Spent a ton of time playing with Ableton again, yesterday, learning a few tips and tricks.

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It's not "quite" as simplistic was FLStudio was, but with a little tweaking here and there, I think it's more or less useable

There's a subtle difference in how you can drag'n'drop VST instruments into the editor.
If you create a channel with a VST instrument, you can't add Midi tweaks to the channel. You can play the instrument, give it a set of notes, play them, etc. But you can't add the powerful Midi effects to the channel. This includes things such as the chord/scale functions, as well as randomisation and arpeggiation.. (Is that a word?!)

If instead, you create a Midi channel, then drop the VST instrument as an "effect" on the channel, you're now working with in midi mode, so all of those midi effects can be added to the start of the effects list, then the VST instrument, then any audio effects afterwards.

Test One

Create a Midi Channel, add the Midi/Chord/Grandiosa effect, insert a nice Piano VST instrument, play CDEFG..
Instant Red Dwarf!!



You can add Midi effects before the VST plugin, and Audio effects after, to help create a nice new audio style for your upcoming ALChoons.

Test Two

Grab the Arpeggiator, Set it to a single repeat so that each note in the Arpegiator plays only once, then add the Note Length beside it, and set it to a decent note length.
Draw chords in the Midi channel (or use that Chords effect!) and you should get a nice faux strum effect once it's played back.



Cool.

Those two things along should help expand AL's musical repertoire quite a bit!
I'm still currently missing FLStudio's lovely "Slide Note" feature, though. Not sure how I can do those.