Ableton 6.0

aeop's icon

Well, here it is, I haven't updated yet because I'm not quite sure if the minor supplements are worth it. Project Management Tool?

Anyone anticipate pluggo/slave problems with the new interface?

The multi-processor acclimations for software feeds looks pretty interesting. No more buffer problems, I hope, how did they adjust the software???

Vlad Spears's icon

On Oct 3, 2006, at 3:14 PM, Jason wrote:

> Well, here it is, I haven't updated yet because I'm not quite sure
> if the minor supplements are worth it. Project Management Tool?

To me the updates are well worth it. It's not just the new Project
file managment stuff, since I'm fairly meticulous about keeping all
work files together, anyway. Multicore support makes a big
difference in processing on my MacBook Pro. Contextual menu freeze
of midi tracks, then flattening them to rendered audio is a real time
saver for my workflow. Likewise the Deep Freeze improvements.
Instrument and effect racks are great for building re-usable chunks
with composite midi controls. There's also a ton of little
enhancements, like pre/post fx and pre mixer routings.

And, while it's an add-on, the new Sampler is very well done. I like
it.

> Anyone anticipate pluggo/slave problems with the new interface?

Pluggo works great in Live 6. A few minor hiccups here and there in
the AU side of things still, but I think Cycling is definitely out to
squish those. I'm busy moving my own plug-ins to UB, and it's been
mostly fun, easy and fast.

I use ReWire to slave Max to Live. I have some large patches I sync
with ReWire, routing the audio into Live's channels, and they all
work smoothly, even better than before now that Live's CPU footprint
seems lessened by the multicore support.

Vlad

Vlad Spears
Urbi et orbi
http://www.2secondfuse.com

aeop's icon

Great, I suppose the perks are worth the money. The new local-tempo features look like a great improvement as well. I was really hoping for some kind of real-time transposition control, as hard as it may seem to create in a time-based arranging environment. With the way the tempo control expands the track you would imagine it would be probable with pitch-manipulation.

How is the advanced audio coding (AAC) formatting apply? Does that simply refer to bit depth and kb rate? Are they pumping it up beyond 24+ and or 48khz+?

steff3's icon

Hello,

Does clip-automation works for you with pluggo plugins? I cannot get it to work with Tritone Digital and with my own plugins :-(

So I wanted to know if it works for you.

Thanks

best

Andrew Pask's icon

Clip automation works in Live 6 with Pluggo 3.6 and MaxMSP 4.6.2 built plugs only. You'll need to ask Salvator if this is what you actually have.

-A

aeop's icon

Just updated, everything works great, i still think the 6.0 update was a bit trite, nothing very interesting.

I had to change the skin back to the 5.0 ver b/c it was too bright.

Well, hopefully the multi-core processing feature will accomodate me more suitably once I get my new pc.

AMD dual-core taurion.

Per Boysen's icon

I had the chance to take a good preview of version 6 and made up my mind to not upgrade - for the first time since version 2.0. The reason is that version 6 does not add any good for my needs. I use Logic for studio production and have been performing live a lot with Live during the years. I play real instruments and record myself as "live looping" or "instant composing". I was very thrilled during the Live 6 beta phase by the new Rack feature, because Racks makes it possible to (1) chain effects to play live through (daisy-chained or in parallel) and (2) bind many functions to the same external MIDI event for controlling Live from foot pedals while playing instruments with both hands.

However, when the sharp version was released I found that the racks you set up are not available for loading (or activating/muting) through MIDI Program Change or any other external MIDI events. What a bummer! The day after I found out that if I use Bidule I can chain as many VST and Bidule effects as my CPU can run and I can even keep almost an infinite number of such effect chains, since each chain is available for activating by MIDI Program Change. And when you activate a chain, all other chains are muted and use no CPU at all. For two years I have been using a TC Electronic FireworX to play through when performing live and I'm now working on a Bidule setup to replace my twenty something favorite effect patch programs in the TC. All to bring down the weight (and "over weight" cost) of my gear when traveling.

I'm also buying Max/MSP now since it doesn't look like Ableton Live will every evolve into the kind of real-time tool I need.

All the best

pboy

Vance Galloway's icon

That's odd - I'm able to turn racks on and off via MIDI.

In fact, though, I rarely use Racks because I just set up a whole bunch of auz sends and return channels and do all of my series/parallel routing using these. This is a lot more flexible in a live situation than using racks (in which you have to hard-set the series vs. parallel routing of each effect.)

Version 6.0 was, by far, the most important, useful Live upgrade for my use (which sound somewhat similar to yours) since Live 1.0. The ability to map multiple parameters to a single MIDI controller has been something that I have needed for YEARS. This opens up a lot of live control that I used to have to write seperate MAX patches to achieve.

Biddlue is super - but I'm curious as to why you cant even turn your rack on and off via MIDI.

Vance

Per Boysen's icon

Quote: Vance Galloway wrote on Tue, 07 November 2006 15:20
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> but I'm curious as to why you cant even turn your rack on and off via MIDI.
----------------------------------------------------

Oh, I can certainly do that. What I can't do is to load a Rack preset by sending a MIDI program change externally.

aeop's icon

The power function for external units is one of the only controls independent of midi .

Per Boysen's icon

Quote: aeop wrote on Tue, 07 November 2006 15:51
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> The power function for external units is one of the only controls independent of midi .
----------------------------------------------------

He, he... a good one ;-) In Ableton Live 6 "a Rack" is the name for a new kind of software effect chain setup. The question here is if you can load a saved rack preset by sending a MIDI program change event from some external physical device.

Vance Galloway's icon

Ah, you had initially said that the Racks and their presets weren't available for activating/muting, that's where I got the idea that just muting a rack would be enough for you.

Again - I don't really like using racks because I like keeping my options open as to how I am going to route audio from one effect to another....and I don't have presets that I recall because it's all real-time improv that I'm doing anyway.

Recall of rack presets via MIDI PGM change does seem like a logical request, though.

Vance

aeop's icon

Hmm that sounds like a very resourceful option, to recall your hardware presets via midi. You'd probably have to find either the program that hosts your hardware peripheral in its control list or install the hardware's drivers on your PC, if it offers such a convienience.

aeop's icon

No, idea, sorry. can you elaborate on this i'm a bit confused.

So your sending a 'program change event' requeset from an external device i.e. Δ your instruments on Ableton via midi command?

Never tried it. the CC values to coorespond with enabling instruments would probably have to be entered manually in ableton.

Per Boysen's icon

Quote: aeop wrote on Tue, 14 November 2006 16:25
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So your sending a 'program change event' requeset from an external device i.e. Δ your instruments on Ableton via midi command?
----------------------------------------------------

Yes, that's correct. But it's not supported by Ableton Live. What you can do though, is to mute or un-mute a bunch of objects already loaded as plug-ins in Live.

FYI, here are some related discussions over at the Ableton forum:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2205632#2205632
It's a conceptual problem of hosting plugins in audio software that Midi information is passed on to the plugins in time critical threads. Thus, any program change that involves a lot of data mangling (i.e. thousands of parameters, sample loading etc.) will cause timing issues and thus in some hosts even crash.

aeop's icon

Yeah, you could do that too. That little green activator/deactivator button found in the upper-righthand portion on every opened device can be assigned in map-mode.