Is ableton right for me?

SDP · Post by **SDP** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:15 pm

Hi all, first post here so I hope I've posted it in the right place.
I've been watching ableton for a while now and it looks like a most amazing tool. I'm considering buying (have been mucking with the demo for a while) but I'm still unsure whether it is the right tool for me.

I want to make music (electronic). I really really want to make music but I have been saying that for a while now and still never have sat down and dedicated the amount of time it takes. I've got a little hardware box (korg EMX-1) which I want to be able to sync in with what ever I do use as software so that is important.

But if I'm perfectly honest with myself I have to say I mostly make mixes from LPs. I enjoy dance music but I'm not a good live DJ, so I use tools like samplitude to make the session with software (spending time with the mix at a fine detail) and I come up with mixes I could never do live. This involves lots of wave (or mp3) editing, chopping up, resampling, etc and I don't see this as a major feature of ableton. please correct me if I'm wrong.

It seems to me that ableton is a capable audio editor of small samples but not of 8 min audio tracks edited to become 2 hour long sessions.
Can people please tell me if they use ableton for editing of long audio sets and if ableton can do what i want well.

Thanks for any advice you can offer
sp

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:22 pm

welcome to the forum

Live is great for editing large files into long mixes. There are a lot of people here who do exaclty that. Also, check out AbletonLiveDJ.com for all the goods on how to DJ with Live.

Live is also an excellent production tool, which is how I use it.

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:25 pm

I'd say Ableton is the ideal program for what you want to do.

heavensdaw · Post by **heavensdaw** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:59 pm

Ableton will give you everything need and more!

It's so flexible with audio. The more time that you spend with it, the better it gets..

Hd

SDP · Post by **SDP** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:13 pm

Thanks for the super quick replies. Very happy to have people confirm AL is a good tool for my needs. I guess I have a lot more investigation to do with audio editing.
I should probably go through the tutorials and online clips again because I seem to be missing the audio edit mode. I know you can have a clip in the lower window and change clip start-stop location and other markers but where do you actually edit the audio?
And As I was reading this morning all editing is non-destructive right? So if you want to actually permanently change an audio clip it is best to bounce down right?

Cheers

djastroboy · Post by **djastroboy** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:20 pm

One way to make non-realtime mixes in Live would be to lay them out in the arrangement view and then "render". It's actually a much better system than using a traditional audio editor with cutting and pasting.
You get to set the start and end point and the fades and whatever else you can thing of, and, like you mentioned, do it all non-destructively.

jamief · Post by **jamief** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:57 pm

Live is super simple to use and gives you the ability to go very complex and deep if you wish creating very complex edits ad . best thing is its ease of use and it makes the whole process of arranging, writing editing music great fun and with many unexpected amazing results.

IN essence ypu can forget about the computer and be creative. its the only daw i use now. Could never go back to an of the others

SMOOTH_LOVIN_CYCLOPS · Post by **SMOOTH_LOVIN_CYCLOPS** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:13 am

ABILTIN CHANCH MAH LIFE YOW SHO NUFF. RIEL TAWLK YOW YO BE MACKIN BOMP BEATZ INA HART YOW JUZ AZ LONK AZ YO BE FILOIN IT YOW!!! REIL TAWLK YO.

WON LOVE CYCLOPS AM OUTIE FIFE.

Is ableton right for me?

Is ableton right for me?

Excellent!