Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool for composing, recording, arranging, mixing, and mastering. In this article, PJ discusses 5 reasons why he loves Ableton Live and why it is his DAW of choice.
Non-Linear Workflow
My background is dj'ing and live performance, so the non-linear approach to music production you get from Ableton's Session View is perhaps the most significant feature that sets Live apart from other DAWs.
Although similar features have since been incorporated in to DAWs like Bitwig and Logic Pro, Session View was unique to creating music in Live when it launched. Quickly combining audio, midi, loops and phrases into clip slots, from here you can create infinite combinations of clips into sections of music, called scenes, triggered in real-time. The ability to produce by building, auditioning and experimenting with clips and scenes is a quick lay down ideas. It makes going from concept to full production far easier, recording the output into the Arrangement View. The speed and ease with which I can access and edit sound keep me inspired.
Instruments, Audio/Midi Effects and Max For Live
Early in my Live journey, I decided to limit myself to the stock instruments and effects bundled in Live Suite, and I can count on my hands the number of third party instruments and plugins installed on my machines.
If you're new to production (as I was when I began using Live), synths like Operator and Analog are incredibly easy to work with. The same goes for the audio effects, which help identify how each parameter works to create inspiring and sophisticated sounds.
Another powerful tool for me is Live's MIDI Effects, which allows you to manipulate MIDI data before passing it to your instruments. I struggled with music theory, and Live's MIDI effects were a great learning tool for creating coherent chord progressions.
Max For Live takes music-making with Live to new levels. There are thousands of high-quality M4L plugins available via Ableton, Artists and the wider community. Ableton also listens to the community, recognises the most popular devices, and brings them into future product updates, such as the new Hybrid Reverb and LFO Envelope plugin.
Makes Working With Audio A Doddle
In my opinion, Live has and will always be the king of time-stretching audio, with lightning-fast audio warping and intuitive sampling capabilities.
Live has some cool tricks for extracting a melody, harmony, and drum rhythms from sampled audio if you work on audio samples. A great help when trying to identify notes or chords and to use your own instruments and effects.
Another workflow feature added in the latest version of Live is comping. Ableton is playing a bit of catch up here, as many other DAWs have had this feature for quite some time. Comping works with audio and MIDI, too, so whether you're recording a vocal, a guitar solo or a complicated chord progression, you can record multiple passes of the same section of a song without stopping and then combine the best parts. Purists may call this cheating, but if, like me, your skills as a player are mediocre at best, then the ability to record eight takes in a row without stopping is a huge win.
Powerful Racks and Macros
When working on a project, sessions can quickly become cluttered and confusing. Ableton's Racks are a great way to simplify and take control of your sessions and performances, allowing easier navigating of your Ableton projects.
Racks are a series of instruments and audio/midi FX, where any parameter can be assigned to a Macros. As a result, macros give you more freedom and provide a better overview of what you are doing when moving between different plug-ins and windows may not be viable.
In Live 11, you can now save a rack as a variation within a power rack for easy recall. In addition, variations macro are effectively rack presets within racks that can be mapped to a MIDI controller or your keyboard, allowing you to switch between them on demand. Great for experimenting during sound design or when recording automation, and of course, a great performance tool when playing live.
Powerful Automation
Automation in Live is written directly to clips instead of on a track-by-track basis. Hide or reveal the automation arm with a single click and create specific-value breakpoints that can be quantised to the grid or created freely.
Live automatically displays the automation arm of the most recently toggled parameter on an instrument, effect or plugin. This makes it quick and easy to draw, record or write automation for almost any parameter available. Automation data can also be copied or duplicated to another audio or MIDI clip.
What About You?
Are you an Ableton user? Do you use it stand alone or for certain tasks? Or maybe you’ve wanted to give it a go? Let us know in the comments.