Ableton Live
Beat Retreat
Learn from experts and collab with like-minded musicians in this 1-4 week interactive online music production course! For beginners and experts alike.
Build Skills at Your Own Pace
▷ Access our private library of nearly 100 Ableton live tutorial videos.
▷ Get in-depth instruction on the specific techniques you need, right when need it!
Snare Sound Design [demo]
Snare Sound Design [demo]
Warping [demo]
Warping [demo]
Chord Progressions [demo]
Join a Learning Collective
▷ Choose on a genre: EDM, LoFi Hip Hop, or Techno/House.▷ Work with the same 5 students and 1 instructor for 1-4 weeks.
▷ Live online class sessions (via Zoom) enable students to demo their projects for the group and get highly specific help and advice from the instructor. ▷ Stay connected during and after the Beat Retreat via the B+L Society discord server.
Learn the Art of Finishing Tracks
At the Beat Retreat, we’re all about “learning by doing”. Experience real, tangible results in your music by directly applying the concepts we learn and getting prompt feedback from experts and peers.
Nothing is more encouraging than working alongside someone who ‘gets it’, and nothing is equal to the creative power of multiple minds combined.
Meet Like-Minded Producers
Working with other producers is the fastest (and most effective) way to get better. The Beat Retreat isn’t just a music production course that you’ll watch through on your own and then forget all about… It’s a unique e-learning experience during which you’ll work closely with like-minded musicians from all around the world!
Get Feedback from Industry Professionals
Ableton tutorials and online music production courses are not enough! At the Beat Retreat, you’ll also benefit from one-on-one mentorship. Stop browsing tutorials and instead get real, live, interactive help that’s personalized to your background and interests. Learn faster than you thought possible by working with instructors who have “been there”.
Join the B+L Society
The B+L Society is the upper echelon, open to only those producers who have attended and graduated from the Beat Retreat! Access the Bleeps+Loops Discord, where we gather to trade Ableton tips and tricks, give peer track feedback, and find others to collab with.
Society members will have the option each month to either submit a track for feedback or sit down for a one-on-one private lesson with the instructor of their choice!
Learn the Art of Finishing Tracks
At the Beat Retreat, we’re all about “learning by doing”.
Experience real, tangible results in your music by directly applying the concepts we learn and getting prompt feedback from experts and peers.
Meet Like-Minded Producers
Working with other producers is the fastest (and most effective) way to get better.
More than just a music production course made up of video tutorials (though it is that as well), the Beat Retreat is a unique e-learning experience during which you’ll work closely with like-minded musicians from all around the world!
Get Feedback from Industry Professionals
Ableton tutorials and online music production courses are not enough! At the Beat Retreat, you’ll also benefit from one-on-one mentorship.
Stop browsing tutorials and instead get real, live, interactive help that’s personalized to your background and interests.
Join the B+L Society
Open only to those producers who have attended and graduated from the Beat Retreat, the B+L Society (a discord server) is a place to trade Ableton tips & tricks, give/receive peer track feedback, and find others with whom to collab.
Work 1-0n-1 with an Instructor
John Kammerer (Ohn Dāka)
Head Instructor
John specializes in sound design, hybrid performance setups,
sample manipulation, and creative production workflows. Click for detailed bio.
Join the Bleeps+Loops Community
Bleeps and Loops is a music production house and record label based in Seattle, WA. It was co-founded in 2018 by Michael Vawter and John Kammerer of Tree Cathedral, a local modular synth group. Originally a vehicle for releasing unique sample packs and digital instruments for musicians, Bleeps and Loops has evolved into an organization that supports local electronic artists though collaborative electronic music events, focused on the use of modular synths & other hardware instruments. In 2019, B+L founded the Electronic Musicians’ Camp, a week-long summer camp for young producers held at the University of Washington.
What is the Beat Retreat? Is it a music production course? An audio production school? A series of engaging Ableton Live 10 tutorials? A way to sign up for music production lessons online? A collaborative, online electronic music production classroom? Ableton training for beginners and experts alike? Ableton live lessons personalized to your background and interests? A music producer school for the e-learning era? A career / job opportunity for performing musicians around the world who are out of work due to social distancing?
