User reviews: Ableton Live 5

10/31/08

FP User Reviews's review

I love its sequencers. It has a linear sequencer as well as a pattern based sequencer. The interface is about as cute as Whoppi Goldberg mugshots but the functionaility of this program is remarkable. It is literally an extension of ur finger tips. My only real beef with the program is its a resource hog and the GUI

Suitability/Performance

Great quality. No complaints about its sound what so ever.

Easy as pie to use and it comes with a whole bunch of tutorials to make learning it that much easier.

Overall Opinion

Its not my favorite program but its a really really good one. Id recommend it to anyone who wants to start w/ professional all in one software.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com

Posted by: Xabiton ( 4-, 2006)

Did you find this review helpful?yes no

10/31/08

FP User Reviews's review

Getting Started

I love its sequencers. It has a linear sequencer as well as a pattern based sequencer. The interface is about as cute as Whoppi Goldberg mugshots but the functionaility of this program is remarkable. It is literally an extension of ur finger tips. My only real beef with the program is its a resource hog and the GUI

Easy as pie and it comes with a whole bunch of tutorials to make learning it that much easier.

Suitability/Performance

Great quality. No complaints about its sound what so ever.

Overall Opinion

Its not my favorite program but its a really really good one. Id recommend it to anyone who wants to start w/ professional all in one software.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com

Posted by: Xabiton ( 4-, 2006)

Did you find this review helpful?yes no

10/31/08

FP User Reviews's review

Getting Started

Likely targeted as an intuitive sequencing instrument, Ableton does a great job of including many elements of standard DAW's into it's workspace. You get a fairly standard set of plugins. Delays, EQ's as well as Ableton's Operator synth and a new BeatRepeat tool all clad in Abletons skin color. I haven't used these much as I mainly use my own plugins in VST and VSTi format. There is an intuitive browser on the left hand side of the workspace that allows for organization of your projects, plugins, loops etc. It can be collapsed to expand your workspace. You get a fairly standard set of loops aimed towards the more hip hoppy/technoish/house side of things which I'm sure many will find useful. An excellent feature practically exclusive of Ableton's is its time stretching ability. You can easily drag a loop or recording into the session or clip view, trigger it and conform it to the current sessions tempo. The stretching algorithm is quite unique in that it allows you to choose a processing method to deliver the best sounding stretch. You can choose from beat, texture, tone, or complex modes. I find that most percussive loops sound best using the beat setting. and tone and complex modes work best with richer recordings or whole audio clips. Keep in mind that selecting complex will be more intensive on the cpu. Sound quality is great with the re-synced loops and recordings. On the right is an awesome tutorial browser allowing for quick and easy access to tutorials that can be read as you operate the software. It can be also collapsible to expand the workspace view. Ableton does a great job of making the tutorials thorough yet simple, another point that contributes to it's quick learning curve. You even get a little box on the lower left hand side that displays information on every aspect of ableton's mechanics as youplace your mouse cursor over it. For example, if you have no idea what "that little knob" does, simply place your cursor over it and Ableton tells you exactly what it does and how to do it. Something ableton lacks is a better method of organizing comps in the audio recording view. I personally would have liked to see some form of playlist system for managing takes since Ableton really is able to give you a thorough project oriented music production experience.

Price paid

281.00 USD (Ebay)

Extremely easy to use. Abletons workflow is highly streamlined. You have a unique clip session view where you can simply drag and drop premade or recorded loops into various arrangements and trigger or record them similtaneously or individually in real time. I find this intuitive system especially handy for creating loop based melodic segments (chorus, bridges, etc..) quickly and efficiently. You can record on the fly manually using raw data (line inputs) or midi data (vsti's, hardware modules etc). By the way, Abletons midi handling is simple and powerful. Routing is very flexible via midi channels and can handle just about anything from choosing hardware modules as source from the dropdown menus to running intensive vsti modules such as korg legacy cell which you simply drag and drop from the file browser to the midi strip. Every control aspect of ableton within the workspace is fully automatable and can be programmed to an external controller or the computer keyboard via a simple to use keymap feature. You can draw in automation within the session view. I drew a sine wave pattern onto a level automation and watched the faders on my mixer glide in unison.. fairly entertaining. Using Abletons track recording view, you can record easily and edit it all using the classic cut and paste, region seperation, conforming, slicing methods etc.. Ableton has straight forward and flexible quantizing features which I find to be adequate and fairly precise even with abusive cutting and pasting. This works especially well with midi track recordings. A great thing about ableton is it seems to have some kind of noise reduction algorithm working when making edits. As clicks and pops at the edit points are negligible. Ableton is extremely easy to use and you will find yourself with a creative mix within minutes using the supplied loops. I have to admit I had the thing belting out something that resembled pop in about half an hour without even reading the manual. Enabled the midi controller slaved to my triton, setup my midi and record channels, routed my audio and effects sends, recorded some piano melodies. Threw in an instance of amplitube onto a channel. Routed my guitar, recorded an accompaniment. did the same for my bass guitar, then finally setup another midi channel and dragged in an instance of LM-9 and recorded a hilarious percussion mid track. Highlighted all the recordings and mixed down to wav. Easier done than said.

