For me this thing replaced both the Circuit Tracks and Rythm. I'm still waiting for proper MIDI mapping, but even without it it's the most fun instrument that I ever owned. It's good at sampling, has great synth engines, it's portable and I can finally migrate my dawless jams seamlessly into Ableton Live.
I’m also in the same boat. For me, the Move replaces my Circuit combo. The Circuit workflow is really great, but using both the Tracks and Rhythm together is a bit of a headache. I’ve been in touch with Novation quite a few times to suggest improvements, but I never got the feeling that the quality of life improvements would ever come. Maybe because they knew Move was coming….. From the Move discord chat, I’d be amazed if we don’t get some really nice quality of life improvements from the Move development team next year. The synths sound better on the Move; project management on the Move is liberating, the sample length times are liberating, the length of patterns is liberating, the ease of going from sketch to finished track is liberating, and Capture is simply amazing. So as an Ableton user, my move to the Move is liberating.
I appreciate your take on any groovebox, including this one. However, I do sort of feel like this one is solving for a very particular use case that isn't quite what us "power groovebox users" are looking for. Namely, this is a sketchpad first and foremost. You're meant to very quickly sketch out new ideas and then relatively soon bring those into Ableton Live where you flesh them out into full productions. So the other angle of looking at the limitations and trying to maximize what you can do within those limitation is, sort of, not the point of this device. You're meant to just use a track for drums, another one for bass, a third one for a lead or a synth or something, and a fourth one for some chords maybe. Sketch, make some variations, get a groove going, and then if you like it, send it over to Live and pick it up from there. I'm saying this not to suggest that you're doing anything wrong by trying to make it do what you want it to do, but I'm suggesting that they may never attempt to bridge those gaps that you experience because they might say "well that was exactly the point when designing this device". Meaning, I wouldn't expect a few firmware updates to take this significantly closer to the ultimate groovebox territory, unfortunately.
Yeah that's a great point, and kind of where my mind is heading as well. As I dove into the device, I wanted to see how far beyond sketchpad I could take it, especially given that people have been asking me to compare it to devices like the Circuits, but it's definitely its own beast with its own purpose. I'd like to see Ableton fix some of the little issues I encountered, but I agree that it's not super reasonable to expect them to completely overhaul what this device is, as much as I would like them to do that.
@@GabeMillerMusic Me too, by the way. In many ways it could be the ideal workflow, being able to sketch out full songs with seamless integration to Live. But in this case I'd rather sketch (and get *much* farther) on an MPC and then just drop the MPC VST into any daw.
@@GabeMillerMusicI think Ableton’s response to feature requests for the Move is if you want an Ableton standalone device that can do it all, buy a Push 3.
I understand the sketchpad use/case. My question is how easy is to take a track from a circuit into a daw like live? Does the circuit cover the sketchpad use/case? I think that the Move will be come a small setup/standalone performance brain pretty damn quick. Do y'all remember all of the issues with the og circuit, or even circuit tracks v1?
My wishlist for upcoming updates: - Add a shortcut to get the second set of knobs without using the menu (all track types) - Add ability to live loop into drum pads - Add probability per step - Add ability to sidechain against one or more pads in a drum kit - Quantize currently selected drum pad, not the whole kit - All tracks should send out midi data on different channels - Tweak session mode to work more like the Circuit's scenes (so one pad is one scene)
Great video, great editing. I'm still thinking about getting a Circuit Tracks, and now this came out and I'm checking different reviews to see which one would be better for me (total beginner). Thanks a lot Gabe.
Dope set! Individual notes can still be nudged on the step sequencer before or after quantization down to a resolution of 1%. I'd be down for more synth parameters, as long as the menu diving for that comes AFTER everything else so as not to impede the workflow. That being said, this is a Live companion device and patches can be created there or tweaked later, which I am sure everyone knows. The speed and immediacy of this device is crazy, and this is where the flexibility lies despite the lack of some advanced features. Being so intuitive and quick is the number one feature to me. That foundation provides the flexibility for customizing and learning, and I think this device is unique enough that comparisons may impede the potential. People that don't like it probably won't get past that, but those who do I think have been given a wide open lane to get creative on how they choose to work with it.
I’ve had mine since release and absolutely love it, but I must agree with you: the synths definitely need additional standard controls such as envelope and polyphony. As for side chaining, I think the parameter locking is so simple and effective in this unit, it really doesn’t need a dedicated side chain feature. I think the most important feature that’s missing is time stretching!
At least for Drift and the Drum Sampler you can upload your own presets to Note and Move. So within the 8 macro limitations you could export a set from Move, change the macro bindings in Live and export the changed preset via Live 12.1 as Note/Move preset via context menu on the rack, to do this you need to enable this experimental feature in Lives Options.txt. There is a tutorial on that on YT.
In case you didn't go back to check your folders - about that "file wrong format" warning: I got that as well. It turned out I had a lot of text files, Reaper and Ableton waveform analysis files in those folders and I did a pretty deep dive to confirm that no .wav or .mp3 files were skipped and all the samples were there. I also had a lot of .mid files and groove files that were likewise rejected. I'm not a groovebox power user and was, instead, looking for a musical sketchpad. In that role it works really well for me. But I can see that as it stands right now it's less conducive to performance and fully-polished songs. (I also did the "64 sounds" tests with the drum rack hack. Mixed results, but likely operator error.) I agree with your comments about quantization and more control of the synth engines, but I also appreciate how little menu diving I need to do. I also think it was a genius move to pre-load random kits into a set. In that way, there is no decision to make if you just wanted to turn it on and start making music, knowing that you can swap out the sounds when/if you take the set into Live. I also wish there was a "parking folder" for sets on the Move, so you could free up slots on the face of the device. Otherwise, if someone wanted to use it as a performance instrument they'd really be up a tree if a set were accidentally deleted in the middle of a performance. Great review!
I don't have a fully formed option yet, but even though it does more than a Circuit in terms of features, it's definitely not the Circuit killer. The Circuits still crush it for bigger jams/live sets. The Move is more powerful for making something that you'd finish in the DAW though.
Thank you, Gabe. I was wondering if/when you'd cover this thing. FWIW, I have one, and really like it. Of course, I'm not nearly as advanced as you, but I am having fun with it. I consider it a "couch composer" thing. Couple other tidbits: If you have any visually impaired followers, they'll be happy to know that move.local/screen-reader URL will mirror the device's screen to the browser (except for the graphics and wave). That way, we can have our favorite screen reader announce whatever it is on the screen. I think that is incredibly inclusive and I commend Ableton for it. Oh, one more thing: I couldn't find any cases made specifically for it, but I am happy to report that a 75% keyboard case works GREAT.
Great to get your perspective on the Move. I ordered it on day 1, then cancelled my order when I discovered the absurd limitations in sequencing external gear. Then I cancelled my order cancellation--why not try it out within the return period. As expected it isn't good for any sort of production work, it also fails as a groovebox on its own. I was able to use it together with my Circuit Tracks and with some modest firmware updates this could be a sweet combo as I find the Move a more interesting pairing than the Circuit Rhythm. Sound design in Live then upload to Move seems a much better workflow than Circuit's Components to me. The best usage is what I believe was intended, it's a hardware version of the Ableton Note app for jotting down ideas (usually moving about the house, not out in public) and continuing in Ableton Live when limitations become too much. Still wanting substantial firmware updates for MIDI gear (4 instrument tracks + 4 MIDI tracks sounds about right to me) and general use as a groovebox.
