All the little detail problems with Ableton Live Collection

[3phase]

Hi there..
as anybody knows..
there are abillitys of ableton live that make it better than other DAW´s
There are still Standard features missing so ableton is in a permanently running behind to achive full daw funktionality.. by trying to implement new concepts in parallel to that..
like fx racks or max integration

The negative side of this ongoing process are lots of little detail problems..halfbaked implementations..conceptional and real bugs and sometimes just not very worked out things close to the border of stupidity.. parts of the dedicated controler implementation for example...

stiched with the hot needle as we say in germany...

Problem is that all this details have summed up and its not likely that tehy ever get solved because users just gave up on realizing them..or.. because any workflow is different.. you just might never met certain problems.

I am certain that i only know a part of the issues... and, usually i only realize them when the get in my way multiple times in a row..

so i wonder if it would be usefull to collect all te issues users might have with certain implemetations and behaviour of the program in one thread. because in the sum all the details maybe get more wight to become a goal for fixing..

and.. this thread could be also a place to collect ideas how to do certain things better..from a users perspective.. which might differ from the point of view of the development team.
So..if others like to share theire personal drawbacks with ableton live.. here is the place
and i suggest to give each item an an ongoing nummber..

i would say we start with 001.. and any new entry counts up than...

hope 999 is enough to list them all

[3phase]

001

the computer keyboard as midi keyboard functionality..

just one oktave and bad placement of the oktave and vel keys...
this thing is not ment to be played really..

i used lots of keyboard to midi tools and software with that ability..
and abletons is by far the worst when it comes to playability.. what a waste of so many keys..

one of the best is actually in NI´s reaktor..

but independend from that it would help to have 2 octaves.. and the transpose and vel keys placed at positions on can reach quickly while playing..

beside that it could have even more under the hood like chord memorys or a bend key that is building up velocitys on each press while beeing held..

in any case the implementation should aim to allow musical playing.. not just nerd style test purpose..

[3phase]

002

also related.. an old problem and maybe mac related and unsolvable..but anoying never the less..

when using the computer keyboard to play sounds.. and do simultaniously edits on the plug in or fx chains involved..

the screen freezes when the distance between the last keypress and mouse cursor operation is too short..
so simultaniously editing while triggering notes from the computer keyboard is flawed..

what is bad because while traveling that is the preffered mode of working.. you dont connect an extrenal keyboard to do some sound design on the train..

problem is that the freeze time where live dont accepts any further input via the mouse cursor can be up to 1 second !!

can this be fixed or is that the nature of the mac?

[3phase]

003

ans ..as place holder one of the many sync issues.. but this time not clock sync related..
syncing live to external timecode only works in arrange mode...

what renders the usage of live in timecode sync pretty much down because session mode is the main attraction..

problem is that restarting or position changing of the master causes the live loops triggered in session mode to go out of sync...

so we dont have a real time code operation..just a sychronized start

because such problems seem to be solved with serato bridge it would be nice to solve them for the midi side aswell..

[3phase]

004

global swing amount was removed from the main page in L8..

thats questionanbel because its a global parameter that effects all clips and is therefore not a setting to be hidden on a secondary page

[3phase]

005

also new in L8... time line in clips is gone.. or only visible when switching warp off..
what of cause cant be done on the running clip..

a function to show the timline on demand would be nice..

[3phase]

006

zoomstages are not indicated..

because ableton often gives us only a graphical orietation regarding the positioning of events we need at least a refference in which zoomstage we see a clip

[3phase]

007

related to 006..

what are theese ableton units when we zoom in a clip? tests have shown that they can be anything inbetween 2 and 20 ms.. so just fake units..

would be a great idea to add a little daw functionality and give at least in the highest zoom the sample number in a little window?

ther are many cases durig production where you want to move warpers just the same amount... to have an indication how much that amount might be is much better than try and error


so.. i ve a rest for now.. please feel free to add the things you came along that get in your way from time to time...

[auto-lock]

001

the computer keyboard as midi keyboard functionality..

just one oktave and bad placement of the oktave and vel keys...
this thing is not met to be played really..

i used lots of keyboard to midi tools and software with that ability..
and abletons is by far the worst when it comes to playability.. what a waste of so many keys..

one of the best is actually in NI´s reaktor..

but independend from that it would help to have 2 octaves.. and the transpose and vel keys placed at positions on can reach quickly while playing..

beside that it could have even more under the hood like chord memorys or a bend key that is building up velocitys on each press while beeing held..

in any case the implementation should aim to allow musical playing.. not just nerd style test purpose..

it would also be nice to be able to separate the two octaves so one starts from c1 and the other from c4 [example]

[wascal]

Think of all the music you could be making in the time it takes to constantly write essays about Live's shortcomings

[broc]

Why not posting this in the dedicated 'Feature Wishlist' forum?

[dum]

Why not posting this in the dedicated 'Feature Wishlist' forum?

it's not a feature wishlist, that's why.

[esky]

008
...for many Win users the "Manage Library" function isn't working anymore (for me since 8.08). Or it takes years to receive an overview of your library.

[ze2be]

In regard to workflow:

009
Unified sampling! Why is it so we cant sample directly into the samplers, yet we can do it with a clip slot, even play it chromatically on the keyboard. The samplers are not very live oriented in written date. Every HW sampler can do this. Heck, even Nano Studio on iPhone can.

010
Macro assigning is great. Yet, with a bit more advanced settings, they would be a lot more usable. Like when assigning multiple parameters to one macro, you'd might want some to not move before the macro is half way. And the macros should also double as buttons and even tiny xy pads. Whos using the old device xy pad now?

011
Device control view, and even more so with nested racks, are super tiny on standard 22" screens. Zoom want do it because the space is needed for tracks.


Go 3Phaze!
Ps. Nice to know your country of origin.

[ze2be]

012
And speaking of zooming, why is there still no mouse scroll wheel zooming after 8 major versions, and almost a decade of updates.