The No1 Wish for Ableton Live

[danger]

JBlogz & Jinsai: what os do you use? 8.2.1 is stable here, sometimes the plugins do crashes or running out of memory, but other than that nothing i could count on Live.

[AceLuby]

Not certain what you mean but it reads to me a bit as if you mean record in Session and comp in Arrangement...?

My response to the point about comping not fitting into Session view is... well, who cares, really. You need to be able to see waveforms horizontally for it to be a convenience so Arrangement suits that.

And my understanding of Live and the point of it, which may be wrong, is that it was/is conceived to be an all-round DAW and so-named because it encourages a 'Live' (spontaneous) feel/approach to composing, rather than merely a device for DJs/performers to trigger stuff.

The other way around. The arrangement has the entirety of the song, then while that part is playing you record into the session view. You can do this over and over and easily piece together parts. Like I said, I've done it before, but maybe that's not what comping is.

[EX]

Well, comping is the process of making a composite take from the best bits of multiple takes recorded.

As a feature it has to involve some sort of GUI where all passes of the loop record are stacked (which Live does already, but in a hassle-heavy way, not in a hassle-free, nested, drop-down, sub-track type way) and then, crucially, selecting the desired part from the waveform of the pass you want, from which are all waveforms are neatly displayed for you (either one above the other or selectable via some handy right-click menu function), automatically mutes all others, saving time and hassle.

If that makes any sense.

[AceLuby]

Well, comping is the process of making a composite take from the best bits of multiple takes recorded.

As a feature it has to involve some sort of GUI where all passes of the loop record are stacked (which Live does already, but in a hassle-heavy way, not in a hassle-free, nested, drop-down, sub-track type way) and then, crucially, selecting the desired part from the waveform of the pass you want, from which are all waveforms are neatly displayed for you (either one above the other or selectable via some handy right-click menu function), automatically mutes all others, saving time and hassle.

If that makes any sense.

Makes perfect sense, so the complaint isn't that it's not possible, but that it isn't hassle free with a nice GUI. Fair enough. Personally, I'd rather see clip automation and more effort to perfect what makes Live unique, the session view.

[EX]

Please don't diminish the degree to which it is a hassle (with "nice GUI") though, it is a considerable time-consuming annoyance compared to the tailored alternative, the likes of which have been implemented in all the other major DAW's. As I think I have said the faff of trying to relocate and line-up all the markers for the all the faffing duplicates you've made is pretty enraging if there's a lot to do... and I know I can get many, many witnesses on this point.

Your argument for not implementing seems to be because you want non-specific things to Session view. As well as the perennially-requested clip automation on Session view, which does not preclude user-friendly comping functionality, it isn't an either/or at all. But well okay, that's your opinion. For what its worth I don't see the big deal of clip automation, often a fine tuning process, in Session view, a rough, outlining process... (sure, I get it, people want to 'feel' their way by viscerally twisting an assigned knob but if one can't realise one's imagination by the mouse and the grid then I don't know what to say...) but there you go, different strokes for different folks.

[EX]

And I mean taking the 'no' argument to its absurd end destination, you could say any DAW has comping because you can edit sounds and record more than once! There's been comping since the beginning of audio recording! Comping for everyone then! I find this tack to be often taken by makers of fairly simple or linear or simply-arrived at instrumentals tbh. Fair enough this is the Ableton forum.

[AceLuby]

Please don't diminish the degree to which it is a hassle (with "nice GUI") though, it is a considerable time-consuming annoyance compared to the tailored alternative, the likes of which have been implemented in all the other major DAW's. As I think I have said the faff of trying to relocate and line-up all the markers for the all the faffing duplicates you've made is pretty enraging if there's a lot to do... and I know I can get many, many witnesses on this point.

Your argument for not implementing seems to be because you want non-specific things to Session view. As well as the perennially-requested clip automation on Session view, which does not preclude user-friendly comping functionality, it isn't an either/or at all. But well okay, that's your opinion. For what its worth I don't see the big deal of clip automation, often a fine tuning process, in Session view, a rough, outlining process... (sure, I get it, people want to 'feel' their way by viscerally twisting an assigned knob but if one can't realise one's imagination by the mouse and the grid then I don't know what to say...) but there you go, different strokes for different folks.

You misunderstand why clip automation is important. I use Live as a tool to play live, as I assume it was intended given the name of the program. Drawing in automation curves on stage is not a workaround. The only realistic workarounds are dummy clips or recording the audio into another track where the former loses the 'live' feel and the latter loses any tweakability.

FWIW, I've never used another DAW or record vocals very often, so the workaround I've posted was just something that worked for me. I just wanted to share the technique I used w/ anyone who thought comping was impossible or required multiple tracks. If Live does want to be more competitive with other DAWs then I agree, they should add in a nice GUI to do this.

[EX]

Differs from my understanding which was and still is Live was/is actually conceived or intended to be an all-round DAW tailored to capturing live "feel".

[EX]

And I'm all for clip automation btw. Its not an either/or with anything else and as long as stability is reasonably ensured let's have the useful, streamlined functionality that Ableton users most crave.

[the_songcabinet]

+1 for comping. Absolutely!