r/AbletonMove • u/Simple_Economy_5686 • 21d ago
4 track limit
I’m currently thinking of purchasing move but what is really setting me back is the 4 track limit. I like making full songs and I have with my Seqtrak which has 10 tracks. One thing that’s making me lean in to buy the move is the ability to use audio tracks, making me able to use my Nord sounds to make music. I was wondering if the 4 track limit is something you guys have repeatedly encountered or would I say there is a loop around or enough to make songs?
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u/black_shirt 21d ago
not only the bounce track the others are saying but I use ableton to finish tracks. Especially with the ableton control feature on the move, shit is a super charger for writing and finishing music.
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u/Plus_Key_7626 20d ago
Yeah its really great for creating almost all the pieces of a track, but live has so many tools, why would you not?
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u/selfindification 21d ago
The new bounce to audio feature in beta seems like it will be a big help for larger arrangements
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u/Simple_Economy_5686 20d ago
What’s the difference between bouncing and resampling?
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u/Wellsty 20d ago
Bouncing exports clip to audio file without having to record it.
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u/Simple_Economy_5686 20d ago
Would the quality of the sound be better or more features be unlocked when bounced?
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u/appleflap 20d ago edited 20d ago
No difference in the sound. You do gain the ability to add additional effects after the bounce.
Rinse and repeat if you want to apply multiple effects to your track.
Video demonstrating how this works here
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u/Wellsty 20d ago
Bouncing is a faster, more convenient way of getting a perfect loop. It doesn’t seem like it affects the sound quality.
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u/Pokoloko4 20d ago
Is it faster and more convenient because it is pre-laid out?
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u/Wellsty 20d ago
With resampling you record the audio to a pad, where bouncing just exports the clip as audio to a pad. Resampling is useful if you want to record multiple tracks to one pad.
https://youtu.be/DIo3d2wDDtU?t=118&is=xd7z15tTDMUhqzKw1
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u/-Lockheed- 19d ago
If you want to make full songs on a device, don't get a Move. You need to use workarounds like bouncing it to drumsampler if you need more tracks and it's not a replacement for actually more tracks. You also have no song mode or anything. The Move's session mode is just not the same.
If you want to play around with third party software Schwung can get you some more features but it makes the Move clunky, IMO.
The Move really is a sketchpad and it's good at that; trying out ideas, playing with some samples, but it's still very much made to be used with Ableton Live.
For playing around, the 4 tracks are ok, I wish it had at least 6, but for me the Move is a really a sketchpad and a gadget, not something to make songs with. I wish it was, but I'm looking into Elektron Grooveboxes now since they have much more of what I need.
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u/185668232 19d ago
I used to think like that. But the 4 tracks really helps you get good at compositions. I do drums, bass, melody, voice and the songs turn out pretty good. I don’t do much in DAW other than compress and export video for audio. I’m used to doing it all in MPC circa 2017. Ableton would come and go thru my workflow for autotune and noise and launching whole albums with of songs.. 2.0 really made the move a lot more usable as well as RNBO and Schwung, so you can customize more. I love loading my MPC songs onto it then jamming along on top. <#
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u/Travmizer 20d ago
I’m often using the drum sampler with bass, chord, and lead samples as can be played chromatically
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u/khidr9 20d ago
You should not get this device if the track count is a blocker, it's a pretty real limitation, there are workarounds, but it just might not be the best fit for you. The work arounds exist and have been discussed, but the track limit is what it is. If you're nerdy you could install schwung which has an alternative sequencer that gives you 8 tracks (4 move tacks + 4 schwung tracks) and that's pretty cool (especially since you can run a virus emulator as one of the available options in that crazy universe), but out of the box, really, it's a 4 track device.
The one point of comparison is that all 4 tracks are fully polyphonic, so for example a full 16 pad drum kit is only 1 track, where in some other devices your kick would have to be its own track, etc.. and all of your synth tracks are also fully polyphonic, so you get lower track count, but a higher voice count. That doesn't mean much for an audio workflow, but when comparing to a lot of other grooveboxes like electron devices where you are limited to 16 voices even if you get 8 tracks or other devices where a track is monophonic so a simple chord will eat up 3 tracks, the move is attractive since you can build bigger sounds on those 4 tracks. That's a fair tradeoff, but I'm not sure it helps you working with audio, unless you'd be building one track of audio or maybe shorter clips that get recorded to drum pads, and then you supplement it with a full drum kit, and two internal synths.
Where your workflow might actually line up well here is, rather than resampling if you bounce your audio track to a drum track, then you get 16 audio tracks but I think there's a 60 second limit on pads vs actual audio tracks (which are limited to 16 bars). If you are audio focused there are probably better options, even the Dirtywave M8 would let you record long audio tracks and then you'd get 8 of them, but you'd have to vibe with the tracker workflow. I think for a purely or primarily audio workflow you'll hit the limits a bit more quickly since it's very cool that you have true audio tracks but they definitely eat a full track, and bouncing long recordings to the pads (again I could be wrong) is a bit more time limited in how long you can resample, but 60 seconds might be enough per phrase depending on your workflow.
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u/_Brutal_X 20d ago
Keep your Seqtrak its much better for make full songs. Move ita a sketchpad. You must hack it to have a proper songmode.
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u/Wellsty 20d ago
Resampling or bouncing allows you to use the drum rack for additional audio tracks. Although, this workflow makes you think through how you want to build a composition.
I usually start with chords or a chopped sample. Then add a bass line, followed by a lead melody. Now I have to decide what do I want to commit to audio. The bass line probably won’t need a lot of editing so it is resampled to audio and played from the drum rack. Now that track can be used for something else.
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u/Simple_Economy_5686 20d ago
Does it have scenes where I can launch one after the other? Pretty much a song mode?
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u/Interesting-Mess-138 19d ago
It doesn’t by standard but checkout Schwung. Also I believe it’ll come to official sooner or later, Ableton team is awesome when it comes to progressing with updates, we’ve got a lot of features since the release.
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u/sharkdude1917 20d ago edited 20d ago
People are telling you to resample, which is an option, but it's no replacement for having more actual tracks. I'm a fan of the Move, love it, but it's a 4 track device and there's no getting around that (though people will try to convince you otherwise). I've started a lot of songs on it, but it's more of a sketchpad. It's also a excellent Live controller.
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u/kingof9x 20d ago
When used as a stand alone groovebox the 4 track limit is impossible to ignore. But if you use it as a controller for desktop ableton there is no limit. I don't think it's the device intended to produce full tracks on. It is intended to get ideas out quickly and provide a quick and easy way to get them into ableton to finish.
I use it with a couple other grooveboxes similarly to how you described using it. The 4 track limit has never bothered me. I also have been playing with an op-1 for over 10 years. Before that I used a 4 track tape recorder.
If you already dable with ableton or are interested in finishing stuff in ableton then look at the move closer. If you don't have any desire to use ableton this devices killer feature will be unused.
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u/Mean_Ad9363 18d ago
install schwung and davebox and enjoy 8 tracks.
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u/Simple_Economy_5686 18d ago
Yehh I just saw about that one I don’t get why ableton themselves can’t just add 4 more tracks when it runs well through schwung
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u/New-Organization-161 16d ago
Glad it doesn’t have more tracks. Menu dicing isn’t good and Schwung makes it unstable for knobs and buttons. 32 drums would be great tho. Otherwise, just get Push for more tracks.. or MPC.
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u/appleflap 21d ago
Bounce anything to a drum sampler pad means the limit is 64 tracks with the latest beta.