Ableton Move : User Thread

Alright…good to know that it’s not just my device. Thanks you! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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I can understand and live with all the limitations of the Move. Really. But the fact that you have to choose between MIDI In and MIDI Out is just embarrassing for such a well-known manufacturer like Ableton.

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If you mod a connector onto one of the OG volcas you can have both …

I mean as how Move is used as a midi controller, as I thought that was one of the selling points. Haven’t seen a vid someone going through it as a controller for Ableton

As a controller specifically for Ableton LIVE it appears to be decent because the MIDI limitations detailed above don’t seem to apply. I say “appears” because I don’t have first hand experience using it that way – I have a Push 3 that plays that role.

It’s in terms of implementing basic MIDI functionality to work with other MIDI gear where the Move currently fails…

A video about using the Move as a Live controller:

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Here are my thoughts from a few weeks back:

The TLDR is, in my opinion it’s a perfectly competent Live controller with a lot of great features. But it’s no Push. If someone is considering the Move to replace their Push 2, it can work in some very specific cases but you should be ready to make compromises. And given the price difference vs the new Launchkeys (which also have tons of features that are absent in Move), I would only recommend buying it if you’re also interested in Standalone mode.”

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Interesting mk4 was not even on my radar, going to have a look now. ALbeit having standalone is fun, but I do most of my work in Ableton. though again until I have Move in my hands that may change my mind

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I use the Launchkey Mini MK4 regulary with the Move. Instant fun, really. The arp and the chord modes are such a big source of inspiration and happy accidents. I especially like the user chord maps because you can feed them quickly with your own chords.

However, you have to bear in mind that the USB connection between the LK and the Move sometimes doesn’t work. Then you have to unplug it and plug it in again.

I agree, a Push is still the gold standard Live controller. But I was amazed how good Move is as a Live Controller.

Move can also be used as an interface for Live too.

This whole integration is so good, I’d go as far to say that Move really is the perfect starting point if you have started producing music and have decided Ableton is going to be your ecosystem.

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Depends what you’d like to MIDI-control with the Move?

If other gear, then @pmags already explained that it’s poor. But if it’s Live, then it’s fantastic :slight_smile:

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The encoder caps are capacitive touch, helpful when you just tap it gently to see what value is current on it without having to move it and change the sound.

Had mine for a little more than a week or so now. Some thoughts, in case they’re useful.

The hardware is great. Connectivity is terrible. Capture button is its best feature. Pads feel better and are more responsive than basically any other pad-based box; I like them better than my Push 3, honestly. Workflow is fine. Comparing it to things in the same price point, it’s much more powerful and capable internally than the Circuit Tracks, in terms of polyphony and drum voices and sequencing length. Love that you can make big long sequences, or add individual beats if you want to get into alternate timings.

But the synths and sounds in general are just not for me, so far. I have a thing about Ableton sounds, I think. My feeling when I listen to the Move’s on-board sounds is that they’re very eager to sound new, contemporary, cutting edge, fresh. But all I hear is “this sounds like a radio song I don’t like” or “this sounds like a car commercial” or “this sounds like it’ll be woefully out of date in a year”. By contrast, many of the MC-101 sounds are tried and true classics, the Polyend synth sounds (in Tracker Mini/+) are beautiful, the Deluge excels at lo-fi, etc.

The Move also feels mostly unsuited to live performance so far. Basically nothing in the way of master-level effects or performance effects or performance controls or performance sequencing. There isn’t even side-chaining compression, which is seen in the likes of the Circuit Tracks. It’s unfair because it’s a higher price point, but the Tracker + and Mini performance page quickly makes you realize the difference between a performance-oriented device and a sketchpad. But even the MC-101 has things like scatter, you know?

Anyway, it has its perks over other devices, like that polyphony and live recording are easy to implement versus Polyend devices, or that it’s much cheaper than the Deluge, or that it has a way longer sequencer than most grooveboxes. But I’ve yet to make a pattern or sound that immediately made me think, “OK, this is going to turn into a song.”

I’ve been taking my morning commute with it, and fitting it into the margins of my life, so maybe something will still emerge. But when I think about all my favourite devices, whether it’s a synth or groovebox or whatever, most of them I can dial in a sound I love pretty quickly. Nothing like that here yet.

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where my head is on this glorious Friday afternoon:

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Pretty much my thoughts when I heard some presentation demos lol. That’s why for me its biggest limitation is lack of deep sound editing. I could live with bad connectivity, lack of performance features and it not being a good “team player”, because I’d buy it as a standalone project starter for Ableton, not a centerpiece of a larger setup or groovebox for jamming. But being limited to partially tweakable presets I probably won’t even like and having to use computer to make my own sounds… that’s just not how (and why) I work with hardware. Sound design is integral part of me working on new song ideas.

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but if we look on the bright side, could this thing be the greatest groovebox for writing commercial jingle cues on the fly? ehhhh :slight_smile:

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If there’s nothing to your liking, importing your own samples and/or custom presets is the way to go. Drift is simple, but is quite capable of producing a robust sound palette. To each their own of course, but I’ve found these preset packs to offer some great starting points for custom presets:

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I’ll check this out. Thank you!

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Yeah it’s annoying. Something about the way I hold Move on my lap, my right hand bumps the master volume knob occasionally and the screen jumps from whatever I’m trying to do to the volume. Took my a while to figure out why. It’s annoying when you’re actively turning one knob and your finger brushes the adjacent knob and the screen switches. They should update it so that the parameter that is actually changing gets priority. It’s way too sensitive at the moment, but I’ve kind of learned to deal with it.

But the point of touch sensitive knobs is you can see the parameter/value you’re changing before you change it. It’s something I find irritating about the Deluge is you have to turn the knob before you can see what time division the delay was set to., but by that point you’ve already changed it.

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