A long time ago, I identified as a music producer. While I've long since left that world, I still tinker with music for fun.
When I realised how much of a barrier it was to be reliant on a laptop and Ableton Live to make electronic music, I started piecing together a DAWless setup, and I've amassed quite a collection of little noise makers from Teenage Engineering, Korg, and Behringer. It's been a ton of fun, for me and my young kids.
I've been on the lookout for bit of kit which allowed me to sample/record what I was doing, sans computer. The Zoom LiveTrak L6 mixer was looking good, but the Ableton Move got announced before I hit the button.
After a week or so, the GAS was too much.
Here are my thoughts after about a week of tinkering.
The I/O is very limited. 2-in/2-out over 3.5mm jacks, and MIDI over USB, which itself is limited – it can't send and receive MIDI simultaneously. This also rules out syncing gear via CV, though I'd bet we'll see an affordable solution for that, either from Ableton itself or a third party.
The only bit of kit I have which handles USB MIDI is the Behringer Edge, [heavily inspired by/a clone of] the Moog DFAM. Getting them playing nicely together was quick and easy, and the ability to easily record its output is exactly what I was looking for.
The killer feature for me so far has been the capture functionality. If you're noodling on the pads and something works, you just hit the dedicated button to capture what you played to a clip even if you weren't recording at the time.
To say the Ableton Live workflow integration is in its infancy right now is putting it lightly. Getting Drift patches from Live onto the Move is painful, starting with a template, exporting the patch as an "ablbundle" (which can't currently be loaded back into Live), and then loading it onto the Move using the Move Manager software. This isn't possible for Wavetable patches. You also can't take a Live project and export it for use on Move, only vice versa. This will no doubt improve over time, but it's a bummer right now.
On that note, you can't access all the parameters of the onboard synths (Drift & Wavetable). Only the parameters which have been mapped to the macro controls for that particular patch.
While you can use the "Control Live" mode of the Move with Live 11, you will want to own Live 12 to make the most of it, so factor that into the price. I upgraded from Live 11 at the same time.
You will have to swallow your pride and read the manual (and likely watch a few YouTube videos) in order to get much out of the device, as the panel is 100% icons, and there's plenty of functionality which requires menu diving.
Limitations aside, it's a nice piece of gear. It feels solid, and it ticks some big boxes for me – its comfortable to use on the couch, it can fill drum machine duties with other gear, and it can sample other gear.