What's so special about Ableton Live 5?

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For me, it's the workflow, the workflow and the workflow that makes Live5 so great.

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...and the new plugins, and the delay compensation, and the mp3 support, and the bug fixes, oh and did I mention cool new stickers?

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I just upgraded live5 from 3 and am loving it, I still don't really know what I'm doing, but I do love the freeze and the workflow.

I fell in love with the demo, I think this will become my main sequencer from now on.

dw

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I find the midi implementation to be perfect for my needs.

Its unbelievable quick to play stuff in realtime, loop that, create something new, loop that etc etc.

I'd prefer to keep all the esoteric midi functions away from the main midi edit window at least. Maybe have an advanced mode you can enable, so you guys who like to really do alot of non-realtime midi processing can have at it. But for someone who just likes to perform things in realtime, its almost perfect imo.
If it sounds good it is good.

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HI

'Headquest' - it's the clip and notes box to the left of the piano-roll that coined the comment about not having a full screen piano-roll.

Yes - Live does have a vertically full size piano-roll: but I wish (perhaps you can?) the clip & notes boxes could be placed elsewhere as they actually eat up 15-20% of horizontal sceen space that imo would give quite a bit more area for the piano-roll.

Not moaning - just having a gripe!

Flipper.

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original flipper wrote: Yes - Live does have a vertically full size piano-roll: but I wish (perhaps you can?) the clip & notes boxes could be placed elsewhere as they actually eat up 15-20% of horizontal sceen space that imo would give quite a bit more area for the piano-roll.
They can't be placed elsewhere... but you can (as you probably know anyway) toggle them open and closed using the little icons underneath them. You can get around 90% screen width that way.

If you do this it helps a lot to learn the key-commands, etc, for editing. (for example the one I use the most - alt-click on an individual note and drag up/down to adjust velocity).
Not moaning - just having a gripe!

Flipper.
:hihi:

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HI

No - I didn't realise you could close the notes box!

Can the clip box also be closed?

And I just noticed the envelope box as well!

It took me ages to realise I could switch from arrangement to session by using the icon's on the top right :roll:

There isn't a way to open up a midi clip straight to full size is there?

I eat my hat and have to say that with the extra screen real estate available to the piano-roll things get better.

IMO having as much of the screen available as is possible really helps with long midi passages that go up and down the octaves - I invariably have a lead line that does this.

Not being a manual reader does inevitably mean I will pay the price for making assumptions .... my apologies!

Flipper.

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original flipper wrote:It took me ages to realise I could switch from arrangement to session by using the icon's on the top right :roll:
you can also use the tab-key (and you can do this while dragging and dropping clips!)

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original flipper wrote: No - I didn't realise you could close the notes box!

Can the clip box also be closed?
No, I don't think so. But it's a single strip, so it doesn't take up too much room there.
And I just noticed the envelope box as well!
Ah! Clip envelopes... 8) I think you're going to love these! They were the "headline" feature added in Live 3, and they offer all sorts of power to automate on a clip-basis rather than just in the final Arrangement view.

Have fun!
There isn't a way to open up a midi clip straight to full size is there?
No, you have to drag as I said before and shut down which ever properties you don't need, and open them just when you need them. A one-click way to do this has been requested though, and Ableton usually respond quickly to user feedback and, as you probably know, they bring out a major new version of Live at least one a year.
I eat my hat and have to say that with the extra screen real estate available to the piano-roll things get better.

IMO having as much of the screen available as is possible really helps with long midi passages that go up and down the octaves - I invariably have a lead line that does this.
Indeed. 8)

A lot of people don't realise how easy this is, or even that it can be done. That was why I posted before.
Not being a manual reader does inevitably mean I will pay the price for making assumptions .... my apologies!
No worries! I don't think many people actually read all through a manual - I certainly don't! And that's why user support forums are so helpful (although the "Live 4 Power" book by Dave Hill is excellent... and I believe the Live 5 update to the book is about to be published - strongly recommended!)

Cheers!

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since the Live gurus are here.. please tell me that I'm doing something wrong... in that VSTs which have over 128 params like z3ta+ or Symptohm for example, do not make those additional params available to automation!? :| I usually play around with the live plugs, but was dabbling with symptohm which I noticed the params I wanted to automate were not available... same with z3ta+... I'm wrong, right?!
ModuLR / Radio

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(ModuLR, you're right.)

For me, the real reason that Live is the best host around is that it is squarely oriented at musicians, rather than engineers - it is designed to be "played". Using Live is recreational, versus Sonar, FL, etc. which are never fun to use. They get the job done, but if I want to just work on new stuff, I immediately reach for Live.

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It's the same reason many people love Tracktion. ;) It's for musicians.
Image

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ModuLR wrote:since the Live gurus are here.. please tell me that I'm doing something wrong... in that VSTs which have over 128 params like z3ta+ or Symptohm for example, do not make those additional params available to automation!? :| I usually play around with the live plugs, but was dabbling with symptohm which I noticed the params I wanted to automate were not available... same with z3ta+... I'm wrong, right?!
i think you'll have to assign those parameters not in the list to midi controllers and then use those to automate them.

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Is this a VST limitation or a Live limitation?

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iirc it's a Live limitation

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