Good one nice read. I am a big Ableton fan too and have come from using Cubase and Protoolson on past projects... but for studio work, making tracks and creating sound tracks, mainly for VR. I still think Ableton is a far quicker program to use for everything, especially with a lot of outboard synths which i run into a RME, which I find is the best audioboard with entry level pro quality AD/DA convertors.
RE: Ableton Live magic tricks: twirl a knob and turn a voice into a beat