Zaak Kerstetter

His musical journey began while playing guitar in punk bands in high school and continued to develop while living in Japan, where he became involved in and heavily influenced by the underground noise music scene in Osaka. With an appetite for the absurd and admiration for the subversive undertones of underground communities, he continued to experiment with soundscapes, hardware synthesizers, and sequencers, finally stumbling into Live while living in New York City.

He was immediately attracted to the non-linear workflow and breadth of possibilities that Ableton Live made possible in his creative endeavors. Within six months of discovering Ableton Zaak moved his life to San Francisco, CA to attend Pyramind’s Audio Production school, where he graduated from their core program.  He went on to teach as a faculty member at Pyramind as the Live 101 and 201 instructor.

In 2015, he moved to Colorado, where he ran the Boulder Ableton Live User Group and became the lead instructor and program director for the Ableton Music Production (AMP) program at KMG Academy.
He launched Catalyze Music Academy, his YouTube channel, in 2020, where he regularly publishes Ableton and music production tutorials that have become a resource for producers worldwide.

In 2025, Zaak earned his master’s degree in Creative Music Production from the Catalyst Institute for Creative Arts and Technology in Berlin. When he’s not teaching, he is producing and performing original music, continually refining and experimenting with his custom improvisational live performance setup.