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.

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'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 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.

The book is straightforward advice from your friend who's "been there, done that". Really useful and even for the experienced, it provides confirmations for recurring moments of doubt and confusion, and for the new amlng us, grants permissions to be like everybody else, human, and take strength from doing so. I liked it!