Yes. It is all of those things. Join the Bleeps+Loops community today!
Take the next step to becoming a better producer
Master the DAW
Ableton is an incredibly deep program that can leave even seasoned electronic music producers feeling somewhat overwhelmed from time to time, but by the end of the Beat Retreat you’ll have all the information you need to confidently navigate any aspect of Ableton Live.
Learn Synthesis and Sound Design
Discover new ways to create any sound from scratch, from growling basses and unique drum sets to leads, pads, arps, and effects. Our Ableton instructors teach the fundamentals of creative synthesis and sound design, showing you how to perfectly craft sounds that are uniquely suited to your music.
Graduate from Loops to Tracks
Learn how to go from 4 bar loop to completed and release-ready song! Our instructors will break down the sometimes daunting task of structuring a track from start to finish, guiding you through what it takes to create an effective song structure and covering everything from basic to advanced arrangement and track layout strategies.
Drum Programming, Processing, and Design
The Beat Retreat instructors will show you how to create drums that sound unique and punchy by covering some of the most popular drum design, programming, synthesis, and processing techniques used by top electronic music producers.
Master your Mix (and Mastering)
We take you through the entire mixing and mastering process using the music that you create over the course of the Beat Retreat to demonstrate these crucial music production techniques. This means that not only will you gain valuable insight into the process, but you’ll also leave the masterclass with a fully mixed, mastered, and release-ready track!
Become a Sampling Master
Sampling is one of the surest and quickest ways to give your electronic music a unique and personal sound…Learn how to sculpt sound like clay, transforming any audio file into something entirely new to make tasty chops, sick beats, uplifting melodies, custom synth voices.
Achieve clean, powerful mixes
By the end of the Beat Retreat you’ll have all the knowledge and strategies you need to process your sounds so that they fit together to form an excellent and professional-sounding mix. Among other topics, our instructors will show you how to process your drums, apply dynamic processing, and EQ each sound to perfection so that your sounds pop and your mix is clean and powerful!
Producer Philosophy
It takes a lot of mental fortitude and a positive, proactive approach to succeed as a musician. Throughout the Beat Retreat, you’ll get the opportunity to hear about what it takes from producers who have been there and are willing to share their experiences with you so that you can keep making music without life getting in the way!
Creative Rack and Chain Utilization
Racks and chains are some of Live’s most powerful features, and your writing workflow will benefit greatly from including them in the process. We cover how to make the most out of Racks and Chains for the purposes of routing, audio processing, sound design, sampling, performance, and more!
A Fountain of Ideas and Creativity
Making mudpies, sound design sessions, noodling around, sonic exploration…whatever you feel like calling it, we cover it! Staring at a blank slate can be intimidating, no way around it. Where do you start? What sparks an idea? How do you go from nothing to a full song? We’ll share with you all of our favorite techniques for breaking through potential writer’s block and coming up with great song ideas!
Next Level Effects
We’ll dive deep into widely used effects like delay, echo, reverb, grain delay, distortion, filtering, and more. Our instructors explain how to use these effects in innovative and compelling ways, both as standard effects and also more creatively to generate ideas and spatialize elements of a track to sit within the mix.
No Longer Just Theoretical
Music theory plays a crucial role in every element of music making. We cover multiple levels of rhythm and tonal theory throughout the Beat Retreat, with a strong emphasis on actually applying your theory skills to the songwriting process. You’ll be able to easily and effectively apply the concepts you learn here to your songwriting process for the rest of your musical career.
Beat Retreat
Lite
1 week of live instruction, one-on-one mentorship, and self-paced video learning geared towards beginner producers looking to master the fundamentals. Develop an effective workflow in Ableton Live and dive into beat making as well as drum sound design.
