When I first started working with Live (around version 4), my biggest gripe was lack of editing tools. The adaptive pointer and the pencil tool were a huge challenge to get used to and a big reason I continued to do most editing in Pro Tools. While I wouldn't compare BWS to Pro Tools in terms of editing, I am happy to see a full array of editing tools.pdxindy wrote:I don't care about when it ships... I want to know what you think of it! You can talk now! Let's hear it!!
The pointer tool is still adaptive, so you can move the pointer to the edge of a clip in the arranger and it will turn into a bracket (so you can move the start or end point of the clip), if you move the pointer to the lower-right edge of a clip the pointer turns into a bracket with a loop so you can loop the current clip as it is (even if the global clip length is longer). If you click on a clip it will be selected and if you click in an empty area, you will set the playback position... etc.
However, there is also a time/object selection tool, a pen tool, an eraser tool and a knife tool. Each have a shortcut (keys 1-5) and they make it much easier for me to do edits quickly. None of this is to say that Ableton's approach is bad, I'm merely trying to illustrate some features that are different between the two.
There is a button in the clip editor that allows you to switch between editing a single clip (as Live does it) or editing all of the Audio or MIDI on a track at once. You can layer multiple tracks of the same kind in the clip editor, so you can compare the timing of edits with other tracks/clips. I don't think you can layer MIDI tracks with Audio tracks. It would be cool if you could but you can quickly switch between active audio and MIDI layers with a button in the editor. You can super-impose an audio track to the background of a MIDI clip but I find myself working the other way a lot (moving audio events to match the position of MIDI notes) and I don't think you can edit the audio in the background.
The inspector (similar to the middle box in Live's Clip Editor) can work like an event editor (which I love). You can edit the properties of individual notes and audio events (these are the edits which can be contained within clips). I really like working this way so it's a big plus for me.
Here are images of the Inspector Panels for Audio and MIDI.