I’ve had mine a couple of weeks. Workarounds don’t really translate well when exported to live. Which is the point. It’s a beast of an ideas machine but within 10 minutes I’m maxed out on 4 tracks. Looks bleak when you export to live having only 4 tracks. 8 tracks works, as proven in note and is a massive oversight. The processor is old news so I’m not expecting huge leaps in features. Seems to be a bit of a concept piece. I can see the note software translating well into a push 4 standalone with a lot more features. A good start but not quite there for me atm
Well... i've said it before and i'll say it again... it NEEDS midi out jacks or 5 pin. Imagine how cool it would be controlling your Volcas and Airas with this one! Love the look love the style but DAMN. Thanks bro for a grat review, one of the best channels around!
Not necessary to be on same WiFi. If you connect Move to computer via USBC, and open browser and type in move.local, you’ll connect via LAN created w/ the cable. I tested this w/ computer in airplane mode and Move w/ WiFi disabled. Works fine. The Move hosts the HTML file transfer program.
I recently bought an MC-101 and one of the features that it has that I really appreciate of it are the 5 pin DIN midi ports. It makes the device very flexible in different usage scenarios. Because it has those midi ports it’s also quite good as a sound module to use with an external midi keyboard or sequencer. I always use the MC-101 with a keyboard connected to it. This seemly basic feature is a big plus of MC-101. It really surprises me that the Ableton move doesn’t have any midi ports except for midi over USB. That is such a missed opportunity. I wonder if this a deliberate choice or just something they overlooked in the design. The design it self is quite slick, nice display and controls. But why no midi ports? This really limits it, whereas the MC-101 can be used together with other devices such as the TR-6S by simply connecting them with a midi cable. I use them together and they complement each other well.
A gateway groovbox to Ableton live, quoted from their homepage, "Take your ideas further in Live" sounds like they are aware of its limitations, and are good with that, offering their DAW as the solution.
Second comment after actually watching, I love this thing! And I love that in your review the music you have done actually shows different abilities of this device than I saw in other videos. That is important. To be able to hear this device in different scenarios, even more when, like in this case, it actually sounds cool. After seeing this and knowing that there are accessibility features on Move just like that, kind of out of the box, I think there is high possibility it will turn up on my Christmass list. ;)
I like the Move a lot more than the MC101. First of all, no double use of sequencer / pitch buttons. Second, I prefer presets with less settings way more than having a giant menu for every sound design option. (Though I think that we need to be able to prepare the exposed options of presets in Ableton Live, but as I understand it they are already working on designing Move presets in Ableton live). The only thing I am missing on the Move is an arranger view. I think using the 8 scene columns as If they were arranger columns is not good enough, I would prefer a second separate view: a huge horizontal scrolling view that lets me pick the 8 possible scenes with an encoder, and also lets me change the bar length of the “arranger step” with a second encoder, so that song playing automatically moves on to the next arranger step after the bar length has been reached. There are a lot more than 2 encoders on the Move and memory wise this hardly cost any space (since the only thing you have to store per arranger step is a scene number and a bar length) so the device is definitely able to pull this off. I hope that Ableton the company is able to imagine it.
It seems that the ‘good thing’ about Move is its ability to adapt to the limited musical composition expertise of the target audience. A bit like what happened with Circuit. So, if you're looking for something more advanced and still want to buy it this 'Move', you have to be aware of its capabilities and stick to them, or else pass it by and use a setup with fewer restrictions, such as MIDI controllers in conjunction with your DAW.
How does this stack up against Note? I see they've changed a BUNCH of stuff on it, and it doesn't have a four track limit. They seem very, very similar. The two effects per sound, even the same synth engines, sampling. I think the only thing Note doesn't have is 16 pitches. Which doesn't matter too much when you can just make a new sampler track for that sound.
I dont get why most reviewers arent comparing move to note or its ~$500 competition. If it's a standalone note, ok great. If it's lesser than its competition but for ableton lovers, fine. But it seems like people are avoiding those comparisons.
Gabe this is not a full fledge production tool. It is meant to capture demos that get fully produced in a DAW. Go crazy on the drum track, add some chords, a bass line, and some melody. If you must, resample and create more tracks. Move on and record another demo.when you have a demo that you really like take it to Ableton to make a full production. Were you able to test live recording capabilities? I would really like to use this for layering live guitar parts
Yeah I fully understand that, but I wanted to see how far I could push this thing. I don't want to let the sketchpad nature of some grooveboxes stop me from trying to go beyond that. That's especially the case if I want to compare to devices with similar features. I haven't tried layering live recorded stuff yet, I'll give it a go!
Ableton Note provides all the Move features with 8 tracks in your Phone / iPad. Of course Move is more tactile. One hope though is that the 8 tracks could be handled by Move in a near future.
I think one of the details people tend not to focus on with this thing is that the software is based on Ableton Note the iOS app. So if you wanna know what this feels like get the app, I’ve been using the app for a while and the idea of having that in a hardware device sounds pretty awesome. Also, with the quantizing thing I know that in the app you can select individual drum parts and quant separately so I would assume that there is a way to do it on the device, but I don’t have one yet always a great way. My overall perspective so far is that this is kind of sits in between the MC 101 and the circuit tracks but with an Ableton tether. Which from my perspective is exactly what I need just saying love your perspective Gabe you make great videos. Appreciate you, brother .
Yes there is a lot of videos about the Move, but I was precisely waiting for yours, as I like how you review all of the grooveboxes so far, how you give your opinion about the workflow and ease of use of these instruments, their build quality and the ins and out possibilities to pair them with synths and record /sample other instruments. Keep doing these reviews, it's aporeciated.☕🥐
Liked your revision. In conjunction with IOS App Note you have a lot of more possibilities. Hope Ableton is continuing supporting this device for a long time like they did before. MIDI import is missing. In comparison with Novation Circuit this gear is beyond. Especially the audio recording handling. What I absolutely love the most is its portability, the battery and the built in speaker.
Could you please check if it's possible to sample while the unit is playing? This would be great for recording vocals, audio loops of an external synth, or live looping.
For me samples is bonus (not emphasis I think). Best feature of Move that instr, drum, drift tracks are full synth. You can tweak sound later in the DAW. And Move project is Live project with all fx and master limiter also become devices. And, you can make your fave synth preset in DAW in push back to device. Let’s be honest about small, battery powered grooveboxes. It’s too limiting to make a full song with just samples. Also can’t expect too much of full fledged synth power on a small device. Move is good trade-off and balance of features and workflow. With dedicated freaking Undo button and Capture flow it’s a handy instrument! 😊 Gabe try make it using Capture instead of Rec. You are power user, look at this different device not expecting things to be same as 101 or Circuits, but power it has to offer. Not advising here, just sharing 😊 Cheers very much!
Yeah I've been making beats on the Move all weekend and using Capture a ton. I'll definitely explore that and focus more on Ableton's intended workflow in a future video.
I am holding off till Holiday sales. At $450 in current state Im a No , $350 or under I’d probably give it a shot and see what updates come over the course of time. If it had MPE like the Push 3 which I have NOT bought yet , I’d probably have grabbed Move on release.
4 track sketch is all well and good but soon as you export that to Ableton they will soon be drowned out by the software.. but maybe its the track start some are looking for. Still.... it's abillity to Acid extremely well can't be overlooked but the Roland T8 can do that at less than half the price :/
It's funny how so many of the groove box makers push the idea of 'you can take it anywhere', usually accompanied by a wide eyed youth in a coffee shop creating some master piece . After many years and many coffee shops I'm yet to see anyone using a groove box in such a place. Laptops and headphones abound, of course. I do wonder, if you have a halfway decent laptop why you wouldn't just buy Ableton Live Standard, which is soo much more powerful than any groove box on the market and costs at least a 100 bucks less than 'Move".
