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Originally posted by Pagan-za When I work on ableton I spend way too much time looking for the things that I need. While this will get easier over time, the slowdown is a really hinders me.

Create a spare channel. Put all of the FX/VSTi that you use in it. Bind each one to its own key. When you need something, press the key then Cntrl + #. Select the track and where you want it in the signal chain, then press cntrl + v.

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Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

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Originally posted by lenieNt Force Very smart of you deciding to learn Ableton aswell cause it's a sick daw.. it's exactly what I did.. I worked in both for a long period, meaning my transition period was long but now I only work in ableton.. it's swirl-tastic workflow wise.. I just don't have words for it.. There's nothing you can't do with ableton.. Also I started to dislike the "no-boundaries" thing with the new playlist in FL cause it halted my effectiveness.. In my opinion a daw only has benefits from having boundaries and strict rules to the playlist.. If you can throw clips wherever and automation clips whatever, things just tends to get messy and confusion arise... The Arrangement View in Ableton is very well laid out and clever as opposed to FL, and all automation to all plugins already has its place, easily accessible on the corresponding track... In FL it's just clumsy if you're to automate several things on one synth for example, it alone would take up several lanes in the playlist (if you don't want to stack them all on top of eachother that is).. Also I remember before, the session view in Ableton used to scare me but now its just unreal workflow wise.. It's the core thing about Ableton that makes it the unique and user optimized daw it really is. There's just something about Ableton that makes you click alot less, than if you were to do the same thing in FL.. Also dragging plugins around and making complicated plugin chains, serial or parallell, is a pleasure in Ableton. You can't even drag a plugin around in FL.. You'd have to save plugin preset or mixer channel preset and open it on a new channel or plugin, which takes several more clicks and keyboard typing than just dragging a plugin around where you want. All this workflow and live capability of Ableton makes it a CPU hog, but thats absolutely worth it if you have a CPU to tackle it Btw it can sound like I'm bashing FL here.. It has many good features to it aswell, but I'm just stating some benefits of Ableton over FL for the thread starter to get a grip I've used FL for 6 years myself. It's a beatiful DAW.

Thank you for your reply, I find your words quiet encouraging as im a little overwhelmed by ableton right now. I'm looking forward to getting to know it, my friend is gonna show me some stuff today. I just hope I dont give up before I can find a liking to it as you seem to have. Lol also, I do seem to be cut short by the limitless nature of possibilities when producing anything, because there are SO many things I could do with a melody or beat or synth I have created, that I end up trying to do one thing, then saying OH THIS WOULD BE COOLER, then doing that again and again until its butchered.

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Originally posted by sicc Thank you for your reply, I find your words quiet encouraging as im a little overwhelmed by ableton right now. I'm looking forward to getting to know it, my friend is gonna show me some stuff today. I just hope I dont give up before I can find a liking to it as you seem to have. Lol also, I do seem to be cut short by the limitless nature of possibilities when producing anything, because there are SO many things I could do with a melody or beat or synth I have created, that I end up trying to do one thing, then saying OH THIS WOULD BE COOLER, then doing that again and again until its butchered.

Yeah thats a big part of being an artist; deciding when enough is enough.. It's very easy to over-work things and take it too far away from the original idea! A good thing then is to create multiple backups of the project file as you go, so you can always jump back in time to hear what you actually had in mind at any point! (My mother is a painter and she has it the same way, except she can't jump backwards in time like we so fortunately can in our digital world). Variations of percussion and melodies are always nice, but there comes a point where you can take it too far away from the original perspective and it becomes unrecognizable and messy! Thats not the point of variation! There's always a fine limit! Also you need to remember that the more you listen to a piece, you're likely to be wanting to change it and make variations of it for your own satisfaction, to keep it fresh for yourself in a sense, but you have to keep in mind that the people that eventually are going to hear it haven't heard it before, so even though it sounds unoriginal to you after listening to it over and over again, it will still sound original to them.

And remember that less is usually more. You especially hear this if you play it through big speakers. Concentrate on making few but powerful parts (and making them crystal clear and defined in the mix), instead of lots of stuff that only gets cloudy.. cut out elements if theyre not substantially fundamental to the mix or sound. The more stuff you have the harder it is to mix together, and the harder it is to get the mix loud in the end, cause everything takes up space and everything takes up headroom.

