Ableton Forum

i did however smoke crack before buying Live...to think I wasted all my money & time on lesser creative & inspirational DAW's... Ableton rehab facility put me back on the right path

A friend gave me a crack of live 2 and then when i bought my sound card i was using lite 4 until i had the money to upgrade to 6
and have been a happy customer through 7 and now 8 suite...

Pasha wrote:

blackboab wrote:Guilty as charged ... got hooked on a cracked version 4, and quickly realized that this software was for me. I bought a soundcard with Live light, and have been on the upgrade path ever since.

There was no way I could have come to this realization with a 2 week demo, or a crippled non-save version. So I was very happy to have the crack, and I suppose in a way Ableton must be happy too cause I have been shelling out 100+bucks every year since then

Today with 14 Day Full Trial would you had done it differently?
I'd like to concentrate on this because many Music Software companies
still do not understand that you cannot evaluate a complex software w/o
saving your work in between especially for newcomers.
I think Ableton made a huge leap forward here. 14 Days are more than enough
to explore and create with a new software and then buy if you feel like it.

- Best
- Pasha

To be really honest, no I don't think I would have done it differently with the 14 day trail that is available today. OK I definitely think Ableton are moving forward, but I still think although 14 days are better than nothing, they are still too short. Like already mentioned by other users, 14 days is not a lot of time when you have to work 8 hours per day, eat, sleep, play with the kids, and keep the wife amused (basically live a life).

It basically took me several months to get my head around Live, and fully realise that I wanted to part with cash, and really get into this software.

Bear in mind that I was coming from a background as someone who had no experience with DAWs and didn't even know what a VST was, and Live is not photoshop, it takes a while to get your head around it. 14 days may be plenty for someone with time time on their hands and a background of digital audio, but it would have been too short for me, and Ableton may well have lost a loyal customer as a result.

I dunno I think a 6 months evaluation license that you have to pay a small fee for would be a good idea. First the 14 day demo for free in order to spark your interest, and then a 3 - 6 month paid for evaluation version to really have the time to decide, and then take the plunge or not ... perhaps that is a shit idea, and would create needless bureaucracy for Ableton.

Anyway, I am just glad that I gave up the crack, and can rest comfortably in the knowledge that I contribute to the development of a software that I truly love

blackboab wrote: To be really honest, no I don't think I would have done it differently with the 14 day trail that is available today.

I really appreciate your candidness.

blackboab wrote: Anyway, I am just glad that I gave up the crack, and can rest comfortably in the knowledge that I contribute to the development of a software that I truly love

... And that's what they call an Happy Ending... which I subscribe.

i never used the crack, i just ghetto rigged live 5 to go audio out to my novation x station into my boss br864 recorder to save my beats......That actually worked for a while until I got better at using live, then i wanted to actually save the presets i made.....that's how i bought live 5....I was doing my ghetto rigged method for a good two months before scrounging enough money for live 5.....to this day i dont regret that move.

i used a crack until i started making money with Live.

I bought it straight out after a few hours using the demo of live 3. I had been using cubase, logic, sonar, everything under the sun, and they all seemed to just get in the way of making music. I dont even know how people make music in those archaic daws now.

i am a bit amazed at the honesty in this thread...

blackboab wrote:I dunno I think a 6 months evaluation license that you have to pay a small fee for would be a good idea. First the 14 day demo for free in order to spark your interest, and then a 3 - 6 month paid for evaluation version to really have the time to decide, and then take the plunge or not ... perhaps that is a shit idea, and would create needless bureaucracy for Ableton.

I doubt they would do a 6 month license since the version number seems to change every year (though I have been ponying up my money these past couple of years like a good boy), but this is not a terrible idea.

Then again, I think this is why Abes made Live LE, so people could buy a version of the program and really put it through its paces before making the jump to the full version. You can get a download of Live 7 LE for $139. If you have a "4"x4 interface like a Fast Track Pro, then you aren't going to need more than two stereo ins or outs. The only limitation that seems overly constrictive to people who want to use Live for more than just DJ'ing is the ability to only use 2 AU/VST instruments per project. All of the other limitations of the LE version seem reasonable considering how much cheaper it is than the full version. But that limitation on instruments is a killer. I couldn't have even begun to start evaluating the program with even rudimentary projects with that limitation.

Angstrom wrote:it's interesting that the people who voted in the 'I used/still use a crack' options in this and the older poll - it seems that 96% of initial crack users go on to purchase the application.

Of course, most current crack users probably do not come on the official forum, so the statistics are possibly horribly skewed - but it's still quite a high conversion rate. I'm thinking it may actually be quite accurate.

From my own experience of friends who use a cracked copy, they either:
1: tend to use it off-and-on for about a month and then slowly stop using it and go back to using a different app.
2: use it a lot and then buy a version after they realise that they haven't opened cubase/logic/whatever in a long time

so my experience is that they either delecte it after three months, or they pony up the cash after six months.

So the small number of continuous crack users (%2) we see in this poll may be an accurate reflection of the minority of hardened misfits. In which case the 98% conversion rate is really quite surprising.

That's actually pretty dead-on. Very close to my own case.

I had a crack of Live 4 which I used sparingly at first. Then I started using it more often and loved it so much that I just felt compelled to buy it when version 5 was released.

Been happy to pay for it ever since.

jcwillia wrote:i am a bit amazed at the honesty in this thread...

+1 True that.

jcwillia wrote:i am a bit amazed at the honesty in this thread...

i actually like it, now i don't feel ashamed of what i did in the beginning because i was broke. But since then i have been legitimately paying for ableton software ever since.

the same goes for music....i'll get a hold of the mp3 first, give it a few listens then buy it on vinyl or cd...if its wack, it will be deleted in 48 hours anyways.

leisuremuffin wrote:no, never had to.


live one or two (can't remember) had a simple run around you could do:


open a set, change something, then quit.
at the "do you want to save" dialog, save was greyed out, but if you canceled you'd be back in the program and able to save.

or something like that, a friend showed me that and i used the program for about 6 months before i decided to buy v2.
'



.lm.

I did that too. I only had a really old iBook though for ages which ran reason fine on it but Live was just too power hungry. I bought live 5 after trying a crack of it for a couple of months when I bought my new mac. I quickly ditched reason and it's all i use now.

When i started using Live in early 2006 i think, my cracking days were over.
Before that i had a cracked cubase, reason and almost every vst ever built.
Now everything in my computer is legit, including music.
It's a nice warm feeling inside and you feel more attached and eager to use and learn what you have imho.

djgroovy wrote:When i started using Live in early 2006 i think, my cracking days were over.
Before that i had a cracked cubase, reason and almost every vst ever built.
Now everything in my computer is legit, including music.
It's a nice warm feeling inside and you feel more attached and eager to use and learn what you have imho.

+2 Double true that.