Ableton Forum

I`ve been on the fence with LIVE for a good 2 years. I received the Lite version with the Novation keyboard I purchased so I installed the program and I`m trying to rap my head around it. I don`t know if its me or the program but how many people have had that "what the?" moment with LIVE?

Just wondering if its me.

Yup! Just gone through it. I got the Lite freebie with an M-Audio Fast Track USB. Issues being drivers for the audio device, and Live sometimes not seeing the audio device on start up. Gettin there though. What are your "What the's"?

The Live learning curve is quite steep at the beginning, but not for long. Getting the concepts of tracks, clips and scenes and the symbiosis between Arrange and Session is essential. The in-built lessons are great for that.

When it comes to things like routing, input/output assignment, and the way effects and instruments are employed, it's the most intuitive thing I know.

It certainly helps to try and achieve a specific thing, like adding reverb to tracks or playing a soft synth. But sometimes you need to go with the flow and learn the ways of the program.

So there.

My 'what the' was , 'what the fuck was I doing before I got into Live

Ahhhhh.... Danielson... enlightened were we? Seriously, what were you using before Live. ALL the people I talk to in my community use Protools or Cubase. Anyone convert from these, or do you still sneak a bit?

Cubase mainly .. Also had a brief flirtation with Logic.[can't remember what version].

But when I tried Live I was Set Free, and could get into making music without the app getting in my way..

I have always made music from an intuitive approach... and what I love the most about Live is, that it lets you in!

Or, it did me anyway

My "What The...?" is not of the enlightening sort as yet... its more like... what the fuck is going on here?

I have tried LIVE in Demo mode several times and each time I get frustrated enough to put it away for a while and then I get the urge to go back and see what I`m missing.

I`m coming from DP. I also use REASON a lot these days and to be fair, it took me about two years to get REASON as well.

I`m having trouble accessing the lessons in LIVE... its keeps telling me I need to go into DEMO mode to access the clips I need for the lessons and then it asks me if I want to learn more and I press "Yes" but then nothing happens.

Do I have to manually put LIVE into DEMO MODE?

eB

What version of Lite are you using. My Lite freebie was v4, so I upgraded to v6 from the Ableton website. I too have had a similar experience. When you do the lesson on 'Playing Software Instruments', right at the begining you are asked to click a button to load a Live set that you are supposed to interact with. You are right, nothing happens. Nothing gets loaded! What I did was ignore the request to load the "special" set and just do the lesson. I have no clue what they left out in terms of features (being a rookie and all that) but you can at least get a midi track down. I did mine rude and crude (not what your thinking) from the key board, playing the instrument that is. I am not sure how far along in the lessons you are. I am only just beginning. But I agree... something appears to be missing!

Nothing happens when you apparently load the special live set when you are in demo mode as well which is supposed to be the full version of Live(In the playing Software Instrument Lesson). Perhaps I am expecting the wrong thing, but I am anticipating some pre made tracks that you muck around with. Maybe it is supposed to be blank and some behind the scene things have been enabled. But if you don't know why, then why does it matter!

However, when you do the looping, and the Creating Beats lesson, Live DOES load tracks. You DON'T have to be in demo mode for the first, but you DO for the second. This is kind of what I was expecting in the Software instrument lesson.