Ableton Forum

Hello people, a friend who's starting asked for advice for his new home studio set up for <1000€, he's coming from more guitar-based sort of music and he says he wanna explore more electronic sounds, he already got Ableton so, what do you guys would advice apart from the obvious sound card and monitors?

MIDI Controller.

Yeah, I thought of the Push, but I wonder til which point a cheap midi keyboard and touchable/lemur might be more interesting.

I suggest a cheap midi keyboard.... maybe 61 keys or something of the like..

Then a really good plugin like Omnisphere...

Sorry, I AM bias

sana48 wrote:I suggest a cheap midi keyboard.... maybe 61 keys or something of the like..

Then a really good plugin like Omnisphere...

Sorry, I AM bias

Half their budget for *ONE* VST?

Something like Komplete would make far more sense for somebody starting out, since it covers a lot of different synths, drums, fx, etc...

I'd be curious about what his aim for direction with electronic sounds is.

Some people want the wacky experimental noises. Some want gritty grimey in your face. Some want massive EDM and club sounds.

It is hard to recommend any particular software if one isn't sure what sounds he is aiming for.

As for hardware, it comes down to controllers that are midi specific vs ones with built in sound, and on top of that, the 'style' of playing they either Intend to do or want to learn how to do.

yur2die4 wrote:Some people want the wacky experimental noises.

Reaktor

yur2die4 wrote:Some want gritty grimey in your face.

FM8, Massive

yur2die4 wrote:Some want massive EDM and club sounds.

Massive, FM8, Kontakt, etc

yur2die4 wrote:It is hard to recommend any particular software if one isn't sure what sounds he is aiming for.

Komplete

Yeah, Komplete seems a safe bet, as much as Omnisphere seem really interesting. Controller-wise, machine then? Or is there any proper NI/Lemur ipad controller you guys know about? Maschine seems to me more orientated to beat-based music, rather than melodic.

rburtons wrote:Yeah, Komplete seems a safe bet, as much as Omnisphere seem really interesting. Controller-wise, machine then? Or is there any proper NI/Lemur ipad controller you guys know about? Maschine seems to me more orientated to beat-based music, rather than melodic.

check out the new NI keyboards, they are a good match for Komplete since the 8 encoders are always mapped to the 8 performance macros in Komplete instruments.

Also for controlling Live there is a very good control app for the iPad called TouchAble.

Also interesting for Live could be the new Launchpad Pro, if a full Push is not in the cards. It has the same scale feature (should be good for guitarists) and the pads are good for aftertouch (pressure sensitive). And clip triggering in Session view is obviously front and center for it. It also covers a lot of other ground for controlling Live, especially if you buy the script from NativeKontrol for it, since that would add good step sequencers and other nifty things

I've seen the touchable app, it looks great, that's why I was thinking, maybe a midi keaybord + touchable rather than the push if it's to be used plugins, I'm not sure how well push can control plugins.