Ableton Note

Love lots about this app. Please please develop a better keyboard - impossible to play such huge keys! Cheers

I’ve been using this for a while now and it’s great to get some ideas together, then put it on Abelton cloud to then work further. The new features help me get the groove going with the automation of pretty much everything. The most fun app I’ve used for making music.

I’ve been loving this app lately as I love making music on my phone. This is one of the best sounding music apps I’ve used in a long while and it beats my previous favourites such as Groovebox. Sound quality of the synths and drums probably beats Drambo my current fav too and it’s much easier to use than that app BUT it’s nowhere near close on its total ability or the total functionality. Drambo probably has every other tool beat on that front though but still, this app could be the best and possibly the only one I would actually need if only it could do the same stuff that apps like Drambo, AUM or Audiobus already do. It seems like they are too focused on the ‘sketch’ aspect though so they have deliberately made it less functional than its competitors which people already use to sketch their tracks anyway. Certain features that I find almost vital to my current workflow such as side chain and other functions are missing. They mustn’t think they’re necessary to make a ‘sketch’ so they expect you to use another device just to ‘finish’ your ‘sketch’. I haven’t used Ableton on my Mac for a good while but I do appreciate that this will work well for that cloud synced connectivity. Still that’s not how I want to work on tracks right now so I think this app misses the point a little of what I (and presumably others) want this app for. To see an app with such great potential waste it by holding back on features especially by not allowing it to be used as an audio source in other apps such as AUM, Audiobus or Drambo etc which apps from lesser well known developers can already do, just leaves me feeling annoyed. Hopefully this functionality will come with future updates just like some previous updates have brought extended functionality which I appreciate. Still I don’t know if they will be able to get themselves out of the deliberately narrow mindset of thinking this is only going to be a ‘sketch’ tool. iOS needs a stable definitive DAW, that’s not GarageBand, another deliberately limited app. This could that app so let’s just get on with it and stop holding back on the features we’ve already been using in other apps.

Overall quite an inspiring piece of software. When in the right scenario (i.e when you can use the speakers or have a headphone adapter handy) it can be quite an intuitive experience getting sketches/ideas down. My biggest gripe is the fact there is no step sequencing option. In 2024 99% of people who use an iphone use wireless headphones due to there being no headphone jack, resulting in a delay in sound. I’m a bit flabbergasted that the developers have not really taken this into account, despite recently releasing compatible hardware that can step sequence (Ableton Move). I was under the impression that the whole point of this app is being able to write music anywhere. Unfortunately due to this oversight I don’t think that is the case. I find using alternative apps like Drambo a much better tool as it has a flexible step sequencer so you don’t have to rely on finger drumming/audio being out of sync. Hopefully this will change in a future update, if/when it does I feel this app will be a significantly more useful tool.

Love lots about this app. Please please develop a better keyboard - impossible to play such huge keys! Cheers

I’ve watched all the help videos on YouTube and haven’t got a clue what they’re talking about. I’m just playing with this and slowly but surely getting my head around it. Brilliant.

I can't find it anywhere, not by the pads as described in the release notes. Apart from that this app is great for sketching on my phone. Just need the step sequencer I believe is supposed to be in the beta already. Maybe a way to sequence scenes too even if it's just repeat x times and then go down one

Note keeps getting better with every update. It's very intuitive for a pocket DAW, and the new beta updates are starting to really capture the feel of Ableton Live. Honestly, I still get over the feature of randomly auto-selecting drum racks or channel sounds opens up creative possibilities I wouldn't usually explore due to my production habits. I'm really having fun with this!

Needs more mapping options or support for midi controllers

It’s a nice little groovebox that can sequence rudimentary beats and allows for multitrack recording in both midi and audio. I feel for this to live up to the brand and function though, we absolutely need the midi scroll. Having a midi scroll is necessary for most purposes. For example, when using a groovebox you may want to play in another track or create the loop to jam, or compose, along to. It is a very user friendly application but a midi scroll would increase this tenfold.