Ableton Forum

I've got a friend who i'm involved with in a very experimental, multi-musician group who is using Cubase and i've got a friend that i do scoring work with who uses reason and pro tools.

Assuming everyone is too busy to sit down for a few hours and learn Ableton, how should i go about convincing them that Ableton is kickass?

Convince them to give you 10 minutes to do a showoff and show them how fast you can build a track in Live. That was the biggest thing for me...

I've learned it's very difficult unless you can sit with them in person for a fairly short period of time to show them the basics. Otherwise it confuses them too much and trying to explain over the net can be a mess unless they are really driven to learn how to do it.

Showing them a performance personally, using a few controllers and doing crazy stuff

My friend who has been a die-hard logic fan for years now (and cubase before) is slowly switching to live.

It can be done.

The best way to convince people to use ableton is to put together a simple setup of various clips, hook up a midi controller, and play the sequencer like a live instrument, and then have them do it. Then, as they do it, record their performance, and flip over to the arrangement view and show them that everything they do in their other apps they can do here as well - faster and better.

At least, that's worked for me in the past!

I'd start by describing the random access and live jamming philosophy of the session grid- "it's like an excel spreadsheet, that you can fill with pieces of music, and then trigger different cells together or separately!"

Man, the few people I have shown Live to get it pretty quickly- it doesn't take long before they're into the new paradigm.

Its all about the session view.

Just build up a track using loops and show them how quickly you change a song - try a different drum beat with a different bass line.. Thats what i showed to my band.. and now we use it.. hahah.

Then show them a live performance remix type thing of the song you just made with some midi controllers or even just using assigned keys.. I remixed Californication with my keys only..

+1 for a quick showing-off session

Also... getting the non-user to make a track works well too.
The non-user tells u what he wants and u point at what to click on screen.

thanks for the responses! i definitely agree that getting them using it is key.

What about videos? Are any of the ableton videos a good start, or is there a more coercive video i'm not aware of?

Ideas for showing off:

*Use dummy clips (no other app has a feature like this)

*Show follow actions (ditto)

*Show tempo/time signature automation (going from 4/4 to 6/8 and back while speeding up and slowing down in real time. (ditto)

*Drag an effect in from the browser and drop it on a track. Drag another. mess with them. change the order of effects. NOTE HOW THIS DID NOT CAUSE A DROP OUT IN AUDIO AND CAN BE DONE DURING A PERFORMANCE. (certainly never seen another app that comes close on this)

Now how do you get a bunch of old crusty guitar players and drummers , who've never used any kind of DAW and aren't into electronic music to check it out? I've been trying to get my old bandmates into it for years........

rbro wrote:Now how do you get a bunch of old crusty guitar players and drummers , who've never used any kind of DAW and aren't into electronic music to check it out? I've been trying to get my old bandmates into it for years........

i'd start with teaching them how to use a computer!

sell the fun of live. live is fun, cubase, pt or what not is no fun, if they are serious about there work, why change a good prog like PT or cubase or what?

i mean seriously. live is only better for live performer or fun seekers, there is not much live can others can't... maybe warping without an extra plugin... oh well 8 is coming let's see...
but for now it's the clip view and the fun, otherwise it will be hard to convince changing platforms... and learning new.

get real, it's about what you do not what you use.

live is however fun. convince with fun. ease of writing, CLIPS, CLIPS, CLIPS and spontanious jamming arranging...

my2cents.

rbro wrote:Now how do you get a bunch of old crusty guitar players and drummers , who've never used any kind of DAW and aren't into electronic music to check it out? I've been trying to get my old bandmates into it for years........

Record them to a click. Catch their first take and get them to not stop if (when) they make a mistake.
Then edit out the mistakes and mess with the track in super fast time (some nice mixing or something to make it sound great gut still their song)

Aequitas123 wrote:I've got a friend who i'm involved with in a very experimental, multi-musician group who is using Cubase and i've got a friend that i do scoring work with who uses reason and pro tools.

Assuming everyone is too busy to sit down for a few hours and learn Ableton, how should i go about convincing them that Ableton is kickass?

Don't convince them. Let them use whatever they want. Not everyone has to be a Live user.

"Many are called, but the chosen are few!"