Suitability/Performance

Great, and definately very adequate, you have sample rates of 16 32 44 and 48 khz, bit depths of I believe 16 & 32. More than enough to achieve polished works. As expected, changing to higher sample rates and bit depths do increase strain on the hard drive and processor quite significantly. With my setup at 44khz 16bit I haven't had a single hiccup on a P4 3.2 HT notebook with 512 megs ram. With a good ASIO audio interface you can achieve very nice & stable low latencies. I am currently achieving 4 ms with an M-audio Mobilepre with samples set to 80 on the mobilepre control panel. Ableton delivers crystal clear audio period.

Rock Solid. Ableton is stable even with seriously high computer, ram and hardrive loads that would concern a machine pamperer. On one session I had 9 instances of amplitube on various guitar patches, 12 instances of compressors (CP2S and Rcomp), reverbs, limiters, an instance of quasistereo on every channel, Tracks suite, L2, Lexiverb on the master out ... all in all about 35-40 intensive plugins. All with no hiccups. i was even able to setup two new vocal channels each with its own compressor, de-esser,eq, c4, exciter and autotuner. I even recorded the vocals in real with little to no audible delay present in the headset monitors. I have yet to experience what it's like to really max out Abletons abilities on my P4 3.2 HT notebook.

Overall Opinion

Ableton is very unique and streamlined. It's design is very straightforward yet powerful and allows you to perform tasks quickly and efficiently. It's sequencing capabilites are it's strengths and it's recording and automation capabilities can hold their own against the better established names. Ableton is as much fun to use as it is simple and you'll find yourself making music more than grumbling over questions and dead ends. I frequently find myself sequencing t'ill the sun re-appears and it's clear Ableton's produced simple yet potent tool in the arsenal.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com

Posted by: owendolmer ( 3-, 2006)

Did you find this review helpful?yes no

10/31/08

FP User Reviews's review

Getting Started

Likely targeted as an intuitive sequencing instrument, Ableton does a great job of including many elements of standard DAW's into it's workspace. You get a fairly standard set of plugins. Delays, EQ's as well as Ableton's Operator synth and a new BeatRepeat tool all clad in Abletons skin color. I haven't used these much as I mainly use my own plugins in VST and VSTi format. There is an intuitive browser on the left hand side of the workspace that allows for organization of your projects, plugins, loops etc. It can be collapsed to expand your workspace. You get a fairly standard set of loops aimed towards the more hip hoppy/technoish/house side of things which I'm sure many will find useful. An excellent feature practically exclusive of Ableton's is its time stretching ability. You can easily drag a loop or recording into the session or clip view, trigger it and conform it to the current sessions tempo. The stretching algorithm is quite unique in that it allows you to choose a processing method to deliver the best sounding stretch. You can choose from beat, texture, tone, or complex modes. I find that most percussive loops sound best using the beat setting. and tone and complex modes work best with richer recordings or whole audio clips. Keep in mind that selecting complex will be more intensive on the cpu. Sound quality is great with the re-synced loops and recordings. On the right is an awesome tutorial browser allowing for quick and easy access to tutorials that can be read as you operate the software. It can be also collapsible to expand the workspace view. Ableton does a great job of making the tutorials thorough yet simple, another point that contributes to it's quick learning curve. You even get a little box on the lower left hand side that displays information on every aspect of ableton's mechanics as youplace your mouse cursor over it. For example, if you have no idea what "that little knob" does, simply place your cursor over it and Ableton tells you exactly what it does and how to do it. Something ableton lacks is a better method of organizing comps in the audio recording view. I personally would have liked to see some form of playlist system for managing takes since Ableton really is able to give you a thorough project oriented music production experience.

