39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ableton Live 8 the mother of all Audio apps for new peoples..., June 1, 2009
Ableton Live 8: Nowadays if you're an artist looking to record or perform music you're probably a lot like me, a newbie impressed (And confused) by the vast array of choices you have your disposal. So with this review I'm going to focus on new people and getting use to and using Ableton Live 8 (Live).
First thing to note a full live demo can be downloaded [...]it is a 14 day not limited functionality trial. And that is cool if you want to get started and playing around with this powerful software. I recommend doing that and following along with some of the videos that I will point out below.
Now I needed to form drumbeats for a buddy of mine's project and I had live 7, but I downloaded live 8 because I usually like to have the latest software and features. Also Ableton as extensive video tutorials which I've found amazingly insightful and helpful on YouTube.
On YouTube Hudon Singletary an Ableton training rep, has 22 video tutorials that gets you inside this amazing program. check them out and follow along using the demo you will definitely be stoked!
search on YouTube: CD8C2B63AB0E24E9
Are looking to make drumbeats? If so live has a very cool feature that allows you to make an 8 pad drum machine that you can trigger using ASDFGHJK. you can also grab your samples from any loops you already have, when I saw this in the following video I was blown away. It was simple and easy!
Search on YouTube: 9Ff0AcOsH3E
I also found the tour of live video to be very helpful in navigating the user interface. Now I had seen the live interface before and I have seen other mixing programs and felt intimidated. But after watching this video I had better understanding of how to move around the program freely.
Search on YouTube: 3U1-aMHbg7M
I personally have been using live 8 for about four days and I was able to mix a drum track for my buddy that he was happy with, and so was I. Live has made it possible for us to finish his CD without having to find and studio record a drummer at saving us a few thousand dollars.
Now I used to use acid Pro a few years ago so I am semi-familiar with loop-based music creation (made 20 tracks or so), so that may have made my interactions with live a little easier to pick up. But I'm amazed at how quickly and easily live is to learn.
Another cool feature of live is that it has textbased tutorials inside the program. This is something I have never seen implemented in such a way as to be functional and not intrusive. So basically when you're pointing at something or clicking a track there are text boxes in the lower left-hand corner in on the right-hand side that will tell you what you can do in those areas. They were amazingly helpful and gave me answers to questions I had an even asked yet. very very cool!
being a newbie to live I also wanted to add that I have seen this program mentioned by many performers as a tool they use in live performances and home recording (imogen Heap & Venus Hum) And I am starting to understand why they like it so much.
All in all this program is an amazing piece of software,Very solid and a nice user interface. I use Adobe products like after affects and premiere Pro, and wish Adobe had a program like live but their stuff is nowhere close to as intuitive and easy-to-use.
if you're like me once you try live for 14 days you're going to buy it because it is that easy to use! so my encouragement is check out the tutorials while having the trial opened you will definitely pick it up very quickly!
Once my buddy's CD is completed I will post a link to his CD in this review so you can hear Live at work.
search on YouTube: AbletonInc
Rock on
CB3
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Great, Versatile Music Creation Tool, February 7, 2012
This review is from: Ableton Live 8 Full Version Audio Software (Electronics)
I'm an amateur/hobbyist songwriter and producer. I also play keyboards and guitars live with a band. I've found Ableton Live 8 to be a really valuable practice, writing and performance tool.
For recording, I use Live like a sketchpad. The "clip" concept lets you easily loop certain phrases or samples (like a guitar part or drum loop) and figure out other parts without having to keep stopping and restarting playback. Also, being able to trigger individual clips dj style really lets you be creative with how you're going to arrange a song.
I was really impressed with the "looper" effect, which is basically like a looping pedal in live. It's been a lot of fun experimenting with layered guitar parts, etc. I've also found the warping function to be great. This lets you basically stretch something you recorded to be slower or faster, without any change in time. It also lets you clean up your recorded parts if you were a little out of time.
The other thing I really like about this software is that it's very stable, even using other companies plugins. I use a lot of VSTs, and I've never had a problem with live.
Overall, a really great product for studio or performance. It's easy enough to pick up that you can start having fun quickly, but deep enough to really let you go as far as you want to go with programming, mixing, etc. Two thumbs up.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Great but..., January 22, 2012
This review is from: Ableton Live 8 Full Version Audio Software (Electronics)
I bought Ableton Live 8 for Christmas, and I love it. I had the Ableton Suite 30 day- trial before that. It's great for beginners (they do a great job of explaining how things work) and it's just fun to use. HOWEVER, there are so many features and instruments you cannot use (or I can't at least) because you don't own certain instruments and effects. If I would have known this, I would have just shelled out the extra $200 and bought Suite. So again, this is a great product and I'd recommend it anyone, regardless of skill level. But to me, it only feels like half a product because of all the features I can't use (namely Operator and Analog). [...] <-- Here's a more... detailed page about it.
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