Good to be back! Funny enough, I went into the Move hoping I could get more live performance features out of it than were advertised, but it's really not set up for that. It's much more geared towards fast, nimble beatmaking as its primary focus.
8 projects on the machine but you can load those into the app. Real simple. Can't beat 11tracks, a sampler, and 128 voices. I own it and have own almost every other groovebox and can say it is top notch. @@GraemeMarkNI
the worst limitation I find is either midi in or midi out but not both and the lack of real midi connections. I have a Pioneer sp 16 as a dawlesscenterpiece with a thru box for 7 devices , i make mostly psytrance.i started with fruityloops 2 ,then cubase,now bitwig 5 is my only daw with a tascam model 24 Best regards like your musical skills
I really wanted to hear your opinion, as no one compares it to MC-101. So far I think MC-101 is better for me, as I don't really use sampling as much, but I do think MC-101 is lacking in this department and the Move wins here. But in terms of build in sounds, which is more important for me, MC-101 seems a better choice. Also, although, both of them "menu-divy", i have an impression that shortcuts on the MC-101 are more powerful, and workflow seems to be faster, may be wrong about it.
Nice review, seems like it could be fun but not for people needing those features. I'm surprised you haven't done one for KOII and Roland P6. They're all pretty interesting in their own right. The Sonicware LoFis are really cool too. I'm still waiting for a company to make something comparable to the OP-1 for about 500 dollars. I don't need the fancy screen or synth engine or that much tweaking power.
I took a bit of a break from reviewing new gear. I'm slowly allowing myself to get back into it but I don't want to get overwhelmed or burnt out so I'm being careful about what I take on and when.
With Live, you can now have 16 macro controls. So I would like to think that this could be brought to the Move. As you can build your own presets and bring them over, but this is still slightly experimental. I don’t see why we couldn’t get some sort of sidechain. But I don’t see that many votes for the feature on the Move discord channel. There has been some talk about “project switching” and I think a few tweaks to that may come along. But nothing too major as the Move devs are worried about having to load a whole other project, prior to the switch, to make transitions better. But let’s be honest, apart from the sync and tempo match, the Move project switching isn’t too far away from where it needs to be. For the quantisation. I don’t see that Move is too dissimilar to the Circuits. Maybe Move is better with its finer time increments when you can the resolution of the step sequencer and ability to nudge. But I would love to see a per pad quantize option, like on Push.
Thinking to give away my MC-101 to buy a Move only for these features missing on the Roland box: adequate sample time and ability to use line-in with monitoring on to play with an external synth (avoid using an external mixer) and record directly from it. ... If only Roland wanted to improve the MC-101 and not "splitting" it in the multiple toyish aira boxes ..
I've had mc-101 for 3 years now, pretty tired of its sound and looking for an alternative groovebox. But there is apparently nothing even close on the market. Shame
Just speculating here but could you apply quantisation while pressing a pad and have it only apply to instances of that sample? Apart from that agree with your suggested improvements. A better arp and separate MIDI channels per track would be good too.
As far as I know, no unfortunately. The quantize happens with essentially the push of one button. I could try holding down a pad first, but it doesn't seem set up to do that.
@@GabeMillerMusic so Ableton Note (which the Push is based on) does apply quantization to 'selected notes' and has a few ways to select the notes. Seems Move doesn't yet have the latter, but perhaps they will address that in future.
I am writing this even before watching. ;) I have been waited for this since Move appeared. For someone who values a pibility to create musical ideas on the go and then get them into a DAW it seems great but I will see your perspective while watching. ;)
12:49: Breaking News: Ableton has achieved the impossible - they actually got Gabe Miller to read a manual. When a guy who can figure out any piece of music tech needs instructions... well, let's just say the Ableton Move isn't exactly winning awards for user-friendliness.
To be fair, I was able to pick up a lot of the basic functions without needing to refer to anything, and I've absolutely used the manual for devices I love and find intuitive. The text was mostly my friend/editor finding an opportunity to roast me and both of us thinking it was funny. When doing the "first day with new device" videos I usually go to the manual as a last resort.
@@GabeMillerMusic Love the popup comments - your friend reeally added to the video with their editing chops! Your 'you have to really over-think' comment nailed it IMO. I own a Push 2 (expensive paperweight club here) and while it's beautifully built, why choose this over a Roland MC101? The Ableton Move just feels like a fancy sketchpad with extra steps. P.S. You're going to do a circuit novation vs mc-101 vs ableton move right? 😀
The most annoying limit for me in Move is that ridiculous amount (32) of sets which I can save in Move, like WTF? Is this a joke ? My storage use after I saved 32 sets is: 5,8MB / 52,4 GB O_o Why I cant use this space to save more sets ? In Note on my iPhone I have currently saved over 400 sets and averything is all right and "Documents & Data" (so that all sets and probably some small samples which I recorded) are ONLY 412MB od my iPhone memory.
I think the Roland MC-101 is capable of so much more, but I am not an Ableton user, so maybe I'm biased. I also like the Yamaha SeqTrak better, but I like the pads on the Move far better than the crappy buttons/keys on the SeqTrak.
Apparently it has like a 2016 mobile phone CPU … which could obviously be a limiting factor on how much it can do, even with firmware updates … ?! 🤷🏻♂️
Depends on the use case. For fast beatmaking on the go, this is more portable and quick than the duo setup. For live performance, the duo setup would always be my pick.
I want to buy hardware - what would you recommend for my play-style? www.youtube.com/@MajesticZMR I dont like arranging (I am a beginner) needs to be intuitive ...
I can agree on quantization per pad although maybe you can get around that with resampling. Unlike a true groovebox like the MC-101, fully tweakable synths though is NOT what I expect from a deliberately designed instant sketch device that Move is. What should be possible at some point is that you can import your presets from the synths that are used in Move, which is Ableton's Live Wavetable and Drift. The whole point of this device anyway is finishing your stuff on Move in Ableton Live. If you're not into Ableton then Move is just another sketcher that always ends up with the question: And now what? The capture button is a really powerful and key feature of Move's workflow btw. So far, I have you hardly seen using it.
Yeah I've been using Capture a ton since filming this video. And yeah I agree that that's the intended use case Ableton seems to have in mind, I just wanted to see if I could push it farther/into other territory.
@@GabeMillerMusic and there is no shame in that, pushing an instrument as far as it can go is a fun adventure every time, and you get some cool stuff out of it in the process
As alot of folk online have said it needs 8 tracks, people keep pointing out that you can use drum racks and play samples chromatically, but these are all monophonic, I mean how many monophonic melodies do you need in a song 😆 You only have a couple instrument tracks for polyphony, as you are always going to have to use 1 track if you want to resample polyphonic stuff to drum rack slots. Hope they do add a few more tracks to it
I resample my polyphonic patches/sequences into a second drum rack. You can then change patches, create a new sequence, on the same synth track, and then resample to another pad on the second drum kit. On that second drum kit, you can have up to 16 pads with different synth stems. Ostensibly you could even have a third drum set track. I like to have two synth tracks - one for "live playing" and the other for writing sequences and bouncing them down.
@gabe miller - you can resample an entire sequenced track onto a pad on another track. That can be a polyphonic track that you are bouncing down to another pad. You can also create synth patches in live and map the macros to anything. It is incredibly easy to then save them to your Move. This is not much different than the circuit. I've made circuit patches as well, and the big problem is that you never know what the knobs are on the circuit. On the move, you touch the knob and you know what it it is. Not perfect, but ok. Also the nova synth engine ... well... is not my favorite. You also left things out like Link - which is incredibly awesome, and the fact that it is a decent controller for ableton. The other thing is that the ARM processer is no slouch, and 50 ish GB of available ram. No circuit rhythm can do that. I have all of my drum samples (including yours, btw) loaded on my My move. I was also able to take a bunch of my favorite kits that I've made in Ableton and quickly export into a working kit on the Move. You are comparing a nascent product to a mature one, not quite apples to apples. In the end, tho, it's what inspires you, not the list of features. There are certainly some glaring omissions in Move v1, tho. Hoping they address some in 1.1. Cheers. Love your stuff.
