Is Ableton good for anything other than DJ/electronica?

[outershpongolia]

We've made black/death metal with Ableton and DrumkitFromHell and it was HEAVY!

Also did improve jazz jams that sounded somewhat like Medeski Martin and Wood ( except those guys are actually talented ) with a bass, keyboard and drumset.. using a session view loop jam type setup..

You can do it all with Live.

[JoshR]

I do rock/indie whatever and love Live for it.

[Rabalder]

anything with record and play buttons can be used to make any kind of music. electronic and dance are the most talked about because they're the easiest to make.

+100000000000000000

[Hermanus]

using electronic for making music doesn't mean making electro music.

Your imagination is the limit... knowing imagination has no limit, there you go

[adam8290]

Live is my only DAW, and I don't happen to do any electronica on it. Session view, in combination with my beloved APC40, have made drafting out drum, bass, guitar, & piano & synth parts a breeze, not to mention vocal backing tracks and vocal leads. Session view is, in short, my primary songwriting tool and I wouldn't want to be without it now that I have it. Even without this APC40, session view is fantastic. Here's a usage example.

1. Track 1 - Choose midi drum patterns from EZ drummer and drag & drop them into session view scenes
2. Track 2 - Rehearse a 4 or 8 bar bass part on my bass guitar; record it and trim the end so it loops perfectly (Pod Farm for sweetening).
3. Track 3 - Rehearse a 4 or 8 bar rhythm guitar part on my guitar; record and trim (again Pod Farm for amp sims etc.)
4. Tracks 4 through infinity - Now that I've got the groove working, build the rest of the song with lead and backing vocals, keys or anything else I might like. Session view allows me to quickly create intros, verses, choruses, and breaks. Session view keeps track of the timing and looping so I don't have to.

I hope that helps. I encourage you to watch some youtube videos on using session view that don't focus specifically on electronica. It really is easy. It has massively increased my workflow. I'd suggest getting one of the session view controllers like launch pad. I like the APC40 and use the knobs constantly to adjust just about everything. It's an amazingly well-designed piece of hardware.

Good luck.

[leedsquietman]

It's good for polka. Fire up some kicking beats in 3/4 time with a flagon of ale and some Schnitzel and it's the bomb.

[Piplodocus]

I use Ableton for making music as diverse as Gleen, Flugelpomp and Jizzturkey (in the style of David J. Malmsteen).

As you know these genres have no "drums" or "bass", or even any glockenspiel, and I've had no problems due to the unique refarbulation matrix encoded in the under-trumpet system of Live. I can totally recommend their Meta-bassoon for a beginner, or an expert.

+1 on the dynamic Meta-Bassoon.

I think Live is really meant for producing rock. It's easier than any other DAW to make your MIDI guitar pedals trigger sections of songs and let you be able to jam with a real band and trigger bits of songs from the computer when you want them. That's what everyone here's really doing with it; making prog rock, they just say they're all making Dubstep 'cuz they want to be "down with the kids" and everyone knows that it's not cool to make real music! Obviously Live is great for electronic stuff AS WELL, but it should be cuz you've gotta have enough space in your songs to Rick Wakeman them up.

If you're used to Cubase see the Arrangement View like an easy to use version of that (check the tutorials in the help menu if you need a hand), then see Session view as your jam session view and worry about that later. That's the bit that makes Ableton my favourite DAW, but it's also the bit that'll confuse you to begin with if you're used to linear arrangements.

[rasputin]

LIVE can be used to create every style of music. Dance/electronic is what's always talked about
because any 7 year old with cut-n-paste skills can use LIVE to create a track like this. Likely,
the ones who create true "compositions" (ie, not a bunch of loops strung together) probably are
out getting paid to make music, rather than standing around screaming "look what I can do" like
the majority of electronic artists I know. Just my .02.

I'm busted! Have you been peeking in my studio window???!!!

(j/k)

[neyko]

I use Ableton as my main DAW. Any tracks recorded using VSTs can be dropped into lanes at any professional recording studio's desk.

We do all our scratch tracks for vocals and guitar and bass on Ableton, re-recording them at the studio.

We have even used a number of tracks recorded on Ableton on studio recordings because we liked them. A good engineer is able to clean up noise and EQ them so they sit in the mix.

It is also an amazing songwriting tool. The ability to come up with segments of a song and cut and paste them together.

If anything, Abelton would be great for musicians of genres not associated with it because it offers a chance to think outside the box.

[luddy]

It's good for polka. Fire up some kicking beats in 3/4 time with a flagon of ale and some Schnitzel and it's the bomb.

I hadn't thought of the schnitzel, nice touch.

-Luddy

[hacktheplanet]

My band recorded and arranged our first EP in Live. Our engineer mixed and mastered it in PT with his fancy outboard gear and waves plugins. We are a pop/punk band! We are also recording and arranging a full-length album. There will be synths, but it's still pop/punk.

http://www.samantharock.com/?page_id=2

[Machinesworking]

Does anyone out there use Ableton for similar purposes or even just for creating realistic compositions rather than DJ/electronic music? Cheers.

No you must use 2" tape to get "realistic compositions", if you use electronics you're headed towards fake electronic music. Which are obviously not realistic compositions.
Keep it real bro, use Pro Tools if you have to, it's the only analogue sounding computer DAW.

[simonlb]

I'm not enjoying all this chat about dance and electronica being "easy to make". I find it pretty fucking difficult to make good electronic dance music. Getting the hang of synths and sampling, getting good arrangements and transitions, getting the groove and energy right.... it would be a hell of a lot easier to just play 3 chords on a guitar and be done with it (I'm not hating on rock music in any way, just saying it's not as simple as being able to say one genre is easier to make than another!)

Then again I don't use pre-made loops, maybe that's something to do with it...

[eggnchips]

Good electronic music is everything but easy to make. Making electronic music is simply more accessable to those who don't have a clue about musical notation on paper. It's great as all you need to get going is a good ear and good ideas.

[luddy]

I'm not enjoying all this chat about dance and electronica being "easy to make". I find it pretty fucking difficult to make good electronic dance music. Getting the hang of synths and sampling, getting good arrangements and transitions, getting the groove and energy right.... it would be a hell of a lot easier to just play 3 chords on a guitar and be done with it

+1. It's easy to make bad music of most any kind. Bad polka is difficult because, well, the bar is set so low that it's hard to go under, Schnitzel or no Schnitzel. But that's an exception.

-Luddy