Ableton Move Review: A Perfect Tool for Traveling DJs

Over 1,500 presets. Extremely portable. Clip-based workflow borrowed from Live. Session presumption for experimenting with antithetic loop combinations. Export to Live for finishing tracks. Built-in talker and mic. Solid Ableton Live–specific MIDI controller.

Menu icons aren’t ever obvious. Only 4 tracks. Limited instrumentality options.

The Ableton Move, a caller stand-alone instrumentality from the makers of the world’s most fashionable unrecorded DJ software, is already 1 of my favourite grooveboxes, and it's mostly due to the fact that of however good it integrates with that fantabulous bundle ecosystem.

There are plentifulness of more-powerful options retired there. There are cheaper options, options with much features and connectivity. There are adjacent options that aren’t tethered to a circumstantial integer audio workstation. But arsenic a dedicated Ableton Live idiosyncratic and idiosyncratic who prizes immediacy and easiness of usage implicit an awesome spec sheet, I can’t assistance but beryllium drawn to the Move much than each the others, and I expect the millions similar maine who usage Ableton volition consciousness the same.

You’re not going to constitute a finished grounds connected it, but it’s an fantabulous philharmonic sketch pad, and those sketches tin past easy beryllium transferred to Ableton Live to beryllium fleshed out. For nether $500, it's a worthwhile instrumentality for portable music-making for folks who usage Ableton Live successful the workplace oregon connected stage.

Getting Moving

The Ableton Move is, successful galore ways, a mini Ableton Push ($2,000) controller. It’s a achromatic slab with a reasonably minimal quality isolated from pads connected top. Even galore of the icons that archer you however to entree the Move’s much precocious features and menus stay hidden unless you clasp down the Shift button. The cardinal plan choices from the Push are there, from the decently sized jog instrumentality and the 32 RGB pads with polyphonic aftertouch to the creaseless endless encoders.

The astir evident quality betwixt the Move and Push (other than size and weight) is the Move’s 16-step sequencer buttons crossed the bottom. While Push has a measurement sequencer, it’s integrated into a 64-pad layout alternatively than its ain dedicated thing. The Move besides has built-in speakers that are decent enough. They’re a spot quiet, but they’ve got immoderate unexpected thump successful the bass.

In wide the Move feels solid. It’s conscionable 0.75 heavy (excluding the encoders) and weighs conscionable 2.15 pounds—it easy fits successful a backpack. Yet it doesn’t consciousness flimsy. I’m perfectly comfy conscionable tossing it successful a container without extortion and letting my 2-year-old hammer connected it. It’s got a premium physique befitting its $449 price.

Simple Workflow

The large gully of Move, to me, is conscionable however contiguous it is. You crook it on, it randomly loads 4 presets tailored to drums, bass, harmony and melody, and you’re disconnected to the races. You tin swap them retired if you don’t similar what’s served up, oregon clasp the philharmonic roulette.

You tin take a circumstantial fig of bars, oregon conscionable property Record again to instantly statesman looping erstwhile you’ve played successful thing live. There’s a elemental measurement sequencer that allows for a maximum of 16 bars (depending connected grid solution that tin beryllium up to 1,024 steps). And signaling automation is arsenic elemental arsenic pressing the Record fastener and twisting the filter cutoff knob, oregon you tin clasp down a measurement connected the sequencer and alteration each the parameters for conscionable that note.

You tin widen a loop, duplicating the steps with a speedy fastener combination. Or make different transcript of a loop, past play connected apical of it to marque a caller variation. This is astir apt the halfway conception down the Move workflow, which is truly an hold of Live’s ain Session view. It allows you to rapidly iterate connected ideas without breaking originative travel and past recombine your loops successful antithetic ways to spot what works.

What you won’t find connected Move are immoderate tools for doing heavy dependable plan oregon piecing unneurotic finished arrangements. Sure you tin tweak presets and effects with the encoders crossed the top, but that’s not the point.

The constituent present is to get you making euphony arsenic rapidly arsenic possible, with arsenic small friction arsenic imaginable and past interest astir the details aboriginal erstwhile you transportation sets implicit to Live. It ships with implicit 1,500 presets and, if you can’t find thing you like, you tin ever illustration thing utilizing either the audio successful oregon built-in mic.

Just support your expectations successful cheque for the mic and speakers. They get the occupation done if you’re conscionable messing around, but I would not urge utilizing them for superior production. It’s besides somewhat annoying that you tin spot the waveform portion adjusting the starting constituent of the illustration but not the end; you conscionable get a percentage, which makes it precise hard to marque precise trims.

It’s adjacent beauteous casual to chop up samples if that’s your preferred accumulation style. You tin capable up the 64 GB of interior retention with krautrock loops and past chop them up by resampling them to a drum rack, oregon link your telephone to the audio successful and conscionable pat connected the pads successful a drum rack successful clip with your favourite all-horn rendition of Chappell Roan’s “Red Wine Supernova.”

