mholloway wrote:
I really can't possibly imagine how you can think that. I mean, really? Okay, so let's say I flatten all my tracks and export them as stems. Now I can import into another DAW (hopefully it offers batch import) but, uh, these are song-length stems, not individual sequence pieces, so the whole concept of "arranging" it now is sort of....obsolete? Yeah. I can still mix here, but....you see what I mean.
Not impossible to arrange in another DAW as well. We have two different concepts here, composing, and mixing. Sure it's tempting and a habit to fall into to start mixing as soon as the composition has some form, but it's a PITA to start really committing to a mix when the song isn't finished, even if working in Live only. Also, this stuff isn't easy, making a loop is easy, finalizing a song and committing a mix is work.
So, I want to export individual mixed-down sequences then, so I can actually do some arrangement in that other DAW. Well, ok, I'll just select an area in arrangement, export it, select another, export it, select another, export it....hmmm. hassle free??? how exactly?
Because that's not really hard, takes about ten minutes.
Also: If it's already existing in arrangement view in Live in the first place (such that I can then flatten stuff and export it all) this means I will have had everything laid out on two different arrangement pages: first live's in whatever form, then the other DAW. Seems....like shitty workflow to me.
Audio files in another DAW are pretty cool. not a hassle at all, if you decide to write a new part, either go back to Live, or have a solution like Kore or some other way to import your sounds. I've worked this way for years with Logic as the MIDI king, and Live as the composing arena, then Logic as the mix down DAW. It's not that big of a deal, really. Better than wanting to strangle small animals like I'm feeling right now in Live's arrangement page.
If there was a VERY quick way to export scenes from SESSION view -- like some magic right-click menu command called "FREEZE+FLATTEN ALL CLIPS IN SELECTED SCENE AND THEN EXPORT SCENE AS AUDIO LOOP OF X:X LENGTH" then, YES, arranging and mixing in a second DAW would be relatively easy and hassle free for me.
But that magic command doesn't exist....yet? I've asked for it over in the Feature Request...(better yet: allow this command to apply to multiple selected scenes in session!)
i'm not sure if that command could work, because if you render (i mean, cough, freeze+flatten) one clip in a track it has to freeze+flatten the whole track, as things currently stand, but hey, keep on dreaming right?
so, really, this reply is two things 1) I think your assertion that it's easy and hassle-free is absurd and I'd love to know what it's based in, and 2) I think I have a killer idea of how to improve the situation but maybe it's just a pipe dream...
There are multiple ways to do what you want to do. Erase Arrangement, record scene into arrangement, export all audio files. Even easier than that, render all tracks as audio from the beginnings and endings of your breaks choruses etc. The main thing I think though is once you know Digital Performer or Logic etc. as well as you know Live, audio clips are as easy to mess with as in Live, regardless of length. Also most of the big DAWs allow you to cut and slice audio in their Arrange pages, with a lot more fluidity than in Live so you can arrange the audio even if it's a 4 minute rendered track. I'm all for better methods of exporting audio though, don't get me wrong, I'm just not convinced that it's worth it to stay in a single DAW if you're losing hair and sleep over it.