Post
by JaCk HoRNer » Sun Jul 24, 2011 7:17 am
Grandz
you beats are off the chain cuzn! much respect. the jim jones "shootouts" beat is amazing. i would have swore you did that with and mpc 2000XL and some analog synths. i wouldn't have guessed the main groove was a sample, and i have a pretty good ear for beats. i can usually tell what beats were made on, just by listening to them and having worked with so much hardware and software over the years. each has its own sound characteristics. i saw the video with you and Buda making it. Ableton Live and the MPC 2500... great work. I am a long time Ableton user and also use MPC's, Ensoniq Keys (EPS, EPS 16+, ASR-10), SP-1200, etc...
right now my set-up is Ableton Live 8, Pro Tools, MPC 2500SE and an MPC 60 MKI. i started using ableton only in session view, which was good for whipping up ideas, then i would switch over to arrangement view to tighten the beat up and finish it. since then, i switched to working totally in arrangement view. much more productive and you can lay it out as you are going along, so it's easier to see. i think session view is great for cats rocking live dj sets and wanting to trigger off samples, loops, sounds, etc...
in arrangement view Ableton could use some minor tweaking in my opinion. like when you're recording in overdub, when you stop, it splits the clip up. all you have to do is highlight it and hit command j (consolidate), but in session view you don' have to do that. it keeps it one clip and lets you keep overdubbing if you have to.
also, if they put the record quantize settings on hot keys or in the clip itself, it would be easier access than having to go up to the options and change it each time.
i would also like to see them make a piano roll chopper tool and chord tool like they have in FL Studio. they are great tools. i'm getting use to the hot keys and changing the grid settings in ableton and getting busy with the pencil tool, but a midi note chopper like fl studio would be real nice. the chord tool too. ableton's chord and scale tool are cool, but i like in fl studio when you pick a chord and pencil it in, it also puts in the other notes that make up the chord, so you can go in and edit them, shorten, lengthen, etc... in ableton the chord effect is cool, but you just see your root note. you have to create dummy midi clip and record the out there to physically see the other notes. it's a pain and would be better the other way like FL Studio.
the last thing i would say is make the piano roll a little nicer looking, like in FL Studio. where the keys actually look like piano keys and the lines in the grid a little more defined, so it's easier on the eyes. on each key have the note too, not like it is now where you see a few notes and have to zoom way in or mouse over the keys to see the notes pop up.
i agree, the piano roll should pop up on its own window, like is does in FL Studio and many other software programs. It would make things a lot easier. JUST SO YOU KNOW FELLAS, HERE'S A LITTLE TRICK I FIGURED OUT. WHEN YOU STRETCH THE PIANO ROLL ALL THE WAY UP THE SCREEN SO ITS EASIER TO SEE AND WORK ON, THEN YOU WANT TO JUMP BACK AND SEE THE ARRANGEMENT SCREEN AGAIN, HIT SHIFT THEN TAB. YOU CAN JUMP BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE PIANO ROLL PULLED FULL SCREEN AND THE ARRANGEMNT SCREEN. HOPE THAT HELPS SOME OF YOU.
other than that Ableton Live is the truth!!! and a very slept on programming. They need to step their marketing game up and get cats like you, Buda, Diplo, Skrillez, Ski Beatz, EL-P, Dev79, me and my crew Nod Records and heads that are making good music with it, endorsing it. It would sell more. Ableton is getting crushed by FL Studio, Logic Pro, and Reason with their marketing, promotions and Artist Endorsements.
I've been telling Ableton This For Years and even applied for a sales job with them years ago. They didn't listen. I bet i could have doubled their sales by now and had all kinds of artists endorsing the software, once they knew how to use it, how powerful and limitless it is.
Hopefully they wake up!!! there are a bunch of producers, new and old, especially hip-hop producers that are use to hardware that get lost in Ableton. once they get over the steep learning curve and see how powerful it is, they'd be all over it.
ABLETON WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have one of the best production software packages on the market and your marketing, promotions and artists endorsements suck. With some minor tweaks to the software, with some input from good producers who are using it, you could take over the market. That's my word. Contact me if you want to talk about it. you should have taken me up on my offer years ago. Either way, I'll still be using your product. I'm an artists who swears by it and uses it heavy. Not just some artists trying to endorse it for a Free Copy to try or just to get a check from you. Real Talk.
Ableton, you have a great product with an even greater Lame Duck feature - the arrangement view. Workflow in this window lags so far behind the competition it's actually embarrassing. And it takes enough of the fun out of the rest of the program to keep many many professionals from committing to what could easily be a one-stop shop for serious composition. I mean if you are going to have an arrangement window in the first place, then shouldn't live up to the rest of the programs capability? Otherwise why bother? 
Grandz22, like you I've memorized the shortcuts and have pushed projects through without ever touching the session view. But that is exactly the point - many, many users and potential users would LOVE to be able to use arrangement view for entire projects but end up feeling that it really is more a chore than a privilege. I mean, it is possible to build a car with just a monkey wrench and some duct tape but who would want to? Don't you think this kind of brute force production loses it's charm after the first time!