Ableton Forum

I bought the Suite, and have been playing with it for a few days now. I know its a short amount of time, but I feel like throwing my computer!!! To create a mix down of pre-recorded tracks makes me think that you need a doctorate degree to run ableton! I'm by no means a skilled engineer, but I taught myself on pro tools 8, and trying to make the switch to ableton makes me truly believe i got ripped out of over $500.

I guess the point of this post is to ask how long it took those of you like me who started on a diff daw to switch over to ableton? Ive never seen the likes of this madness!

I tried Ableton once, didn't understand it, hated it, thought it was confusing and dumb, and put it down for 6 months

I came back to it and decided I was going to learn what it was about, and in one night it all clicked for me.

I hadn't understood/appreciated the difference between Arrangement and Session views and why Session view was so useful/different from Arrangement, and once I finally got that into my head the rest followed easily.

What are you confused by?

rtfm

2 weeks

keep your cool, enjoy

ask questions, most here will gladly help...

1 year for me. Tried the demo and didnt know wtf i was doing. Then a year later i had a few days to just sit iwth it and i got hooked

i really dont understand what is so different about live that annoys people coming from other daws .you are not the first to say this about being annoyed but no one seems to explain what is annoying about it.

you know you dont have to touch session view right?

as for how long it took to get used to it from what i remember (its been almost a decade now) it didn't take long at all maybe a couple hours. i left info view open all the time and only read the manual out of boredom.

agent314 wrote:I tried Ableton once, didn't understand it, hated it, thought it was confusing and dumb, and put it down for 6 months

I came back to it and decided I was going to learn what it was about, and in one night it all clicked for me.

I hadn't understood/appreciated the difference between Arrangement and Session views and why Session view was so useful/different from Arrangement, and once I finally got that into my head the rest followed easily.

What are you confused by?

This is what happened to me too except I ditched it for longer

Thing is after a few years of using it, it's a pain to go back to a linear daw.

I only really remember being blown away by how cool it was. Took a few days to get the hang of it and a few years to fully master it. I still learn new stuff all the time...

I guess because I'd used Digital Performer, Logic and Reason before I ever messed with Live it wasn't hard.
Having to relearn how to work in different ways of viewing a timeline a couple times before had me immediately bored with Arrangement View and all about Session.
I was up and running in Live within hours.

When you only know one way of doing things the other ways seem crazy. Thinking about how Cubase handles instantiating software instruments VS Logic, VS DP, VS Live, Live by far wins out as the easiest, but if you only know the way one DAW does it, the other ways seem weird. I helped a friend with Sonar and I got stuck on instantiating a software instrument for a good while, I've never tried it in Pro Tools, so I'm aware I would be clumsy about it.

Been learning slowly since August. Not doing as much as I could have, because uni and games also want a part in my life :<

I think the first time I tried the program seriously was version 2, and I thought it was an over-hyped toy, because I had started using it as if it was cubase. I tried again on version 4 and where it all went right was : I didn't try to "make a song with a tight mix" I just messed about with clips in session while I accidentally had the main (arrangement) record active. I realised that it was more like how I used to play with drum machines and hardware sequencers recording down to multitrack tape - except the multitrack is still editable.
I think that drunken messing about made me understand how the program works. Once I got it I stopped using anything else . It's very different from any other daw

Your time will be rewarded. I was lucky, I felt at home with Live after a week. However it took me some more time to master everything and even after 6 years I still learn techniques from this forum. Ableton is as natural as it could be when you go to session view and place your clips. Play with them, using the mouse at the beginning. You will enjoy the immense capabilities. Afterwards try press the record button while improvising with clips and you'll get a populated Arrangement View, a linear transposition of your improvisation. Ableton minimalistic interface should come natural in a matter of days, give yourself time.... and just like with a new girlfriend do not try to look for the old one when you approach the new one or you'll be disappointed. Look at Ableton without thinking at your past DAW experience... and yes.. there are a lot of tutorials. Take your time.

- Best Regards
- Paolo

It also took me quite some time to switch from a more classic DAW to Live. i have been seriously using is for a few months (once a week on average), and i'm just starting to really use the arrange window and be able to fully use all the routing possibilites in terms of audio and midi signal path.

it also take some effort to learn and not just go the easy way and switch back. some things are working differently than in other DAW, some are amazing, some are fustrating. but all in all, i'm quite happy.

where live is really amazing is signal routing (in particular midi), custom function (with M4L) and MidiMapping and surface control.

when i said 2 weeks above, thats what it took me to wrap my head around the most basic of what Live wants, session/arrange view relationship, drum rack/piano roll, etc...thats from 0 daw experience beforehand btw...probably much faster for others...

plus i had the MusicTech Focus Live8 guide in my hand the whole time...

never actually tried any others, i feel very lucky to have gone strait to the goods

if the others dont have a session-type view im not interested anywhooooo

I came from a Cubase background, but was in an extended period of being bored with doing music and felt uninspired.

Live was on version 5 and I downloaded the demo. First thing I did was go through all the tutorials and that’s what inspired me to buy it because it’s totally unique in how you do things and at the time inspiring and got me out of my rut.

Those tutorials really helped on what the processes are and it seems like a lot of people who “don’t get it” don’t bother with the tutorials and thought they could just jump in with prior DAW experience. Um, no.

Now my problem is working in Logic and I’m so used to the Live processes and workflow that it often feels like I’ve never worked in a DAW before at all, at least when trying to work past the basics.