Ableton Live - why so popular ?

M

mattkw80

New member
What am I missing with Ableton Live ?

Seems to be the hottest thing going right now...... even Pete Townshend is giving it props.


I've watched several video's on it, read the info on the site, and screwed around with the demo for a bit.

WHY IS THIS THING SO POPULAR ?

This thing keeps popping into my life one way or another..... internet, magazines, and I even got a demo disk for it when I bought pro tools.

I don't get it..... can somebody please tell me what the fuss is about ?
 
In a live situation you can load it up with loops & play it like an instrument. In the studio it's really good at letting you experiment with different arrangements. It's got some good algorithms for tempo syncing different loops, pitch shifting etc.

Pretty pricey though. Cakewalk's Project 5 does the same thing for $99
 
So for recording a band... how would this compare to Reaper, or Audition ?

I take it the primary use for this thing is LIVE as you described ?
 
mattkw80 said:
So for recording a band... how would this compare to Reaper, or Audition ?

I take it the primary use for this thing is LIVE as you described ?
Click to expand...

i think albeton live is more of a composing tool rather than a recording tool. I saw the demo too, and it's almost like garage band of MAC (maybe even better), but i'm not impress with it's recording, the interface is a little hard to get used to.
 
Well, that might be worth my time than.

I need some kind of composing tool I think.

Staring at Pro Tools while trying to write a song is pretty un-inspiring.
 
Live started out as a relatively small, tight application designed for DJs and for creating live electronic music of an improvisational nature (remember, Ableton is mainly a bunch of Germans working in Berlin where electronic music is alive and well).

As it has become bigger, more powerful and more mature, it's also become appealling to folks who are also looking for more of a standard DAW/MIDI tool. Not quite as easy to use as it once was, but more powerful by far.

In an era of already mature, linear sequencing programs, Live emerged a few years ago as new and different tool, one more focused on composition, arranging and improvisation than standard recording and audio production. That got a lot of people's attention.

BTW, M-Audio bundles a Lite version of Live with a lot of its gear. With the Lite version in hand, you can upgrade to Live 6 for $250 or so, which isn't bad for what you get.

Cheers,

Otto
 
Last edited:
Thanks Otto..... that certainly sheds some light on the history of it.


So would there be any advantages to this over Pro Tools, Reaper, Audtion, etc. ?
 
It's not so much an advantage, as a different way of working. You deal primarily with loops. Personally I use P5 in addition to rather than instead of Reaper. In P5 once you have a few loops set up, you can trigger them in various sequences and record the arrangement as a 'performance'.

As ofajen points out, Live 6 has been extended to incorporate traditional sequencer functions like multitrack input, midi instruments, audio editing etc. In that respect it may be all you need.

Cakewalk have been trying to do something similar with P5, but its audio editing & mixing capability is still crap so in the meantime I still need to use a traditional sequencer
 
Hi mattkw80

Like you I have seen this program everywhere but haven't really tried it out.
A mate of mine swears by it though, and uses it mainly as a time stretch/pitch shifting/regrooving tool for loops which he then imports back into Logic.

Live seems to have really great algorithms for this kind of thing and doesn't suffer from the artefacts normally associated with squashing & stretching beats.

Dags
 
I played with it a bit more on the weekend.

I've used half a dozen other DAW programs and machines, but this one does not seem as self explanatary as other ones - so I'm going to have to read the manual, and step by step through the tutorials.

The way you drag and drop a block of Midi is pretty cool though.... because it gives you a top "header" bar that you can go back and grab again.

Seems like a really easy way to move Midi around.

Matt
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top