Live 6 review - part 1

Per Boysen · Post by **Per Boysen** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:45 am

Splashmas wrote:Just returned from a 2 week adventure far from any computer so excuse me if I've missed out on anything:

I assume there's still no groove template functionality?

Interesting that you should mention that! It's one of the few features that stills has me producing mainly in Logic. Logic lets the user crate a MIDI groove quantize template form either another MIDI sequence or an audio file (loop). That's pretty unique as far as I can tell. This is one of my main wishes for Live and I would also like a Global Groove Quantization Grid, i.e. a simple two (or more) bar step sequence grid where you can move the hit points for every 8th, 16th etc (depending the time measure used for the song) cusp. This Global Setting should then affect all quantizing happening in the song project. (of course you should be able to automize the Global Q-Grid. And it would also be useful to have the option to change groove map by external MIDI - meaning that if you keep stuff quantized you may take the music in an out of different rhythmic feel modes)

...oh yeah - I too eagerly await any eventual answer on this from our Alpha Test Pilots

TheAnimal · Post by **TheAnimal** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:09 pm

Per Boysen wrote:It's one of the few features that stills has me producing mainly in Logic.

What are the others?

Nixon · Post by **Nixon** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:31 pm

for the people requesting crossfader curves...with the adjustable min/max plus multi assignments you can make your own crossfaders, right?

cbit · Post by **cbit** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:42 pm

hi sweetjesus, thanks for the preview.. i'm particularly interested in whether one bug has been addressed., in v5 the arrangeview responds very sluggishly at high zoom when there are lots of small clips on the timeline http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39757

if you get a chance, and feel like checking out whether this is any different in v6 i'd very much appreciate it! (this bug has made v5 useless for me

)

evoid · Post by **evoid** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 3:49 pm

what about the LIVE 5.2- CPU SPIKES and AUDIO GLITCHES STILL PRESENT problem? for me this is the main issue to be solved in 6..

any of the campers (alpha testing) had this problem? is it solved now?

sorry I don't know how to link to the thread where this issue is discussed, but it's on the bugs and problems section...

thank you!

peeddrroo · Post by **peeddrroo** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:05 pm

there are some things that are worthless discussing at that stage of an alpha. and i think all the performance issues are in this category.
in my opinion, it's too early to comment them.
even features can be touchy if some of the features in the alpha don't make it in the beta (which is most likely).

so let's wait a bit before assuming things.

all i can say is that the alpha is about the same level as Live5 CPU-wise on my computer.

forge · Post by **forge** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:15 pm

peeddrroo wrote:there are some things that are worthless discussing at that stage of an alpha. and i think all the performance issues are in this category.
in my opinion, it's too early to comment them.
even features can be touchy if some of the features in the alpha don't make it in the beta (which is most likely).

so let's wait a bit before assuming things.

all i can say is that the alpha is about the same level as Live5 CPU-wise on my computer.

agreed - on the whole I've actuaslly been very surprised at how well it's all run - in fact I've been very impressed at how stable the alpha has been

but there are still things being changed and as they are stability changes

but yes htere is still debugging code - so if anythhing that suggests to me there has been an improvement even for sinlge core (which I am) because performance seem svery good to me, even with debug code

evoid · Post by **evoid** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:20 pm

ok, i'll keep fingers crossed here..

nice to know that it 'feels' ok, forge =)

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:05 am

M. Bréqs wrote:
sweetjesus wrote: the device groups have 8 knobs called 'macro controls' and these can assign any parameters in the device group and by note i should say that they can also control multiple parameters. we are waiting for focumentation but the 8 knobs on the macro will be hot swapped to 8 knobs on your controller depending on the channel which you have selected.
...I'm curious. One of the major stumbling blocks with me and Live Clips as introduced in 5 was that none of my midi mapping was saved with these clips. So, I never used 'em.

If I'm using one of these new instrument / effects racks, and I've mapped the 8 knobs, will it save midi automation?

Alternatively, this may be where the Remote SL series will really come in to shine... But it would be sweet if you could pre-map things to your midi controller and not have to re-map 'em when you drag in a new device or clip with (a) device(s).