The problem with discovery content is the endless scroll tap tap scroll tap tap, tap tap tap! I'd rather wait and see when you've got it under control..😢 I still use your circuit how to's 😊
Glad to know those are helpful! Some people really like the discovery content and find it helpful (to see what the device is like to use for someone just getting into it) or entertaining. Can't please everyone. But I'll get into something more thought out in advance soon enough
I'll have to do a comparison at some point. There's some stuff the Move does that I wish the MC-101 would steal, but man it's hard to beat the MC-101 synth engine
@@GabeMillerMusic it is! I don't know if you had the chance to try the s1 by roland...strongly recommend! I found out that when you plug it in the 101 as a midi controller, you can bypass a LOT of the menu diving ylu experience in the basic sound design, like adsr, filter and maybe lfo...WITHOUT having to map anything!
You’ve not used the device long enough to grasp what ableton has made here and you're basically regurgitating what you have heard in other reviews. For sketching out ideas and the workflow this is best in class and being able to preview projects so quickly and with ableton link built in with wifi transfer of samples and projects. this device is ahead of the game. the og digitakt had 8 tracks and it was £899 with no battery, no speaker, no wireless transfer at all, no capture button. and let's not forget the move has session mode. whats not to love?
In my opinion, the idea of a sketch pad, for music, is overrated. I had some ideas about a track/sound design last weekend, I simple recorded a voice memo of the ideas on my phone. In case I forgot. When next in the studio. It’s easy to use a list or ideas and concepts as a strategy to get working. Unless you truly are going to be away from home for a long time, and need to just create music as practice, the. actually, they will always fall short.
Totally understood. I've made beats with the Move a lot over the weekend, and I never went in with a preconceived plan. I definitely view it more as a thing to come up with new stuff on. It's more niche than Ableton seems to think it is, but I definitely fall into that niche.
Sketchpads aren't for you, but an ocean of other people find sketchpads valuable. The great thing is, there are tons of options out there, so there is something for everyone, each person can grab one that most resonates with them.
Anyone watched Free Beat's new videos on the Move? Is it just me, or does he pretend like he knows Move and Ableton a lot better than he does? Like, in the first video, he says that if the MIDI capture doesn't register the tempo correctly, that it's okay because the copy/paste and looping functionality of Move make it easy to correct the MIDI capture and change the BPM. But then in the second newer video when he's trying to show us how to make a beat using MIDI capture, the tempo of the capture is incorrect. However, instead of using the copy/paste and looping functionality to fix it like he said, he tells us to just play four measures instead of one. Like, is it just me or does he pretend to know his gear better than he really does? I'd ask him myself, but he's blocked me from commenting. th-cam.com/video/ub2a9oz93Po/w-d-xo.htmlsi=3X8algnxze_SG5Yn th-cam.com/video/y7yGwMViUnA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=F0gAdsL4Tsv2IpaK
Glad I could show the user experience and let you come to a conclusion, although to be fair, I've been finding the core workflow to be pretty smooth. I've definitely got some frustrations though.
@@GabeMillerMusic appreciate your reply. After using the perkons there are not many groove boxes that can beat that for fun, instantaneous beat making. Its the sequencer, too good. very very different machines though.
@@milk_bath it doesn't have a lot of capabilities that other standalone groove boxes have, such as more midi implementation, which a lot of people have been complaining about. What I mean that this isn't a stand alone groovebox, is that ableton didn't make this or advertise it to be a fully fleshed out composition and performance tool, rather it's meant to be able to quickly sketch out ideas away from your computer, and then the device can seamlessly and wirelessly import your project into ableton. Alot of geartubers have been griping about what it can't do, rather than actually focusing on it's intended purpose, which works really well
@@theactionbasterd Sure, but the feature set matches my current level of skill and time available; I'm not working in Ableton these days due to other responsibilities. I think Ableton had more than one consumer category in mind.
Calling a $450 buy "a budget device" is kinda bull. $300 is the budget entry cost. $450 should afford some level of hope for users to have opinions heard and met.
Yeah that's why I'm urging people not to buy it now if it doesn't currently do what they want it to do. It's more niche than people might think, and updates aren't guaranteed.
Follow up video here, where I evaluate the beatmaking experience with the intended workflow: th-cam.com/video/wxxxtvo43bc/w-d-xo.html
Yours is the review I've been waiting for.
For me this thing replaced both the Circuit Tracks and Rythm. I'm still waiting for proper MIDI mapping, but even without it it's the most fun instrument that I ever owned. It's good at sampling, has great synth engines, it's portable and I can finally migrate my dawless jams seamlessly into Ableton Live.
I respect it, although for live purposes, it definitely can't replace the Circuits for me
I’m also in the same boat. For me, the Move replaces my Circuit combo. The Circuit workflow is really great, but using both the Tracks and Rhythm together is a bit of a headache. I’ve been in touch with Novation quite a few times to suggest improvements, but I never got the feeling that the quality of life improvements would ever come. Maybe because they knew Move was coming….. From the Move discord chat, I’d be amazed if we don’t get some really nice quality of life improvements from the Move development team next year.
The synths sound better on the Move; project management on the Move is liberating, the sample length times are liberating, the length of patterns is liberating, the ease of going from sketch to finished track is liberating, and Capture is simply amazing.
So as an Ableton user, my move to the Move is liberating.
I’ve had many grooveboxes since the OG Circuit and the Move is right up there at the top of the tree.
MC101?? I want something better than that with batteries and the possibility to record on a vocal track would be amazing
I appreciate your take on any groovebox, including this one. However, I do sort of feel like this one is solving for a very particular use case that isn't quite what us "power groovebox users" are looking for. Namely, this is a sketchpad first and foremost. You're meant to very quickly sketch out new ideas and then relatively soon bring those into Ableton Live where you flesh them out into full productions. So the other angle of looking at the limitations and trying to maximize what you can do within those limitation is, sort of, not the point of this device. You're meant to just use a track for drums, another one for bass, a third one for a lead or a synth or something, and a fourth one for some chords maybe. Sketch, make some variations, get a groove going, and then if you like it, send it over to Live and pick it up from there. I'm saying this not to suggest that you're doing anything wrong by trying to make it do what you want it to do, but I'm suggesting that they may never attempt to bridge those gaps that you experience because they might say "well that was exactly the point when designing this device". Meaning, I wouldn't expect a few firmware updates to take this significantly closer to the ultimate groovebox territory, unfortunately.
Yeah that's a great point, and kind of where my mind is heading as well. As I dove into the device, I wanted to see how far beyond sketchpad I could take it, especially given that people have been asking me to compare it to devices like the Circuits, but it's definitely its own beast with its own purpose. I'd like to see Ableton fix some of the little issues I encountered, but I agree that it's not super reasonable to expect them to completely overhaul what this device is, as much as I would like them to do that.
@@GabeMillerMusic Me too, by the way. In many ways it could be the ideal workflow, being able to sketch out full songs with seamless integration to Live. But in this case I'd rather sketch (and get *much* farther) on an MPC and then just drop the MPC VST into any daw.
@@GabeMillerMusicI think Ableton’s response to feature requests for the Move is if you want an Ableton standalone device that can do it all, buy a Push 3.
