Comments on: Futurelooks reviews Ableton Live

By: Matt Hite

Matt Hite — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 06:47:26 +0000

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

By: awful

awful — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 23:11:46 +0000

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.

By: n9

n9 — Tue, 27 Jan 2004 15:38:06 +0000

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.

By: Matt Hite

Matt Hite — Tue, 27 Jan 2004 08:16:53 +0000

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.

By: awful

awful — Tue, 27 Jan 2004 03:23:24 +0000

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.