How to simplify your workflow.

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
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Ryan_DJ LOCO
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 5:35 am

How to simplify your workflow.

Post by Ryan_DJ LOCO » Sun Oct 13, 2024 4:56 am

OR ACTUALLY, how DO YOU simply your workflow? I get real creative ideas but the options in Ableton live are a labrynth of nuances adding to the track.

I tend to mash an idea into Live, save it, then come back a day or two later and take that initial idea but kinda invert the message and bring forth something much more creative and kinda signature. It doesn’t always happen for me because I get chained down by the seemingly millions if not billions of tweaking options. Any good ideas how to just keep mashing creative songs into Ableton and not getting caught up in the labrynth of options?

nednerb
Posts: 63
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:30 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC
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Re: How to simplify your workflow.

Post by nednerb » Tue Nov 19, 2024 10:11 pm

Hmmm..... lots of things today are all about "innovation" and "dazzling with new features" and "brand new machine learning AI assisted space travel tech OK buttons that anticipate when you were about to feel OK but hadn't fully decided" LOL


Well, to be serious, think about the most popular music in many places and times and even across the globe and across long eras:

classical music doesn't really change much.
classic rock music doesn't really change much.
country/folk doesn't really change much.

OFC there are different arrangements, subtle individual playing techniques, and the like, but perhaps you have the "signature" sound of yourself somewhere....

Ableton lets me, with the options I choose to rely on most, get better and more creative sounds (to my own liking) than I might if I only tried to innovate my sound. I end up sounding very different all the time in what I make because my interests alternate.

However, having an "idea" of genre or what kinds of sounds you will "permit" might constrain the options when you sit down.

Also, a labyrinth is fun for a while, being caught up in several for days on end, maybe not so. Great advice I've heard is "keep it simple but fun" and "if it sounds good, does it need another reverb because you used it last song" OR "if everyone on the block Loudness Normalized to -14 LUFS, does that mean you should jump up and do so without wondering why?"

Haha, maybe these are some ideas. Creative labyrinth exploring time versus writing music while playing to a genre -- that is my basic "meandering point".
__
nednednerB
https://music.youtube.com/search?q=nerbeater

Resonance envelops.

Some songs:
"Everybody Look At Your Hands, Control Pain By Using Them To Help."
"The Strangest Loop, Reflex Ahimsa"

8nm
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2025 1:55 pm

Re: How to simplify your workflow.

Post by 8nm » Wed Feb 12, 2025 6:27 am

Same for me. I started using Note and that seems to help to keep it minimal.
Now just need to see if I can make them into complete songs also after transfering them to Live

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