Making a beat in Ableton Note! Is it better than my favourite Auxy?

Ableton just dropped their new Note app, a way of making music on the go and I had to give it a try! In this video I break down how it works, I come up with one of my first beats on it and compare it to my current favourite mobile music making app, Auxy.
00:00 - Introduction
00:47 - Where & How much?
01:17 - Example Beat
01:47 - Session View
02:06 - Project View
02:30 - Creating A Beat
02:46 - Drums
02:54 - Capturing notes
03:30 - Different Drum Kits
03:57 - Layering Drums
04:06 - Quantisation & Nudging
05:41 - No Step Sequencer?
06:21 - Velocity Editing
06:45 - Tweaking Drum Sounds
08:16 - Automation
08:50 - Bassline
10:28 - Bass Presets
11:51 - FX
12:56 - Mixer
14:13 - Synth Chords
14:44 - Pads / Keys / Scale view
17:59 - Duplicating Clips
18:41 - Coming Up With Ideas
19:04 - Ableton Cloud
19:23 - Auxy, my current favourite
20:03 - Free Version vs Paid
20:47 - Drum Step Sequencer
21:23 - Swing Control
21:53 - Bass & Note Sequencer
23:07 - Building Chords
24:16 - Other Track Ideas I've Made In Auxy
25:07 - Verdict - Note vs Auxy
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XLN Audio XO [Drum Machine]: bit.ly/BF-XO
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Baby Audio TAIP [Awesome saturation]: bit.ly/taip-vst
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Vulf Compressor: bit.ly/vulf-compressor
Soothe2: bit.ly/soothe2-vst
Chordjam: bit.ly/Chordjam
The Sub: bit.ly/the-sub-vst
Korg M1: bit.ly/korgm1
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Ozone 8: bit.ly/ozone-8
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[@J-and-Kay]

You can change the note length in Ableton Note now. Right in the editor. There are buttons for it. Just make sure you select the correct grid size with the dial below it.

[@LyroLife]

Best Ableton Note review right now. Its a full explanation. Might be boring for people with basic Ableton knowledge, but great for noobs.

[@Jameselcome_303]

Thanks will try this soon , great video

[@cokomairena]

There is a direct button to quantize on the bottom, that make it so much faster to play on the grid music

[@nicolasstrawberry4148]

Im guessing you've probably figured it out by now but for those who haven't you can actually change the filter on the selected drum pad from a low pass to a hi pass filter by taping on the sample waveform for that pad.

[@TeleporterM11]

It needs tighter drum sequencing. I liken penning in my drum notes. Playing in everything is a bummer. It also needs a background grid .

[@DirtySecretz]

Yeah I really don’t understand why there’s no manual entry of notes! Fingers crossed that’s one of the first updates otherwise I’ve really got to improve my timing lol

[@bombjelly5795]

@@DirtySecretz let’s hope ableton note goes full garage band mode.

[@jordancarral]

Fire beat

[@leroycarr9]

Thanks for the video. Great analysis and comparison. I do tend to play things in but I still like the option to use a sequencer. And, I do adjust note lengths frequently. Hopefully, as you say, Ableton will build these features in before long. For the price of entry I still intend to get it and start playing with it. Up to now I have not used any app on my phone for music.

[@DirtySecretz]

I think these are fairly simple things but I’m sure they’ll be implemented soon, it’s still an impressive app for the price!

[@ProjectOverseer]

Great "useful" how to demo. It's a very handy note pad for ideas and even a bit more. I've been using mine on & off for about a week now on an iPhone 12 Pro. I don't have an iPad. I'm sure the extra screen space makes a difference though the iPhone makes things more portable.

[@OlafTietze]

Thanks for the vid. I've also been playing around with this app for the last few days and loving it. Actually found your channel through that; love it; subbed. Just fyi: you can toggle low-pass/high-Pass setting for the filter freq knob by switching to the second tab (waveform) then tapping on the sample. A menu will show, with a filter section, and an LP/HP toggle.

[@DirtySecretz]

Ah damn missed that! Thanks

[@usingabletonlive]

nice!

[@markusmadeya1215]

Great Video.I am waiting for the Android App. Greetings from Germany.Markus

[@thegeenius]

through breakdown,, to the 10th level. thank you-- but you're right-, certain things just need to be a "given" within my music creation scope..- like note length etc, -great starting point- lets see what the future holds..

[@DirtySecretz]

Thanks! I'm sure these things will be added, not sure why they weren't in v1 but I guess they had to put a cut off somewhere with hope it'll be added later.

[@RobbieStyles]

Note is very similar to Conductr which I had for iPad a few years back. Unfortunately it no longer links to Ableton and isn't supported as the app developers went bust.

[@wzwmusic]

First time hearing Auxy, amazing feather tho. wish ableton can actually adds more features similar to Auxy.

