Ableton LIVE
I’ve been sequencing music off and on since the Commordore 64 using Passport Mastertracks Pro (yeah, I’m showing my age). I use Reason and MOTU’s DP7 now, and the same basic principles apply. I get it. No problem. Then I hear about this program called LIVE several years ago. Hmmm. Sounds interesting. I’ve seen some amazing videos on YouTube of a guys who is building/sequencing recorded audio tracks in a realtime performance situation, and I’m thinking…”I’ve got to have this!” So I download a trial version. That’s when the madness begins.
Ableton LIVE is nothing like any other sequencing program I have ever used! It is not intuitive. It is not user friendly. It’s a pain in the _ _ _ to figure out. I spent hours reading, watching videos, surfing the web for help. Finally, I uninstalled it. YUCK!
During the next year, I keep hearing and seeing things about how Abelton LIVE is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and how no musician should ever be with out it (OK, I made that last part up). So again, I downloaded a trial copy and gave it another shot. It was another exercise in futility though. I just didn’t get it. And after hours of struggling, I didn’t want to anymore. I resigned myself to just not getting it.
I was still on the Ableton email list though, and a few weeks ago they sent me an email stating that I should upgrade to version 8. Well, here we go again! So i downloaded it. Am I a gluten for punishment? Maybe. But something in the back of my head keeps telling me “This is an amazing piece of software. FIGURE IT OUT!” So I dug in again. I don’t know if I got smarter since the first time I downloaded it, or the documentation got better, or the program has evolved, but I actually started to figure this thing out. I sequenced the old Steve Miller song Fly Like An Eagle using an amazing VST plugin from Genuine Software for the organ sound called the VB3, and used Reason for the synth sound effects. Then I set it up so I could trigger the different sections/sequences with my Alesis ControlPad. Now I can sit down at the kit, and start the song, control what section I’m playing, and arrange the song anyway I like. AWESOME!
I will say that some very basic information I needed was really hard to find on the web, and I spent hours searching for it. Little things, like how to turn down the volume of the click. After a hour of searching, I finally found it buried in a forum somewhere. So, I’m dedicating a new section of my blog to using Abelton Live with the drums. Stay tuned.