I understand the sketchpad use/case. My question is how easy is to take a track from a circuit into a daw like live? Does the circuit cover the sketchpad use/case? I think that the Move will be come a small setup/standalone performance brain pretty damn quick. Do y'all remember all of the issues with the og circuit, or even circuit tracks v1?
@@F_letc.h And if you want eight tracks, by another move and use link.
My wishlist for upcoming updates:
- Add a shortcut to get the second set of knobs without using the menu (all track types)
- Add ability to live loop into drum pads
- Add probability per step
- Add ability to sidechain against one or more pads in a drum kit
- Quantize currently selected drum pad, not the whole kit
- All tracks should send out midi data on different channels
- Tweak session mode to work more like the Circuit's scenes (so one pad is one scene)
I have a maschine plus and a Mpc live 2 not ever been invested in push but I really like this for just sketching cause ableton is my daw
Great video, great editing. I'm still thinking about getting a Circuit Tracks, and now this came out and I'm checking different reviews to see which one would be better for me (total beginner). Thanks a lot Gabe.
Dope set! Individual notes can still be nudged on the step sequencer before or after quantization down to a resolution of 1%. I'd be down for more synth parameters, as long as the menu diving for that comes AFTER everything else so as not to impede the workflow. That being said, this is a Live companion device and patches can be created there or tweaked later, which I am sure everyone knows. The speed and immediacy of this device is crazy, and this is where the flexibility lies despite the lack of some advanced features. Being so intuitive and quick is the number one feature to me. That foundation provides the flexibility for customizing and learning, and I think this device is unique enough that comparisons may impede the potential. People that don't like it probably won't get past that, but those who do I think have been given a wide open lane to get creative on how they choose to work with it.
I’ve had mine since release and absolutely love it, but I must agree with you: the synths definitely need additional standard controls such as envelope and polyphony. As for side chaining, I think the parameter locking is so simple and effective in this unit, it really doesn’t need a dedicated side chain feature. I think the most important feature that’s missing is time stretching!
Ableton now supports 16 macros per instrument rack. I think they will get there. It is likely a non-breaking enhancement.
@@HIFI1965 Good to hear! I certainly hope they include it. It'll make a big difference to sound design.
At least for Drift and the Drum Sampler you can upload your own presets to Note and Move.
So within the 8 macro limitations you could export a set from Move, change the macro bindings in Live and export the changed preset via Live 12.1 as Note/Move preset via context menu on the rack, to do this you need to enable this experimental feature in Lives Options.txt.
There is a tutorial on that on YT.
In case you didn't go back to check your folders - about that "file wrong format" warning:
I got that as well. It turned out I had a lot of text files, Reaper and Ableton waveform analysis files in those folders and I did a pretty deep dive to confirm that no .wav or .mp3 files were skipped and all the samples were there. I also had a lot of .mid files and groove files that were likewise rejected.
I'm not a groovebox power user and was, instead, looking for a musical sketchpad. In that role it works really well for me. But I can see that as it stands right now it's less conducive to performance and fully-polished songs. (I also did the "64 sounds" tests with the drum rack hack. Mixed results, but likely operator error.)
I agree with your comments about quantization and more control of the synth engines, but I also appreciate how little menu diving I need to do. I also think it was a genius move to pre-load random kits into a set. In that way, there is no decision to make if you just wanted to turn it on and start making music, knowing that you can swap out the sounds when/if you take the set into Live.
I also wish there was a "parking folder" for sets on the Move, so you could free up slots on the face of the device. Otherwise, if someone wanted to use it as a performance instrument they'd really be up a tree if a set were accidentally deleted in the middle of a performance.
Great review!
As an avid Circuit Tracks user (thanks to you :P) I was looking forward to your take on this.
Novation's next groovebox needs to be legendary :D
I think the best comparison would be the circuits, how did you find this device fell short or exceeded those?
I don't have a fully formed option yet, but even though it does more than a Circuit in terms of features, it's definitely not the Circuit killer. The Circuits still crush it for bigger jams/live sets. The Move is more powerful for making something that you'd finish in the DAW though.
Love your mc-101 videos, let’s go!
More of those
Thanks Gabe. I was waiting for this one and you didn’t disappoint.
Thank you, Gabe. I was wondering if/when you'd cover this thing. FWIW, I have one, and really like it. Of course, I'm not nearly as advanced as you, but I am having fun with it. I consider it a "couch composer" thing.
Couple other tidbits: If you have any visually impaired followers, they'll be happy to know that move.local/screen-reader URL will mirror the device's screen to the browser (except for the graphics and wave). That way, we can have our favorite screen reader announce whatever it is on the screen. I think that is incredibly inclusive and I commend Ableton for it.
Oh, one more thing: I couldn't find any cases made specifically for it, but I am happy to report that a 75% keyboard case works GREAT.
Great to get your perspective on the Move. I ordered it on day 1, then cancelled my order when I discovered the absurd limitations in sequencing external gear. Then I cancelled my order cancellation--why not try it out within the return period. As expected it isn't good for any sort of production work, it also fails as a groovebox on its own. I was able to use it together with my Circuit Tracks and with some modest firmware updates this could be a sweet combo as I find the Move a more interesting pairing than the Circuit Rhythm. Sound design in Live then upload to Move seems a much better workflow than Circuit's Components to me. The best usage is what I believe was intended, it's a hardware version of the Ableton Note app for jotting down ideas (usually moving about the house, not out in public) and continuing in Ableton Live when limitations become too much. Still wanting substantial firmware updates for MIDI gear (4 instrument tracks + 4 MIDI tracks sounds about right to me) and general use as a groovebox.
I’ve had mine a couple of weeks. Workarounds don’t really translate well when exported to live. Which is the point. It’s a beast of an ideas machine but within 10 minutes I’m maxed out on 4 tracks. Looks bleak when you export to live having only 4 tracks. 8 tracks works, as proven in note and is a massive oversight. The processor is old news so I’m not expecting huge leaps in features.
Seems to be a bit of a concept piece. I can see the note software translating well into a push 4 standalone with a lot more features. A good start but not quite there for me atm
Well... i've said it before and i'll say it again... it NEEDS midi out jacks or 5 pin. Imagine how cool it would be controlling your Volcas and Airas with this one! Love the look love the style but DAMN. Thanks bro for a grat review, one of the best channels around!
Yes, I’m using Circuit Tracks like that with Volcas and Airas. I thought that it has midi out from USB.
@@kejo703 Volcas don't even have USB except Sample (i guess?) and it's not for Midi anyway...i wish Move had 3.5 pin!
@@djkanyoncan’t you just use an adaptor USB to TRS?
@@kejo703 i can but it's a workaround that could have boon easily avoided... or at list it should have been in the box
Not necessary to be on same WiFi. If you connect Move to computer via USBC, and open browser and type in move.local, you’ll connect via LAN created w/ the cable. I tested this w/ computer in airplane mode and Move w/ WiFi disabled. Works fine. The Move hosts the HTML file transfer program.
Good to know. I initially had my computer plugged in via Ethernet and couldn't get the connection to work until I kept everything on the same network.
Yes, was hoping you would check it out!
I recently bought an MC-101 and one of the features that it has that I really appreciate of it are the 5 pin DIN midi ports. It makes the device very flexible in different usage scenarios. Because it has those midi ports it’s also quite good as a sound module to use with an external midi keyboard or sequencer. I always use the MC-101 with a keyboard connected to it. This seemly basic feature is a big plus of MC-101. It really surprises me that the Ableton move doesn’t have any midi ports except for midi over USB. That is such a missed opportunity. I wonder if this a deliberate choice or just something they overlooked in the design. The design it self is quite slick, nice display and controls. But why no midi ports? This really limits it, whereas the MC-101 can be used together with other devices such as the TR-6S by simply connecting them with a midi cable. I use them together and they complement each other well.
