The ABLETON LIVE Thread

[DJ THUMPER! Profile]

Who here uses Ableton Live?

What are some of your favorite uses for it?

What are some of your favorite techniques?

What are some of your favorite VSTs to use with it?

Got questions, comments, tips about Ableton Live? POST THEM HERE!

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I use Ableton Live 6 (looking forward to getting 7 soon) almost exclusively now after switching over from FL Studio 7 XXL + Cubase SX 3.

I use it for pretty much everything from designing sounds, making loops, multitrack recording/editing, beat slicing, synth programming...

I love rearranging breakbeats with only the waveforms in the track view. I don't use any plugins for slicing beats now. I just drop in a loop, separate all the regions, and copy/paste/pitchshift/stretch + consolidate + repeat.

I like it better that ReNoise for this reason, I can see the breaks be visually built in front ofg me rather than numerical values. I come from a background of hardware drum machines, so if I want numerical values I will pull out my Boss SP-505 or my Boss DR-5.

I'm still looking for the perfect, dark synth to use... but I really dig FL's Bloodoverdrive as a boost and coloration for starters, followed by Ableton's nice 8 band parametric EQ, then compression.

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Something I would like to know is:

When using a MIDI keyboard's keys to trigger loops, does each key have to be linked to only one loop per track?

Or can you set the key to launch the highlighted loop on the track, thus making each key have unlimited functions?

[fap* Profile Website]

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hey thumper,

i am not sure i understand your question.

keys can all have multiple functions, knobs on an m-audio midi keyboard can be set to multiple midi functions.

you can assign keys to multiple loops, but you can only play 1 loop at a time in each track. i use a lot of the automation when i want 1 key to play a sample and trigger the next. chopping up the beat or a vocal and setting it to play any or play other can make interesting sounds.

did you know that if you map the keys out on a computer keyboard you can assign lower and upper case letters...as in 'a' and 'A' or 's' and 'S' capitol letters count as another trigger...which can be good for a start/stop function on the loops.

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[DJ THUMPER! Profile]

OK, let me try to clarify...

Say you have only 1 audio track in the mixer view.

You have multiple audio loops in that track ready for live playback.

What I want to is use 1 key to trigger all the loops in that track. (Not at the same time though!)

I want to know if I can select which loop gets triggered by that 1 key on my controller by simply highlighting the loop or the scene it is in.

I want to know if I can assign 1 key to trigger whatever loop is highlighted in the track.

That way, I would only use say about 8 keys for triggering loops and the rest could be for other fun stuff.

Does that make more sense?

[fap* Profile Website]

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http://www.ableton.com/pages/tips/2004_11

let me know if helps

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[DISEMBOWELLED Profile]

I use ableton 5 for DJing. Only using a small fraction of its entire capabilities, but learning more..

the only thing thats stopping me using it fully for production is the beatslicing....chopping it manually is waaaay too time consuming, I much prefer Recycle + Dr Rex in Reason. However I hear in Live 7 theyve added a slicer and REX support so that might just persuade me.

Now all I need is to get my hands on 7....

[the shallow stairs Profile Website]

so is it really worth the $700?

[Higgins Profile]

Im not one to ever want to pirate or illegally download anything, but 700$ is fucking steep for most of us. I know infact that it is a brilliant piece of software from the lite version of 4.2 i recieved with a piece of hardware. Even if i wait a few months for the price to drop im guessing the lowest it will go till version 8 comes out is $450, still not cheap. A little sad consindering how essential it is to so many people in the electronic genre to play live.

[fap* Profile Website]

so is it really worth the $700?

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no

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[aruhad Profile]

ableton + (vst :glitch + instajungle)

[MusicalD Profile]

I have ableton live and I use it for EVERYTHING
Though I Don't know, it still lacks very important things from major DAWs.

[fap* Profile Website]

ableton + (vst :glitch + instajungle)

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mine does not play well with the instajungle, locks up and shit.

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[PetSonicMonster Profile]

ableton is a truly wonderful piece fo software and version 7 adds pretty much everything i want

if i ever get to the point where im actually earning bucks off music then ill buy a fully liscenced version, untill then, my conscious is not overly worried

[onemancirclepit Profile]

i recommend at least a 1-2 GB of RAM for version seven because it is a memory HOG! it will shut your computer down if you get to much going at once. i love it though, i built a second computer just for ableton live 7 and cool edit pro. i was using fl studio xxl with sampletank and cool edit pro but (didn't have enough RAM) i pushed it to it's limits and it said go fuck yourself by crashing and then giving me the windows blue screen of death...

in short, ableton is the shit. just don't expect anything good if you don't have the right system.

[wilcox Profile Website]

I use ableton and will for a long time to come i think. I like it because the artistic flow continues while working on sounds and loops. I also use it for live pa. you can get it for around 290 if you e-mail them and ask for the "Artist Discount". I am right now actually upgrading to 7.. i imagine the drum racks will be very usefull for making breakcore.

[XISIX Profile Website]

yeah. .....

Been using legit copies since Ableton Live 1.0 !

Think the improvisational interface is what keeps this fiend using it.
Tend ta use several different softsynths, fx, etc or Reason rewired in.

Some recent favorite vsts are Audiodamage Replicant + Camelaudio Camelphat + Rayspace [interesting convolution reverb].

Just picked up Arturia Moog Modular V so that's gunna be hell of lot fun muck about.