Let me preface by stating I only use Ableton, so my comments are related to Ableton only.
I have spent a fair amount of time over the past couple of years working through a migration to Ableton of songs created in Reason standalone. There have been a few detours/dead ends before arriving at a productive and enjoyable arrangement.
Basically for each song I have created combinators for all individual tracks, send fx, groups and whatever else. These combinators are placed on a grouped in a rack. Generally I have 16 tracks with 6 sends.
Interestingly I have found Ableton to be very resource effective for my needs. I tend to avoid CPU heavy plug-ins as well. I discovered I could not only setup a track as described above (16 tracks and sends) but I was able to include multiple songs by making use of chains. I think I stopped at around 12 songs as the file was 15 gig and took 5 minutes to load. This was achievable though due to Ableton deactivating devices and CPU usage when not active.
The other main part of the puzzle for me was to develop a number of customised controller mappings to suit my midi controllers (previously making use of the midi busses in Reason) as this is a big part of my workflow - with a focus on live performance. In Reason this was achieved through combinators for each track and I was able to transfer this approach across to Ableton fairly easily. I have a Push which is great for general device "focused" control and sequencing. I am also currently using a Midi Fighter Twister and Lemur for overall control across the whole project - i.e. I can control all 16 instrument track combinators via a set of 16 macro controls, and all send fx combinators by a second set of 16 macro controls. This is possible with midi overrides but I wanted something more direct so I created some custom controller mappings with Control Surface Studio by
https://remotify.io. This has allowed me to create a page of mappings that control the first 16 parameters in the first device in the Ableton Rack - i.e. if the device is grouped it controls the 16 macros, if it is not it controls the first 16 exposed (or configured) controls. This has allowed me to create a template for the combinator and instantly tweak when loaded.
electrofux wrote: ↑01 Jun 2021
BUT i haven't found anything comprehensive how RRP is integrated into Remote Controlling via Midi Controllers in Live or Bitwig. I wouldnt mind writing scripts but as far as i can tell there is no way to detect what actually is in the RPP be it an Europa or a Antidote. So how would remote controlling work on a sophisitcated level (by that i mean not wanting to map everything by hand everytime i load an RRP, and having some parametername feedback on my controllers)?
Also Patchbrowsing the RRP doesnt seem to be possible remotely in both of the DAWs. And there seems to be a limit of~170 controllable items per device in the RRP (which in most cases is enough though).
The method described above is the closest I have come to having an effective working mapping for Reason devices. With this method I can load a Europa for example and configure controls and save this as a template (remembering the first 16 controls are mapped to my midi controller - this is not limited to 16, it is just my method for working). Then when you reload the template you have those parameters mapped and can change patches for the same devices and these parameters are not altered/messed up. This is not elegant as the naming conventions for different devices can vary greatly. The way around this is to allocate Macros in which case you are limited to 16 controls. The only way I have been able to browse patches with a shortcut (not the mouse) is via the browser and the up/down keys on my keyboard.
I have also been playing around with Clyph X which allows me to create recallable snapshots of pretty much anything in Ableton - I use it to create mixer snapshots.
https://isotonikstudios.com/product/clyphx-pro/, there is a free version I am currently using
https://github.com/ldrolez/clyphx-live10.
I was also able to create custom templates with Max4Live to control my external hardware. I was also able to use Max4Live to allow CV in to control the RRP *edit. and out to control other devices in Ableton.*
ShelLuser wrote: ↑25 Jun 2021
(edit) This is not to be mistaken for offline activation. All I did today (in preperation for a blog post) was rip out my network cable. Lo and behold... a demo product refused to run due to a network disconnect... for crying out loud.. this a bad joke.
Isn't this the same as RE's that are on trial?
Does this behaviour only occur with the demo, or with a licence as well?
If it is with a licence as well then this is the same as Reason+ which is very unfortunate.
Long story short I have found Ableton to provide for substantial workflow advantages as compared to Reason standalone. To get to this point I needed the Suite version and some 3rd party tools such as Control Surface Studio and Clyph X.