A gateway groovbox to Ableton live, quoted from their homepage, "Take your ideas further in Live" sounds like they are aware of its limitations, and are good with that, offering their DAW as the solution.
Second comment after actually watching, I love this thing! And I love that in your review the music you have done actually shows different abilities of this device than I saw in other videos. That is important. To be able to hear this device in different scenarios, even more when, like in this case, it actually sounds cool. After seeing this and knowing that there are accessibility features on Move just like that, kind of out of the box, I think there is high possibility it will turn up on my Christmass list. ;)
Thanks, that was the goal!
I like the Move a lot more than the MC101. First of all, no double use of sequencer / pitch buttons. Second, I prefer presets with less settings way more than having a giant menu for every sound design option. (Though I think that we need to be able to prepare the exposed options of presets in Ableton Live, but as I understand it they are already working on designing Move presets in Ableton live). The only thing I am missing on the Move is an arranger view. I think using the 8 scene columns as If they were arranger columns is not good enough, I would prefer a second separate view: a huge horizontal scrolling view that lets me pick the 8 possible scenes with an encoder, and also lets me change the bar length of the “arranger step” with a second encoder, so that song playing automatically moves on to the next arranger step after the bar length has been reached. There are a lot more than 2 encoders on the Move and memory wise this hardly cost any space (since the only thing you have to store per arranger step is a scene number and a bar length) so the device is definitely able to pull this off. I hope that Ableton the company is able to imagine it.
It seems that the ‘good thing’ about Move is its ability to adapt to the limited musical composition expertise of the target audience. A bit like what happened with Circuit.
So, if you're looking for something more advanced and still want to buy it this 'Move', you have to be aware of its capabilities and stick to them, or else pass it by and use a setup with fewer restrictions, such as MIDI controllers in conjunction with your DAW.
How does this stack up against Note? I see they've changed a BUNCH of stuff on it, and it doesn't have a four track limit. They seem very, very similar. The two effects per sound, even the same synth engines, sampling. I think the only thing Note doesn't have is 16 pitches. Which doesn't matter too much when you can just make a new sampler track for that sound.
I dont get why most reviewers arent comparing move to note or its ~$500 competition. If it's a standalone note, ok great. If it's lesser than its competition but for ableton lovers, fine. But it seems like people are avoiding those comparisons.
If Note had a sequencer I would've not bought the Move. Who am I kidding? I buy any groovebox under $500.
Gabe this is not a full fledge production tool. It is meant to capture demos that get fully produced in a DAW.
Go crazy on the drum track, add some chords, a bass line, and some melody.
If you must, resample and create more tracks.
Move on and record another demo.when you have a demo that you really like take it to Ableton to make a full production.
Were you able to test live recording capabilities? I would really like to use this for layering live guitar parts
Yeah I fully understand that, but I wanted to see how far I could push this thing. I don't want to let the sketchpad nature of some grooveboxes stop me from trying to go beyond that. That's especially the case if I want to compare to devices with similar features.
I haven't tried layering live recorded stuff yet, I'll give it a go!
Too bad there’s no song function where you can put one pattern after another like in Circuit Tracks.
I think the move is a great device so far.
Balanced review dude ✌️
Ableton Note provides all the Move features with 8 tracks in your Phone / iPad. Of course Move is more tactile.
One hope though is that the 8 tracks could be handled by Move in a near future.
I think one of the details people tend not to focus on with this thing is that the software is based on Ableton Note the iOS app. So if you wanna know what this feels like get the app, I’ve been using the app for a while and the idea of having that in a hardware device sounds pretty awesome. Also, with the quantizing thing I know that in the app you can select individual drum parts and quant separately so I would assume that there is a way to do it on the device, but I don’t have one yet always a great way.
My overall perspective so far is that this is kind of sits in between the MC 101 and the circuit tracks but with an Ableton tether. Which from my perspective is exactly what I need just saying love your perspective Gabe you make great videos. Appreciate you, brother .
Nice review! This answered most of my questions. I'm curious to what extent they'll be able to add featues later with software updates.
Only Ableton know how much room for growth they left on the device with the RAM and CPU it has.
Yes there is a lot of videos about the Move, but I was precisely waiting for yours, as I like how you review all of the grooveboxes so far, how you give your opinion about the workflow and ease of use of these instruments, their build quality and the ins and out possibilities to pair them with synths and record /sample other instruments. Keep doing these reviews, it's aporeciated.☕🥐
Liked your revision. In conjunction with IOS App Note you have a lot of more possibilities. Hope Ableton is continuing supporting this device for a long time like they did before. MIDI import is missing. In comparison with Novation Circuit this gear is beyond. Especially the audio recording handling. What I absolutely love the most is its portability, the battery and the built in speaker.
If you hold the pad and adjust parameters it will only effect that pad
Gabe could do a video, "First day with a blade of grass" and I'd tune in.
Could you please check if it's possible to sample while the unit is playing? This would be great for recording vocals, audio loops of an external synth, or live looping.
That's something I definitely want to test!
@@GabeMillerMusic Awesome, looking forward to it!
For me samples is bonus (not emphasis I think). Best feature of Move that instr, drum, drift tracks are full synth. You can tweak sound later in the DAW. And Move project is Live project with all fx and master limiter also become devices. And, you can make your fave synth preset in DAW in push back to device.
Let’s be honest about small, battery powered grooveboxes. It’s too limiting to make a full song with just samples. Also can’t expect too much of full fledged synth power on a small device. Move is good trade-off and balance of features and workflow. With dedicated freaking Undo button and Capture flow it’s a handy instrument! 😊
Gabe try make it using Capture instead of Rec. You are power user, look at this different device not expecting things to be same as 101 or Circuits, but power it has to offer. Not advising here, just sharing 😊 Cheers very much!
Yeah I've been making beats on the Move all weekend and using Capture a ton. I'll definitely explore that and focus more on Ableton's intended workflow in a future video.
I am holding off till Holiday sales. At $450 in current state Im a No , $350 or under I’d probably give it a shot and see what updates come over the course of time. If it had MPE like the Push 3 which I have NOT bought yet , I’d probably have grabbed Move on release.
4 track sketch is all well and good but soon as you export that to Ableton they will soon be drowned out by the software.. but maybe its the track start some are looking for.
Still.... it's abillity to Acid extremely well can't be overlooked but the Roland T8 can do that at less than half the price :/
Great review!
It's funny how so many of the groove box makers push the idea of 'you can take it anywhere', usually accompanied by a wide eyed youth in a coffee shop creating some master piece . After many years and many coffee shops I'm yet to see anyone using a groove box in such a place. Laptops and headphones abound, of course. I do wonder, if you have a halfway decent laptop why you wouldn't just buy Ableton Live Standard, which is soo much more powerful than any groove box on the market and costs at least a 100 bucks less than 'Move".
Good to see you back. The move looks interesting but it’s more of a live performance tool so probably not for me.
Good to be back! Funny enough, I went into the Move hoping I could get more live performance features out of it than were advertised, but it's really not set up for that. It's much more geared towards fast, nimble beatmaking as its primary focus.
@Gabe, are you going to review Yamaha Seqtrak? Interested in your opinion on it
Probably not right now, but I'll at least look into it and see if it's something I'd be interested in deep diving into.
i double that! I chose SeqTrack over Move coz it's cheaper and have more functions, but maybe i'm missing something
@@djkanyonSeqtrak looks great but can only store like 12 projects 😬
@@GraemeMarkNIhaha true, and... was it mentioned once in YT reviews? i don't remember.
