I am a Reaper user through and through for recording rock music, but I received a free copy of Ableton Lite with a midi controller I purchased recently. I thought I would give Ableton a spin for making some beat based, wannabe Four Tet type music, but holy shit, I cannot find my groove working on this program. I can not seem to breakthrough and get up and running on this program. Mainly, I just want to make beats by playing them live on the controller, bring in and loop samples, and record some bass. I can't even get past making beats with out wanting to smash the screen.

I've tried watching Youtube videos but the host are annoying or don't get to the point. Who has some quick and easy pointers for this program? I know its got to be cool once you find your groove. I can't believe people use this to perform live with. The UI is so fucking busy with too many buttons. Help!

RyanZ wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 8:35 am I can't believe people use this to perform live with. The UI is so fucking busy with too many buttons.

Years ago I downloaded it to give it a try. The initial state of the UI was so insanely cluttered I couldn't figure out how to do a damn thing, I just immediately gave up. Never looked at it again. But loads of folks are wizards with it....

I know we have some local meetup groups for it here, maybe check your area. I too tried it for about 6 months and concluded it was better suited for something I don't do ("dudes with laptops on stage" music). I've been a happy Reaper user ever since (11 years now).

I try to check out Ableton from time to time and it always breaks my brain. Over the years I've moved fairly effortless between Pro tools, Cubase/Nuendo, Reaper, Vegas, Acid, Logic... and a bunch of other garbage and never found it hard get going and make music but Live is just baffling. The interface make zero sense at all and its weird drag and drop GUI seems really jumbled and messy. I can't figure out why anyone would want to use it unless stretching/beat matching is just something you really want to do. For me it fell out of being Professional Audio software and in my brain sits next to Serato and stuff as "DJ" software.

Good luck

The mentions of Reaper got me thinking...

These days?

Is there an "Ableton..." equivalent of the "Reaper Mania" or "Reaper Blog" YouTube channels these days?

If there is?


It would probably be way more help than this whole board put together and multiplied by five.

So, I happen to know the Ableton Rep for the Southeast. They do a lot of free stuff. I know of four or five people who also want to know and understand Ableton. They also do education pricing on licensing. Should I reach out and say that there are more than a half dozen of us who want to do some online training, then arrange for zoom classes or something?

dontfeartheringo wrote: Tue Dec 13, 2022 9:39 am So, I happen to know the Ableton Rep for the Southeast. They do a lot of free stuff. I know of four or five people who also want to know and understand Ableton. They also do education pricing on licensing. Should I reach out and say that there are more than a half dozen of us who want to do some online training, then arrange for zoom classes or something?

You're a saint. I would love this.

This series of videos seem right to the point.

_https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjQ2KLfoO0E&lis ... 37&t=600s_

A friend who was considering "going Dale Nixon" with bass in his band told me there's a feature in Ableton where the metronome can adapt to live tempo (triggered from a hi hat or something? Who knows..). I've done some searching around and didn't find anything of the sort, does anyone know what he could have been referring to?

I can only read this thread title as if it was scratched into the door of a Belgrade squat.