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For people who have switched from FL to Ableton.

I took some time off the forums because I realized I WAS asking pretty juvenile questions a lot. And I think the reason I wasn't learning anything is because my questions were focusing on things that weren't relevant to what I actually want or need from producing.

A lot of questions about vsts being inferior to hardware. I originally thought that I was trying to make excuses for me not being happy with where I'm at, but now I've been realizing over the last few months it really has just been my motivation to produce.

Yesterday I sat down and opened FL just to get a few hours in. And it hit me like BAM when Fruity opened. I just got this feeling of immense repulsion, hard to explain. But I looked at my computer screen and had NO motivation to produce. But the weirder thing is I WANT TO PRODUCE BADLY. Just something about FL has lost its magic over the last few months.

I don't feel serious about producing, I treat it like a video game or something. And I think the pattern based block arrangments are also getting to me.
So oddly I opened up Reason and I was like "WOW", now I feel motivated, but I just effing hate Reasons sequencer.

So its been 4 years I've been using FL, and I don't think this feeling is going away. I will always love the program to death, but I need to moveon. Like I'll be at work thinking about new ideas I want to try out, but I get home open the program and all the motivation is gone, its hard to explain. I tried changing skins and thats wasn't it lol.

So I'm going to be trying Albeton Live on my vacation.
My questions.
How is the learning curve from FL to Ableton? It literally took me 6 months to get a grasp on Reason. And about 1 months before I felt ok with FL to start making tracks and stop focusing on tutorials.

I know a lot of guys will say just sit down and use the program, but I'll be doing that anyway so I'm wondering if theres any good tutorial that just explains where everything is in Ableton. And how the routing works etc.

And my last question (this is my real question lol). I've done this for people with FL and it really helps because its such a direct learning method.
If anyone here would be willing to exchange aim and give me like just 1 hour Id really appreciate it. Maybe later tonight? I wanna sit down with the program for a few hours first but I'd really really appreciate it.

Thanks guys.

I think Ableton is the easiest of all to learn, it took me 30 seconds to learn sidechain for example.

Ableton doesn't really have a learning curve, and the manual can answer any questions you need. But be sure that you're not replacing excuses about VST vs hardware for excuses revolving around Fl vs ableton.

FL has its disadvantages, but its more than capable of making a decent track. Still, a change is as good as a holiday, so have a crack with ableton and see how it goes.

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle I think Ableton is the easiest of all to learn, it took me 30 seconds to learn sidechain for example.

I think the biggest issue with people running into Ableton is people not understanding that by default Ableton doesn't give you the best sound quality.

quote:

Originally posted by Beatflux ... that by default Ableton doesn't give you the best sound quality.

What do you mean with that?

quote:

Originally posted by Beatflux I think the biggest issue with people running into Ableton is people not understanding that by default Ableton doesn't give you the best sound quality.

You mean the default warp settings ?

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips Ableton doesn't really have a learning curve, and the manual can answer any questions you need. But be sure that you're not replacing excuses about VST vs hardware for excuses revolving around Fl vs ableton. FL has its disadvantages, but its more than capable of making a decent track. Still, a change is as good as a holiday, so have a crack with ableton and see how it goes.

Yeh thats something I will def have to watch out for.

quote:

Originally posted by Beatflux I think the biggest issue with people running into Ableton is people not understanding that by default Ableton doesn't give you the best sound quality.

I agree. For me it takes more work to get things sounding as I want them to in Ableton than it would in Renoise or Cubase - even though I use the same sample/plugin resources for all of them. However in Cubase I work slow because I never really took the time to get into it properly. Luckily there is Renoise.

I always had a feeling Ableton did something strange with the sound. I've never used ableton after v5 though.

quote:

Originally posted by Subtle I think Ableton is the easiest of all to learn, it took me 30 seconds to learn sidechain for example.

I could only hope its that easy for me. I will admit I'm a slow learner (def not a dummy though lol) but once I learn something I never forget it.

Guess we'll see how it goes!

Ableton is by far the easiest prog to learn. Ive bought 7 LE download-version (almost free in USD), and i like it alot. THought the LE is very limited but im only using it for loops in the clip-view so far. Planning to use it to livestuff, not arranging or do entire mixdowns.

This may help u, helped me at one time!
http://www.ableton.com/pages/movies/archive/tutorial

quote:

Originally posted by cArAcH0 What do you mean with that?

There's a lot of little things you can do to improve the sound quality.

