vectordust

have been a paying user for years, very happy with the service.

looking back at my order history, I upgraded from Live 10 Suite (purchased 2018) to Live 11 Suite for $245.60 in 2021 and again from 11 Suite to 12 Suite in 2024 for $245.60.

Everyone has a different financial situation, but for me this is entirely fair pricing for professional grade software that does not have a subscription that I use on an almost daily basis. I am happy to continue supporting Ableton, they respect me as a user and are consistent in their quality and output. (I don't use FL Studio, this is not a dig at that company/platform, just a happy Ableton user).

that's exactly right, unfortunately. it's a bit of the wild-west the it comes to plugins/VSTs in terms of distribution.

and I agree, this feels like the sort of thing that should be pretty solvable, but I think there's a lot of hidden complexity in this problem space. Solving the "version control" aspect of this feels like it should be rather straightforward for a single user, involving multiple users with different Ableton Live versions, different plugins/VSTs (and different versions within those) is where things would undoubtedly get messy.

I do think there is a niche market for this sort of thing, however.

I dream of a git-like workflow for Ableton, ideally with some sort of clever solve for the inevitable missing device issue (maybe freezing could solve this with some tweaks?).

I'm also curious to hear from others on how they solve this, especially when collaborating remotely.

My advice, if you have the budget, get Standard and upgrade to Suite later (at a discount). Suite is _nice_ but it's really mostly bells and whistles that you don't "need" to get from Ableton. Suite has a ton of included sound packs and instruments that are certainly useful but may not be useful to you.

As for the Akai MPK Mini, that's going to be entirely subject IMO. I've bought several midi controllers over the years, and I've settled on a few key pieces that I'm happy with. The Arturia KeyStep 37 is the perfect keyboard for my desktop. It has enough range in a compact form factor and doesn't have any features I don't need (I'm not affiliated with Arturia).

If you don't already have a midi keyboard, I would suggest grabbing an affordable one!

I'm not a fan boy of any companies or tools, but Live has continued to impress me with each release.

In my free time I produce electronic/ambient music and I've been unhappy with the existing visualizer tools and wanted something that gave me more control over the final results to try and better compliment my work/achieve my creative vision better. so far it's been a lot of fun to work on and it feels incredibly gratifying seeing it come together when paired with my songs.

This was my first proof of concept that I rendered with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crqPvKmMWUg

it's a bit basic, but still stylized and I think it suits that sort of drone-y ambient sound well.

I have a more traditional "visualizer" for a different song in the works, showcasing a lot more complexity in the rendering engine. Hoping to put that one out today.

I had no idea about his Obsidian project, I will certainly be taking a look at that, thanks for the recommendation!

How does one find these people? Asking for a friend! :D

I've also gone down the synthesizer rabbit hole: prophet-6, full modular setup (rip bank account), subsequent 37. It's great fun!

If anyone is curious, I put out a single recently (remaster from last year): https://soundcloud.com/vectordust/ion-dunes-1

My main personal goal right now is to release a full length album this year.

agreed with this, I would almost go so far as to say there are more full length albums being created than ever before.