[@eduardocampos8176]

Video very cool, congrats! I would like to know if it possible to produce in 3/4 5/4 abs others… It seems to me it is not possible yet

[@sagnier]

You’re not tied to the grid so you could just play five or three over four beats if you really wanted to. I expect they’ll add more flexible time sigs eventually.

[@nollindwhachell]

It’s funny. Your preference is the opposite of mine. I prefer playing in notes via the instruments and then will tweak things afterwards with the sequencer. It’s the main reason I never continued using Auxy after I tried it, even though it seemed amazing in every other regard. Which raises the question. If this preference is so important to people, why aren’t apps like this offering both methods of adding notes? For example, I’d seriously try Auxy again if they added the ability to play the instruments to add notes, rather than only being able to use the step sequencer. Perhaps Ableton Note will finally spur the Auxy team to do this.

[@DirtySecretz]

I think this is the thing, there are clearly two types of producer (neither is wrong) and they've catered for one and left the other in the dark a little. It's not unusable for those that prefer a step sequencer but like you say it seems strange straight not to offer both from the outset. Fingers crossed on the updates!

[@Auxy]

We agree that it's nice to play in notes and both those modes have their place. However, after you have added the initial idea, you usually spend the bulk of your time editing. Therefore we have focused on that in Auxy, given that there's limited space and flexibility in a small touch screen.

[@rokko_hates_japan]

I agree 100% every serious app should have a step sequencer as well as a way to play in notes. I was excited for Ableton Note, but I don't enjoy using it at all. I wish I could have the synths from Ableton Note, inside of Koala. That'd be heaven.

[@jan9]

Great vid, thanx! Liked and subbed :) Auxy was new to me, you said you have been using it on and off for a year or so. How do you go about dodging the free trail limit? It says you will get prompted and after 7 days the free trail ends and subscription begins. Do you reinstall every week?

[@DirtySecretz]

Well actually after I realised I’m not actually on the trial, I’m just using it free. When it pops up asking if you want to do the trial it’s a trial of the pro features. You can just click on the X to close it and use it free… or at least that’s what I’ve been doing!

[@jan9]

@@DirtySecretz And that works like a charm, thanks :)

[@eFiddle]

Your video is really helpful, I am not keyboard player how do I enter chords? Thanka

[@DirtySecretz]

You just have to press the relevant keys on the virtual keyboard

[@sagnier]

You have to play them in on either the pads or keys view. No piano roll here…

[@vadimmartynyuk]

Can you drag and drop loops from splice app into Ableton note app ?

[@DirtySecretz]

You wouldn’t be able to simply drag n drop from one to the other but apparently if you go to the sample on your hard drive you can then airdrop that to your phone: “You can import samples into Note using AirDrop to load files from another device, or "Share to" from other apps. Note supports WAV, AIFF, and M4A file types. M4A files will be converted to WAV on import. “

[@TommyJonesProductions]

Hope they come out with a version for Android.

[@philColour]

Hope you get an iPhone xx

[@TommyJonesProductions]

@@philColour I wouldn't want to downgrade just for this app.

[@franzkeller2051]

Its good because it exports to Ableton!

[@paulhodgson8894]

FFS. The one thing I want from an ableton app is to enter notes in for beats and sounds and add swing and groove. Ableton has put loads of effort into the wrong places.

[@DirtySecretz]

I wouldn't say wrong places, they are catering for a portion (probably large) of their users however there are a great deal of us that use Ableton in a different way to that. It's early days with the app though so hopefully soon we'll see some of those features added!

[@arfandroid6729]

It hurts! It huurtsss! No Android version! How could Ableton do this to us Androiders.

[@DirtySecretz]

I’m definitely an apple guy but still think it’s pretty bad there’s no Android version, you’d think that’s a no brainer to launch it on both

[@nipheon]

Ask Google why they don't care about implementing a useful/low-latency Audio API on Android.

[@arfandroid6729]

@@nipheon true that my dude!

[@TheChameleon2008]

Ha, step sequencers are for robot music bro :) When i make lofi or hiphop then i kinda like to have it not perfectly so for me its perfect. The big thing i like in Note is that you can start and it will just do the auto BPM and really hope koala sampler will add something similar. Auxy Jam IS also free and has zero subscription and kinda can do the same./

[@philColour]

You kept saying Ableton when you meant ‘Live’. I’m sure you’ve noticed but Ableton is the company, the products are Live, Push and Note.

[@DirtySecretz]

You know what I meant though right? To be fair, until Note came out the only software Ableton had was Live so most people just call it Ableton.

[@MrEmuu]

IOS only RIP

[@OhVicanne]

That everyday hustler thing makes my eyes bleed

[@DirtySecretz]

Why?

[@OhVicanne]

@@DirtySecretz cringy af, tacky

[@OhVicanne]

@@DirtySecretz + hustle culture is trash

[@DirtySecretz]

@@OhVicanne it’s the name and logo of my record label, I like it but you’re welcome to your opinion

[@OhVicanne]

@@DirtySecretz oof