i think live works best for people who come from using something like sonic foundrys acid - to me at first it was like a realtime asio version of that - back at live v1.0..

before acid i was sequencing everything on my yamaha rm1x sequencer - triggering a yam a3000 sampler - fatsystems 383 tb303 rip off - an1x synth and other crap..

pc came along and i'd be playing with loops and stuff in acid - then sampling the best results into ma sampler to run along with my midigear..


tried cubase a few times - i found it so longwinded.. logic was just as bad - so stuck to using pc for editing wavs and making loops for a few years - and ma rack with hardware sequencer for the midi realtime tweaking and all that...

live came along and was like an asio version of acid.. then v2 added rewire ( i think?) so the amazing reason was added then - realtime wav manulpulation AND midi style synth action in reason at the same time? wow - the reason for ma rack was gettin less and less

v3 u could rewire things like plogue biddule which could host Vsti instruments - i think it was v3 anyway ...

but V4 was the one - actually hosting all ya vst instruments in ableton? all on 2 simple pages with all ya info u needed - responding quickly to want u want it too do and all that.... adios rm1x and moi sampler - been good friends but needed no more..

hello shiny laptop and controlller - audio interface etc etc - - FAR more powerfull than ma rack ever was...


i know live's midi is rather limited - but - most of the time - i just twiddle knobs.... record loads of audio - hack out t he best bits... set up midi instruments to loop - then tweak the instrument...send the audio out too different fx etc etc .... generally i set up ma microkontrol's pads to be track mutes - scene selection switches etc etc....build up a pattern - then jam with the idea... then edit that......

sometimes i sit and mess around with the arrange page and sequence everything out section by section - it just depends on the mood...


i think its abit cruel to say live is just a sketchpad - or - what gets abit on my nerves is how when i say i use live, people assume i use it to DJ WITH...

i've never dj'ed in my life - i've allways made my own music since i was a kid - started out with ma first soundsampler on ma commodore amiga and soundtracker 1.0 when i was 15..

live's workflow does remind me of ma old trackers - and rm1x sequencer - which i think doesnt make it less of a sequencer than cubase / logic / sonar / reason etc etc

but with all this talk about it being such a great dj tool - i think that could make its primary function - of being a sequencer - more and more overlooked..


sorry too rant so much !


anyway - blatent plug time - crappy myspace page has a few of ma ableton live productions on www.myspace.com/tekkaz

there allso is a full 80 min live mix - recorded at a night called Monkee - in sunny stoke on trent last summer.... and y ah - its my trying to be a dj! :lol:

i set up 2 channels as a dj mixer type thing - which played whole tracks - filter on each - eq kill on each channel.... then had another 8 tracks running mostly audio loops which i would add to the dj style mix tracks - they'd go from being played linear - into loop based improvised live tracks - fx tweaking ontop of that - joystick set to crossfader for more dj style mixing ( i do sound abit of a spazz flipping it about sometimes tho ! ) - the whole thing was recording itsself as i was playing - and recording a live mic input too.... so when i had finished i could render the damm whole thing to a wav - and burn a cd - pretty much on the spot!

its easier to explain to listen to it - ya get too hear me abused by audience etc etc..


but yah.... i dont expect everyone to like it - and i'm quite happy to go along in ma own little world
but for me

live ROCKS