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Get started making music

learningmusic.ableton.com

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Re: Get started making music

#21

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

meri_dian wrote: post #6

I can't speak for other DAW's, but Ableton was really easy for me to pick up as a complete novice to digital music production

It's pretty easy to get the grid idea, but when you start trying to do anything more complicated Ableton turns out to be a mess, with many limitations and arbitrary weirdnesses.

E.g. you can't send MIDI sysex out of Live (except to the Push 2 controller). That kills it for all kinds of hardware automation and advanced synth programming.

Live has no concept of a mono track, so it wastes a lot of DSP resources processing effects and mixes in stereo for no reason.

There's no simple hybrid clip arranger mode, which is something most other DAWs can do.

MIDI clip files come with an audio preview. The clips aren't associated with any drum sounds. So you hear the preview, think "I like that...", load it, and then you have to spend half an hour picking the right drum sounds for it.

And so on. I've really tried to like working with Live, but there are just too many design decisions that make no sense for it be to anything other than frustrating.

Re: Get started making music

#22

Post by kevinmannix »

drivers99 wrote: post #17
whiddershins wrote: post #13

Ableton Live is my main daw. I use it every day, generally for hours, and for a wide variety of purposes. The most depressing thing about ableton is made obvious in two seconds of messing with that tutorial. A complete disregard for music in the sense of pushing boundaries of time, or doing things that are not tied to any sort of grid, and the sense of music as an emotive form. So many aspects of music are very annoy…

For those of us who haven't used Ableton yet, what is it missing? Edit: fixed autocorrect typo

Not sure if that's a typo or intended...

Re: Get started making music

#23

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

drivers99 wrote: post #17
whiddershins wrote: post #13

Ableton Live is my main daw. I use it every day, generally for hours, and for a wide variety of purposes. The most depressing thing about ableton is made obvious in two seconds of messing with that tutorial. A complete disregard for music in the sense of pushing boundaries of time, or doing things that are not tied to any sort of grid, and the sense of music as an emotive form. So many aspects of music are very annoy…

For those of us who haven't used Ableton yet, what is it missing? Edit: fixed autocorrect typo

> For those of us who haven't used abortion yet, what is it missing?

AutoCorrect fail? Or not-so-subtle criticism of the product? ;)

Re: Get started making music

#24

Post by publicfig »

hashkb wrote: post #10

This is not the basics of making music. It's a super advanced technique using a computer. The real basics involve pencil, (staff) paper, and hard work. Downvotes please.

If you're taking a hardline-traditionalist approach to what constitutes music, why stop at pencil, paper and hard work. Music has existed long before written notation and documented musical theory. You're not only taking an incredibly western-centric view, but you're ignoring a large amount of music by doing so.

Re: Get started making music

#25

Post by bbgm »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #21
meri_dian wrote: post #6

I can't speak for other DAW's, but Ableton was really easy for me to pick up as a complete novice to digital music production

It's pretty easy to get the grid idea, but when you start trying to do anything more complicated Ableton turns out to be a mess, with many limitations and arbitrary weirdnesses. E.g. you can't send MIDI sysex out of Live (except to the Push 2 controller). That kills it for all kinds of hardware automation and advanced synth programming. Live has no concept of a mono track, so it wastes a lot of DSP resources processi…

I started in that mode (since I tend to do long drones) but once I adjusted to the non-linear workflow it became super easy. It helps that the ecosystem around Ableton is so rich now.

Re: Get started making music

#27

Post by zzalpha »

hashkb wrote: post #10

This is not the basics of making music. It's a super advanced technique using a computer. The real basics involve pencil, (staff) paper, and hard work. Downvotes please.

Yikes, don't tell Dave Grohl, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and the countless other musicians who don't know how to read or write sheet music...

Re: Get started making music

#28

Post by la_oveja »

meri_dian wrote: post #6

I can't speak for other DAW's, but Ableton was really easy for me to pick up as a complete novice to digital music production

FL Studio has a nice learning curve too, though different. FL's best features IMO are the pattern sequencer and the piano roll. So intuitive, once you get the DAWs flow you just get creative and the limits disappear.

Re: Get started making music

#29

Post by maldusiecle »

whiddershins wrote: post #13

Ableton Live is my main daw. I use it every day, generally for hours, and for a wide variety of purposes. The most depressing thing about ableton is made obvious in two seconds of messing with that tutorial. A complete disregard for music in the sense of pushing boundaries of time, or doing things that are not tied to any sort of grid, and the sense of music as an emotive form. So many aspects of music are very annoy…

I really don't buy this. Ableton was created by an excellent musician (Robert Henke), and its design reflects a musician's perspective. It's intuitive and flexible. It doesn't work for every possible workflow, but no individual piece of software could.

Re: Get started making music

#30

Post by nburdy »

jarmitage wrote: post #19

Check out Jack Schaedler who works in this at Ableton https://jackschaedler.github.io/ He even made an interactive essay about the GRAIL text recognizer from the 1960s https://jackschaedler.github.io/handwriting-recognition/

I found the Circles, Sines and Signals to be amazing too. An awesome introduction. https://jackschaedler.github.io/circles-sines-signals/
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