8 projects on the machine but you can load those into the app. Real simple. Can't beat 11tracks, a sampler, and 128 voices. I own it and have own almost every other groovebox and can say it is top notch. @@GraemeMarkNI
the worst limitation I find is either midi in or midi out but not both and the lack of real midi connections. I have a Pioneer sp 16 as a dawlesscenterpiece with a thru box for 7 devices , i make mostly psytrance.i started with fruityloops 2 ,then cubase,now bitwig 5 is my only daw with a tascam model 24
Best regards like your musical skills
Would love to see you compare the move to the Circuit Tracks or other gear in that category
I probably will eventually! They're way more different than people would think
I really wanted to hear your opinion, as no one compares it to MC-101. So far I think MC-101 is better for me, as I don't really use sampling as much, but I do think MC-101 is lacking in this department and the Move wins here. But in terms of build in sounds, which is more important for me, MC-101 seems a better choice. Also, although, both of them "menu-divy", i have an impression that shortcuts on the MC-101 are more powerful, and workflow seems to be faster, may be wrong about it.
Nice review, seems like it could be fun but not for people needing those features. I'm surprised you haven't done one for KOII and Roland P6. They're all pretty interesting in their own right. The Sonicware LoFis are really cool too. I'm still waiting for a company to make something comparable to the OP-1 for about 500 dollars. I don't need the fancy screen or synth engine or that much tweaking power.
I took a bit of a break from reviewing new gear. I'm slowly allowing myself to get back into it but I don't want to get overwhelmed or burnt out so I'm being careful about what I take on and when.
@@GabeMillerMusic Fair enough, it's always nice to see you and also checked out that full set on the two Circuits, nice!
Seqtrak. The groovebox killer.
With Live, you can now have 16 macro controls. So I would like to think that this could be brought to the Move. As you can build your own presets and bring them over, but this is still slightly experimental.
I don’t see why we couldn’t get some sort of sidechain. But I don’t see that many votes for the feature on the Move discord channel.
There has been some talk about “project switching” and I think a few tweaks to that may come along. But nothing too major as the Move devs are worried about having to load a whole other project, prior to the switch, to make transitions better. But let’s be honest, apart from the sync and tempo match, the Move project switching isn’t too far away from where it needs to be.
For the quantisation. I don’t see that Move is too dissimilar to the Circuits. Maybe Move is better with its finer time increments when you can the resolution of the step sequencer and ability to nudge. But I would love to see a per pad quantize option, like on Push.
color by numbers.
Thinking to give away my MC-101 to buy a Move only for these features missing on the Roland box: adequate sample time and ability to use line-in with monitoring on to play with an external synth (avoid using an external mixer) and record directly from it. ... If only Roland wanted to improve the MC-101 and not "splitting" it in the multiple toyish aira boxes ..
As someone who basically brought (recently) my Circuit Tracks partly because of your videos I’m really interested in your view of this!
I've had mc-101 for 3 years now, pretty tired of its sound and looking for an alternative groovebox. But there is apparently nothing even close on the market. Shame
Just speculating here but could you apply quantisation while pressing a pad and have it only apply to instances of that sample?
Apart from that agree with your suggested improvements. A better arp and separate MIDI channels per track would be good too.
As far as I know, no unfortunately. The quantize happens with essentially the push of one button. I could try holding down a pad first, but it doesn't seem set up to do that.
@@GabeMillerMusic so Ableton Note (which the Push is based on) does apply quantization to 'selected notes' and has a few ways to select the notes. Seems Move doesn't yet have the latter, but perhaps they will address that in future.
Can I just play 4 synths sounds with midi? (same way I use 101)
via USB MIDI
kinda wish ableton made a sound design box, like a m4l/live sketchpad
I am writing this even before watching. ;) I have been waited for this since Move appeared. For someone who values a pibility to create musical ideas on the go and then get them into a DAW it seems great but I will see your perspective while watching. ;)
12:49: Breaking News: Ableton has achieved the impossible - they actually got Gabe Miller to read a manual. When a guy who can figure out any piece of music tech needs instructions... well, let's just say the Ableton Move isn't exactly winning awards for user-friendliness.
To be fair, I was able to pick up a lot of the basic functions without needing to refer to anything, and I've absolutely used the manual for devices I love and find intuitive. The text was mostly my friend/editor finding an opportunity to roast me and both of us thinking it was funny. When doing the "first day with new device" videos I usually go to the manual as a last resort.
@@GabeMillerMusic Love the popup comments - your friend reeally added to the video with their editing chops! Your 'you have to really over-think' comment nailed it IMO. I own a Push 2 (expensive paperweight club here) and while it's beautifully built, why choose this over a Roland MC101? The Ableton Move just feels like a fancy sketchpad with extra steps. P.S. You're going to do a circuit novation vs mc-101 vs ableton move right? 😀
The most annoying limit for me in Move is that ridiculous amount (32) of sets which I can save in Move, like WTF? Is this a joke ? My storage use after I saved 32 sets is: 5,8MB / 52,4 GB O_o Why I cant use this space to save more sets ? In Note on my iPhone I have currently saved over 400 sets and averything is all right and "Documents & Data" (so that all sets and probably some small samples which I recorded) are ONLY 412MB od my iPhone memory.
I think the Roland MC-101 is capable of so much more, but I am not an Ableton user, so maybe I'm biased. I also like the Yamaha SeqTrak better, but I like the pads on the Move far better than the crappy buttons/keys on the SeqTrak.
UPDATE. I’m not feeling Ableton Move. Sorry!
Fair enough!
Most of us either. What a bummer.
Gabe Killer fits you better.Don't worry Move 's going to be heavily updated.
Apparently it has like a 2016 mobile phone CPU … which could obviously be a limiting factor on how much it can do, even with firmware updates … ?! 🤷🏻♂️
this vs the duo of circuit rhythm with tracks i wonder?
Depends on the use case. For fast beatmaking on the go, this is more portable and quick than the duo setup. For live performance, the duo setup would always be my pick.
@@GabeMillerMusic If I already have the tracks should I just get the rhythm to complete the duo vs getting this?
buddy if anyone‘s a „power user“ it’s you! :) thanks for the review, i got one as well and i share your thoughts
the kazoo LMFAO 😂
I suppose you meant move.local (and not local.move)
Dang it, you're right
I want to buy hardware - what would you recommend for my play-style?
www.youtube.com/@MajesticZMR
I dont like arranging (I am a beginner) needs to be intuitive ...
Good video. Have you done a review on the Roland p-6 ?
Are these samples in your $5 Sample Kit?! Damn they sound amazing. I LOVE my Move
They're not, but thanks! A lot of them are from a Droplex sample pack, and some of them are custom samples that haven't made it to the pack yet.
I can agree on quantization per pad although maybe you can get around that with resampling. Unlike a true groovebox like the MC-101, fully tweakable synths though is NOT what I expect from a deliberately designed instant sketch device that Move is. What should be possible at some point is that you can import your presets from the synths that are used in Move, which is Ableton's Live Wavetable and Drift. The whole point of this device anyway is finishing your stuff on Move in Ableton Live. If you're not into Ableton then Move is just another sketcher that always ends up with the question: And now what?
The capture button is a really powerful and key feature of Move's workflow btw. So far, I have you hardly seen using it.
@@Drrolfski I think you nailed the intended use case of this device here. Agreed 100%.
Yeah I've been using Capture a ton since filming this video. And yeah I agree that that's the intended use case Ableton seems to have in mind, I just wanted to see if I could push it farther/into other territory.
