Why are 95% of techno producers on Ableton?

[Chael]

Put simply Ableton is a beast, its simple, its complex, its easy to use, its hard to master, its fun and its infuriating all at the same time. The stock effects and presets are quality and the instruments are powerful. I think a lot of abletons success can be attributed to the effects and instrument racks functionality - there is literally an infinite amount of possibilities, who knew such a simple idea could inspire a unlimited amount of ways to do things. My most recent revelation regarding these is using the chains in effects racks to set up parallel processing and mixing together different parts of the signal to create the effect i want to achieve. It isn't without its problems but a lot of people overlook them because its just awesome and a lot of fun to use. If the last update is an indication of things to come it will only get better

[Patch]

Racks/Chains/Groups are great fun.

And you're right - Live X is gonna be ridiculous.

[Superfreak]

In my opinion, Ableton is the easiest DAW out there for learning on.

You can get up and running in Ableton Live in no time.

BUT, the beauty of it, is that it is more complex than you can ever imagine when you are starting out. It allows you to hit the ground running in no time at all, then learn all of the complexities at your own pace - you'll learn a little bit here, and a little bit there, as you continue working with the basics.

Pretty soon, you've ACCIDENTALLY learned the complexities of Live. I love it. It lures you in with its simplicity, and holds on to you with it's complexity!

I love the built in effects and instruments. The common look and feel make it so much easier to absorb brand new information. Since you are already familiar with Lives layout and look and feel, the new information (when you pick up Operator, for example) is more easily recognised.

For me, that was one of the problems with VSTi's - they've all got lovely shiny GUI's, but it distracts you from the actual functionality of the instrument. Now - once you've learned the built-in instruments in Live, and you're familiar with the actual functionality (of a soft synth, for example), you've got the knowledge to be able to use the VSTi's and really know what you are doing with them.

But I'm pretty thick - so I ned that common look and feel to help me learn...

I hear that! I've always thought that Ableton looks nice, very appealing, at the same time quite simple...

Of course I'm not getting far with it at the moment, not spending much time on it, need to learn how to do the simple stuff, if I could get to the point that I'm at in Logic, w/ Ableton I'd be more than happy... I can easily make a track in Logic at the moment.

I love loops, and chopping them, and sampling etc, so if Ableton is better/easier than Logic for that, it's a big selling point.

Plus, I do actually use Ableton with Traktor when I DJ. I have machine as a VST inside of Ableton and I use a delay plugin from there too, so that's a start...

I have no idea how to do anything else tho, I can't make a track in it yet....

[thi3ves]

For me, Ableton is primarily used because it handles arrangement well. Like many others on the forums, I'm experienced with many other DAWs, but everytime I want to actually write a track, I write it in ableton. It handles MIDI fast, automation is pretty straightforward.

However, while you can do lots of things with Ableton, some people (including myself) use certain software for different tasks.

For me, I write in Ableton and Mixdown, then render that Mix over to Reaper, because while Ableton handles MIDI/composition like a champ, I really think others like ProTools and Reaper do a better job handling audio, come with different stock plugins, and overall can provide another way to do things.

TLDR; Just like if you had 5 different EQs, in theory they do the same thing, but typically each sound unique, DAWs do things differently. Ableton is streamlined at arrangement which is the first step in producing music.

[LanceBlaise]

I am a techno producer, I learned on Reason, then transitioned to Ableton in like 2005. For me its faster. But also most of my production is done on hardware and the integration between Ableton and just recording sounds from hardware makes it the best choice for me. I can quickly record something and then bounce it all out, chop it up, move it around etc.

[sarasin]

I would say its due to Live's playability?

The minimal aspect of a lot of techno lends itself to being able to play it live.

You don't see many people going all "Richie Hawtin" with banging electro or singalong EDM.

[sarasin]

And its not just Richie, there are MANY other Techno Producers that play VERY live. Much more than any other producer....I would even venture.

[Superfreak]

Yeah i think the "live" aspect of it definitely has a part in it's popularity. hopefully i can get my head down and actually watch my ableton tutorials and read my tut mag.

[Notanon]

I'd definitely say the live performance aspect of Ableton comes into play a fair bit as to why it seems to be a go-to for a lot of producers who play out. For me, I've got both Ableton Live Lite 9 and Reaper, but I'm probably more inclined to give the latter a shot at the moment when it'll come for me to start producing.

[MaxOne]

I switched from Logic 9 to Live and have to say it's really helped my productions come on a long way.

I would say the thing to do is start by using Live in the same way you use Logic, in the "arrange" mode (Live has two modes). Ultimately it's not that different to Logic in Arrange mode... it's the Session mode that is more "confusing" when switching from Logic.

I found Abletons own tuts the most useful - https://www.ableton.com/en/help/learn-live/