I know there is a forum and documentation but if all my time goes to trying to figure out technical solutions then all my creativity goes into finding technical solutions, rather than solving artistic problems.
Any musician has to learn their instrument. Commit to that.
I don't have the time or resources to 'commit to that". Ableton Live is NOT my instrument, I would like to just use it as a tool.
It takes years of practice to learn any musical instrument and become a musician that other people would want to listen to. Maybe the same applies to Ableton? It takes years of hard practice to master it? If so it would be proper that their sales literature would be up front about it. You will need years of study to master this instrument in order to produce something that other people would want to listen to. You will need to commit to it :-)
The difference between Ableton and "ordinary musical instruments" is that Ableton runs on a computer, therefore its use should be easy enough to not require years to learn.
You are expecting Ableton, a professional tool, to act as a toy.
Spend $100, Take a course, or watch some tutorials in the styles you want to make, and you'll build to proficiency.
Tools take time to learn. Toys less so.
I found that Ableton push was actually extremely helpful to take my understanding of Ableton to the next level. I then sold my push, and am more proficient with the software now.
If you don't have the "muscle memory" of other DAWs then ableton will be a new paradigm and absolutely hard to use and understand. Esp the difference between midi and audio.
Edit: I had a long day, so I might sound harsher than you expect, but the core of my message is: learning new powerful instruments is hard. Best of luck learning ableton, it's great. Go make some drones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdRcpRxYJK0
If you're not prepared to spend some time learning how to use it, then maybe the whole thing is not for you. Most people enjoy the whole process.
You are being unrealistic if you think that just because Ableton runs on a computer means everything about it should be automatic. Ableton is a professional level DAW and as such has a lot of complexity under the hood.
Ordinary musical instruments only have a few knobs and take a lifetime to master. I don't know why you would suppose it should be any easier to master Ableton which has literally thousands of knobs?
That said it's totally fair to not have the time to commit to learning a complex tool. There are other, more accessible DAWs out there you can use if you don't need the power this one provides. Garageband, for example, is easy to use and straightforward. Curious if folks know other ones similarly easy to use.
I play a bunch of instruments and have been on quite a few recording, but I had to spend the last couple of months learning a novation circuit and an electron octatrack for a project I am working on.
TBH, it took me about a week with abelton and a DVD course to learn enough to be fairly productive with it... that was back when there wasn't much on YTube.
These things are instruments and require just as much work to learn.
In the world of programming languages there's a lot of books called "cookbooks" - recipes for how to do things that many programmers will need to do. Say "C# CookBook". Is there such a book or resource for Ableton? If not maybe there should be. It might be a best seller :-)
There is. The reference manual:
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/welcome-to-live/
It is incredibly well-written. Possibly my favorite piece of technical writing ever, and am myself a technical author.
I used one of these a few years ago for an earlier version. Was helpful. I suspect this one would be just the same.
Just to commiserate, I feel the same way about the pedal steel guitar :D
The point is I don't know it is a "small thing". I don't even know if it is possible. I don't want to commit to learning something that may not be possible (as far as I know at the moment). And I don't know where I should even start.
Can you post a link that explains how to accomplish this "most basic task"?
Software is just another tool, like a painter's brushes or a musician's instrument.