Last edited by lenieNt Force on Sep-13-2011 at 00:41

It's a personal thing I think. FL was my first DAW (earlier I used trackers : ProTracker , Fast Tracker etc.) and to be honest ... I didn't like it. But it was hmm pretty old version, somewhere aroudn 3.5 ? (or maybe I just forgot the numbers). I didnt like the interface, I didnt like the browser (probably it couldnt preview wav files) with tons of FL "stupid" files It was totally uninspiring tool to me. I didnt like that the interface is just a pure mess. I needed to constantly move windows, constantly click mouse here and there. And then I interested a little bit about DJing and since Ableton was suited for Live use too I decided to give a try (I had some Live Lite 7 or 6 version bundled with my E-MU Keyboard).

After 5 minutes I knew that this is it. I loved the interface, I remember that I really liked "sample zooming" options (with using mouse, FL version only offered something like no zoom, small zoom, big zoom - not totally custom, fluent). Also the preset browser was much better. And effects. Old FL studio (or Fruity Loops) had really terrible effects. Ableton Live effects compared to this were just PRO.

I also loved new "vertical mode" - it was really amazing thing, something that just boosts your creativity, gives fun etc. And of course warping was like "wow"

I would never go back to FL, not because it's crap but because I really think that it requires a massive interface overhaul. It was ok in the beginning but then they added 1000 new things and this interface is just not good. But interface, workflow is a personal thing...

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Originally posted by DNA_pl I would never go back to FL, not because it's crap but because I really think that it requires a massive interface overhaul.

FL's interface is ridiculously simple to use, I'm really surprised you guys have so much trouble with it. I wouldn't say it "requires" an overhaul whatsoever

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Originally posted by Kysora FL's interface is ridiculously simple to use, I'm really surprised you guys have so much trouble with it. I wouldn't say it "requires" an overhaul whatsoever

Its very very very simple to me as well, thats why im nervous to let go of it for something unknown to me D: but its all good I have been using ableton for the last 3 days now :x

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Originally posted by Kysora FL's interface is ridiculously simple to use, I'm really surprised you guys have so much trouble with it. I wouldn't say it "requires" an overhaul whatsoever

Yeah it just simply looks like shit... and has no real multicore support... no big.

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recently had to use Ableton. Was blown away by it and have a hard time understanding why anyone doing electronic music would use anything but. It really is that cool.

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Originally posted by Looney4Clooney recently had to use Ableton. Was blown away by it and have a hard time understanding why anyone doing electronic music would use anything but. It really is that cool.

Out of curiosity how is it better than Logic?
And yes i have used Abelton for a long time, then used logic once and never opened it again.

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Originally posted by Stef Yeah it just simply looks like shit... and has no real multicore support... no big.

It's had multi-threading support for a while, I think, and I'm positive it's had full multi-core support since FL 9.

I only have version 8 and audio latency is nearly nonexistent, whether it's my i7 or the 8 gigs of ram, I don't know, but either way the program doesn't seem to be struggling to take advantage of my new PC's specs.

As far as looking like shit, that's subjective and irrelevant to anyone who thinks the interface works for them, such as myself.

Yip. 9 came out with multi-core support, and as far as I know, all the bugs are now worked out of it in 10.

Personally, I love the way it looks. Never wanted to change to a different scheme.

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Originally posted by Julz Out of curiosity how is it better than Logic? And yes i have used Abelton for a long time, then used logic once and never opened it again.

It is just more geared towards manipulation of midi and audio. With that in mind, it blows logic out of the water. I use logic as what I do does not really involve the same sort of production aesthetic but if I were to make EDM or any sort of music that really relies on manipulation of sound and midi, i would dump logic in a second. I avoided using live for years as I just didn't see much different a daw could be but it really does make me wonder why anyone would use anything else other than I suppose comfort but the learning curve is really not that long. A few days. It is just so easy to manipulate audio and midi in interesting non linear ways. I actually wanted to start making dance music again I found the program such a breath of fresh air.

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"This is why Superman works alone." GC
old stuff from days gone by (2001-2004)
Mad For Brad's gay little contest