In regards to the whole Ableton vs/compared to Ardour+pd+etc, I find I like using seq24 to do sequencing outside of pd and pd to make all audio. It is simple and does the job without getting in my way and trying to do too much for me.
A few weeks ago I added midi song export to seq4 as a branch on Launchpad. Now I can make a song in seq24 and then load and play it in pd using the mrpeach midifile object.
Anyone else using seq24+pd may find this ability useful. Please message the seq24 devs on Launchpad to get them to test and merge my changes to the main branch so it will go into the next version of Ubuntu. (that would be nice)
Dan Wilcox danomatika.com robotcowboy.com