Develop Your Sound
Catalyze Music Academy supports musicians and producers to develop the technical skills necessary to achieve their artistic goals and to cultivate their unique voices. We focus on each individual student’s questions, interests, and needs through customized progressive instruction. Rooted in Ableton Live, we strive to ensure that all students are prepared to meet the complex demands of an ever-evolving industry.
All genres, styles, and levels are welcome.
Write 50 Songs In 1 Year
Here at Catalyze Academy, we are committing to writing and releasing 50 songs in 2022, at a rate of 1 song per week. And we would like to invite you to join us. Through the process of this challenge, we will be growing our community of dedicated producers, who wish to not only see themselves grow as artists, but also those around them. You are more than welcome to join us, by supporting the channel on Patreon and gain access to a variety of exclusive content exploring the songwriting process.
Patreon Rewards
Level 1 (5$/month)
-Access to the 50 song challenge discord channel
Level 2 (9$/month)
-Lvl 1 rewards
-Tuesday afternoon production livestream
-Sunday song deconstruction video
Level 3 (25$/month)
-Lvl 1 & 2 rewards
-Monthly Ableton Live Zoom Workshop
-Downloadable project files for all 50 songs
Meet Your Instructor
Catalyze Academy is owned and operated by Ableton Certified Trainer Zaak Kerstetter. With nearly a decade of teaching music production with Live, Zaak is qualified to answer any questions that you may have about reaching your creative goals. Zaak’s musical journey started in the mid 00’s, when he fell in love with experimental electronic music while living in Kyoto, Japan. After spending a few years working primarily with hardware synthesizers and samplers, he enrolled in music production school at Pyramind in San Francisco. Upon graduating he returned to Pyramind as the teacher’s assistant for their Ableton Classes, eventually moving on to rewriting their Ableton curriculum and teaching at both their ground campus and online. In 2015, he relocated to Colorado and became the organizer for the Boulder Ableton User Group, hosting monthly meetings to help grow the Live community. Then in 2016 he achieved a long time goal of becoming an Ableton Certified Trainer. Shortly after, he joined the team at KMG and founded the Ableton Music Production(AMP) program. During his time as program director at KMG, he worked with hundreds of students in developing their skills. In 2020, he founded Cataylze Music Academy as a way to connect with students around the world.
Zaak is fond of all styles of music and he performs and releases downtempo bass music under the name Zenotope. Recently, he has brought hardware back into his creative workflow by integrating his modular synthesizer in combination with Live.
Private Lessons
If you are interested in taking the first steps into the world of audio production, or if you are an experienced producer and looking to refine your sound, private lessons are a great way to learn more about producing music with Ableton Live. Private lessons can be booked for either one or two hours at a time, with discounts for purchasing a multiple lesson package.
• Common topics for private lessons can include are not limited to:
• Getting started with Live
• Sound design
• Mixing
• Mastering
• General music production
• Interactive song feedback
• Workflow
• Live performance
• DJing with Live
• Hardware and software troubleshooting
Classes
Catalyze Academy offers two-month courses that meet once per week and focus on specific aspects of music production. Each course meets once a week for two hours at a time. This is a great way to develop your skills on a specific topic.
Classes will begin enrolling soon for January 2022. Please contact us for more info.
Launch
Introduction to Ableton Live.
If you are looking to make your own music with Ableton Live but don’t know where to start, this is the course for you. By breaking down the basics of Live’s workflow, this course focuses on developing the skills and knowledge necessary to start and finish a song.
Cultivate
Discover Your Sound
All of your favorite artists have something unique about their style that sets them apart from all of the others. Having the knowledge and understanding of how to make a song is only part of the struggle of becoming an artist. Uncovering your own style is a process that takes many years of hard work. This process is incredibly rewarding because not only will it make you more authentic in your own productions but it will also give you an advantage in the highly competitive world of the modern music industry.
Culminate
Mixing and Mastering
Once you have finished writing and arranging a song, it needs to be polished to perfection through the art of mixing and mastering. In order to maximize clarity, we will cover how to get smooth sounding mixes that sound good on any system. Through mastering, we will attempt to maximize the volume while still maintaining dynamic range.
Transmute
Sound Design
Are you feeling disappointed by using presets and sample libraries to do your sound design? Would you like to build your own sounds from scratch while not endlessly tweaking knobs? Would you like to develop your own unique signature sound? If you answered yes to these questions, then this is the course for you. Starting with understanding the intricacies of wavetable, FM, subtractive, and granular synthesis, this course will demystify the art of sound design and allow you to develop your own patches. In addition, we will dissect sounds from some of your favorite artists so you can learn how to recreate them.
What People Are Saying
“I truly don’t know where my music would be without the unbelievably in depth lessons from Zaak. He not only elevated the technically sound aspect of my music but he helped me become the artist I wanted to become. Beyond thankful for all Ive been able to learn from him.”
— John Hohnhorst(Black Wolf Sound)
“In all of my years seeking new advice and guidance for music, I’ve never encountered someone so beneficial. Not only does he cover the “required” topics for the day, but he dives into examples and shows you all the different ways to implement those things into your music. I would highly recommend him as a teacher to ANYONE no matter how skilled, as I still utilize his knowledge to this day! “
— Tony Huff (Kalatana)
“Zaak's open ended approach to teaching makes his lessons valuable to anyone and everyone. He will teach you skills without creating any prejudices so you can truly get the most out of Ableton. You will know all sorts of avenues within the DAW craft your OWN sound. I wouldn't be the producer I am today without Zaak's teachings.”
—Max Antoine(Killa Nilla)
“Being taught by Zaak was awesome and fun! So much knowledge to be soaked up. His teachings are easy to follow, informative and his own productions are very inspirational. Inspiring your own ideas for your music productions.”
—Bogy Thongsoontorn(HyperHypnosis)
Contact Us
If you are interested in taking lessons with Catalyze Academy and have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out.
catalyzemusicacademy@gmail.com