Live 5 printed manual

[eegee]

Does anybody know if the printed manual in Live 5 is the same as the pdf included with the download? I usually print out my pdf's and bind them for the shelf, but if the manuals are the same, I may just buy the boxed upgrade.

Thanks.

[christianmusicmaker]

Hi eegee. The printed manual that ships with Live5 is identical to the PDF - just checked it. The PDF appears to have 363 pages and the Live 5 printed manual has 288.

The printed manual has *every* topic in the PDF so the difference in the number of pages must have something to do with the format of the pages in the PDF. Both manuals appear identical.

Diagrams and illustrations all seem to have made it into the Live 5 manual as well.

Maybe others can comment.

The box is bigger than I thought. Just got it this morning.

[headquest]

Mine just arrived today too .

So,... you went for it, christianmusicmaker

Yes, the manual is exactly as described by cmm. The box also includes additional content as explained by Alex of Ableton on their forum thus:

The boxed version contains 2 CDs.
One called "Program Disk" containing the Live 5 Application, Manuals and several Live Packs. All contained Live packs will be available via download beginning/middle of next week.

The other one called "Library Disk" contains additional Content that is (for now) exclusive for the the boxed version. But the last word is not spoken on this issue. There are still some legal questions we have to clear.

The promised extra 100 presets for Simpler are on disk one, so download-only upgraders will need to download these (and the other "Live Packs" from disk one) once Ableton have fixed the download (postponed for another week).

The "Live Packs" on CDROM 2 are exclusive to boxed upgraders. They seem to consist of the audio loop library by Big Fish Audio (I think this was in the boxed v4 as well...).

"Live Packs" are Abletons new equivalent to Reason's "ReFill" idea. I suspect there is a big future for Live Packs just as Refills have become so popular

[christianmusicmaker]

Mine just arrived today too .

So,... you went for it, christianmusicmaker

Yes. I got it last Friday.

I knew you could not be far.

The tutorials are remarkably useful. Since I have been using Live 3 for some time and I thought I could skip most of them but I have decided to start from scratch with the tutorials and read the Live 5 manual back to back. I am up to page 90 or so.

Pretty amazing stuff. I had no idea for example that naming a scene in the session view something like 78bpm will actually change the tempo of that scene!

I am sure there are more goodies to find.

I will go through the cd content at some stage today. Quite a snazzy Live 5 box isn't it Headquest?

[headquest]

Yes. I got it last Friday.

It will be interesting to see how it fits into your workflow alongside Sonar, P5 and Tracktion ... or should I say, how they still fit into your workflow

(Actually I already know you will be using Sonar for your video and surround stuff still )

The tutorials are remarkably useful. Since I have been using Live 3 for some time and I thought I could skip most of them but I have decided to start from scratch with the tutorials and read the Live 5 manual back to back. I am up to page 90 or so.

That's good going!

Pretty amazing stuff. I had no idea for example that naming a scene in the session view something like 78bpm will actually change the tempo of that scene!

Yes, that's really cool. Not sure which version it was introduced, but I've been using that in v4 for a while - lots of fun!

I am sure there are more goodies to find.

You bet

I will go through the cd content at some stage today. Quite a snazzy Live 5 box isn't it Headquest?

I was confused about where the promised 100 new Simpler presets were. Having downloaded the upgrade, when the box arrived I assumed that CD1 was the same as the download. On CD2 I found various Live Packs and assumed that was everything...

...In fact there are several more Live Packs on CD1, some of which DO come with the download (e.g. the Live Lessons, and Live Essentials), others do NOT (e.g. the extra Impulse kits, Live Demos and 2 Simpler Live Packs on CD1).

Make sure you don't miss any - there's some great content in there!

[original flipper]

HI

What is a 'Live Pack' and is it a proprietry (not another one!) format?

Flipper.

[christianmusicmaker]

I was confused about where the promised 100 new Simpler presets were. Having downloaded the upgrade, when the box arrived I assumed that CD1 was the same as the download. On CD2 I found various Live Packs and assumed that was everything...

...In fact there are several more Live Packs on CD1, some of which DO come with the download (e.g. the Live Lessons, and Live Essentials), others do NOT (e.g. the extra Impulse kits, Live Demos and 2 Simpler Live Packs on CD1).

Make sure you don't miss any - there's some great content in there!

Thanks Headquest. I really appreciate that. It will save me and no doubt many others alot of time and head scratching.

[headquest]

HI

What is a 'Live Pack' and is it a proprietry (not another one!) format?

Flipper.

I think so, yes. In fact, they also invented "Live Clips" this time around. Proprietry formats seem to be the new hip

To install, you explore the CDROM and click on the Live Pack icon. It opens Live 5 and (having first obtained your permission) installs a load of new elements, eg. demo songs, Simpler or Impulse presets (which are sample based, of course), Operator patches, etc. (The built in lessons are actually formatted as a Live Pack which installs with the core program.)

I guess its rather like Reason's ReFills, as I said above.

The "proprietry" aspect is not much of an issue, because these are simply add-ons to integral aspects of Live as a program, and so are irrelevant to other software. (although the Big Fish Audio loops may be an exception to that argument...)

It's nice that these add-ons install in a seamless way into the main program. Also, if you open up Options > Preferences > Products and scroll down the list you can see all the Live Packs you have installed listed there. Also you can uninstall them with a single click from the list.

[headquest]

Thanks Headquest. I really appreciate that. It will save me and no doubt many others alot of time and head scratching.

No worries mate

By the way, did you get Operator, too?

[christianmusicmaker]

Thanks Headquest. I really appreciate that. It will save me and no doubt many others alot of time and head scratching.

No worries mate

By the way, did you get Operator, too?

Yes I did. The main use for Live 5 will be for my son who is 8. I'm in the process of setting up his PC. Operator is hands down the easiest synth to use, and if he is going to pick up synth basics that is the only one I would recommend.

I must have downloaded *hundreds* of covert operator presets for Live 4 (I skipped the v4 upgrade) and the recent covert pack for Live 5 so neither he nor I will need to tweak Operator for some time anyway.

Live5's superb stretching in real time and general warping, twisting and flexibility with audio is just the ticket for my son. P5v.2 while easy for me to use would be a bit steep for him compared to Live 5.

Operator is not bad although I think Dimension sounds better.

If I had never used P5v.1 or 2 before and had been able to demo it at a friends place, I would have gladly bought it just to have access to Dimension it is simply superb. Really it's *that* good.

I need to go through all the Operator presets to come to a final conclusion but it's just my opinion anyway.

Having spent a bit of time with Operator last week though it encourages you to make the presets your own and to tweak whatever you want. Ease of use is brilliant. Alot of Operators presets were too narrow or thin for me, turning the spread knob really made a difference though...just my opinion.

Live is so much fun to use though, brilliant.

[eegee]

Thanks for the info on the manual. I'm gonna go for the boxed version.