Course · in preparation

A melodic house track, start to finish.

Ten lessons that build one track from an empty Set. 122 BPM, F minor, five and a half minutes. Intro, build, drop, breakdown, second drop, outro. Claude does the work in Ableton Live through Sideman. Every lesson leaves a state in the Set you can check with a question rather than a feeling.

The course is one track told twice. Pick the telling that fits you.

Path 1

Make a track with Claude

For musicians. You type what you want. The page tells you what Claude does, what you will see in Live, and how to check it. No code, nothing to install beyond Sideman and Claude Code. One lesson uses a third-party plug-in and one a vocal sample. Both have a stock-Live alternative.

Path 2

Under the hood

For programmers and the curious. The same ten lessons as executed notebooks driving Sideman’s Python client, every cell’s output frozen from a real Set. Read them, or run them against your own Live.

The ten lessons

  1. Orientation. Tempo, key, and asking Claude what is in the Set before changing it.
  2. Drums. A kick that sits and hats that breathe.
  3. Bass. A sub and a mid on Drift, and the first automation.
  4. Harmony. Four chords in F minor and why the voicing matters.
  5. Melody and arp. A hook, then the arp that carries it.
  6. Sound design. Racks, macros, sends, and where plug-ins stop.
  7. Movement. A 16-bar build: filter, reverb throw, riser.
  8. Arrangement. From loop to five and a half minutes.
  9. Audio. A vocal chop, warped to the tempo and placed in the breakdown.
  10. Mixing. You set drums and bass by ear. Claude balances the rest and watches what you change.

Before you start

  • Sideman installed and showing up in Claude Code. The install page takes a few minutes.
  • Ableton Live open on a fresh, unsaved Set. Lesson 1 starts there.
  • Ten minutes with Start here, three prompts that show the whole idea before you commit to ten lessons.

Workshops

The same material runs as a live workshop: a day for a studio or a label, a weekend for a school, or a term as a graduate module. Sylvain designed and taught four graduate courses at Georgia Tech and Pompeu Fabra University and teaches this one himself. Ask on the services page.

Get notified

The course is being finished now. Write to sylvain.legroux@gmail.com with “course” in the subject and you will hear when it ships.

Start a conversation

Tell us what you are building and where it is stuck. You will get a reply from the person who would do the work.

Write to us See services

Or copy the address: sylvain.legroux@gmail.com

Work with us