Ableton Forum

Hi folks. So I'm just experimenting with some Ableton setups. I don't know if this is the case for you, but I like to mix and match equipment and move my gear around all the damn time, for ergonomics and feng shui and necessity and whatnot.

That makes running Ableton a bit tedious at times. Little things, like having to go into preferences almost every time to set the audio interface again, and having to always need this utter mass of cords wired up to both an audio interface and laptop...just to get my MIDI synth working. all the little tediums of the process have a way of really wearing me down day in and day out.

I know, "just get a hardware synth, or maybe something that just hooks up to an ipad app." But I want to use Ableton! I want Ableton simply for its infinite flexibility, not to mention the collection of sounds I've programmed into it.

So questions: how do you folks make your daily Ableton use easy, smooth, and time efficient? (additionally: is there, or do you think there ever will be, an Ableton app for ipad, that actually syncs your Ableton set to an ipad, unlike mere controllers like Touchable? or at least, is there a way to not have to set your audio interface in preferences every time you unplug it?)

I know this is kind of a confusing post. Hence my current bewilderment at my situation here. Sorry. But thanks.

Hey Robert. care to expand a little? you're just saying you use the laptop's keyboard to minimize gear?

If I understand you well you need to minimize cable cluttering, making the set up simple.

Well in that case I would try to get a synth which has audio interface so that by a single USB cable you get midi in/out, as well as audio outputs.

Some synths with audio interfaces: Novation ultranova, Roland System 1 and Elektron Alaog Keys, there are other I think.

Learn all the keyboard shortcuts if you don't know them already. Getting into Preferences is really not that difficult.

Other than that, try to develop consistencies. Wavering all the time might secretly just be distracting you because you're afraid to settle down and do music. Maybe you feel youve invested a lot in your tools and it feels like you're getting the value back by handling it all. Just relax and do what is necessary to make content. There were probably times when some of those options didn't exist and creating music was still fun for you.

I'm with robertaplant68, qwerty for everything.

Combine qwerty with the midi effects like Chord, Arpeggio, and Scale, and you can do a lot, though not sure if it'll cover all your needs.

I have a midi effect rack set up with all the midi effects I need, then just turn the ones off that I don't need or even delete them.

Another thing you could do is set up as much as possible in Ableton beforehand, with clip launch mapped to the qwerty keyboard as well.

Again, obvious limitations with the qwerty approach, but at the same time you could probably get some use from it.