The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Apparently you can get a fully functional beta of the new Ableton Live here:

http://www.ableton.com/index.php?main=l ... r&sub=beta

FYI in case you're interested in trying it out.

Just bought (ya I did) Live 4 a couple of weeks ago and got Live 5 free as an upgrade. Suhweeeeeet!!! It doesn't seem that much different, but in addition to sending me an e-mail about it Trent Reznor is releasing source files for Only to use in remixing in Live, Garageband, and a couple of programs. He endorses Live extensively and says it is used frequently in the studio. Live is the bomb. Glad I'm finally a real owner of it. It took a lot of motivation to the buy it considering how many free copies were on the net. The problem is that they all had time lines the cracks. Once I lost my final copy, never to retrieve it again (tried everything to renewing my whole system) I knew I was going to have to buy it. Live is a great remixing/songwriting tool. Big fan.

Nine Inch Nails Remix Contest - Only

i have said it before, but i do basically everything in Live.
I haven't gotten the beta yet, because i'm weird like that, but i'm way stoked for it to be officially released.

-craig

I got some version of Live with my M-Audio A/D box. I've used it for a couple things (making rhythm tracks from loops, mostly). But I can't seem to get my head around the user interface. Plus it likes to re-tempo my loops unless I've very very careful about keeping the sampling rate and the file length as identical as possible. When I use it now, I format all my loop WAVs in Adobe Audition so they're all as identically formatted as possible (if I'm feeling daring, I'll include 4-bar loops along with 2-bar ones). Only then will I load them into Live. But once that tedious weirdness is out of the way, Live has made some very nice sounds for me.

Anyone know a good tutorial or have general advice on how to use the program more flexibly? I can't believe something so quirky is so trusted by professionals. I must be doing something wrong.

And that Trent Reznor link is great. What a cool guy.

What do you mean by 'using it more flexibly'?

I think Live's strong point is how easy it makes it to create complex "scenes" in the session view. I usually build a few sets of these and then string them together in the arrangement view. At that point it becomes a fancified multitrack recorder.

I haven't had any sample rate problems when importing, but maybe you are using an older version?

-craig

There is a forum on http://www.ableton.com/forum/index.php site for Live users, but I found it to be very easy to use. I also got a Delta version with both my M-audio sound cards and it basically blows compared to 4 or now 5. Think Cubasis verses Cubase and that's what those Delta versions are. I highly reccommend downloading the Beta version to get a real feel for that program. I find it very flexible. You can use it for remixing or writing and producing. I still use Cubase for all my general wave form work, but I love the way you can play with the wave forms in loop mode and change where the accents live and so forth. In addition it uses VST and DXi plug-ins and it can be used as a rewire with most programs. Very sexy that part of it. I sometimes will mess with loops in Live and riff off of them in Cubase. My primary need for it was for getting heavier into final re-mixing, but it's applications are endless and the set up is great.

Just so you know Mostess everytime you scroll over something in Live the box in the left hand corner will give you info about it. Very handy when learning the program. Awesome program.

tonetripper wrote:I also got a Delta version with both my M-audio sound cards and it basically blows compared to 4 or now 5.

That probably explains it. I'll try the tutorial and experiment some more. I'm sure I just haven't gotten the feel of it.

Thanks.

yeah, i keep trying on starfinger's recommendation, but i haven't really grokked the interface. i'll try again!
-bill

I checked. I have Live 1.5 Delta, so it's probably light years behind the newer versions.

Still an interesting program, just a little quirky.