Some random notes for you here… I’m someone who occasionally gets the “grass is greener” feeling as an Ableton user who sometimes looks at Logic, but the Ableton workflow keeps me there. Ableton is all about building blocks which can apply to your songs in Session View, your Instruments, Drums or Effects in racks. For sampling and resampling, it’s well known as being one of the best if not the best - the grid based editing of audio clips is super smooth. Then you have the fun and games of Max For Live, where folks come up with creative and interesting cheap or free add-ons, seriously some of these are so whacky that they’re unusable, but there’s some gold in there too. There’s also session view. One of the best things about the worksflow is the ability to create a sketch of ideas in Session View and then perform that into Arrangement View, to then work on your track.
I think how Ableton gels with you will depend a lot on how you write. If you’re into sound design or extensive warping of samples; then it’s brilliant. If you prefer to get writing quickly, then external VSTs or deep knowledge of Ableton instruments are something to consider. They are undeniably good in their own way (not to mention incredibly CPU efficient), but Ableton doesn’t do much in the way of directing you towards a specific mood or feel - this will be either a pro or a con depending on what you want. Many other VSTs make it hard to make a bad sound, where it is possible to get off track with Ableton instruments (side note: the intention with the new Drift synth was to make it an instrument to solve that particular riddle - and it does sound really good.)
I know 2 of the main frustrations from Logic users who come over to Ableton can be things like the way it doesn’t have keyboard shortcuts assigned to commonly used tasks (eg: freeze & flatten.) And on that point, there is no bounce in place (although there is an M4L device that does this.) That said, for any extensive audio editing and sampling, or sound design, Ableton is fantastic. I guess if you like Bitwig, the natural connection from Live to Bitwig might offer some clues as to whether it would work for you or not as that seems to follow the modular concept in a similar way. One benefit that I personally like about Ableton is the way you can see everything (pretty much) on one screen. If MIDI control is important to you (either via pads or keys) I don’t think any DAW has the options and integrations that Live has.
My perception (and I’d be interested to hear if this is right or wrong) Logic has a more traditional workflow, and great creative in-built tools and sounds that require less work (maybe?) to find the sweet spots than Ableton. But what Ableton gives you back is a blazing fast workflow and excellent audio warping capabilities, plus a blank canvas for the more technically advanced.
This is true. Tab for the main view and Shift/Tab for switching between the clip (audio/midi) and the effects at the bottom. Cntrl/Cmnd+E to split an audio track. If renaming a track or clips within it, select all the clips and Cntrl/Cmnd+R to rename the first one - which will then rename all the clips in one go.