The story of learning a new tool that even David Guetta called a 'nightmare'

The other day, I watched a video where the world-renowned DJ and producer David Guetta talked about the behind-the-scenes story of producing the EDM anthem 'Titanium'.

I can watch this video over and over.
It shows the gritty reality behind the glitz and glamour of success.

In the latter half of the video, Guetta reflects on working with co-producer Afrojack and lets this slip:

'It was a total nightmare having to learn the FL Studio (DAW) he uses in such a short time.'

Guetta's DAW is Ableton Live, but they were putting the project together on Afrojack's Windows machine.
He says he ended up having to learn both FL and Windows.

It's a bit of a relief to know that even world-class creators scream when it comes to learning new tools.

I used to use FL Studio in the past, and I switched my main DAW to Ableton Live.
That time was truly brutal.

This time, I'd like to write about 'how to approach learning a new tool,' based on my own experience where I almost broke down while learning a DAW as someone from a non-technical background.

Why did I choose Ableton in the first place?

To begin with, why did I decide to switch my main DAW from
FL Studio to Ableton Live?

My memory is a bit hazy now, but
I think these were the three main reasons:

・It has the #1 user base in the world.
・It works well with third-party plugins.
・The search function is much easier to use compared to FL Studio.

I naively thought, 'This is going to speed up my production quite a bit...'

The fact that famous artists like The Chainsmokers and David Guetta, mentioned at the beginning, use it also encouraged me.

However, I was underestimating it at the time.
The act of 'changing your DAW'.

The hardest part wasn't the 'operation'

Honestly, at first, I really didn't understand it at all.
The concepts are just too different from FL Studio.

It wasn't so much that the operations were stressful to learn, but rather
the feeling that 'everything I could do unconsciously before has been wiped clean.'
That really wears you down.

Where my hands would move before I even thought about it in FL,
in Ableton, I would constantly stop and think,
'Wait... how do I do this again?'
'In FL, this action was a right-click...'

I had to relearn the shortcut keys, too.
And what's troublesome is that my hands would unconsciously perform the movements from my FL days.

My body was more confused than my mind.

You just want to quit halfway through

Moreover, at the time, I was learning a DAW while working a job outside.
On top of that, there were assignments from Studio.com.

Work on weekdays.
A new DAW in my spare time.
Plus online learning.

My brain was in 'learning mode' the whole time.
Fortunately, my partner was good at DAWs.
But I personally couldn't get the operations into my system.
The learning curve was a flat line.

Honestly, I wanted to quit many times along the way.

I tried stopping trying to understand everything

Partway through, I stopped trying to understand everything.

Or rather,
'Trying to understand everything before using it'
was a mistake in itself.

Learn only the necessary functions.
Learn while making music.

Then, strangely enough,
what had been 'studying' properly returned to being 'creation'.

Narrow down to only the functions used in my own workflow

For example, not using the Session View and only using the Arrangement View,
or something like that. Narrow it down to only the functions used in the flow of making music.

Then, as if the fog had cleared, my cluttered thoughts began to organize themselves.
And I realized, 'Wait? What I'm doing isn't that different from when I was using FL.'

• Roughly structure the song

• Input the sounds

• Organize

• Apply effects

When abstracted, the fundamentals don't change that much.
Once I grasped this feeling, it became much easier all at once.

The thing that changed the most from that experience

What was interesting was after I learned Ableton. I became able to easily get into new tools that had nothing to do with DTM.

I think it's because the initial resistance decreased dramatically, thinking, 'There's not much that's tougher than that.'

In the end, what's needed when learning a new tool isn't so much 'talent' as it is,
'Can you accept returning to zero for a moment?'

Learning a new tool should feel more like play

When faced with a new tool,

you might think,
"Maybe this isn't for me" or "I might not be cut out for this."

But in reality, almost no one can use it fluently from the start.

Even David Guetta apparently found it a "nightmare" at first.
Don't try to understand it perfectly before you start using it;
just play around with it and learn only what you need as you go.

I feel that approaching it with a relaxed mindset of "let's just mess around with this a bit"
is ultimately the most effective way.

So, if you're currently frozen in front of a new tool,
I think you should just try playing with it for a little while.

#DTM #Relearning #Ableton #DavidGuetta #AdultLearning