I want to share my thoughts about Ableton Live 10.
I've been using it for over 7 years now and there are still missing some in my eyes very essential features. To be honest, I wouldn't have upgraded to 10, but I really want to use the ConvolutionReverb from Max, which made my Live 9 crash all the time (I still think it's because I'm using a new CPU from AMD). The "groups in groups" is great, aswell as the multiple midi clip edit. The "audio effect rack" tool is still the greatest thing ever!
But in my eyes some essential features are way more important than a new innovative echo delay for example... so why not get the fundamentals first?
1. Direct sidechain input for vst plugins:
This is a standard in pretty much every other DAW. In music nowadays everything gets sidechained (kick to bass, dry to reverb...). I don't want to have to create a new audio channel everytime I need to sidechain something. It would be great to have a separate dropdown available in the vst window (like the one from logic) to input audio tracks aswell as midi tracks (take the midi from the kick as a trigger for the LFO-Tool for example). Of course I have found a workaround (I use multiple "external instrument"-tools grouped with the kick simpler to send the midi to the LFO-Tools on the affected tracks. But it would be way simpler to just choose the external input from a dropdown.
2. Use the mouse wheel button to pan (arrangement- and sessionview):
Everytime I need to switch from zooming to panning, I need to press the alt key and let go of it again. Either make the zoom-scroll function also work with Ctrl + Alt or add the feature to use the mouse wheel button for panning.
3. Select multiple clips by ctrl+clicking (arrangement view):
This is a must! In windows explorer you can select multiple files by holding ctrl and clicking on each one. Let's say i have clip A and B on a track, duplicated multiple times on the timeline. If I want to change the gain for every other clip I have to select one - adjust the gain - select the next one - adjust the gain - and so on. If it would be possible to select every other clip by holding down ctrl, I could then adjust all the gains with 1 click.
4. Adjust fades of multiple clips:
Cutting a clip sometimes induces unwanted clicks. I don't use the auto-fade function because I mostly work with drum samples and I don't want the transients to be cut away. It should be possible to select multiple clips, and then adjust the fade of one. The fade would then be applied to all other selected clips too.
5. Direct CC# communication from the arrangement view automations:
The modulation wheel can be used to automate the dynamics of konkakt strings. Sadly, the automation for the modwheel and all the other CC#s are only accessible by doubleclicking the midi clip and opening the envelopes section. Even for this I found a decent workaround. I'm using the Max Device "External Instrument MIDI Control 1.0" from prodavid (http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device.php?id=54). It didn't work at first so I had to debug it by myself. Making the CC#s also available directly from the arrangement view would be way easier.
6. Automatic group track color behaviour:
At least we are now able to color the clips by rightclicking the track. But there's plenty of room for more improvement. If I group 5 red tracks, I want the group to be red aswell of course. At the moment it just uses the default track color defined in the settings. And when I add a track inside of a group, I want it to use the same color as the group I add it to. In general it should be programmed so that every track inside of a group automaticly is the same color as the group. And if I move track XYZ from a red group to a green group it should change from red to green too (I don't think anyone is ever going to make a red group and then use colors other than red for the tracks inside the group, but If someone still wants to color the tracks independently from the group he or she can do it by right-clicking)
Some words about Live 10:
In my opinion the ability to toggle the automations and to toggle the computer keybard as midi (especially cause there's no option to set it's default to "on") are steps in the wrong direction. I use the keyboard to trigger drum samples all the time. It's a detail, but I now I have to press that M key everytime I open up a new project. I would be way happier if both (automation and keyboard toggle) would be removed (was way better in Live 9!).
Edit
The clips are now grabable by the upper half of the track height. This makes it even worse! Switch it back to the way it was in 9
And finally:
I hope you can see that I didn't write all of this to complain about live. I want any software to be the best it can be. I even began to program myself so I can write scripts and plugins for a better and faster workflow. The features I'm addressing are not bugs or errors, but rather priority issues and lack of user friendliness. I know for a fact that some of these wouldn't be a big programming challenge.
If you're still reading, thanks for taking the time! I'd love to see these features in a future release. So many years have passed. Sometimes I feel like developers are intentionally holding back potential, just to procrastinate and be better off financially. I don't know how it works out there. Maybe I'm also just overestimating the abilities of programmers...