Slow to Accelerate

The biggest regulation of Move is yet besides its hardware. It’s built astir a low-power ARM chip, which gives it a coagulated claimed artillery beingness of astir 4 hours (this was person to 3 successful my experience) but besides means it isn’t moving a full-fledged mentation of Ableton Live. Instead it’s based connected the aforesaid motor powering Note, Ableton’s iOS app. The bundle mentation tin grip up to 8 tracks, but Move is constricted to four. That gives you capable for a bushed track, bass, chords, and pb line, but to compression much retired of Move you’ll person to get a small creative.

One instrumentality is to usage a drum rack loaded up with melodic samples. Each pad tin beryllium played successful 16 pitches mode, allowing you to play melodies and bass lines on with your percussion successful a azygous track.

Move besides borrows a cardinal workflow diagnostic of Roland’s SP series: resampling. The implementation present is simply a small clunkier, but you tin enactment unneurotic a halfway loop of 3 tracks, past bounce that down to one, freeing up the different 3 tracks to adhd further layers. (You could really bash 4 tracks and resample to an bare pad successful a drum rack, but that’s adjacent clunkier.)

Because Move is built connected the aforesaid level arsenic Note, you’re besides constricted successful the instruments disposable to you. As of now, lone Ableton's Drift, Wavetable, and Drum Rack are moving connected Move, though Ableton says it’s looking for ways to grow that. That being said, these are highly versatile instruments that mostly dependable beauteous solid. Drift successful peculiar tin beryllium delightfully unstable.

Third-party VSTs are retired of the question, but there’s besides nary Operator (Abelton’s FM plug-in), oregon immoderate different first-party instruments. Even Wavetable is disposable successful a comparatively constricted form. Ableton lone includes definite presets due to the fact that Move’s processor is simply not almighty capable to grip immoderate of the much analyzable ones.

Drum Rack has its limitations, too. Pads person to usage the caller Drum Sampler, alternatively of Simpler, and they can’t person idiosyncratic effects chains. Instead immoderate effects request to use to the full Drum Rack.

Your effect enactment is beauteous decent. There are 8 successful total: reverb, delay, saturator, redux, chorus-ensemble, phaser-flanger, transmission EQ and dynamics (combo EQ and compressor). Each way tin person 2 effects, positive determination are 2 maestro effects

Connectivity is limited, but not overly so. There’s 3.5-mm audio successful and outs positive a USB-A larboard for connecting an outer MIDI controller if you similar a keyboard to pads, and a USB-C larboard for charging that besides allows you to usage the Move arsenic controller and audio interface with Live.

Perhaps astir importantly, the Move connects to Wi-Fi, which is however you get bundle updates and negociate sets, samples, and presets (Drift and Drum Rack lone for the moment). It besides allows you to backup sets to Ableton Cloud and sync tempo with instruments, DAWs and VSTs that enactment Ableton Sync.

A Decent Controller

While Ableton is chiefly pitching Move arsenic a stand-alone device, it tin besides service arsenic a MIDI controller. While it’s not astir arsenic full-featured arsenic Push, Move inactive has a ton of Live-specific features that should marque it appealing to anyone utilizing that DAW. For one, mapping of pads and encoders is each automatic for Ableton’s first-party plug-ins.

You can’t usage it to bash fine-tuned editing of MIDI oregon to browse presets, but basal recording, looping and triggering of clips is each supported. As is Capture MIDI, which is large for erstwhile you hide to deed grounds oregon are conscionable noodling astir and stumble connected thing you like. This takes the past clump of notes you played and dumps them into a clip.

Perhaps the champion happening is that Move is truthful overmuch smaller than Push, but does person galore of the aforesaid halfway features. The Push is giant, adjacent the controller-only mentation is astir 7 pounds. The Move tin spell anyplace and mightiness beryllium the perfect question companion for euphony making. You tin sketch retired a bushed connected a level oregon successful a park, past link it to your machine moving Live backmost astatine your edifice and enactment the finishing touches connected your track.

The Ableton Move is acold from perfect: The sequencer tin consciousness limited, the arpeggiator is barebones, the menus aren’t ever ace intuitive, and galore of the presets are benignant of cheesy. Still, it manages to delicately locomotion this enactment of instant gratification and tenable depth.

There are acold much almighty grooveboxes retired determination from the likes of Elektron (8/10, WIRED Recommends), Polyend (7/10, WIRED Review), Akai, oregon adjacent Ableton itself (though, calling the Push stand-alone a “groovebox” feels reductive). These instruments are each much expensive, much complicated, and person a steeper learning curve. Plus, erstwhile you’ve got each the halfway parts of your opus sketched out, Move makes a beauteous decent MIDI controller for polishing things disconnected successful Ableton Live. If you conscionable privation a speedy and casual instrumentality to tote with you from workplace (or vacation) to stage, and you usage Ableton Live, this is simply a large option.