Good (cheap) start with Ableton

[PeteBoy]

Hi everybody,
I would like to start my music journey with Ableton. I don't want to give much money for it so I found Ableton Live Intro that will help me at start. Now I'm looking for some basic controller for it. I saw AKAI APC-20 that looks fine and I think quality/price factor is quite good. What kind of other controllers you recommend for Ableton beginner?
Thanks in advance for hints!

[skulpture]

I'd say the Launchpad. Then you get a version similar to Ableton Intro for free and a Controller.

[pilmat]

I'd say the Launchpad. Then you get a version similar to Ableton Intro for free and a Controller.

+1. It was how I discovered Ableton and the controller is good for lots of things ;-)

Phil.

[Patch]

You don't need a controller to get started. Just mouse around for a while. That way, you'll learn how the app works - you'll find that if you use any controller right out of the box, you'll limited buy that particular controllersa features.

Seriously - just mouse around for a while, and learn as many key shortcuts as possible. Once you've got a good understanding of what Live can do, and more importantly, WHAT YOU WANT TO MAKE LIVE DO, you can research for a controller that will allow you to do that.

Also - once you've learned as many key shortcuts as you can, look into BOMES MIDI TRANSLATOR. You'll be able to control Live from your new midi controller without touching the mouse or keyboard at all.

[mostapha]

what is your budget and what do you want to do with it?

If you want something cheap for basic DJing, the M-Audio X-Session Pro would work if you ignore the labels on almost all of the knobs and learn how to midi map the thing, but you're going to be short on effects controls if you're into that sort of thing. I'm almost considering picking one up to keep in my laptop bag in case I get bored and want to spin for a bit when I'm not near my other stuff.

Personally, I hate the launchpad and both of the Akai controllers for reasons detailed somewhere in this thread.