Moving from Reason/Record (first impressions and questions)

UHE is now closed. For Technical Support from Ableton, please go here: http://www.ableton.com/support
Locked
VagentillGud
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:25 pm

Moving from Reason/Record (first impressions and questions)

Post by VagentillGud » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:25 am

Hi! I thought it was time to step out of the limitations of propellerheads closed systems. And Ableton seemed like the best alternative, Cubase and Logic seemed to heavy and to broad, trying to suit all kinds of musicians, not only, or foremost, electronic ones.

And i'm glad, i made my first song scetch yesterday and with only two synths and a drumbeat i made it equally interresting as a reason record -song with many instruments and so on. The effects in Ableton beats the hell out of propellerheads i think. And also i have been able to use my MicroKorg XL. I also really like that the more advanced stuff isnt hidden or complex to do, like in propellerheads apps, where you have to patch things like crazy and so on.

... I dont know it just sounded good whatever i did in Ableton, compared to what i'm used to. Even if it was simple.

Though i think a few things suck, and as i dont know if this is my limited knowledge of Ableton or what, so i start this thread.

Firstly i think its much more easy to schetch out melodies in R+Rs sequensers; no space or overlook shortage, and "new dub" and "new alternative" -buttons, wich creates multiple track lanes on the same track. How do you make multiple lanes in Ableton? (Ah, now i understand, just copy the clip in session wiev :D)This makes me wonder if i should when ive learned Ableton, scetch the music in Reason, export the midi, and then use Abletons, Vstis, and my synths sounds (i cant send midi from Reason even trough Rewire huh?). But i would prefer if i not had to do this. Maybe ill export the audio to Record to mix and master afterwards (mostly mayby to not feel like a fool for buying their apps) thats enough exporting if i have to, i think.

I think Abletons sequenser kinda sucks when it comes to automation (and the overwiev too). It seems you can only see two automations per track at the same time, and have to choose wich ones, in a "rullgardin" (whatever that is in english). And somehow propellerheads automation seem more exact. But maybe thats just cause im used woking with them.

Other things i find suck with ableton is the lack of presets (or is it i have just not find them? Even my microKorg XL is much more diverse in this way) and the tedious work of afterwards browsing/changing presets. And when not using prestes, not to be able to open a instrument initialized, or no way to initialize it quickly (have to do it all manually it seems?).

And i dont understand wy i cant detach things to make use of my screens, and why it seems you cant zoom in vertically. And also i think some things are way more logical built in Ableton, but others not, i try to do a thing, guess, and it just works, when it wouldnt have in propellerheads, or the other way around.

Yeah i hope you read this as i'm seeking advice, cause that is what its about, im much more happy with Ableton than R+R. It seems like they did the app like i would have created a app.

VagentillGud
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:25 pm

Re: Moving from Reason/Record (first impressions and questions)

Post by VagentillGud » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:42 am

And btw in Reason i had this ability to "remote override" that is chose a parameter in Reason, right click and turn a knob on my midi controller, and it got mapped. Can i do this in Ableton?

improbabilitist
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:13 am
Location: The Interwebz

Re: Moving from Reason/Record (first impressions and questions)

Post by improbabilitist » Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:40 pm

Hey, nice to hear more Ableton users popping up. It's my favourite DAW because it gives me an incredible amount of flexibility and depth of control (especially with the addition of max4live).
Why try to emulate hardware in software when you can utilize the software to its maximum in the first place?
I don't even use external VST's, I think that everything is contained within Live, and if given enough time and energy to work on them you can get the same (if not better) results than a lot of high-end VST's out there.

Undoubtedly, like everything else, it can't be all roses and fountains.
I wouldn't agree with lack of presets (I create my own by building everything from ground-up), but I would certainly like multi-screen support in order to get even broader overview. You can however zoom in by stretching the individual tracks. IIRC it is possible to send midi from Reason although I don't exactly know how (never used ReWire).
Also, you can very easily midimap things by pressing Ctrl+M, after which you can select a knob which is lit blue and twist a parameter on your controller and voila!

So yeah, welcome and enjoy (what you can do with) the possibilities! :)

Locked