I’ve been looking to make the big switch from Acid to Ableton for my loop-based production needs. I installed the demo and fired it up, only to find myself staring at thoroughly confusing interface that was nothing like I had seen before. So instead of spending too much time trying to learn by trial-and-error, I printed out the manual and gave it a read. I’m still a bit confused, although closer to comprehending than before. Scott Finding at Futurelooks, however, has somehow managed to figure the cryptic interface out and has written a thorough and honest review of the product.
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5 Comments
Live is a live performance tool, which is why it seems so strange at first. What I like is the way you line up loops horizontally, like a row on a spreadsheet, and then hit play on the row and they all start up, perfectly in sync. And then of course you can jump from row to row, triggering off rows of samples. It’s also cool how they won’t trigger until the previous row has played out. I like Live. But there’s not enough hours in the day to learn every piece of software properly… Let alone fork out cash for it all.
I think I need a bigger monitor for starters … The LCD on my old laptop lacks the real estate these new fangled audio programs presume is available.
You’re right about needing to stop looking at Ableton as merely a composition tool and to take a look at its performance capabilities. What I’m really excited about is the warping feature and being able to tweak the markers so easily. I’ve stumbled across methods to quantize live drummers in Acid, but it is definitely a tedious task. It is simplified greatly in Ableton.
I really hope they support native MP3 playback soon, as it’s hard to “jam” in the program if I’m constantly converting audio when all I want to do audition an idea. The ability to quickly audition an idea is really what keeps me coming back to Acid.
There’s a ton of other shit to get excited about, though, as the review points out. In any case, the review is one of the better ones I’ve run across.
i think that live’s interface is clearer than clear! It strikes me as the best UI design in years. Remember to hit the tab key so that you can check out the arrange view. Both views compliment each other to make the whole package.
Anyway, keep after it because I think that you will be well rewarded for getting into Live. It is amazing.
I was thinking about what you said about “jamming an idea” and how hard you thought it was to easily do that. I remember I was thinking the same thing when I had a look at Live. But I think the thing to do is just throw a load of samples into it (a lot of them) and then start firing off the groups until you hit something you’d like to investigate more deeply.
Looks like Remix Magazine has also just published a review of Ableton Live 3. Check it out:
http://remixmag.com/ar/remix_ableton_live_2/index.htm
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