Anyone using Ableton Live?

[Rosie C]

 

Is anyone using Ableton Live? I've multi-tracked some songs, and thinking of using it to add in a couple of the multitracked parts when we're playing live. There is a 30-day free trial, but I'd like to save that until I have free time to give it a good run out before committing to buy.

 

[sammybee]

9 minutes ago, Rosie C said:

 

Is anyone using Ableton Live? I've multi-tracked some songs, and thinking of using it to add in a couple of the multitracked parts when we're playing live. There is a 30-day free trial, but I'd like to save that until I have free time to give it a good run out before committing to buy.

 

How many tracks are you using? There is a 'Lite' version available for much cheaper and a lot of hardware these days includes a licence for it - it is limited to 8 tracks though

[Rosie C]

Our recordings had about 8 tracks - vocal, mandocello, drum, tambourine, double bass, recorder, viola. So 8 tracks should work. 

 

The bit in Ableton's marketing that caught my eye was "Ableton Live listens to and adjusts its tempo based on incoming audio in real time, making it a dynamic part of the band instead of the tempo source that everyone has to follow". Sounds good, maybe too good?

 

[BigRedX]

Ableton's core market is people making loop-based beat-driven electronic music. 

 

Automatic tempo detection will depend on there being a good rhythmic source to follow. Do you have this in your instrumentation?

 

I'd spend all of the 30 day trial trying to make the tempo detection fail before deciding whether it is suitable for you. If it goes wrong at a gig it's generally worse than the live instruments going out of sync with a backing track.

[sammybee]

3 hours ago, Rosie C said:

Our recordings had about 8 tracks - vocal, mandocello, drum, tambourine, double bass, recorder, viola. So 8 tracks should work. 

 

The bit in Ableton's marketing that caught my eye was "Ableton Live listens to and adjusts its tempo based on incoming audio in real time, making it a dynamic part of the band instead of the tempo source that everyone has to follow". Sounds good, maybe too good?

 

Give it a try. I think you might be pleasantly suprised how well it actually works. You might be better off posting specific questions to someone that actually uses it, rather than on a Bass forum that attracts comments from people who have just heard internet rumours

 

[Rosie C]

Yes, giving the free trial is the best option I think. We have someone playing hand drum in the band, so likely a pickup or mic on that would be our best bet for an audio signal.

 

[sammybee]

2 minutes ago, Rosie C said:

Yes, giving the free trial is the best option I think. We have someone playing hand drum in the band, so likely a pickup or mic on that would be our best bet for an audio signal.

 

 

I'm not an Ableton guru, but I'm pretty sure this would be sufficient  .. I wouldn't worry about slight variations in tempo from your hand drum, as the time stretch is done on the fly, so the 'tracks' in Ableton will automatically fit in with the input tempo

 

Sound like an interesting project you are planning

[SteveXFR]

I tried Ableton live and found it lacked user friendliness. Nothing seemed very intuitive about it.

I'm now using Reaper which is much better and only about £60 although the free trial never actually ends.

[ahpook]

2 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I tried Ableton live and found it lacked user friendliness. Nothing seemed very intuitive about it.

 

Agreed. I got dragged into using Ableton for years as it was the DAW of choice amongst my friends and we used it to collaborate.

 

I ended up hating it. Each to their own of course, but as a general-use DAW, almost anything else I've used has been more straightforward.

 

I use Reaper, I paid for it - it's a steal for what it can for.

 

 

Edited February 19 by ahpook

[sandy_r]

1 hour ago, Rosie C said:

Yes, giving the free trial is the best option I think. We have someone playing hand drum in the band, so likely a pickup or mic on that would be our best bet for an audio signal.

 

 

A comparative test which might be useful for evaluation of any Tempo Following feature (for Ableton, Reaper, etc ) could be to initially make a representative live multi-track recording of one piece by your ensemble (without Ableton, etc), and then feed this recording into the package being considered, using each individual track in turn as the Tempo reference - and see how Ableton, et al, shape up

 

It should be possible to compare how closely each package follows the performance tempo, and how well each delivers your pre-recorded offline tracks into the 'live' mix

 

Just my €0.02

 

Good luck with this endeavour - sounds like a great project with many possibilities!

 

[SumOne]

I've used most of the main DAWs and Ableton had been my least favourite. Reaper is my favourite right now (so much so that I actually paid for it, which isn't necessary), it's much more intuitive, low CPU use, compatible with every VST I've tried with it, easy yo drag and drop and bpm detect audio. But I haven't been doing quite what you want do with it so perhaps Ableton it's good for that, I'd give it a go on the free trial but also try Reaper and the others (most have some sort of free trial). 

 

[Rosie C]

1 minute ago, SumOne said:

I've used most of the main DAWs and Ableton had been my least favourite. Reaper is my favourite right now (so much so that I actually paid for it, which isn't necessary), it's much more intuitive, low CPU use, compatible with every VST I've tried with it, easy yo drag and drop and bpm detect audio. But I haven't been doing quite what you want do with it so perhaps Ableton it's good for that, I'd give it a go on the free trial but also try Reaper and the others (most have some sort of free trial). 

