to turn the metronome on.
  2. Hold TEMPO and turn the knob to 80 BPM.
  3. Press PLAY. Count out loud "1, 2, 3, 4".
  4. Hit the kick on every count for one minute. Then the snare on 2 and 4 only.
  5. Then hi-hat twice per count: "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and".

Practice

One minute of hi-hats at 80 without drifting off the click. Then try 95.

3

Your first beat

20 min

Goal: play the classic rock/pop beat with both hands. One bar has 8 hi-hats: "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &".

  1. Right hand: hi-hat on every box.
  2. Left hand: snare on 2 and 4.
  3. Kick on 1 and 3 (another finger, or your left hand between snares).
  4. Start at 70 BPM with the metronome. Loop it until it feels boring, then go faster.

Next variation

4

Record it

20 min · 4.0, 5.1.3, 3.1 (FIXED LENGTH, QUANTIZE)

Goal: record your beat as a clip that loops, and tidy its timing.

  1. Hold FIXED LENGTH and turn the knob to 2 bars. Let go; the button stays lit.
  2. Metronome on. Press RECORD. Live makes a new clip and starts recording straight away, so be ready.
  3. Play the beat from lesson 3. Recording stops by itself after 2 bars and the clip loops.
  4. A bit off the beat? Hold QUANTIZE and tap the clip's pad (in SESSION VIEW) to snap it to the grid.
  5. Didn't like it? UNDO, or hold CLEAR and tap the clip, and go again.
  6. Want to add more on top? SHIFT + RECORD is overdub: it keeps what's there and adds what you play.

Practice

Record hi-hats and kick first, then overdub the snare on a second pass.

5

Step sequencer: build a beat by tapping

20 min · 5.3, 5.3.2–5.3.5

Goal: make a house beat without having to play it in time.

  1. Press STEP SEQ. The top four rows are 32 steps; the bottom-left 4×4 are your drums; the bottom-right 4×4 set loudness (velocity).
  2. Tap the kick in the bottom-left to pick it, then tap steps 1, 5, 9, 13 in the top rows.
  3. Pick the clap and tap steps 5 and 13.
  4. Pick the closed hat and tap 3, 7, 11, 15.
  5. Press PLAY. The green pad walks along the steps. STOP to stop.
  6. Tap a lit step again to remove it.
Steps are 1/16 notes by default, so 16 steps make one bar. Press STEP SEQ a second time to open its settings: the top four rows there set the last step (tap step 16 for a one-bar loop), and row 6 sets the step length.
6

Make it feel human

20 min · 5.3.4, 5.3.1 (swing)

Goal: loud and soft hits, a bit of chance, and swing.

Velocity (loud and soft)

  1. In STEP SEQ, the bottom-right 4×4 sets loudness: top-right is full, the pads get softer going down and left. Pick the closed hat, hold one of its lit steps and tap a softer pad. (The guide only says these pads set each step's velocity; if holding a step doesn't change it, tap the loudness pad first, then the step.)
  2. Make every other hi-hat softer. Hear how it starts to groove.

Probability (a bit of chance)

  1. Press the row 2 scene LAUNCH button (PROBABILITY). The bottom-right pads now set how likely a step plays.
  2. Give a few extra hi-hats 50%. Now the beat changes a little every time. Row 1 LAUNCH takes you back to velocity.

Swing

  1. Open the settings (STEP SEQ twice), press the track's TRACK SELECT, and turn on the Swing pad (row 5, 4th pad).
  2. Hold SHIFT + TEMPO and turn the knob: 50% is straight, 75% is heavy swing. Try about 58%.
7

Send it to Live

10 min · 5.3.7 Send to Clip

Goal: turn your step-sequencer beat into a real clip in Live, so you can keep it.

  1. STOP the sequencer first (it won't send while playing).
  2. In Live, click your drum track and an empty clip slot on it.
  3. On the APC64, in STEP SEQ, select the sequencer track with your beat.
  4. Hold SHIFT until the screen says Send to Clip, then push the knob.
  5. The screen says Sending..., then Done!, and the clip appears in Live.
8

Session view: play your clips like an instrument

20 min · 5.1, 5.1.2, 3.1

Goal: launch beats live and switch between them on the bar.

  1. Press SESSION VIEW. Each lit pad is a clip; columns are tracks, rows are scenes.
  2. Make 3 more beats in the same column: a quiet intro (hats only), your main beat, and a busier chorus beat. DUPLICATE + a clip copies it to the next slot so you can change the copy.
  3. Hold SHIFT and press the TRACK SELECT button labelled 1 BAR: now clips switch exactly on the next bar.
  4. Tap clips to switch between them while it plays. A row's LAUNCH button starts the whole row.
  5. Press MUTE or SOLO (bottom-left), then a button in the row under the grid, to mute or solo that track.
  6. SHIFT + the bottom LAUNCH button (STOP ALL) stops everything.
9

Fills and your first mini song

20 min

Goal: end a section with a fill, and play a 1-minute song from start to finish.

A simple fill (last bar before a change)

  1. Record or step-program this fill as its own clip.
  2. Song plan: intro 4 bars → beat 8 bars → fill 1 bar → chorus 8 bars → STOP ALL.
  3. Turn the touch faders to VOLUME and slide the drum track down at the end for a fade-out.

Your 10-minute daily warm-up