Ableton Live - noob ponderings

Hi EKTers. Here's the deal. I used to make tunes, but I haven't done it for a long time. I want to make tunes again, I want soft synths, and I want to be able to transfer it to live / use it for DJing.

I've been thinking of buying Ableton Live 7 -- in fact I really want to buy Ableton Live 7 -- but my mind is riddled with questions. Proper noob questions, so please be gentle with me.

(a) my PC is a bit shit and probably needs replacing. Should I upgrade to a lovely Mac? A laptop is the way to go, I guess? Or is Ableton okay on slightly crappy PCs?

(b) Is it worth waiting for Live 8? (Ableton, that is, not the stupid charity event in Hyde Park last year.)

I have more questions, but that's probably it for now. I can't buy anything yet, because I need to save money / whore my body for cash. Ithankyou.

don't get ableton is my advice

try before you buy. it isnt for everyone

it certainly isn't for me. my favourite function is the different colour skins

it isnt for me either but alot of people love it

My absolute favourite program, had a bit of a learning curve from my other daws but was utterly worth it.

you sould probably upgrade, depends on how shit your pc is really, if youve got a gig or two of ram and a decent soundcard and processor youll do alright. Spending 1-2 grand on a macbook and another 2-800 bucks on ableton seems like a bit of a leap

Ableton 8 should be coming out in the next 4 months or so, it looks like its going to have some really great additions. again, really depends on what youre going to be using it for. If youre only going to be using it with VST plugins and djing, you could probably get away with one of the cheaper versions of live 7, if youre going to be using live's effects and instruments, live 8 seems like its really going to expand that functionality.

im using live exclusicely after about 4 years of faffing around with other DAW's.

its nowhere near perfect but atm it is certainly the easiest thing for me to get my ideas out on.

best thing to do? download it, use it for a week, like it? buy it then.

  Fat Roland said:

Hi EKTers. Here's the deal. I used to make tunes, but I haven't done it for a long time. I want to make tunes again, I want soft synths, and I want to be able to transfer it to live / use it for DJing.

 

I've been thinking of buying Ableton Live 7 -- in fact I really want to buy Ableton Live 7 -- but my mind is riddled with questions. Proper noob questions, so please be gentle with me.

 

(a) my PC is a bit shit and probably needs replacing. Should I upgrade to a lovely Mac? A laptop is the way to go, I guess? Or is Ableton okay on slightly crappy PCs?

 

(b) Is it worth waiting for Live 8? (Ableton, that is, not the stupid charity event in Hyde Park last year.)

 

I have more questions, but that's probably it for now. I can't buy anything yet, because I need to save money / whore my body for cash. Ithankyou.

Imo, Ableton Live is an amazing program. Especially if you want to transfer it to live or DJing. It is your pro studio on the road. Waiting for Live 8 won't even be necessary I think. I'm not sure but I think you can get Live 7 now and upgrade to 8 for free, check ableton.com.

About the neverending PC vs Mac debate. I'm a huge Mac fan, it is a fact that it is more stable and also more user-friendly imo. The great thing about Windows is that it has more freeware VST's, some of those are great apparently.

Anyway, I don't see why you would get another sequencer program than Ableton Live. Nowadays Live has almost all of the features that the 'big' sequencers have and the loads of extras that Live has are mindblowing. Especially for electronic music I think. Cool price too if you consider the awesome instruments you get with it (if you get Ableton Suite, which I strongly recommend if you want soft synths).

And yeah, like messiaen said, try it for a week, two actually. You can download the full version which will always work in demo mode (no saving and no exporting) and you can get a 14-day trial serial for free.

Yeah, I liked Ableton as well, not sure I know about all of its features, but I was always able to make the stuff I wanted.

Only my problem is (and that's not any DAWs fault) that I always make a mess of my patterns/clips, I don't sort things out, so I always end up being stuck in a giant frustrating mess lol

  Fat Roland said:

Hi EKTers. Here's the deal. I used to make tunes, but I haven't done it for a long time. I want to make tunes again, I want soft synths, and I want to be able to transfer it to live / use it for DJing.