 

 

Logic Pro is the DAW I use most often, and I'm not very keen on changing for editing & offline stuff. But I don't think it does anything live.

Reaper is certainly worth a go - the keyboard player in our band uses it, so I have a potential resource there.

Thanks for the input!

 

[sammybee]

On 19/02/2024 at 11:48, Rosie C said:

 

Is anyone using Ableton Live? I've multi-tracked some songs, and thinking of using it to add in a couple of the multitracked parts when we're playing live. There is a 30-day free trial, but I'd like to save that until I have free time to give it a good run out before committing to buy.

 

 

With reference to your initial question about triggering in multi-tracked parts using the follow tempo in Ableton - I did actually give it a try earlier and it worked surprisingly well.

 

16 hours ago, Rosie C said:

 

Logic Pro is the DAW I use most often, and I'm not very keen on changing for editing & offline stuff. But I don't think it does anything live.

 

I'm a Logic user too, and wouldn't throw that aside for Ableton. However for your use case, I think you might be best served by the 'Lite' version or Ableton. You might want to invest in a mini Launchpad or similar to control it

 

It definitely requires thinking about the process in a slightly different way to the way Logic works - I can see how Ableton is viewed as difficult if you're used to a linear, tape multirack type workflow

[Rosie C]

4 minutes ago, sammybee said:

 

With reference to your initial question about triggering in multi-tracked parts using the follow tempo in Ableton - I did actually give it a try earlier and it worked surprisingly well.

 

I'm a Logic user too, and wouldn't throw that aside for Ableton. However for your use case, I think you might be best served by the 'Lite' version or Ableton. You might want to invest in a mini Launchpad or similar to control it

 

It definitely requires thinking about the process in a slightly different way to the way Logic works - I can see how Ableton is viewed as difficult if you're used to a linear, tape multirack type workflow

 

Thanks for that! 

 

I am intrigued by the "launchpad" - positively space age when our band plays renaissance music!

[sammybee]

2 minutes ago, Rosie C said:

 

Thanks for that! 

 

I am intrigued by the "launchpad" - positively space age when our band plays renaissance music!

Yes, it looks like the dancefloor from Saturday Night Fever

 

I think the basic premise, is that it allows you to launch the various parts ('clips') of your song as and when required, more of a performance tool if you like

 

https://www.andertons.co.uk/novation-launchpad-mini-mk3-64-rgb-pad-midi-grid-controller

 

£88, it includes Ableton Live Lite and a whole bunch of other software

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

As a semi amateur GarageBand user, I hope you don't mind me chipping in .: 

I will end up getting Logic Pro at some stage , as it's seen as the natural progression etc. I seem to have a phobia about certain audio interfaces . By that I mean , that  having downloaded ableton live lite , and paying for Reason many moons ago, lacking confidence as I do , I still go straight to GarageBand .  
 

Looking at various sites about recording , a lot of people seem to rave about ablleton . I purchased a launchpad mini a few years back and I use that with launchpad on my iPad now and again . As mentioned the launchpad  is an ideal companion with ableton live . 
I really should do more with it . The launchpad is more of a drag and drop from a menu of clips and samples etc. I jjust need to spend more time to record my own clips into it , and I'd say I'd be happy enough as an ableton live user. 
 

Logic is now on iPad , but if you've got it on your iMac etc then paying for it again is not good imho.  
 

Haven't used reaper, but so many use it happily on here ..

[SH73]

I have upgraded to Ableton Live standard after many years of using the lite version that only gave me 8 tracks. 

The only downside of Ableton is that it tends to crash, but you can always recover when it unexpectedly shuts down. I recorded heavy guitar rigs, live drums and works fine paired with Focusrite Scarlett. 

[lidl e]

6 hours ago, SH73 said:

I have upgraded to Ableton Live standard after many years of using the lite version that only gave me 8 tracks. 

The only downside of Ableton is that it tends to crash, but you can always recover when it unexpectedly shuts down. I recorded heavy guitar rigs, live drums and works fine paired with Focusrite Scarlett. 

12 is about to come out i see.

 

I can get an upgrade from lite to standard, including a free uograde to 12 when it's out for €166

 

Surely it will only go up in price when 12 comes out? 

 

Im not sure i need standard yet though as im just getting into trying to record at home. 

[spacecowboy]

I’ve used Ableton for years it’s by far my favourite DAW, in my experience it’s just the most powerful and flexible piece of software I’ve ever used. I use it for recording, production, mastering, and sound design.
 

I bought the suite edition of 11 and that’ll get me upgrades to versions 12 and 13 for free when released. I think that applies to every purchase level though too. Could be wrong! 
 

 

[SH73]

7 hours ago, lidl e said:

12 is about to come out i see.

 

I can get an upgrade from lite to standard, including a free uograde to 12 when it's out for €166

 

Surely it will only go up in price when 12 comes out? 

 

Im not sure i need standard yet though as im just getting into trying to record at home. 

I've used lite with 8 tracks for years. Standard has unlimited tracks and other options available , but if you're just starting out you may prefer a different DAW as Ableton is mostly for electronic music, although I use it for everything.