$
95
Tuition
-
Induction into B+L Society via Discord
-
Free Monthly Sample Packs, Live Devices, and Instrument Presets for One Year
-
20+ Video Lessons
-
3 Projects
-
One Week of Live Instruction & Project Review via Zoom (Mon, Weds, Fri)
-
6 Hours of Live Instruction Total
Beat Retreat
Weekend Warrior
Access all 4 weeks of video instruction, and all 12 Beat Retreat projects. Reinforce your learning with live instruction every Sunday for 4 weeks via Zoom, where you’ll receive track & project feedback and have all your questions answered by a B+L instructor.
$
195
Tuition
-
Induction into B+L Society via Discord
-
Free Monthly Sample Packs, Live Devices, and Instrument Presets for One Year
-
50+ Video Lessons
-
12 Projects
-
4 Weeks of Live Instruction & Project Review via Zoom (Sundays)
-
8 Hourse of Live Instruction Total
Beat Retreat
Hardcore
For serious producers who want to advance as quickly as possible. This 4-week course meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays via Zoom and also includes 2 private lessons with your instructor.
$
475
Tuition
-
Induction into B+L Society via Discord
-
Free Monthly Sample Packs, Live Devices, and Instrument Presets (One Year)
-
50+ Video Lessons
-
12 Projects
-
4 Weeks of Live Instruction & Project Review via Zoom (Mon, Weds, Fri)
-
24 Hours of Live Instruction Total
-
2 Private Lessons with Your Instructor
-
Free Monthly Track Feedback from B+L Instructors (One Year)
Beat Retreat
Lite
1 week of live instruction, one-on-one mentorship, and self-paced video learning geared towards beginner producers looking to master the fundamentals. Develop an effective workflow in Ableton Live and dive into beat making as well as drum sound design.
Beat Retreat
Weekend Warrior
Access all 4 weeks of video instruction, and all 12 Beat Retreat projects. Reinforce your learning with live instruction every Sunday for 4 weeks via Zoom, where you’ll receive track & project feedback and have all your questions answered by a B+L instructor.
Beat Retreat
Hardcore
For serious producers who want to advance as quickly as possible. This 4-week course meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays via Zoom and also includes 2 private lessons with your instructor.
$
95
Tuition
-
Induction into B+L Society via Discord
-
Free Monthly Sample Packs, Live Devices, and Instrument Presets for One Year
-
20+ Video Lessons
-
3 Projects
-
One Week of Live Instruction & Project Review via Zoom (Mon, Weds, Fri)
-
6 Hours of Live Instruction Total
$
195
Tuition
-
Induction into B+L Society via Discord
-
Free Monthly Sample Packs, Live Devices, and Instrument Presets for One Year
-
50+ Video Lessons
-
12 Projects
-
4 Weeks of Live Instruction & Project Review via Zoom (Sundays)
-
8 Hourse of Live Instruction Total
$
475
Tuition
-
Induction into B+L Society via Discord
-
Free Monthly Sample Packs, Live Devices, and Instrument Presets (One Year)
-
50+ Video Lessons
-
12 Projects
-
4 Weeks of Live Instruction & Project Review via Zoom (Mon, Weds, Fri)
-
24 Hours of Live Instruction Total
-
2 Private Lessons with Your Instructor
-
Free Monthly Track Feedback from B+L Instructors (One Year)
Enrollment is CLosed
Feel free to text, call, or email us if you have any questions!
bloops@bleepsandloops.com | (206) 745-0658
Feel free to text, call, or email us if you have any questions!
bloops@bleepsandloops.com | (206) 745-0658
Filter by Class Format
Filter by Class Format
Filter by Age Range
Filter by Age Range
Filter by Genre Focus
Filter by Genre Focus
Filter by Start Date
Filter by Start Date
Filter by Classtime
Filter by Classtime
Genre Focus: EDM
Start Date: 2020-07-13
End Date: 2020-08-07
Classtime: Noon-2pm PST (3-5pm EST)
Tuition: $475
Genre Focus: LoFi Hip Hop
Start Date: 2020-07-13
End Date: 2020-08-07
Classtime: Noon-2pm PST (3-5pm EST)
Tuition: $475
Sign up to hear about future camps and programs:
Or, tell us what would work for you!
Would a different time, date range, or genre work better for you? Let us know! We are scheduling more every month based on these suggestions.