What's so special about Ableton??

This isn't meant to be a stupid remark. I've never used Ableton so I don't fully understand what it is capable of. I use Reason and Sonar and when I purchased Sonar, I did contemplate Ableton but as a DAW, I prefered the look of Sonar.

So can someone just explain to me, what is Ableton really good at. I take it, it excels when doing thing's in real time, but what is the best use of the application. Also, if you've got your deck's going into your soundcard, does Ableton need an input for MIDI clock coming from the external source or what?

Sorry if these questions sound stupid, and although I've read articles about Ableton, it would be good to here from someone who uses it, as to what you get out of it.

Ableton is good for playing live sequences, with both VSTi's and external MIDI gear.
Ableton has a decent set of internal fx and things to enhance your performance.
Ableton is also capable of recording things VERY quickly and integrating them into your performance.

Personally speaking i dont like the sequencer section of it.

I use it as my end-all DAW. It does everything it needs to, simply and intuitively.

it is a great dj/livepa tool and can be used as a great and very powerfull sampler / audio manipulator

yea...........ableton is sexy. i love choppy edits and i used to always drop a master into Acid 4 to chop it up..... but ableton can do it easier and just as well.... if not better....

yeah, in matter of few seconds you can chop up the sound, **** it up, it`s very easy and alows you to be creative. i especially like to play with loops i made in previous tracks and use them to make new ones.

As a live tool its unsurpassed in my humble opinion of course

thats it though

Fantastic live tool, and when you change your way of working, a great studio sequencer too.
It makes you work in a different way to the standard format that all the other DAW`s take, so it may cause you to take a different approach.

i use it mainly for "cheating".....its great for just throwing loops together, cutting, rearranging the loops, applying copious amounts of effects until the loops sound nothing like the original. This is all re-wired from Cubase SX3 where i will then add the drums and synths and final arrangement.

Ableton is awesome for loops, and although ive never played a live pa set i can clearly see the sonic potential behind it. Personally, i use it mainly for manipulating loops, but i never got my head around using it as a full out sequencer. It is always rewired. Having said that, Ableton is very cpu hungry when rewired, but its good it has that RAM button where you can stream the audio files directly from ram so it wont tax the computer.

I've never managed to get it to beat match. The track warping just doesn't work on long samples.

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Originally Posted by AcidTrash

I've never managed to get it to beat match. The track warping just doesn't work on long samples.

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thats funny cause i, along with thousands of other people, can get full tracks into it to play out and they work everytime :roll:

i think he meant long samples without beats?

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Originally Posted by rhythmtech

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AcidTrash

I've never managed to get it to beat match. The track warping just doesn't work on long samples.

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thats funny cause i, along with thousands of other people, can get full tracks into it to play out and they work everytime :roll:

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Yeah, me too.
you know what they say about a bad workman though.

Now now then steve...