Going back to Ableton Live

Little bit background. Ableton Live was my first DAW. Three or four years ago I moved to Cubase because I wanted to have MPE. Change was refreshing. I got new inspiration. Felt my music got better. Mainly because of all chord and scale assistant functions. I missed few things from Live but tried to make it work in Cubase. But after initial inspiration boost it wasn’t that motivating. Didn’t want to have two DAWs. I kept using Cubase because it had some functionality I really liked.

After setting proper studio space and learning joys of hands on control problems of Cubase became more and more obvious. I started to think what I could do if I used Live instead. There were more reasons than just MPE why I changed the DAW. Latest version of Live has fixed those. Cubase still has some advantages over Live but Live has now more advantages over Cubase. At least on how I use DAW and what I want from it.

Cubase is really bad with external gear. New studio setup is mostly external gear and few software synths. Cubase’s midi remote has helped with midi controllers but it isn’t anywhere near what Push can do. There is reason why midi keyboard demos show DAW connectivity with Live. Live’s interface allows controllers do much more than Cubase’s. Cubase’s DAW controls have been limited to quite basic functions. Midi remote helps with that but it still isn’t as good as Live’s.

Cubase lacks even some basic functionality when you want to control external synths. They have broken device panel system and you can’t rename CC controls. If you want to control hardware synths, best option is to buy plugin that controls the synth. Then you have to hope makers of plugins update plugins when synths get firmware updates. I had to leave synths from setup because there wasn’t controller plugins for them. Live has Max4Live. You get free Max4Live devices. You can make easily your own controller if there isn’t one available. You don’t have buy plugin controllers for your synths.

I don’t uninstall Cubase. It is still better if you want to make music for videos. It is better if you want to have lot of tracks. My music don’t have many tracks. I want to set tracks quickly. Live is better for that. In Cubase you have to spend lot of time to create templates you can use when you want to do something. After you have set the templates it is quicker but only if you do things those templates are made for. Live is better for quickly trying different ideas. Most importantly Live has Push which minimizes need of mouse and watching the screen.

Now it is time to learn to use Live again and set it up the way I wanted. I wasn’t thinking about the change but Live had Black Friday sale and so did Udemy. Udemy had Live tutorials. Couldn’t find similar tutorials for Cubase. Situation was almost like when I made change from Corel Painter to Clip Studio Paint. One program had online courses and one didn’t. Cubase’s situation isn’t as bad as Painters. Cubase has tutorials online. You can find how to do everything after you learn Cubase has that feature. Or you can follow few Youtube channels to learn about the features. Painter basically didn’t have anything like that. But it is better to have online course which teaches you everything- Music theory courses I have bought use Ableton Live. I bought them when I wasn’t planning to get back to Live. They aren’t Live specific but it is better if you use same software.

It has been weird week on software releases front

I don’t know what is so special about this week when four companies have decided to release updated version of their software. Joe Biden was announced winner of US presidential election but it can’t be that because software development takes much more time and launch can’t be organized in couple days. What ever was the case I got updates on three software I use on video production and making music. I was about to get the fourth one but more about that later.

It all started on Monday with new version of Davinci Resolve. Version 17 is still in beta. I have downloaded it but am not sure if I install it or wait for more stable version. It has few helpful improvements like audio is now available in fusion tab and easier keying and rotoscoping. There are other useful improvements but nothing I can’t wait for software to get more stable when I have other new software no longer in beta state.

Tuesday was Ableton’s turn to announce Live 11. Still in closed beta. Live is finally getting MPE and polyphonic aftertouch support and Push will get polyphonic aftertouch. If they had those one and half years ago I wouldn’t have moved from Live. I used Live for years until I learned about MPE. New release made me think about starting to use Live again. It lasted only one day. I might get Live 11 because it is still better for somethings than Cubase 11 which was released next day.

Cubase 11 and Scale Assistant stopped any considerations of updating to Live 11 right now. Scale Assistant is something I have wanted ever since I started to use Cubase. Ableton’s Push has similar functionality. Komplete Kontrol has it too and I was about to buy one last year. Scale Assistant gives same functionality to every controller and more. I didn’t have to think if I update or not. Of course I want to use Roli Seaboard with Scale Assistant. Everything else was bonus. Only problem was getting licence updated. I managed do that next day. I could use Cubase without updating licence for a day so it wasn’t big issue. But it was annoying. This was first software of these actually released this week. Not as beta but really released.

Day after Cubase released new version which made Roli Seaboard my main keyboard Roli released Equator 2. I had Equator but it didn’t get as much use as it should have. It felt like it was made to have MPE capable synth for Roli’s MPE controllers. It was synth which took most out of MPE’s potential. But when other synths started to implement MPE I started to use them when wanted to use MPE. Other synths were synths first and MPE capable second. Equator 2 feels like it was made to be synth first, not just synth for Roli’s own controllers. After announcement I updated Equator. It is now better than I remembered. One reason being sound libraries are no longer limited to what controllers you own.

I didn’t realize how complex Equator was until I checked how much of its functionality was in Equator 2. Equator has six sound sources too but you can’t choose what those are and architecture is similar to Equator 2. I guess I should have used it more. Maybe I was too turned off by the limitations it had. Equator 2 loses some of those limitations. User interface isn’t the sexiest but I think I can endure.

I have wanted to find one synth I learn well. Zebra HZ has been good candidate but it doesn’t have MPE. Zebra 3 is coming in future. At least it has been promised. Zebra 2 and Zebra HZ has still got major updates while we wait for Zebra 3. Equator 2 could become that synth. It is quite complex and while it is not perfect yet it does many things well. It still takes most advantage of any synth I know out of MPE. Ability to use own samples and wavetables expands sounds from what you get out of box. After evening with Equator and second with Equator 2 it feels like this could be the synth for me. It is not perfect yet but with small improvements it could be close to it.

After Cubase 11 and Equator 2 was released I feel like I got what I was missing in making music. Now I just have start working on it which is a other matter.

No to Bitwig

This is not hating Bitwig video. I am sure it is best option for some of you. But it is not for me. Reason why I made this video was I mentioned in previous video I may start to use Bitwig. I felt like I should give some reasons why I don't do it after checking what I would gain and lose if changing to Bitwig and why I won't start to use both.

This was third gear related video. Next one will be something else.

Inspirational Katie Gately videos from Ableton

I found these videos inspirational. Field recording is something I like to get into. It is just that there is not enough time for everything I want to do. I like Cryo Chamber whose artists use field recordings. I have used them in some of my music. Mostly done by someone else. Getting own sound library to play with would be nice. It is just starting to records sound. I already have everything I need for recording and processing. These videos make me want to start recording sounds. They might do some to you to.