I'm genuinely thinking about buying a laptop and Ableton. Talk me out of it

There is so much for you to catch up with then :wink:

@Fin25, i’m at home full time with a 6 year old and a 9 year old. with school holidays, budget cuts, sick days, it seems like one or both kids are at home every day even during the school year. I feel your pain. I think you’re probably doing the right thing. And if you’re not, at least you’re trying to figure out how to integrate music making into a busy and stressful life. Don’t listen to these Mac vs PC folks. You gotta do you.

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I mean that’s the bottom line isn’t. Whatever werks for you, werks best. Doesn’t matter what the setup is. :+1:t6:

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It’s so very different from hardware. It’s designed for accomplishing specific goals - so it’s like, it assumes you know what to do from having extensive prior experience with gear. They’re trying to make it more inspirational, but it’s still a computer so you’ll always be dealing with BS. Unless you are very careful … and getting a dedicated machine is a really good idea to avoid some of the BS …

I think screwing around with a couple Elektrons and recording that is way more fun and fluid than doing it all in the box. Maybe lower your expectations of yourself and just set things up to have the most fun in those 30 min spurts … 20 min prep, 10 min recording?

In short I think you’re daft if you think a computer is gonna save you time XD “with great power comes great responsibility” as they say. Just embrace the limitations of the hardware because if time is your enemy a computer ain’t gonna save you.

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Is that you?

Maybe think before replying?

It wasn’t meant to be disparaging if that’s what you’re referring to. Actually I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make…

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If my post wasn’t kind-sounding enough, I’ve struggled with perfectionism myself so that’s why lowering expectations is my best advice when it comes to gear. Not necessarily lowering standards of what sounds good but moving on from how you think things oughtta work

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I find your post tone deaf and almost rude. Especially knowing that you was stressing yourself over the perfect setup earlier this year. The volume and quality of feedback you received on this forum regarding your concerns I could only describe as a free therapy session. At the same time it looks like you didn’t even read past first paragraph of OP to jump straight to suggesting “just embracing limitations” when those limitations where the reason for OP to look into laptops and DAWs.

Not true, I read it and my stance is don’t follow the siren call of computers. He asked us to talk him out of it…

EDIT: didn’t realize how late to the party i was. I don’t think my post was rude, just really out of touch with the saga. I’m going to bed now. Nothing to see here…

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I think the BEST advice you can give is “just have fun, make music the way that suits you best” :slight_smile:

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Almost 1k replies. Well done mate! Catching up to the Cats thread.

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He bought the thing already, youre late

Sir, have you considered buying a Mac?

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Anyone that’s listened to my music knows that perfectionism is not a problem for me.

I think it already is. It’s simple things really, like how much quicker I can get samples into the sampler. But the most important change is that I can now get most of the boring housekeeping tasks out of the way during the gaps in the daytime so that when I can sit down for a bit with my gear, I’m not wasting time with that, I can get straight on with jamming on the hardware.

Before I had a computer, sassions were very much mix first, jam later, which sucks the fun out of it when time is short. Now I can jam away and fix up the mixes later. I quite happy working with just Ableton and a couple of free plugins.

It’s also simple stuff like if I want to upload a track on here I used to have to record it into my tascam, take the SD card out, put it in my phone, transfer it, convert it to MP3 via a shonky freeware app, then upload it. Now I just hit export and drag it into safari. It’s all these little jobs that are just so much easier with a laptop.

I’m done with trying to find the perfect setup, mostly because there’s no such thing. What a laptop does is allow me a setup that I can actually make some music with without too much time wasting and frustrating limitations.

Believe me, if I didn’t have kids and all that, there’s no way I’d be using a laptop, but life is what it is, just have to adapt.

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it was a bit condescending maybe but who cares, raising yr post count is what matters

I hate when people push limitations as a positive. Yes if what you have has restrictions then master what you have and get the best results you can but don’t actively avoid better solutions as some kind of badge to wear. It’s like those people on YouTube who think putting dawless in their videos elevates it to a higher level with the actual music being secondary to the clickbait video title.

Embrace advances and utilise all at your disposal to make your life easier. It’s too short to purposely make it more difficult like some kind of martyr of realness.

Look at modular, people spending thousands on modules to cover every intricacy is seen as creative but doing the same with software is frowned upon by the elitist dawless society.

Bottom line, make music using whatever works for you

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Hmm, a blanket statement such as this doesn’t quite work, because I guess when people often talk about limitations as a positive thing they mean that limitations can boost your creativity or help with creativity, not that limitation themselves are necessarily always good. For me setting limits to what gear to use, a deadline etc. are a positive since the boundaries help me concentrate on the essentials, creating instead of giving into impulses or getting sidetracked by options that won’t necessarily make the music any better.

Coming from a band backround I’ve always felt that using simple tools for the compositional phase is more productive, such as just a few synths, a guitar or a piano. Maybe a drum machine that you first flesh out the songs with. I’ve written all the recorded songs with bands I’ve made witha a bass, then added the rest later. But the songs existed when there was nothing but the riffs and structure. Similar approach to electronic music works really for me.

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If limitations werk :+1:t6:
If having tons of choices werks👍🏿

Whatever makes you make stuff.

For me less is more. Better to know how to use some, than having lots I have no idea how to use.

The biggest waste of time, though, is stressin over how someone else does it.
Just focus on yer own shit. And enjoy listening to everyone here’s output.

oh and if anyone wants to flow a couple 100k my way, I’d be very appreciative :slight_smile:

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Ya for sure. Was just responding to blanket statement that limitations are bad

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