Maybe you understand this now?
Or this:
Or this:
Just keep doing what you’re doing, it will start to click. But if you do like highly produced, static daw type music, session may not be the best, but again, it can be, it can be the source which generates all the ideas and elements which are then recorded into arrange, and then fully produced with astonishingly fresh white noise sweeps and what not.
When I started out I could not seem to get my self to use the arrange view: always got stuck in an 8 bar loop and it made me almost tear up in frustration at times… 
So I got used to working in the arrange view, and now, even though I have a Push I find it really hard to go back to session view. I mean, it’s great if you’re ‘all good to go’, i.e you’ve set up a session with all the fx, vsts and such that you’re going to need, drum racks etc. But if I want to start jamming out on something, set up a beat and so on, I’ve gotten way more used to doing so in arrange view.
Also, I use a lot of vsts (mainly battery and LFOTool), and it’s hard (not impossible) to access the more important controls, presets etc. on external plugins. Once I start grooving on the push I don’t want to be forced to HAVE to go back to my computer and start using the mouse / keyboard looking up stuff. But hey, that’s just me.
The main reason why I’m not switching to Logic (which I even have installed) is:
-Lives automation is uber-quick to set up imo.
-The warping
-The search function
-Super fast midi-to-audio workflow
session view?
more like: i make techno view
or: my tunes are boring loops view
Yeah, Footwork view.
Don’t think you get the pun 
would definitely recommend getting to grips with session view, it’s for sure what makes ableton so unique and fun. all about using both views together to get the most out of live. the session view workflow is so insanely intuitive and fast for building up the main/busiest part of the track, once it clicks it’s the best thing in the world. then once i have one or two really full sounding scenes of clips, i dub it all into arrangement view and start subtracting clips around the busiest loop, it’s definitely a more logical kinda mindset than the improvisational aspect of session view, and using both of those different strengths together is what really makes live so fluid.
if you think session view is too “loopy” then you’re not being creative enough with how you’re using it imo. use follow actions, use unlinked clip envelopes, use dummy clips and you will greatly expand the possibilites of session view.
i don’t really understand the hate against arrangement view. i admit it took me a while to get used to the automation but now i actually love it. sure it’s simple and stripped back, but i honestly dont need or even want tons and tons of features when i’m arranging clips. it does more or less everything i need super efficiently (sans a few minor gripes here and there). primitive? meh. i’d argue that other daw’s i’ve used are a bit bloated-out with features you dont even really need 99% of the time. to each his own tho!
Nice post. I’m looking forward to trying out those follow actions, etc. It really is the creative/outside the box type of thinking that yields the strange and unusual sounding results that I like. I feel like I really broke through a level a little while ago of just being really in the zone and having total grasp over the DAW in arrangement mode and in my never ending quest for novel approaches I figured I better start tapping into this side of Ableton.
I knew that it couldn’t possibly just be all looping and “pressing play”. I totally agree when you said they probably aren’t being creative enough with it. This is why I posed the question, trying to tap into some of the creative ways to use it. I’ve really been in the zone lately coming up with awesome new approaches and creative processing, it bothered me to think of everything I am missing out on by not ever going into session view. I just started a new track now, currently I’m in arrangement doing a lot of chopping up of a resample midi line but I plan to slide the whole thing over into session view once I get something established and really try to dig in to it.
I recently started using session view for my mix downs. after I have completed a song and all its elements. i set all the levels and make sure everything hits -6 before automating anything in arrangement view. Session View reminds me of Native Instruments “DAW” for machine. which is what i learned to make music on before i got Ableton. I never really grasped how to actually utilize session view and i still don’t. Mixing aside i do mostly everything in arrangement from start to finish. it works for me and i’m used toit so why change change!?.
I wouldn’t tell you to change anything, but it is always good to be flexible and fluid with your workflow and all the related processes… Humans form routines super easily and you won’t even notice every time you do something or make a particular choice for absolutely no other reason than habit. You’re used to arrangement view and that’s good, so am I. But the fact that I’m used to it is exactly why I got to thinking about switching it up. Experiment and try out new stuff, its the only way we can progress as producers, and its the only way the music we make will progress as well.
I do the same. The session view is where the faders are. I expand them to their fullest and assign midi controller faders to them.
Edit: Just to clarify, the song is being played from the arrangement view, but I do the mixing from the session view.
I use session for a final mix down check. It makes everything look like a mixing board and you can easily see all faders, fx, and channel peaks.
If you haven’t already, pull your fader window up. There is a hidden peak number in an oval field above the square fader number box. When you start a track it resets and tells you the peak db in the channel. Click it to reset it during play. This is the main thing I look at in the session view.
That tip about the db peak is big! I never knew that one, much appreciated. Very helpful tool to have when you’re wrapping everything up and going through the mixing process. Big one, thanks!
never ever use it
missing out
yeah the peak db is absolutely necessary to have. If you aren’t using it you aren’t mixing correctly
i call bullocks on this.
although i use session view only and EXCLUSIVELY for looking at the meter
yeah you don’t know / care where your tracks peak? Macc would roll over in his grave…
I’ve tried to like it/use it so many times but I just find myself back at arrangement again. I feel like if I had push or an APC I’d use it.
Wish I could get into ableton, session view is pretty interesting
As for the peak meter and all of that, no I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary but it definitely makes it a lot easier. You can get there by trial and error, bouncing your mix down, then checking it on different references sources and then going back in and bringing everything up or down accordingly. But being able to see and set the peaks like that will certain be a huge help for getting down the first few elements in a mix and then mixing the rest in accordingly.
Also, for something like resampling and having the recorded level set properly or when recording something live via microphone in, it will be much nicer to be able to see exactly how hot it is coming in as opposed to doing it by eye like I really had been doing. Certainly the results I got from eyeballing it were great and there may not be a noticeable improvement, but it will just be nice to have some reassurance of exactly where those things are hitting.