-Change the internal recording to 32 bit
-Don't warp unless you don't mind the grit
-Turn off "fade" in clip view, introduces a 4 ms fade
-Enable Hi-Q mode in the clip view
-Adding groove in Ableton 7 does this by warping the track
-Right click the top of EQ8 box and enable Hi-Quality Mode
-Reverb has three options for it's quality

quote:

Originally posted by Beatflux There's a lot of little things you can do to improve the sound quality. -Change the internal recording to 32 bit -Don't warp unless you don't mind the grit -Turn off "fade" in clip view, introduces a 4 ms fade -Enable Hi-Q mode in the clip view -Adding groove in Ableton 7 does this by warping the track -Right click the top of EQ8 box and enable Hi-Quality Mode -Reverb has three options for it's quality

Nice tips thanks.

If you like Reason's instruments but need a good host, rewire it to Acid pro 7.

Acid rewires to Reason without any problem and treats the progam like it's own. Acid even allows you to automate Reason's device parameters within the program (so you can draw curves on top of the midi).

Other than that, I would try samplitude/reason together.


Personally, I haven't produced for months. I'm waiting to buy a good pair of headphones (mine's been broken since december lol). But when I do get them, I'm only going to use:

1)Sony Acid Pro 7
2)Propellerhead Reason 4
3)Waves Plugins
4)Lots of samples

quote:

Originally posted by Beatflux There's a lot of little things you can do to improve the sound quality. -Change the internal recording to 32 bit -Don't warp unless you don't mind the grit -Turn off "fade" in clip view, introduces a 4 ms fade -Enable Hi-Q mode in the clip view -Adding groove in Ableton 7 does this by warping the track -Right click the top of EQ8 box and enable Hi-Quality Mode -Reverb has three options for it's quality

Ok, thanks for clearing me up.

Hey Robby - I started to learn Ableton (Live 8) two days ago and figured that it would take me all weekend to get comfortable with it. I'm coming from a Sonar/Cubase/Project5 (similar to Live in many respects). I even started a thread:

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...0&forumid=48&s=

It turns out that after only a few hours with it, I knew it well enough to create a song. Like others have said, it's dead simple to use. The videos that atxbigballer1 pointed out are great and there are a ton of other vids on youtube that will answer most of your questions as you move from the basics (i.e., getting audio/MIDI into Live) to your everyday production techniques.

quote:

Originally posted by SGL If you like Reason's instruments but need a good host, rewire it to Acid pro 7.

interesting, i love reason but liked to do the mixdown elsewhere.

I moved from FL to Ableton myself. I have been using Ableton for about 8 months and had used FL for 5 years.

But honestly i tried pretty much every DAW out there that works with Windows for at least a week or two. I like a workflow that allows me to get my ideas out quickly and is not overcomplicated with menus and things like "oh i have to go through 4 different actions just to get this one small change or effect." Ableton is the one that i feel lets me get my ideas out the fastest and most efficiently.

People say there's sound quality problems with Ableton but I disagree. As long as you set it up right and use the right warp modes and settings, you will not have problems with the sound at all.

Some of these solutions were stated above in a previous post.

Just my 2 cents.

quote:

Originally posted by palm interesting, i love reason but liked to do the mixdown elsewhere.

you won't be disappointed. It's the best rewire host I've ever used for Reason 4. There's another good host called Mackie Tracktion 3. Workflow is super-fast on that, but it's got shit load of bugs.

If you rewire reason to acid, to automate...right click on the midi track you create for say for example a 'thor'...then you click 'properties' i believe and you'll see the automation parameters.

It's dead simple to use once you figure it out & quite intuitive.

you can rewire to ableton too...

i tried traction once and i loled actualy. reminded me of when i made tracks on PS1 haha. but it has probably become better. Right now I have Reason 4, Live 7 LE (which doesnt allow rewire) and Logic Express 8. Should do for a while, might upgrade Live and Logic once i get more money and knowledge. Dont want to get into any other software right now (well maybe dj software).

I'm basically in the same situation as you are. I recently tried out Ableton and I really liked it, it wasn't hard to learn and it was great to no longer make patterns. That's probably what I liked best about it. It is a bit intimidating to leave FL when I think about having to learn a new way of doing everything but i think that it's for the best. Like you, it has suddenly become a hassle for me to do anything in FL, I just can't get motivated to do anything worthwhile. I'll be getting my first (well... second, sort of) MIDI controller in a week or so and from then on I think I'll be switching to Ableton for good.

u know u can make your loops in FL and throw them in LIVE!

quote:

Originally posted by atxbigballer1 u know u can make your loops in FL and throw them in LIVE!

This man speaks the truth. I make perc loops in FL then shoot them over to Live sometimes.

Getting the best of both worlds really.

Ok just finished installing.
Noticed so far it takes way longer then FL to start after clicking on icon lol.
Been looking at the screen for 10mins clicking on samples and looking for the db meters.... where are the DB METERS!!

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