MB

...repost. Anybody have an answer to this?

dbolt · Post by **dbolt** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:20 am

Any Alpha testers have the Novation SL 25 or above that could tell me that the Parameter jump feature has been fixed with the Automap mode. With V5 the parameters will jump instead of letting you move the fader or knob to the position before commiting to the change. This has been a real drag when doing final mixdowns. I spoke with Novation and they said that it was up to Ableton to fix this in the software.

Thanks for all the reviews!

New tracks on http://www.myspace.com/soundbolt new Machinedrum/Revolution/Akai MPC 1000

forge · Post by **forge** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:49 am

dbolt wrote:Any Alpha testers have the Novation SL 25 or above that could tell me that the Parameter jump feature has been fixed with the Automap mode. With V5 the parameters will jump instead of letting you move the fader or knob to the position before commiting to the change. This has been a real drag when doing final mixdowns. I spoke with Novation and they said that it was up to Ableton to fix this in the software.

Thanks for all the reviews!

New tracks on http://www.myspace.com/soundbolt new Machinedrum/Revolution/Akai MPC 1000

yeah there aer 2 new modes in the prefs - one "pick-up" and one "value scaling" - pick up willwait until you are at the level the automation is at before it "picks up" - so yes (although I havent personally tried with that controller)

forge · Post by **forge** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:56 am

M. Bréqs wrote:
M. Bréqs wrote:
sweetjesus wrote: the device groups have 8 knobs called 'macro controls' and these can assign any parameters in the device group and by note i should say that they can also control multiple parameters. we are waiting for focumentation but the 8 knobs on the macro will be hot swapped to 8 knobs on your controller depending on the channel which you have selected.
...I'm curious. One of the major stumbling blocks with me and Live Clips as introduced in 5 was that none of my midi mapping was saved with these clips. So, I never used 'em.

If I'm using one of these new instrument / effects racks, and I've mapped the 8 knobs, will it save midi automation?

Alternatively, this may be where the Remote SL series will really come in to shine... But it would be sweet if you could pre-map things to your midi controller and not have to re-map 'em when you drag in a new device or clip with (a) device(s).

MB
...repost. Anybody have an answer to this?

I dont know alot about the automapping side of things - i might have a look later on,

but I just want to clarify tthat you can have groups within groups - so while you only have 8 macros to a group, each group within that group has 8 and you can go on like that forever - so you can see it creates enourmous options

and macro 1 controls the chain selection - which means within the first group you can have up to 128 devices within that chain (I think - 128 being the number of values on a midi control)
- and each of those could be another group, each of them with 128......

this is something I havent played around with a great deal yet, Hoffman2k is the man to ask details on that

WaveRider · Post by **WaveRider** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:38 pm

mercyplease wrote:
jbible wrote:Any new automation tools for the point and click programmers? Curves tool?

Has anything been done with the 128 vst parameters issue. Are the 128 selectable now?

The new features sounds great...but these two were really the only two I was wishing for.

No new auto params.

yeah.... the 128 parameters issues is still a biggie for me.....
+ midi vst routing
+recording param changes in session

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:05 pm

forge wrote:...I just want to clarify tthat you can have groups within groups - so while you only have 8 macros to a group, each group within that group has 8 and you can go on like that forever - so you can see it creates enourmous options

and macro 1 controls the chain selection - which means within the first group you can have up to 128 devices within that chain (I think - 128 being the number of values on a midi control)
- and each of those could be another group, each of them with 128......

this is something I havent played around with a great deal yet, Hoffman2k is the man to ask details on that

OK, so back to the original question then. (allow me to describe a process as a prelude to the question...)

1. I create a "rack" (or whatever it's called).
2. I map a number of midi controls to the 8 rack controls (knobs).
3. I then save it as a preset.
4. I delete the rack.
5. I close the live set.
6. I open a new live set.
7. I drag in my rack preset...

Does my rack still have the midi mapping I set in step 2 above? I know with Device chains in v 5.2 all midi mapping is GONE. Do these racks behave differently?

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:27 pm

M. Bréqs wrote:Does my rack still have the midi mapping I set in step 2 above? I know with Device chains in v 5.2 all midi mapping is GONE. Do these racks behave differently?

No