I've come to the end of my Live journey because I'm tired...

[Rave]

Cheers guys for most of the responses above.

If you don't like it sell up and move on I don’t understand why you would post about it.

All on Eay now, including Live. Links in the 'For Sale' sub-forum. Why post about it? Why post about anything on a forum full of people you don't know? I guess in this case to start a discussion about the merits of using software to produce music.

He needs some attention. Also some money to buy new toys.

No to the first point. Yes to the second!

he needs to learn an instrument. if music is something you 'quit' how interesting was it to begin with?

I play guitar. I never mentioned 'quitting music.' I'm talking about quitting the way I currently produce music.

So... Live has been fun at times. Off to the world of hardware now.

Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye.

Good luck.

[JAMM]

I don, t have any problems or crashes wiith live 8. Running 30 tracks or more with hundred of vst, s and effects. Only glitches when the CPU hits 60 %. The only time live crashes is when i the switch audio-interface.(.internal audio to firewire interface) I, m on a 2 year old MBP

inspiration.... I get that in working with different people in several different projects and deadlines.
The projects change constantly but now....Sounddesign for theater, playing live and composing with jazzmusicians, playing live and composing with a rapact, remixing other musicians, producing techno, hiphop, house, sounddesign for Television, composing music together with a singer....enough deadlines to keep you going but.....also there are weeks/ months that i don, t touch a keyboard or start up ableton and thdn i start to thinks that the music-fire is dying out. Happily, after that time i find new inspiration to get going again. The most difficult thing every project is to finish that project....evertime time...hard work.

[dude rancher]

JAMM the gods must be with you. Live almost turned me into an Alcoholic. i wonder if the abes will pay for rehab? i have so many crashes and issues using vsts its ridiculous. i cant get my midiman 8x8 to appear in live most of the time. 20-30 minutes before i can get sync. its a fight. i love live but damn. why cant the bugs be fixed? i have tried cubase and sonar x1 and others and always limp back to live because its what i am most comfortable with. its like that little blonde girlfriend in college that would drive you nuts but you didnt break up because she was so hot. then finally you had to drop her. blues.

[LoopStationZebra]

All you need is the Tempest. Hardware Only. No laptop. No MIDI.

I know what you mean about setup time just to practice or write or whatever. meh. I get sick to shit of it as well. Even if it's only 10min to get things up and running, that's 10min too long, lol.

I find myself more and more just picking up my Stick and plugging it into my Trace Elliot amp with a small Korg FX unit. I've been into the digital component of my music for so long that I had forgotten that it WAS friggin possible to play the way people had been doing it for decades prior to the invention of the computer. Plug in and start playing. 10sec.

[gjm]

I know what you mean about setup time ...

This.

#1 Mental and Physical block. Its also my #1 priority to fix ASAP. Studio desk, gear integration, template...

[LoopStationZebra]

^lol. And I'm a guy who's gotten rid of nearly all hardware because I just couldn't be bothered anymore with managing all of that crap. And my creative output is none the worse for it...

NOw I need a single device that acts as a DAW host, top of the line audio interface, a USB and MIDI hub, and mini mixer. Then all I have to do is turn the fucker on...

[Machinesworking]

@LSZ and GJM, IMO this it the ultimate failure of having a user interface that relies to heavily on quick results. Live is a great tool for sure, but Live is designed to get quick results from scratch. I've jumped around a bit DAW wise and all approaches developers take have their downside, with Logic and DP it's that you have to get to know the DAW for at least six months to a year before you're really comfortable in it, but at that point you're flying around it pretty fast, with Live it's that after the first couple months of being amazed at it, you start running into the limitations of that intuitive approach. There are still things Live does better than the others though, I'm just not a fan of the UI and GUI at this point. It's entirely possible to work in Live completely, and for the most part I do, but it's mainly out of love for it's routing and Session View.

IMO the love of the intuitive is a hindrance to creativity. You want intuitive? get a washbucket, stick a broom handle in the middle, tie a string to it a pluck away.
It takes years to get good at guitar, keys or.... You don't have to be Steve Via etc. but shit? electronic musicians have become lazy and surely, which is fucking odd to me? In my teen years electronic musicians were intense nerds, now it's all about McDAWing the experience.

TL;DR if you're approach to music making, and setting up your DAW is lazy to begin with, it's going to be a pain every time you approach that lazy set up.

[LoopStationZebra]

For me it's just wondering why I have to have all this shit laying around that I have to turn on.

Where's my single piece of hardware that combines all those things I mentioned - and with 1 flick of the power switch I'm up and running and my preferred set is loaded? We've got Roger Linn and Dave Smith creating yet another drum machine (which is cool, but), but where the hell is my awesome all in one device?

A lot of times I've got like 5 or 10 minutes between tasks or meetings or phone calls or life stuff. It takes me 5min just to:

1. Turn on the power strip.
2. Turn on the speakers.
3. Turn on the MacBook.
4. Turn on the MOTU.
5. Wait for OSX to load.
6. Turn on the iPad.
7. Plug the MIDI and audio cables into the iPad.
8. Start an ad hoc network for OSC.
9. Fire up touchAble server on the Mac.
10. Fire up Live.
11. Connect to the new ad hoc network on the iPad.
12. Fire up touchAble on the iPad.
13. Load my set into Live.
14. Start the Line6 gearbox (optional but I always have it open cause I love tweaking shit realtime)
15. Strap on my Stick
16. Start Playing.