Price paid

281.00 USD (Ebay)

Extremely easy to use. Abletons workflow is highly streamlined. You have a unique clip session view where you can simply drag and drop premade or recorded loops into various arrangements and trigger or record them similtaneously or individually in real time. I find this intuitive system especially handy for creating loop based melodic segments (chorus, bridges, etc..) quickly and efficiently. You can record on the fly manually using raw data (line inputs) or midi data (vsti's, hardware modules etc). By the way, Abletons midi handling is simple and powerful. Routing is very flexible via midi channels and can handle just about anything from choosing hardware modules as source from the dropdown menus to running intensive vsti modules such as korg legacy cell which you simply drag and drop from the file browser to the midi strip. Every control aspect of ableton within the workspace is fully automatable and can be programmed to an external controller or the computer keyboard via a simple to use keymap feature. You can draw in automation within the session view. I drew a sine wave pattern onto a level automation and watched the faders on my mixer glide in unison.. fairly entertaining. Using Abletons track recording view, you can record easily and edit it all using the classic cut and paste, region seperation, conforming, slicing methods etc.. Ableton has straight forward and flexible quantizing features which I find to be adequate and fairly precise even with abusive cutting and pasting. This works especially well with midi track recordings. A great thing about ableton is it seems to have some kind of noise reduction algorithm working when making edits. As clicks and pops at the edit points are negligible. Ableton is extremely easy to use and you will find yourself with a creative mix within minutes using the supplied loops. I have to admit I had the thing belting out something that resembled pop in about half an hour without even reading the manual. Enabled the midi controller slaved to my triton, setup my midi and record channels, routed my audio and effects sends, recorded some piano melodies. Threw in an instance of amplitube onto a channel. Routed my guitar, recorded an accompaniment. did the same for my bass guitar, then finally setup another midi channel and dragged in an instance of LM-9 and recorded a hilarious percussion mid track. Highlighted all the recordings and mixed down to wav. Easier done than said.

Suitability/Performance

Great, and definately very adequate, you have sample rates of 16 32 44 and 48 khz, bit depths of I believe 16 & 32. More than enough to achieve polished works. As expected, changing to higher sample rates and bit depths do increase strain on the hard drive and processor quite significantly. With my setup at 44khz 16bit I haven't had a single hiccup on a P4 3.2 HT notebook with 512 megs ram. With a good ASIO audio interface you can achieve very nice & stable low latencies. I am currently achieving 4 ms with an M-audio Mobilepre with samples set to 80 on the mobilepre control panel. Ableton delivers crystal clear audio period.

Rock Solid. Ableton is stable even with seriously high computer, ram and hardrive loads that would concern a machine pamperer. On one session I had 9 instances of amplitube on various guitar patches, 12 instances of compressors (CP2S and Rcomp), reverbs, limiters, an instance of quasistereo on every channel, Tracks suite, L2, Lexiverb on the master out ... all in all about 35-40 intensive plugins. All with no hiccups. i was even able to setup two new vocal channels each with its own compressor, de-esser,eq, c4, exciter and autotuner. I even recorded the vocals in real with little to no audible delay present in the headset monitors. I have yet to experience what it's like to really max out Abletons abilities on my P4 3.2 HT notebook.

Overall Opinion

Ableton is very unique and streamlined. It's design is very straightforward yet powerful and allows you to perform tasks quickly and efficiently. It's sequencing capabilites are it's strengths and it's recording and automation capabilities can hold their own against the better established names. Ableton is as much fun to use as it is simple and you'll find yourself making music more than grumbling over questions and dead ends. I frequently find myself sequencing t'ill the sun re-appears and it's clear Ableton's produced simple yet potent tool in the arsenal.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com

Posted by: owendolmer ( 3-, 2006)

Did you find this review helpful?yes no

10/31/08

FP User Reviews's review

Getting Started

Excellent features, clip warping, sample editing, built in vst's and vsti's respectable. Everything that protoolslogic has just alot more musical. (quickneasy) Rewire is the bomb this program uses very little cpu so you can rewire multiple programs with no problems generally. Grouping tracks function would be good, maybe quicktime options for film would be sweet!

Price paid

280 Aus

excellent tutorials, great layout. I really like the simple no glitter gui, in my opinion the best interface out there!

Suitability/Performance

Its got its own sound which I like, but its so subtle that it may be my imagination...

once i had a problem with an asio driver but theyve fixed it.

