After a long absence; BEHOLD MY GLORIOUS RETURN!

So, some of you might have noticed I haven't posted on here in god knows how long several months. In fact, I had actually forgot about this whole thing, as I have a tendency to do. GAMEPLAN: I'm going to try and start writing stuff more regularly, cause... Well... Ok, I don't have a good reason, but I'm bored.


So upcoming topics are probably going to include things related to this DnD campaign I've been co-DMing, some music stuff, and my most important and new found hobby, BEARD (in case you haven't heard, I'm 5 months deep into a "yeard" as the cool kids are calling it).

Anyways, since I'm too lazy to actually generate real content at this point, I think I'm just going to talk generally about why Ableton Live is the pinnacle of human achievement. I've been using Ableton pretty steadily for about 2 years now, shifting from Logic and Audiomulch (a fucking great little program, one of the best designed interfaces and device builders I've ever seen in a DAW). At first, I wasn't completely sold as it varies from the oh-so-standard timeline format that I had come to expect. Clips? What the hell am I supposed to do with those (for those unfamiliar, Ableton operates both in a clip view which is something like a sampler / loop generator, but it also has a timeline/composition view).

Admittedly, the interface is pretty damned daunting to start with, especially for the prototypical laptop musician. The real power of Ableton, however, comes in it's live recording and playback setup, specifically when using appropriate hardware (Akai APC 20/40 or Launchpad; I personally use a combo of the APC20 + MPD18 and have a Korg nanoKontrol to essentially use as an effects pedal and to augment my fader/knob array on my keyboard). Using MIDI controllers, everything is accesible (not revolutionary or new, pretty standard now), but the use of clip view allows you the freedom to do live composition. You can essentially sit down, and just start "playing" Ableton.  The point is, Ableton is the only DAW I have used where it is appropriate for every particular use I can think of. Want to use it for live recording? Check. DJing and live performance (lololol automatic beat matching)? Check. Production and composition? Check.

Downsides, oh the downsides. Software instruments are just flat-out not as good as Logic. They are usable, but Logic is far more powerful in that regard. Performance issues abound, with Windows having latency due to the inane way that MS decided to handle sound through DX (simple fix, ASIO4ALL drivers, but this just shouldn't be necessary). OS X and Core Audio thankfully don't have that issue, but overall app performance is significantly weaker on OS X and there are definite stability issues (MIDI devices cutting out, random crashes, corrupted saves). However, all of this I can look over. The one thing that absolutely drives me crazy is the way that Ableton handles building device chains, particularly as a refuge of Audiomulch. See, Audiomulch allows you to very literally build devices using circuits; essentially, however you would set up amps and effects for real life instruments, with not limitation for what gets daisy chained to what. Now Ableton, uses something called A/B sends, which, long story short, essentially limits you to having two unique effects sets that can be shared between instruments and clips. This is stupid, and ultimately leads to having to duplicate a lot of effects individually for instruments leading to lower performance as CPU cycles and RAM are wasted on these redundancies. If Ableton incorporated a third view, a "device builder" view that emulated the power and intuitiveness of Audiomulch, I think I would die of all the happy.

The long and short of it is that Ableton is, despite its oh-so-numerous-and-annoying flaws, probably the best DAW on the market for the prosumer / professional (I'm not even touching Pro Tools; it has all the appeal of a school bus fire to me).

Final note: here's a remix I put together today using, dun dun dun: Ableton. What better way to celebrate finishing off finals, ehh? Check out the Soundcloud page here.