Oops. By that time nearly 10min have passed and it's time for my conf call.


Method #2 - Less than 1min to:
1. Turn on the Trace Elliot amp.
2. Turn on the Korg ToneWorks.
3. Strap on the Stick.
4. Start playing.


I'm doing method 2 more and more. That's all I'm saying.


From here on in I'm going to be gravitating towards any method or gear setup that's going to make it easier and faster for me to start playing. I love the digital component of making music, but it's not driving who I am as a musician or what I want to create. I'm a Stick and guitar player who primarily needs live looping but has fallen in love with all those plugs and softsynths and whatnot. I started amassing a shitload of hardware at one point (controllers, synths, blah blah blah) and then woke up and said 'whoa! what the FUCK am I doing with all of this SHIT?' It's taking over my process instead of the other way around and FIDDLING with it all is little more than a distraction for me.

[dude rancher]

vsts crashing your computer. how is that lazy? apc 40 and midi usb wont sync lazy?
other daws seem to work just fine. i like live and its work flow. i guess its there is always a price to pay.

[Machinesworking]

For me it's just wondering why I have to have all this shit laying around that I have to turn on.

Where's my single piece of hardware that combines all those things I mentioned - and with 1 flick of the power switch I'm up and running and my preferred set is loaded? We've got Roger Linn and Dave Smith creating yet another drum machine (which is cool, but), but where the hell is my awesome all in one device?

A lot of times I've got like 5 or 10 minutes between tasks or meetings or phone calls or life stuff. It takes me 5min just to:

1. Turn on the power strip.
2. Turn on the speakers.
3. Turn on the MacBook.
4. Turn on the MOTU.
5. Wait for OSX to load.
6. Turn on the iPad.
7. Plug the MIDI and audio cables into the iPad.
8. Start an ad hoc network for OSC.
9. Fire up touchAble server on the Mac.
10. Fire up Live.
11. Connect to the new ad hoc network on the iPad.
12. Fire up touchAble on the iPad.
13. Load my set into Live.
14. Start the Line6 gearbox (optional but I always have it open cause I love tweaking shit realtime)
15. Strap on my Stick
16. Start Playing.

Oops. By that time nearly 10min have passed and it's time for my conf call.

Great example of the user blaming the tools here.
I have one power strip that turns on every device in my studio.
Even better, I have an old school switch box of the kind that used to fit under your monitor with independent switches for various configurations.
Mine doesn't look like this really, but you get the idea.

One button for my live performance, band practice and one button for the hardware that I use for song writing.
In OSX you can set up applications to open on start up. NI's MIDI Controller Editor for the Rig Kontrol is already open when I turn on the computer.
Since I use more than one DAW I don't have Live doing this, but it's easy as hell. You can also set up Automator to open your entire set up, if you're so inclined.

Basically my start up:
1. Turn on live performance set up.
2. Open Live.
3. Open Live Set.

[Machinesworking]

vsts crashing your computer. how is that lazy? apc 40 and midi usb wont sync lazy?
other daws seem to work just fine. i like live and its work flow. i guess its there is always a price to pay.

VSTs crashing your computer isn't always a Live issue, that's a simple fact. Sometimes it's a matter of other DAWs bending spec in the same way that that VST maker has that makes it work in their DAW. The most glaringly obvious example of this was in the beginnings of the Audio Unit, Logic didn't follow spec on AU, developers bent the rules to accommodate Logic, which caused AU's to crash in Digital Performer because MOTU followed the spec to the letter! Just saying that's a bigger issue than one DAW and one VST, it's universally problematic, also freaking awesome.
Sync with an APC40 isn't something I've dealt with, but if there's a delay, (which I assume you mean, the apc40 doesn't have a built in clock from what I know) it's something larger than AKAI and Ableton. <--- IE time to start removing drivers to see which is the culprit. Neither of those are issues that are Live only issues, those are universal issues. Computers can be a PITA to get working properly, no doubt, but you're talking to someone who used to use a Mac+ with a Mirage to write and believe me it's gotten better.

[LoopStationZebra]

@MW I'm not blaming my tools. I'm blaming myself for letting those tools get in the way of making music within 10seconds.

I do have a power strip, though.

[Machinesworking]

@MW I'm not blaming my tools. I'm blaming myself for letting those tools get in the way of making music within 10seconds.

I do have a power strip, though.

Use it then, and stop yr bitchin!
Totally safe and easy advice though, to always go back to the instrument you're most comfortable with, and that, my friend is why I don't use all software. Not knocking those that do, I just wouldn't want to.

[LoopStationZebra]

lol. I am using that strip.

But I tell ya, good call on the Automator suggestion. Jebus, I can't believe I overlooked that thing. Gotta check and see how extensive it is, but looks like the record actions will allow me to also set up the ad hoc network.

[sporkles]

15. Strap on my Stick

And there's why you aren't getting any music done.