@@GabeMillerMusic and there is no shame in that, pushing an instrument as far as it can go is a fun adventure every time, and you get some cool stuff out of it in the process
As alot of folk online have said it needs 8 tracks, people keep pointing out that you can use drum racks and play samples chromatically, but these are all monophonic, I mean how many monophonic melodies do you need in a song 😆 You only have a couple instrument tracks for polyphony, as you are always going to have to use 1 track if you want to resample polyphonic stuff to drum rack slots. Hope they do add a few more tracks to it
I resample my polyphonic patches/sequences into a second drum rack. You can then change patches, create a new sequence, on the same synth track, and then resample to another pad on the second drum kit. On that second drum kit, you can have up to 16 pads with different synth stems. Ostensibly you could even have a third drum set track. I like to have two synth tracks - one for "live playing" and the other for writing sequences and bouncing them down.
@gabe miller - you can resample an entire sequenced track onto a pad on another track. That can be a polyphonic track that you are bouncing down to another pad. You can also create synth patches in live and map the macros to anything. It is incredibly easy to then save them to your Move. This is not much different than the circuit. I've made circuit patches as well, and the big problem is that you never know what the knobs are on the circuit. On the move, you touch the knob and you know what it it is. Not perfect, but ok. Also the nova synth engine ... well... is not my favorite. You also left things out like Link - which is incredibly awesome, and the fact that it is a decent controller for ableton. The other thing is that the ARM processer is no slouch, and 50 ish GB of available ram. No circuit rhythm can do that. I have all of my drum samples (including yours, btw) loaded on my My move. I was also able to take a bunch of my favorite kits that I've made in Ableton and quickly export into a working kit on the Move. You are comparing a nascent product to a mature one, not quite apples to apples. In the end, tho, it's what inspires you, not the list of features. There are certainly some glaring omissions in Move v1, tho. Hoping they address some in 1.1. Cheers. Love your stuff.
The problem with discovery content is the endless scroll tap tap scroll tap tap, tap tap tap! I'd rather wait and see when you've got it under control..😢
I still use your circuit how to's 😊
Glad to know those are helpful! Some people really like the discovery content and find it helpful (to see what the device is like to use for someone just getting into it) or entertaining. Can't please everyone. But I'll get into something more thought out in advance soon enough
Humm, the mc101 still seems like a better choice, even after 5 years
I'll have to do a comparison at some point. There's some stuff the Move does that I wish the MC-101 would steal, but man it's hard to beat the MC-101 synth engine
@@GabeMillerMusic it is!
I don't know if you had the chance to try the s1 by roland...strongly recommend! I found out that when you plug it in the 101 as a midi controller, you can bypass a LOT of the menu diving ylu experience in the basic sound design, like adsr, filter and maybe lfo...WITHOUT having to map anything!
Even my beloved Roland T-8 has SC
It's limited because they sell Push... in two versions currently... they want to sell you that instead.
I never quantize anyways :)
Pads started to fail on mine. Sent back for a refund.
Oof
You’ve not used the device long enough to grasp what ableton has made here and you're basically regurgitating what you have heard in other reviews. For sketching out ideas and the workflow this is best in class and being able to preview projects so quickly and with ableton link built in with wifi transfer of samples and projects. this device is ahead of the game. the og digitakt had 8 tracks and it was £899 with no battery, no speaker, no wireless transfer at all, no capture button. and let's not forget the move has session mode. whats not to love?
Well, it's labaled "first day with" and ad such isn't a review, let alone a bad one. 😊
@@sinewaymusicyour absolute right, but at the end it kind of turned into a review.
@@MaterialMike I'd call that an initial reaction maybe. Perhaps a proper review will come with time.
Gabe spent at least an hour with it --that's equal to 2 weeks of most people's groove box brain comprehension
@chuckvicious 😂👏
Akai has 6 hours to respond!
8 sequences max per song.... ...well 7 ... you need a blank sequence to stop a clip (dumb)
is the MC 101 better or not?
❤🎉
In my opinion, the idea of a sketch pad, for music, is overrated. I had some ideas about a track/sound design last weekend, I simple recorded a voice memo of the ideas on my phone. In case I forgot. When next in the studio. It’s easy to use a list or ideas and concepts as a strategy to get working. Unless you truly are going to be away from home for a long time, and need to just create music as practice, the. actually, they will always fall short.
Totally understood. I've made beats with the Move a lot over the weekend, and I never went in with a preconceived plan. I definitely view it more as a thing to come up with new stuff on. It's more niche than Ableton seems to think it is, but I definitely fall into that niche.
Sketchpads aren't for you, but an ocean of other people find sketchpads valuable. The great thing is, there are tons of options out there, so there is something for everyone, each person can grab one that most resonates with them.
You can get a lot of mileage out of a single drumkit track.
Why tf is 6:34 so damn hard
I'd stick with my force and not bother...
Yeah they're very different devices for different use cases.
Anyone watched Free Beat's new videos on the Move? Is it just me, or does he pretend like he knows Move and Ableton a lot better than he does? Like, in the first video, he says that if the MIDI capture doesn't register the tempo correctly, that it's okay because the copy/paste and looping functionality of Move make it easy to correct the MIDI capture and change the BPM. But then in the second newer video when he's trying to show us how to make a beat using MIDI capture, the tempo of the capture is incorrect. However, instead of using the copy/paste and looping functionality to fix it like he said, he tells us to just play four measures instead of one. Like, is it just me or does he pretend to know his gear better than he really does? I'd ask him myself, but he's blocked me from commenting.
th-cam.com/video/ub2a9oz93Po/w-d-xo.htmlsi=3X8algnxze_SG5Yn
th-cam.com/video/y7yGwMViUnA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=F0gAdsL4Tsv2IpaK
I haven't seen the video, but Free Beat is a friend and I don't want my comment section to be a place for people to talk down on him.
Did you forget you actually have to sing into your kazoo? lol.
uhh don't worry about it
This moment was priceless! 🤣 One of my favourites for sure.
there is almost no good ableton move content out there
single miidi deal breaker :(
Wow this looks convoluted and painful to use. Thanks 🙏
Glad I could show the user experience and let you come to a conclusion, although to be fair, I've been finding the core workflow to be pretty smooth. I've definitely got some frustrations though.
@@GabeMillerMusic appreciate your reply. After using the perkons there are not many groove boxes that can beat that for fun, instantaneous beat making. Its the sequencer, too good. very very different machines though.
Gabe…i think you need more time with device..it does what you want…
....it's not supposed to be a stand alone groovebox....
I understand that, but I'm not gonna let that stop me from seeing how far I can push it.
Seems pretty stand-alone to me. Mic, speakers, battery, and audio input.
@@milk_bath it doesn't have a lot of capabilities that other standalone groove boxes have, such as more midi implementation, which a lot of people have been complaining about. What I mean that this isn't a stand alone groovebox, is that ableton didn't make this or advertise it to be a fully fleshed out composition and performance tool, rather it's meant to be able to quickly sketch out ideas away from your computer, and then the device can seamlessly and wirelessly import your project into ableton. Alot of geartubers have been griping about what it can't do, rather than actually focusing on it's intended purpose, which works really well
@@theactionbasterd Sure, but the feature set matches my current level of skill and time available; I'm not working in Ableton these days due to other responsibilities. I think Ableton had more than one consumer category in mind.
Calling a $450 buy "a budget device" is kinda bull.
$300 is the budget entry cost. $450 should afford some level of hope for users to have opinions heard and met.
Yeah that's why I'm urging people not to buy it now if it doesn't currently do what they want it to do. It's more niche than people might think, and updates aren't guaranteed.