Ableton Live 11

Reminds me of the quote

There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works. - Alan J Perlis

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Ha! I guess Iā€™ve earned myself a bit of a reputation, so without wanting to derail my initial question (switching from Logic to Live), I hope I can clarify. I do NOT expect perfection. I just expect a $1,500 piece of hardware to at least start up the first time you turn it on. I know and have myself had gear not work upon receipt, but it does really disappoint me when that happens. Thereā€™s a vast difference between a software bug in a complicated suite of programs (which a DAW certainly is) and something actually not working at all upon receipt. As we all are, I am regularly upgrading various hardware and software to fix bugsā€”this is just the nature of human frailty and a necessary part of technological improvements. Iā€™ve owned Omnisphere for probably 10 years, and just a few days ago, upgraded to the current version, which was mostly just some bug fixes.

Thanks for that detailed information. Focusrite is still confusing though. The website says Live Suite is $750. Maybe thatā€™s true if you have no Live Lite license, but Ableton says the upgrade from Live Lite to Suite (at least at my Ableton account page) is $550, not $750. Well, I guess Iā€™ll just see what Focusrite wants to charge me for the coupon. If they are going to charge me $375, I may just wait and enjoy my Scarlett interface without the coupon.

Oh I see. So it requires human verification because (presumably) Novationā€™s and Abletonā€™s e-commerce systems donā€™t talk to each other, which is why it takes a few days to go through. Thanks!

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I have not yet bought a piece of hardware that did not at least start up the first time I turned it on.

But going back to topic, then I would recommend you work with the trial version first.

Mutable Plaits for M4L with some sweet looking modulation added. Looks fun.

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Me too! I think yesterday (Monday) was a public holiday in the UK hence the lack of response?? ā€¦.

I know they have offices in UK and Hong Kong as well.
Iā€™m going to give it a few more hours and then get onto chat again.

Iā€™ve been a Logic user since 1998 or so and have recently started to work a lot more in Live after a few years of owning it and dipping my toes into it. Now that Iā€™m working in it consistently itā€™s starting to make more sense, but the philosophies of design, workflow and layout are just very different, so there wasnā€™t a ton of carry-over for me, personally. I love creating in it, but I donā€™t see myself ever doing big mixes within Live. I vastly prefer Logicā€™s mixer view and bussing. Thatā€™s fine though, I donā€™t mind having different worlds for varying tasks.

I need to do more work to get all of the key commands down. Once I learned about the ā€œTabā€ key for switching back and forth between views, things felt much more fluid to me.

If you havenā€™t checked out Opal yet, do it. If nothing else, Iā€™d use Live just to have access to it. Itā€™s fast and fun.

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I gave my code away yesterday (and it was used successfully), so I tried using it just to see if it could be used again and it gave me the message that the code had expired, so in theory it must be tied to my account somehow.

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Iā€™m still waiting on them to send through the upgrade code too. waiting patiently.

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I ordered mine on the Friday (afternoon) in the UK and havenā€™t heard anything yet- it ships via Parcelforce apparently from near Norfolk. I cant say communication shave been good since ordering, but then it was a bank holiday weekendā€¦If I dint hear something today I will be a bit miffedā€¦

Parcel force for an email code?

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Oops- I thought we were discussing PUSH 3 hardware, sorry.

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I was reading this, then checked my emails and boom, upgrade code is here

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Cool- when did you order?

Good to know. Iā€™ve had Suite for years so this sale doesnā€™t affect me. But, I might be able to get a code for someone if they are unique. I bought an LPP mk3 recently and should be able to get a code.

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Some random notes for you hereā€¦ Iā€™m someone who occasionally gets the ā€œgrass is greenerā€ 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, itā€™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 theyā€™re unusable, but thereā€™s some gold in there too. Thereā€™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 youā€™re into sound design or extensive warping of samples; then itā€™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 doesnā€™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 doesnā€™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 donā€™t think any DAW has the options and integrations that Live has.

My perception (and Iā€™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.

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There are built in ā€˜lessonsā€™ in Live, where you are guided through numerous different processes. There is also a window with a description of every control as you hover over it.

Not much help if youā€™re looking to prep yourself before taking the plunge but once in there, itā€™s very helpful

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In case anyone else hits this, itā€™s somehow related to Max for Live startup. I pointed 11.3 to use the bundled Max from 11.2 and it now starts fine. Working with ableton support to fix but thought Iā€™d share in case anyone else hit the same issue with slow startup

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