 

I've been thinking of buying Ableton Live 7 -- in fact I really want to buy Ableton Live 7 -- but my mind is riddled with questions. Proper noob questions, so please be gentle with me.

 

(a) my PC is a bit shit and probably needs replacing. Should I upgrade to a lovely Mac? A laptop is the way to go, I guess? Or is Ableton okay on slightly crappy PCs?

 

(b) Is it worth waiting for Live 8? (Ableton, that is, not the stupid charity event in Hyde Park last year.)

 

I have more questions, but that's probably it for now. I can't buy anything yet, because I need to save money / whore my body for cash. Ithankyou.

a - I've rocked Live on a terrible PC and a lovely mac. It works great on both. Its even quite a bit more forgiving then Logic and Pro Tools but I can't figure out why. Really nice on memory and cpu constraints.

b - Actually the upgrade plan right now is quite a steal! Read the fine print over here: http://www.ableton.com/cantwaitfor8

I had to pay 500 roughly for just bare Ableton 7. If you buy now you get operator and a few extra things for free and a reduced cost upgrade. Its kinda the best time to buy live.

And overall I think Live is a great buy, i keep finding ways to get it to do new things that I don't know if the developers intended or not, but its really flexible, and people keep finding ways to play it more like an instrument due to global quantization, flexible midi routing, and clip based session view.

ableton live is meant for live - that's why it's called ableton live. it's not for composing tracks, and if that's what you want to do i wouldn't get it.

  JohnTqs said:

ableton live is meant for live - that's why it's called ableton live. it's not for composing tracks, and if that's what you want to do i wouldn't get it.

That was completely true back around Live 4.

  acid1 said:

  JohnTqs said:

ableton live is meant for live - that's why it's called ableton live. it's not for composing tracks, and if that's what you want to do i wouldn't get it.

 

That was completely true back around Live 4.

still true - maybe the composing aspect has gotten better but it's strength is in live performance.

Thank you. my bunnies. Encouraging and useful advice. I didn't want to get into the whole Mac vs PC thing - I'll prob'lee just throw some memory at my PC; it needs it anyway, poor thing.

I'm gonna go for AL7 then... I'll report back!

... or rather, I'm gonna dl the two-week trial when I'm not working twelve days a week.

I just got Live 7 and I love it. I started making tracks with Acid Pro 3.0 lol and the arrangement view has been kind of a throw back to that but with the added sweetness of all the instruments and VST's you can get. I'm planning on taking advantage and upgrading to 8 for $60 or whatever when it comes out

I just got Live 7 and I love it. I started making tracks with Acid Pro 3.0 lol and the arrangement view has been kind of a throw back to that but with the added sweetness of all the instruments and VST's you can get. I'm planning on taking advantage and upgrading to 8 for $60 or whatever when it comes out. But you don''t have to take my word for it....

It's a wicked program but I have only used it for playing stuff out live. I am still using 5 though. I will be looking into buying it but not until 8 comes out.

  JohnTqs said:

  acid1 said:

  JohnTqs said:

ableton live is meant for live - that's why it's called ableton live. it's not for composing tracks, and if that's what you want to do i wouldn't get it.

 

That was completely true back around Live 4.

 

still true - maybe the composing aspect has gotten better but it's strength is in live performance.

Where Live is at the moment I'd say the strong live element is an extra strength over other programs. And it's still equally good or better for composing I think. Much easier to jam out stuff and mash together different things etc etc. Great for composing!

i've been using live for 4 years now on a mac. and occasionally run it in a friends studio on a pc. it's no difference in usage. my next laptop exclusively for composing&recording is deffo going to be a pc.

u get far better hardware, which shows same stability&performance running live in lastest xp or vista.. for far less money an comparable would mac costs. only reliable argument pro the use of a mac for audio seems to be 'logic'. buts that's a different discussion.

personally i'd wait for version 8 of ableton as it is was annouced at NAMM to be published 3q this year. but i think any beginner will by far not be able to use all the new options in a proper way. you could even buy version 6 and be totally satisfied. so if you're beginner buy 7 cheap and upgrade somewhat later..if needed..at all.

