Today I will be doing something a little different. In your music production career, you are going to come across a wide range of Digital Audio Workstation’s (DAW) to work with. Finding the right DAW in terms of usability and what's best for your music style can be tricky. Programs like Pro Tools whilst associated with Rock and Metal can be used to create a wide arrange of styles.
Navigating this DAW minefield can be extremely tricky, so I thought I would do a review of a DAW I am currently exploring (Ableton Live 10) to discuss areas I find great and others that can use improvement. I’m currently changing my style of production from Alternative Rock to EDM, so Ableton seems the best port of call. Hopefully this review will guide you in your purchasing choices and we can learn something together.
The Good
The interface and midi programming
Ableton comes with two methods of working (arrangement and session view) which can be changed by pressing tab. Whichever you choose to work with is up to you, however, I personally work in arrangement view as it reminds me of Logic’s interface. Arrangement view is clean and neat, with everything you need at your disposal.
● To the left we have our sound library, containing various midi effects, sounds, loops etc.
● To the right we have our tracks, right clicking can give us the option of audio, midi or return tracks
● Top middle is record, play, stop, loop etc.
● Top left is the tempo, time signature, metronome etc.
● Top right is for drawing or playing midi
Personally, my favorite feature of Ableton is the ease at which you can program Midi. Go to your midi channel, click and drag to highlight a few bars. Then right click on a Midi channel and select insert new midi clip. Go to the bottom right hand side and click on the blank bar second from the right. This will bring up the Midi keyboard. You can easily program midi by selecting the pencil tool in the top right-hand side, then drawing in the notes as you need.
Notice the midi keyboard at the bottom.
Adding to the Channel and signal flow
Another great feature of Ableton is how you can add eq, effects, compression etc. to the channel you are currently working on and change the signal flow. Go to the sound library and search for the plug in you are looking for (e.g. chorus or reverb). Simply select the effect and move it to where it says, “drop audio effects here”. You can also change the order of the effects, seeing how it will manipulate the sound. This is done by clicking and holding next to the name of the plug in, then dragging it to wherever you would like in the signal flow
Ableton Drum Rack
“A Drum Rack is a specialized form of Instrument Rack, with functionality focused on drums and percussion. Like other Rack types (Instrument and Effect), Drum Racks are shells for building devices from multiple plug-ins” (Price, 2008). The drum rack allows you to drag instruments or samples onto notes on the keyboard to allow midi programming. For example, on C1 on the midi keyboard you could have an acoustic hi hat then on C#1 you could program a distorted kick. “Live’s Drum Rack lets you set up send & return channels entirely within the Drum Rack. This allows you to apply parallel processing to one or a few of the samples” (O'Brien, 2019). You could do this to apply the classic gated reverb on the snare. You can alter the panning and volume of each drum hit as well, allowing for a more realistic feel. This is a great tool for all levels of music producer.
The Bad
The Cost
Ableton live 10 Suite (aka the deluxe version of Ableton) must be purchased outright for $1049 (Ableton, n.d.).Even with the education discount of 40%, this comes to $629 (Ableton, n.d.).This may be off putting for newbie music producers as that’s a huge outlay for a software you’re not familiar with. Other DAW’s such as Pro Tools have moved to a subscription model that costs “$30 USD a month” (Avid Technology, 2018). This might be better for someone experiencing cash flow issues. Having said that in Ableton’s difference you can get a 30-day trial for free.
Amp software
I do feel I’m hitting below the belt with this one as Ableton is more suited for EDM style production, however, as a guitarist I couldn’t let this pass by. Ableton collaborated with renowned digital amp simulators Softube to create the AMP plugin for Ableton and the only thing that seems to resemble Softube plugins is the name. The Amp is boring, bland and comes without the wide range of effects, eq, compression and side chaining that other amp simulators provide for you. Ableton Amp more provides a blank slate for you to create. Whilst that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, when using Amp simulators, you want something that's ready to go, with minimal tweaking.
Below are some sounds I recorded myself using a Les Paul Gibson Studio into a Focusrite Clarett using the clean model amp, chorus effect and EQ.
The sound is okay, however, it’s not at a standard Softube level, nor is it consistent with the quality of gear that I’m using (sound is scratchy and unclean, no bottom end, murky). One reviewer even described the Ableton Amp as “not much of anything, in fact” (Music, 2010)
Summary
If you’re a bedroom or studio producer, you could do far worse than to purchase Ableton live 10. Its versatility, ease of use, sound design capabilities are unmatched and any shortcomings (such as guitar amp simulators) can be rectified with 3rd party purchases. Do yourself a favour, put Logic or FL to the side and pick up a copy of Ableton, your music and your ears will thank you.
10/10
Cost:
● Intro $139
● Standard $629 (Education price $377)
● Suite $1049 (Education price $629)
Ableton Live 10 Specs
Live 10 Minimum System Requirements
● Live Version: 10
● Operating System: Windows, Mac
Windows
● Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10
● 64-bit Intel® or AMD multi-core processor. Intel® Core™ i5 processor or faster recommended.
● 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended)
Mac
● OS X 10.11.6 or later (see compatibility notes on macOS Mojave here)
● Intel® Core™2 Duo processor. Intel® Core™ i5 processor or faster recommended.
● 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended)
Bibliography
Ableton. (n.d.). Shop Live.Retrieved from Ableton.com: https://www.ableton.com/en/shop/live/
Ableton. (n.d.). Students and teachers: save 40% on Live.Retrieved from Ableton.com: https://www.ableton.com/en/shop/education/
Avid Technology. (2018). Pro Tools Pricing.Retrieved from Shop Avid: https://shop.avid.com/ccrz__ProductDetails?viewState=DetailView&sku=DYNA20000&isCSRFlow=true&portalUser=&store=shop&cclcl=en_AU
Music, C. (2010, 11 30). Ableton Amp.Retrieved from Music Radar: https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/ableton-amp-315823
O'Brien, C. (2019). 10 Ableton Drum Rack Secrets.Retrieved from EDM Prod: https://www.edmprod.com/ableton-drum-rack-tips/
Price, S. (2008, 03 01). Drum Racks In Ableton Live.Retrieved from Sound on Sound : https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/drum-racks-ableton-live
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