1. double click the device title bar to open it's window - the title bar is much bigger than the tiny spanner icon!
2. merge plug-in device browser with live device browser - i don't really see any benefit in having two separate lists of plug-ins, and combining them would allow you to see everything in one place. for example i like to see all my eq plug-ins in one list, all my compressors in one list, etc.
3. option to show folder in explorer/finder when right/ctrl clicking on folders and files in file browser - i know the file browser has certain features such as moving and renaming and so on, but for some tasks it just makes more sense to see the folder/file and work in explorer/finder.
4. sample searching and filtering features similar to those in sample catalog <http://www.geocities.com/samplecatalog> - check out the program if u can. it's a free download, but only works on windows. i'm sure there are mac programs that do similar things tho. basically i'm looking for some flexible and powerful sample management in live using catagories and filtering. this is far better then simple searching, especially since so many filenames actually fail to reflect what the actual sample is! being able to filter a sample library by user defined categories is a much slicker way of working. please please please can we have this soon? it would be soooooo cool in live!
5. actually remember reading this one on the forum! <http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26168>
6. Autosave - a necessity in my opinion! obviously an optional thing so users can choose how often an autosave happens, and whether they want autosaving or not. a feature to backup the last X number of versions like logic would be cool too.
7. shortcut for deactivating notes/clips - another must i reckon! how much easier would it be to press a key to toggle activation and deactivation of midi notes and clips rather than selecting an option from a menu or clicking a little round button at the bottom of the screen?
8. user-definable shortcuts - leading on from the last point, this would be a great feature to have. i know there are editable key and midi maps, but other functions with keyboard shortcuts are fixed. definable shortcuts would add a great deal of flexibilty to live.
9. automation of MIDI CCs on arrange page - have i missed something here? when editing envelopes in clips, you can choose "MIDI Ctrl" in the first selection box, and then a specific MIDI controller from the second box. where is this function on the arrange page? all i can see are options for the mixer channel and any plugins loaded on that channel. big omission i reckon if indeed it is missing.
10. show values of breakpoints when dragging lines and selections - when you drag breakpoints, a little box appears with the value of the point. however, this doesn't seem to happen when you drag lines or selections of points. having this would certainly make editing automation a lot easier for me!
11. scroll arrangement when scrubbing - you click, hold and drag in the scrub area, but when your pointer moves off the page, the arrangement doesn't scroll to follow unless the follow button is on. i tend to work mostly with the follow button off, so it would be nice to have the option for the arrangement to scroll when scrubbing (but obviously not when playing), even if follow is off.
12. pack installation optional when running updated versions of live for the first time - please please please can this be an option that can be switched off? when i updated my version 5, it started installing all the packs again. i don't know if it does this for everyone, because it might have been caused by the fact that i moved the ableton library folder from its original install location. so can we have the option to switch this off and maybe an option to choose an install location for first time users?
13. quicker scrolling in arrangement when dragging clips - does anyone else find this really slow, especially when you're zoomed in quite far? i know you can just zoom back out to make things quicker, but this doesn't seem very slick. could we maybe have an adjustable scrolling speed as an option? or even better, how about holding down a key while dragging to speed up the scroll? or how about dragging up to the overview and hovering over the spot you want to copy/move a clip to so that after a slight pause the arrangement jumps to that position where you can drop the clip? hope something like this is possible.
14. Aliases! - seriously, where are they? i'm convinced i must be missing something here! if you don't know what i mean, they're called aliases in logic and ghosts in cubase (well, up to vst 5 because i haven't used SX yet). when you make an alias of a clip, it's a copy that is linked to the original. when you update the original, all the aliases of that clip are automatically updated as well. makes life so much easier when you're building up a track in the arrange page and you just wanna change a simple thing in one loop. at the moment i have to make all my copies again cos they're not linked. a totally essential feature i reckon. seriously can't live without it!
15. snap off in arrangement - i can't find any way of momentarily turning off the snap in the arrangement. could we maybe have holding alt drag to snap to a division of the grid size and then alt-shift drag to turn snap off completely?
16. hot spots in full screen mode - how awesome would this be? you move your pointer to the top edge of the screen and the menu bar appears. sure beats having to click on that arrow in the bottom right corner to get the menu and then press f11 again to go back to full screen. and while you're at it, how about only showing the file browser when the pointer hits the left edge of the screen. at the moment the edges and corners are wasted opportunities for some slick definable shortcuts. good idea no?
17. menu option to open preferences folder - (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Alex\Application Data\Ableton\Live 5.0.3\Preferences on XP) thought this would be quite useful rather than having to dig around inside system folders, especially for inexperienced users. this would provide access to the log file should we need to send it off to technical support and access to the crash directory which i've found can get quite big sometimes, so needs clearing out every so often.
18. option to show location of an audio clip in the file browser - i usually want to go back to the folder i got a sample from to check out similar or related samples. could we have the option to right click on an audio clip and select 'show in file browser' or something like that so we don't have to waste time working through our folder tree? that'd be great!
if you agree with anything i've written. please reply and say which of my suggestions you would find useful too so the abes can get an idea of which are worth spending time on. of course i think they all are!
cheers guys. bless you all!
peace,
alex