I've dled the two-week demo, and it fucking rocks. Love the 'sandbox' nature for composing, and I can already see how it'll be well useful live. It's pretty easy to pick up, although I get the feeling I'm at the very tippety top of the iceberg. Need to dig down into effects and shiiiiit.

Just missed a genuine-looking £170 AL7 on ebay. Darn. Why do I always miss good things on ebay?

  acid1 said:

  JohnTqs said:

ableton live is meant for live - that's why it's called ableton live. it's not for composing tracks, and if that's what you want to do i wouldn't get it.

 

That was completely true back around Live 4.

agreed.

and i still think that even back in 4 you could write amazing stuff with it. For *writing* music it blows everything else out of the water. If you need to track and mix some big multi track live band, it's not really the way to go so much, but for electronic music there isnt anything better IMO.

.lm.

  leisuremuffin said:

  acid1 said:

  JohnTqs said:

ableton live is meant for live - that's why it's called ableton live. it's not for composing tracks, and if that's what you want to do i wouldn't get it.

 

That was completely true back around Live 4.

 

If you need to track and mix some big multi track live band, it's not really the way to go so much, but for electronic music there isnt anything better IMO.

 

If you really know how to use it, it comes damn close to other programs though. You would just need some extra plugins, not all the Ableton audio effects are super great.

grab a demo and play with it

i wouldn't use anything else live

i find it still kind of limiting in the production aspect so i still use nuendo to write/record everything then bounce stems to it for live

i do find it amazing for stretching accapellas though

but yeah

try it out mans

  acridavid said:

  leisuremuffin said:

  acid1 said:

  JohnTqs said:

ableton live is meant for live - that's why it's called ableton live. it's not for composing tracks, and if that's what you want to do i wouldn't get it.

 

That was completely true back around Live 4.

 

If you need to track and mix some big multi track live band, it's not really the way to go so much, but for electronic music there isnt anything better IMO.

 

 

If you really know how to use it, it comes damn close to other programs though. You would just need some extra plugins, not all the Ableton audio effects are super great.

Im curious as to which effects you're talking about, ive been using a lot of the built in effects for a while now and so far they seem pretty good to me, but im not exactly a great (or even good) mixer. What are your suggestions and how are the plugins better?

  42Orange said:

  acridavid said:

  leisuremuffin said:

  acid1 said:

  JohnTqs said:

ableton live is meant for live - that's why it's called ableton live. it's not for composing tracks, and if that's what you want to do i wouldn't get it.

 

That was completely true back around Live 4.

 

If you need to track and mix some big multi track live band, it's not really the way to go so much, but for electronic music there isnt anything better IMO.

 

 

If you really know how to use it, it comes damn close to other programs though. You would just need some extra plugins, not all the Ableton audio effects are super great.

 

Im curious as to which effects you're talking about, ive been using a lot of the built in effects for a while now and so far they seem pretty good to me, but im not exactly a great (or even good) mixer. What are your suggestions and how are the plugins better?

I don't really like the reverb so much. I can make nice stuff with it but it often sounds like 'the Ableton reverb'. It's a decay reverb, not really a natural sounding one, I miss that. Also, when mixing I'd really like a multiband compressor. You can simulate that with splitting up the signal and using EQ three to turn off bass/mid/high but a simple multiband would be great, especially for final mixing/mastering purposes. Amp simulation is something you need plugins for also. But the simple effects are awesome, utility is nice. Gate too and I always have Spectrum on the master channel. The distortions are nice too. It's just that sometimes you can ovbiously hear when someone has been using Live (cheesy beat repeats and resonators). I love Live, I'd just like to see even more amazing stuff in there so that eventually I can drop the plugins. Because I know they can do that. The Ableton instruments blow most external VST synths away if you ask me, would like to see that with the audio effects as well.