Ableton Forum

OK, so I'm new to Live. But when I first started up with Reason, the sequencing is soooo easy and intuitive! How can Live be sooooo frustratingly poorly designed with a bunch of useless bells and whistles??? Reason is so clean and light on the computer, Live is so heavy. Beside the point. I can't seem to copy and paste or overdub properly. The clips create these black holes of silence! A lot of hoops to jump through, Ableton!

I suppose someone out there reading this thinks I'm raving, and I am. In a moment when I square this away I shall meditate my frustrations away. If you think there are some easy ways to go about sequencing in Live, please do share.

With gratitude for the forum...

go back to reason,we have enough drama on this board.

Tell me though, why is it I can't easily cut and paste some midi notes where I want them to land? Why can't I overdub without a clip forming that causes a break in the music? Is it supposed to be easier than this and I've missed the obvious setting?

http://www.ableton.com/pages/downloads/manuals

https://askvideo.com/index.php?cPath=30

I think once you calm down and have a good read through the Live manual perhaps check out a few videos on youtube maybe have a look here...http://www.cosm.co.nz/index.php/videos. ... =3&lang=en you'll find sequencing in Live is very easy.

Live is heavier CPU wise than Reason (esp. with virtual instruments) as it is not a closed in system. You pay the price for the on the fly drop and drag performance orientated audio engine and flexibility.

If anything is lame sequencing it is Reason. As a former Reason user, it has about the worst GUI around, terrible arrangement view, mixer view with very short faders that don't allow fine tuning and apart from Scream and maybe MClass, terrible inbuilt FX . NNXT and Thor are usable synth modules, but Subtractor is thin and digital sounding as it gets, Malmstrom isn't good for a whole lot, etc. In version 4 they finally got around to multiple automation lanes, about 8 years after this was requested. And now the ultimate insult - after years of requesting audio tracks, Propellerheads deliver the kick to the gonads of forcing you to buy a seperate program Record, which uses a dongle, with it's fake SSL mixer views that sounds little like a real SSL, or even a UAD copy etc.

Live is a much more professional sequencer than Reason. The only thing I liked about Reason was being able to run it at really low latencies (it has no VST buffer like Live needs for 3rd party virtual synths), with minimal CPU and for rewiring to Live or Cubase.

Here's a good idea - RTFM - and DTFT (do the f***ing tutorials). Then things might make sense. Live is a serious piece of gear, you don't just pick it up after pushing some buttons and fecking around without a clue for half an hour and suddenly become an expert. Copying and pasting is dead simple in Live - on a PC ctrl/c and ctrl/v just like the windows commands.

and if you're illiterate or a visual learner, try starting with watching Ableton's videos, some are for noobs
http://www.ableton.com/pages/movies/archive/tutorial

although some of these refer to earlier versions of Live, the process is still the same ...

yeah. I couldn't get to grips with sequencing in reason. Others have tho' so it is not a bad design. Op reads like they are running into strangeness in the arrangement window. I found live incomprehensible untill i stopped wanting it to be logic. Well that and reading the manual- doing the built in lessons

I personally love sequencing in Live and hate most other DAWs when I try to use them.

To each their own.

KrisM wrote:I personally love sequencing in Live and hate most other DAWs when I try to use them.<snip>

+1

seano323 wrote:OK, so I'm new to Live. But when I first started up with Reason, the sequencing is soooo easy and intuitive! How can Live be sooooo frustratingly poorly designed with a bunch of useless bells and whistles??? Reason is so clean and light on the computer, Live is so heavy. Beside the point. I can't seem to copy and paste or overdub properly. The clips create these black holes of silence! A lot of hoops to jump through, Ableton!

I suppose someone out there reading this thinks I'm raving, and I am. In a moment when I square this away I shall meditate my frustrations away. If you think there are some easy ways to go about sequencing in Live, please do share.

With gratitude for the forum...

Like other people have said....do the tutorials. They are some of the best most comprehensive tutorials for any product that i've seen and will take you to a good intermediate level of use in just a few hours, the rest then is experimentation and fun.

Reason's OK but Live really is something else.

It's all just a matter of habit, anyway. I was "brought up on" Reason too, and found Live clunky at first, but that was just
because it was new and different from Reason. I recently opened Reason to do a demonstration sequence there, and I hated it.
I was almost ready to throw my laptop out the window because things didn't work the same way in Reason as they do in Live.

Pasting MIDI notes to a specific place was a long requested feature in Live, but it's been implemented now, so it's no
problem in Live 8.

Yes once you'll get used to Ableton live, you're going to love it!

Read the manual, go on vimeo or youtube and start searching for tom cosm, dubspot, quantize course, Nick's tutorial, etc...

Let it be and enjoy

seano323 wrote:OK, so I'm new to Live. But when I first started up with Reason, the sequencing is soooo easy and intuitive! How can Live be sooooo frustratingly poorly designed with a bunch of useless bells and whistles??? Reason is so clean and light on the computer, Live is so heavy. Beside the point. I can't seem to copy and paste or overdub properly. The clips create these black holes of silence! A lot of hoops to jump through, Ableton!

I suppose someone out there reading this thinks I'm raving, and I am. In a moment when I square this away I shall meditate my frustrations away. If you think there are some easy ways to go about sequencing in Live, please do share.

With gratitude for the forum...

I think Reason is easier in certain things, namely quick recording of tracks and finding sounds.

But about everything else Live is better.

How so. In Live you arm record and away you go. Finding sounds is easy in the file management system with presets laid out well for the Suite instruments especially.

This is no more difficult than in Reason.

Fan boys plz read before you freak out. OP wrote about midi sequencing and here you come with praises of how great is Live as AUDIO sequencer.
Anyone who would claim Live `s midi is great (or even good), reliable, tight, comparable to other DAW, has not used Live much neither any other DAW. We all, beg, pray,ask, hope since years that Live`s midi will match its outstanding rest- so far no much joy. I am practically minded so instead of whinning use something else, like most of serious musicians, have no time for hopeless complains.
Logic or Cubase are probably the best choice since they originated as midi sequencers before even featuring audio.
Anyway even Reason can be used, it is close system, midi tight and OP likes it. Though personally except for midi tighgtness find Reasons , even newest not much less PITA as compared to Live`s midi.
So to original poster.
1. You like some Reason sounds better - use rewire/external instrument
2. You like Live or any VST instrument better- select similar patch in Reason, record , export midi file, drag the midi track to live, once you have your base, you can tweak to your liking.
3.For hardware instruments same procedure as above.
Most Logic or Cubase owners probably do the whole midi procedure internally and only export audio to Live, since there are some very useful advanced midi editing possibilities we might never ever see in Live.