Overall Opinion

Im running pro tools but i always seem to boot up ableton, for arranging and pre mixing its the bomb all the automation you could want the list goes on. I would generally master in protools but thats just for the realtime bounce options, and proven algorithims. If your writing music especially hip hop and electronic or playing live this is up there, make sure you get your hands on some good plugins...

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com

Posted by: Rajasik ( 2-, 2006)

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10/31/08

FP User Reviews's review

Getting Started

This program has already transformed my work. Tape is really brilliant for rehearsed bands, but Live is the way to go for composing. I have a Nord Lead 2 but still ended up buying Operator - great sounds, especially with the new midi effects like Arpegiator. Simpler has cool sounds, as does Impulse, plus the effects are a blast to work with. I can't say anything is really missing when I now have so much to work with. Also, I did own an MPC1000 for a brief time, and it was like doing your taxes with a calculator watch compared to working with samples in Live. Warping is absolutley awesome, as is the whole clip editor.

Price paid

$399 USD

The reason I bought Live was many reviews lauded the interface as user friendly and intuitive and the program itself easy to learn. I was not dissapointed and kudos to Abelton for a very well composed user manual. Also: brilliant idea by Ableton was to allow download of the full version for demo (just can't save anything). Second was the fact that it works on Macs and PC's. So, I learned the program on my PC on lunch at work, then, when the decision was made to buy, I could immediately start working. Brilliant. Also, my brother in law jazz drummer can get Live for his PC and we can work seamlessly through mail with .als file extensions. Brilliant squared.

Suitability/Performance

I am fresh off the boat from analog, and the proverbial fog has lifted. I was working with a Tascam 488 8 track tape studio, mostly through headphones. I also colaborated with a guy who has a 24 track 2" studio, which was great but very time consuming and hard to manage. For instance, reversing tape direction for efects like pre-verb is cool, maybe we felt like the Beatles or something, but time consuming and may be unusable. It's funny, Trent Reznor talks about all the hassle he went through to do what Live does in a half minute - it's somewhat sad but he's glad he went through the experience. I think the sound quality will be better simply because I won't be "experiencing" every single cable that needs pluged in to add some delay to this track, or a bass line that has to be played for all five minutes instead of being able to loop it and focus on the song itself.

It seems very well built - the navigating section is very intuitive, the layout of tracks and sections for adding effects, the slip view and clip editing, all very intuitive. I actually did have a problem with instalation, where I had to download the entire program on a dial up connection. The version that shipped on the disk did not contain a fix for OSX Tiger. I was grumpy about that, but quickly forgave them for their lightening fast response and subsequent opening of the program and the obvious myriad solutions for my prior recording woes.

Overall Opinion

I read a lot about other programs, but have no experience with any other DAW or software package for recording. Going digital was based solely on playing instruments rather than playing with equipment, and harness some of the fantastic technology to improve my finsihed product. AND not cost a ridiculous price. My situation is obviously what cumputer based packages like Live are marketed towards, so,in hindsight, if I had picked Cubase or Sonar I might be just as enamored with their programs. Live just appealed to me in that it was created by musicians and was described as revolutionary - good vibe for a complete studio overhaul.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com

Posted by: Hybrid (January 2-, 2005)

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10/31/08

FP User Reviews's review

Getting Started

NOT THAT I COULD THINK OFF,HAD BUILT IN EFFECTS,COMPRESSORS ECT.....PLUS AN EDIT WINDOW.....CANT COMPLAIN...............

Price paid

$430.92

TAKES ABOUT A COUPLE OF DAYS IF YOUR NOT A ABLETON USER.MANUAL IS SET UP NICE SO YOU CAN READ AS YOU EXPERIMENT..................

Suitability/Performance

SOUND QUALITY IS THE SAME AS IN ANY OTHER SOFTWARE. IT DEPENDS HOW ENGINEER YOUR MUSIC.DIDNT FIND ANY WEAK POINTS.

Overall Opinion

MY LOVE FACTOR FOR(ABLETON LIVE 5) IT IS A 2.......I USE SONAR 4 WITH EVERY PLUG IN KNOWN TO MAN BUT ONLY USE ABOUT 4 OF EM'HAS ABOUT THE SAME QUALITIES AND QUALITY AS ITS RIVALS BUT THE WORK SCREENS ARE A BIT TOO GARAGEBAND'ISH! ABLETON CREATORS NEED TO IMPROVE ON GRAPHICS AND SUCH......

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com

Posted by: BIGDtheeAbmnble (January 1-, 2005)

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