Ableton Live 4: any buyers?

[lucille]

Just downloaded Live4 from Ableton; $119 for upgrade from 3.x. First impression: wow!. Live is such a perfect Reason compliment its like having vst's in
reason. Sampling vst outputs provides a freeze
equivalant. I just keep the midi stuff "around" and
sample every thing to audio and start seeing what
works. I really like revoicing parts without having
to create a new instrument. Its not the most methodical eay to work, but you can get back to
source if you need to. I also like programming
a few drum varios and mix matching. Did I say "wow"?
I meant f***!

[olafmol]

Is anyone using Live4 with external midi gear? For example to create loops with hardware synths and then recording them in as audio. How well does it work ?

I'm unable to test it as Live crashes whenever I select my asio drivers And using the Dx/MME drivers causes huge latencies in the external midi.

i tried trigering my external midi gear from live4 through my edirol UM880 and it worked fine....no midi timing issues afaik..... and the bouncing to audio also worked like a charm....very easy workflow...

strange that your asio drivers make live 4 crash..i've got no trouble at all..

Olaf

[olafmol]

How about recording from a mic? Is it easy to perform? Tried at my Live Adapted version without reading manual, but I have no clue how...

Easiest way I have seen to record a mic in Sonar 3...

works like a charm..just add an audio track, route the input to your soundcard mic inputs, arm the track, and press record where you want to record the clip...there you go.......

Olaf

[olafmol]

people mention a pretty crude midi implementation. why exactly do people think that? i don't use very heavy midi, just input and usual cc.

it has all the basics, only not stuff like transform and "remove doubles" etc.....

i'm also a bit of an audio baby. maybe use a few breaks and vocals in cubase. can the midi be rendered to audio easily then? what if i want to change the midi aspect?

yes it's very easy..just add an audio track, route the output of the midi track to the input of the audio track, arm and record......you can still keep the midi part by muting it and unmuting it when needed...

it's quite exciting that so many people are dropping their 'classic' sequencers for a new way of thinking. i love cubase but since day one i've just set the markers and worked within as a loop to build up the track, then expand them across the page to make my tune.

am i right in thinking because i work this way i could be suited to live? it's just throwing away alot of learning something quite fundamental to learn something else, which maybe un-ncessary.

this is *exactly* the way i work in my sequencer, and live really is suited to this way of working with it's session view....you have to adjust your thinking/mindset somewhat but after a few hours you really understand the program....

for me some major steps of excitement and understanding live where:

- dragging clips between the arrangement and session view
- consolidate, it's your big but overlooked friend...just select a piece of a large audio file or clip that you dragged into the arrangement-view, press Control-J and voila you have a new clip which you can copy/paste, drag and use in the session view....this gives you the flexibility of a lineair DAW/sequencer

i do miss the import of multiple channels midi files though....and reason needs to disable it's default midi CC mapping in rewire mode immediately

Olaf

[pHz]

postie just delivered a shiny black box to my door ...

... it sure is purty

slainte rob

[Rozzer]

Is anyone using Live4 with external midi gear? For example to create loops with hardware synths and then recording them in as audio. How well does it work ?

I'm unable to test it as Live crashes whenever I select my asio drivers And using the Dx/MME drivers causes huge latencies in the external midi.

i tried trigering my external midi gear from live4 through my edirol UM880 and it worked fine....no midi timing issues afaik..... and the bouncing to audio also worked like a charm....very easy workflow...

strange that your asio drivers make live 4 crash..i've got no trouble at all..

Olaf

Well thats good to hear. Yeah, the crash is strange. There are a few others complaining of the same behaviour on the Ableton forum, so I guess it will get fixed eventually.

Prolly just as well, because I've spent far too much on software recently

[lucille]

Just wanted to post some more Ableton4 reactions.

Firstly, no crashing here. A4 seems to handle even the fussiest vsts with ease--for example--ppg wave never crashes and finds its presets--something that
never happened in sonar and FL.

Just worked out the impulse drum module--very redrum
with painless multiouts. Ablton does not dislplay battery sample names like FL4, but I think I will just start using my battery synth drums in Impulse.

CPU usage conssitant with other hosts--I'm pretty impressed. pfj

[pheeleep]

Hi Lucille.. how do you use it with FL?

Can Fl be rewired as a slave with live being the master? I thought FL could only be the master. If so, as a slave, Live doesn't have vst plugins available..

Just trying to figure out how you use it with FL Studio. Or do you use live as the host and then use the vsti version of fl inside of it?

Seriously considering live here....

[soulkraka]

you can use FL as a VSTi or via rewire.

[pheeleep]

Yes, but for rewire, Fl has to be the master, right? It can't be the slave? Or am I wrong?

[drez]

Yes, but for rewire, Fl has to be the master, right? It can't be the slave? Or am I wrong?

It is slavemodeable.

Meaning, it can slave. Slave mode: on.

[pheeleep]

Great news Drez. Thanks so much. I'll try to hook it all up again tonight ( using the Live 4 demo ).

[lucille]

FL can be a rewire slave in LIve, but its behavoir is bit non-standard.You get 16 FL stereo outs into
Live from FL. I believe there is a mid bug with
playing midi into FL while it rewired to Live--so check the demo. It will be interesting to see how
FL drum sampler stacks up against Live's Impulse sampler--many have written here of a redrum replacement--this is as close as it gets--except
sends can't be mixed into pads within the device.Its hard to believe after 3 years nothing can match
the funtionality of that little gem.

[aaastronomer]

Hi all...is the midi facility in live 4.0 as crude as that in acid 4.0?

i generally do midi in fl studio, project 5, or cubase sx...audio in acid 4.0 or live 3.x ... then composite the various pieces in cubase sx and render (unto caesar) in cubase sx...

this workflow is cumbersome, but does the trick!

when a composition is done, i use live 3.x for performance...

i wouldn't want to buy live 4.0 and find it's midi capabilities as minor an addition to live as it is to acid...

anyone...set me straight on this! thanx

to set myself straight (closure)...live 4's midi implementation much better than acid 4.0...very smooth operation when modifying midi clips on the fly...acid seems to need some time to "think" for this purpose...anyway, with chainer or energy xt dropped into a midi clip you've got the capability to create tremendously complex sounds...spent the weekend (using the demo of live 4) doing dual audio drum clip + one midi clip compositions, chaining rhino 2 and absynth 2...wow...

problem: not enough compute power! where are those 4 GHz P4s????

[olafmol]

i am wondering if i am crazy and overlooking something very obvious things in live 4?????

- aren't there any shortcuts for scrolling left and right??? it seems i always have to use the mouse to scroll left and right, altought zooming in and out can be done using the + and - keys...... this means i cannot use f.e. a jogwheel/shuttle to scroll left/right?

- in the arrangement-view the cursor is almost invisible..it's a very tiny small red line that is almost always lying on a grid line, so you cannot see where it is right now..... is there a way to make the cursor more clear?

Olaf