Introduction
Move is Ableton’s new portable hardware sequencer and sampler, and offers an intuitive way to sketch ideas across 4 tracks. Performances can be edited on the unit itself, or transferred to Ableton Live 12 for further tweaking or fleshing out. Last week, Andre Louis demoed Move as part of the ‘Inclusive Design within Audio Products’ workshop at the Audio Developer Conference, as part of a session about how Ableton has embedded accessibility into its development processes over the last couple of years. I look forward to being able to share the recording from the session soon. In the meantime, in the video below, Andre demonstrates how Ableton Move can be used with the screen reader of a connected computer or mobile device.
By Andre Louis:
Check out the official Ableton Move website. Ableton Move is the first piece of hardware I’ve personally been excited by in years. It genuinely fills me with utter joy every time I come up with a new idea, when a DAW can sometimes just drive me mad and feel stale. Also, how many new pieces of gear have some form of accessibility on day one of release? It is still an experimental feature to be sure and it is important to understand that not all aspects of the screen-reader experience are fully fleshed out, but it’s certainly better than nothing at all. This is my world-first, short accessibility overview, but it is not an exhaustive walkthrough of all features and functions. I missed out a lot on-purpose, otherwise it would have been a much, much longer affair.
When you get your new Move, open a browser and enter: http://move.local/screen-reader
Watch the video
You can also access the video on Andre’s YouTube channel.
Hardware button layout
Right-hand side buttons (below volume knob, columns of two)
- Capture (Reset capture)
- Sampling
- Clip loop
- Mute
- Delete
- Copy
- Undo (Redo)
- Shift (Shift Lock)
Bottom row from left to right
1. set overview
2. Battery, Wi-Fi, Update, Cloud On/Off, Control Live, Link, MIDI, Move Manager, Advanced, Brightness.
3. Workflow settings (quantize, step grid, count-in, autoload)
5. Tempo (change via jog wheel)
6. Metronome On/Off
7. Groove (change via jog wheel)
8. 16 Pitches On/Off
9. Key & Scale (change key options via jog wheel)
10. Full velocity (toggles on or off when pressed)
11. Note repeat / Arp (when on set value with jog wheel, toggles on or off with press)
15. Double loop
16. Quantize
Video chapters
00:00 Intro
01:02 Physical Description
01:37 Button Description
05:05 Accessing Move Manager
06:07 Wheel, Knobs, USB ports and Power Button
07:36 Creating A Beat
11:34 Picking A New Snare
13:44 Panning the Hi-hat
15:23 Recording A Bass
22:15 Recording A Sample
23:40 Adjusting Reverb Parameters
25:32 Adding The Sample To The Track
26:09 Adding Delay
27:35 Outro
28:38 Demonstrating My Sets
*Corrections* I said ‘The pads are polyphonic’ when I meant that they support poly aftertouch.
