Ableton Move : User Thread

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

I thought it would be better to start an actual user/usage thread for Move, to get practical and not have to wade through 3000+ posts in the Move speculation thread.

Mine is here, up and running.

I’m loving the form factor, and how engaging it is to make music on. I think the form factor is the best of any piece of gear I’ve had.

If anyone is wondering about the inbuilt speakers… they’re awful. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m doing some tests on the mic tonight.

I also had a weird ground hum when I connected a mini-jack out to my monitors when the Move was USB C connected to my MacBook… this could be the cable though.

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Ableton Move [Archived]
Ableton Move strange trigger problem
#2

If mine arrives for the weekend i will be very happy

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#3

Hmm, that’s not good.

Are the power supplies for the monitors and your MacBook plugged in to the same (set of) outlet(s)? If not, doing so may alleviate the issue. Does it occur when the MacBook is running solely on battery power, as well?

#4

Posted this in the other thread but this question is definitely targeted towards users:

Can someone who already has their Move as well as Push 3 try connecting both to Live as control surfaces and report back on whether/how they work together?

I remember reading somewhere that they aren’t supported simultaneously, and that is also the official story about multiple Push devices. However, I have been able to use a Push 1 in session + mixer mode and Push 3 in note mode together in Live with a fair amount of success. It would be very cool to use both Move as a session device and Push as a note device…

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#5

Yes, it did it when the macbook just on battery.

#6

Yikes. What about when using Move as a controller/interface for Live on your MacBook?

If that hum is there when using the Move as an interface for the computer, that could be… a big problem. Hopefully it’s just an issue with the cable?

#7

I remember with the OP-Z, you got ground noise whenever it was charging – bad enough that they added a front-panel shift function to disable charging. That would be too bad if the Move has the same issue.

#8

USB is an anagram of HUM

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#9

You need an isolator

1 Like
#10

How do you do that when you want to plug into the computer at the same time?

#11

*I noticed earlier on, with Move Manager, if you want to transfer your own samples it wants you to create folders in MM and drag individual sample files in… so you can’t just drag in a Sample Pack that’s already organised. *

I tried to bring in a Beat Butcher volume in earlier… nope :-1:

UPDATE EDIT: This was my mistake in hitting the Upload button in Move Manager- when I dragged and dropped full folders into MM it works perfectly.

2 Likes
#12

I read elsewhere that the Move does lazy chopping.
Can anyone confirm this can be done with imported samples, rather than live input recording only?

#13

Does it feel solid or kinda hollow plastic style? Objectively.

#14

It’s solid.
Way more solid than the Novation devices (which aren’t bad).
It feels like a section of the Push 2.

6 Likes
#15

pretty solid. not tried the competition tbh (the yamaha thing, op-z) bu i heard they were pretty duff. this is not like that.

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#16

From https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/15338257784092-Sets-and-Content-on-Move :

Note: Uploading folders only works with the latest version of Chrome, Firefox or Edge. It is not supported in Safari.

Also, not sure if this question was about connecting Move as an interface— is there a hum when the Move is connected to the MacBook in Control Live mode with a USB C cable and Live is using the Move Audio Input/Output?

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#17

There’s quite a lot of conjecture over whether or not these devices are snake oil, but they come in a wide range of cost/quality? and are pass through.

I don’t know which brands have a good reputation though.

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#18

I wrote in the other thread, but the build quality surprised me. way better than I thought and the encoders feel fantastic. workflow is super smooth and easy. very fun device. yes, I wish it had more tracks, but I do think this is the start of something special if they stick with it. I very much prefer this to the push 3 standalone I had, as it’s just much faster to get something going and feels much more of its own thing. yes, push 3 can do 10000 more things, but I always felt I could do those things faster and better on my computer. this feels like its own unique thing. hard to explain.

19 Likes
#19

yes, it can. not the easiest workflow but it is possible. it requires that you place the sample to be ‘sliced’ onto its own pad or a sampler on another track (as there are no ‘audio tracks’), add it to the 1st seq step, press the top-right sample button and press play while hitting the pads to record the ‘slices’ to each pad.

[edit] a quick n dirty demo vid

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#20

Alright, a few early positive thoughts:

  • The saturator on the Main (nee Master) track is just lovely.
  • Coming from Push and Note, the learning curve is very gentle. See my post history for a clear explanation of my biases – I can’t say whether this will convert anyone that didn’t get along with the Push workflow, but as someone that likes the Push workflow and knows Note pretty well, I was up and running in like a minute and a half. I’ll need a bit of time to learn the icons and some of the quirks, but so far it’s been easy to pick up.
  • Coming from the OP-Z, this shares a lot of the same DNA in a really nice way. Obviously the OP-Z’s Trig Conditions formed a lot of its appeal, and those are entirely absent here, but the basic workflow and sound architecture have a lot in common. Happy to explain further if you’re an OP-Z user and have any questions – I loved mine when it worked, but I was constantly worried about its durability so gave up and I sold it.
  • If you nudge a note past the end of the loop, it zips around to the beginning and vice versa. As someone with sloppy timing, this makes it really easy to fix patterns! Also, you can add bars just by pressing the right arrow and adding a step. The Push’s Loop Selector is definitely more powerful, but I’m pleased how well the Move’s works within the limited UI.
  • The storage and RAM are both big enough that I may never have to even think about it. That’s a welcome change from the 24mb limit on the OP-Z and ESX-1.

I’m sure I’ll encounter things I don’t like before long, and I’ll be sure to share them in the other thread to help prospective buyers. But the first day of the honeymoon period is going well.

24 Likes