Still trying to decide ... why ableton?

[ricardol]

Ok I am demoing ableton and reason ..

Why do you like ableton?
And what do you recommend .. intro , live 8 or suite?
And why?

Thanks !

[Alibra]

For me Ableton Live was extremely easy to pick up in terms of getting right into it. Reason took me a while (I still can't make decent beat using Reason). It's a little un-motivating for me and I end up saying "screw it" and I hop on the PS3. I kind of feel like Ableton works the way you think it should so when you learn it the first time, you don't forget it easily because it just makes sense. I'm still wearing a training bra right now but I plan on filling out really soon. I'd (literally) put my $$ on Ableton.

That's not at all to say Reason is not a good program, some things just work better for certain people (typical Mac vs PC). I have some friends who can run circles around Reason and never break a sweat. Just killers on that program. Not for me though. Hope this helps.

[kanuck]

to play live of course

seriously though, the reason why I'm still holding unto Ableton is that it does things no other DAW can do. I can really get creative with it, somewhat like getting a fancy, very complicated guitar pedal.

[LeifonMars]

After all this time, been using Live since version 5, 2006, and been trying to make a switch from time to time to strictly hardware, nothing out there beats session view. And it's not only that you can launch audio and MIDI clips, it's also a great tool for radical and precise FX changes while performing.

Live still is ultimate tool for performing.

When racks were introduced, I wasn't very excited, but then APC40 came along and I got interested in racks again. Now I could not live without racks.

Session view and racks, 2 reasons why I haven't jumped the boat.

[ollyb303]

If you're going to perform live, then Ableton basically kicks the shit out of every other piece of software out there. Nothing else gives you the same control. Session view is essentially the dog's bollocks. I'd give Intro a miss as it will limit what you can do severely. Get Live if you don't need additional instruments, Suite if you do.

[gurumonkey]

I owned both at one time, even took a berklee class on reason. I ended up selling Reason. I'll try to give a fair idea of both here. I really, really liked Reason's synths. I thought they were awesome sounding and easy to use. I also appreciated that there were a lot more "normal" sounding presets (as opposed to everything being kinda electronica in live). The sequencer made sense. In general, I thought it was a pretty sweet product.

Why did i get rid of it then? I decided that I really needed audio capabilities in order to actually do work, which i already had with live. The other thing is that i could take the money i got from selling my reason license and put it toward a killer synth, which in my case was zebra 2. In the end i think they are both really fantastic programs. I think if you're looking to do beats, live makes a bit more sense, but otherwise i think reason is the easier program to use.

[ciw]

Reason - less flexible in the sounds it makes, can't record, not so good for live.

Ableton - much better for live use, can record, neater workflow, more intuitive and flexible.

I don't rate ableton's builtin instruments. Just use it as a (live) DAW. I'd say get live 8 and save some money for soft synths that match the style of music you want to make. And some percussion samples. I think Massive is the best all round one at the moment, your opinion may vary. And Thomas Penton drums. I assume as you're talking about reason you're making electronic music of some description!

[abl385]

I would just get Live and then separate plug-ins.

[memes_33]

i haven't used reason in years, but used to use DP for everything. i have slowly shifted to live for everything. i prefer live cuz of the session view- it makes auditioning parts and arrangements so easy. i keep it in session view until i feel like i have enough parts & a good arrangement, then move it to session for the mix and final tweaks.

my biggest gripe with this workflow is there is no mixer-type of window i can use with the arrangement view. in order to get decent visual feedback on volume sliders, panning, effect sends and the like, i have to keep switching from session to arrangement, which is pretty annoying. the visual level monitoring in arrangement view just sucks. i think i am going to get reaper soon and do my mixing in there.

that's my $0.02

[HeadrickProductions]

Reason - less flexible in the sounds it makes, can't record, not so good for live.

Ableton - much better for live use, can record, neater workflow, more intuitive and flexible.

I don't rate ableton's builtin instruments. Just use it as a (live) DAW. I'd say get live 8 and save some money for soft synths that match the style of music you want to make. And some percussion samples. I think Massive is the best all round one at the moment, your opinion may vary. And Thomas Penton drums. I assume as you're talking about reason you're making electronic music of some description!

Reason is less flexible in the sounds that can be made than ableton??? Gotta say that's not true at all. Maybe preset surfing. With MFL and ableton maybe is more flexible. Agree that reason is pretty bad for live use, it just does not have the performance workflow.


@OP
If your playing live get ableton. If your not look into other DAW's first. Ableton is a great compliment to other daw's because like other's have said it allows you to be really creative and get stuff done quickly. In the long run you might finding yourself wanting other features that traditional daw's offer.

oh yeah don't buy ableton suite but ableton live standard save the cash and buy other vst's that are much better than live suite bundle.

hope that helped

[Goddard]

Why not?

[justchris86]

I was a HUGE reason fan for many years. I mastered the ins and outs of reason. Then i tried ableton. Propellerhead who?
The work flow in ableton is a billion times better!
Reason cannot record
Reason has less controllability
Reason SUCKS for live
The Midi mapping in ableton is a billion times better
you can also always use reason in slave mode in ableton.

[Khazul]

Raw ableton live doesnt give you alot in the way of sounds (I know - amazing considering the cost, but there you go...). Ableton Live suite aint that hot either sound wise. However Live is very good for managing a bunch of audio clips and effect live - that was its original purpose.

Reason OTOH has alot fo sounds, but you cant stick plugin in it - so no way to properly extend it.
If you are thinking of Reason, than Reason+Record is way better - at least you can record audio and the mixer is infinately better.

So, if you want workflow, live play *and* a bunch of really good sounds, then consider buying live and Native Instruments Komplete 7 which will give you a tons of useful instruments and really good sounds and fx.

[HeadrickProductions]

Raw ableton live doesnt give you alot in the way of sounds (I know - amazing considering the cost, but there you go...). Ableton Live suite aint that hot either sound wise. However Live is very good for managing a bunch of audio clips and effect live - that was its original purpose.

Reason OTOH has alot fo sounds, but you cant stick plugin in it - so no way to properly extend it.
If you are thinking of Reason, than Reason+Record is way better - at least you can record audio and the mixer is infinately better.

So, if you want workflow, live play *and* a bunch of really good sounds, then consider buying live and Native Instruments Komplete 7 which will give you a tons of useful instruments and really good sounds and fx.

+1

[subsynth]

I recently jumped on board with Ableton.

I've been a FL Studio user for over a decade, It's workflow just "works" for me, I can bang out ideas in no time. And I will continue to use FL Studio for starting ideas and arranging, then I extract the stems From FL Studio and put them into Ableton.

I guess it's a little more work to basically "arrange" it twice. And both pieces of software have their strengths and weaknesses.

But Ultimately I need something that I can use in live Performances, and that's where Ableton wins out. I bought Live 8 for the Session View and Looper, that's about it. I wish it was easy to control external hardware as it is in FL Studio with their MIDI OUT plugin, but the control over patterns / clips and live performance is so much more powerful.

Both have their uses, I doubt I would ever use Ableton for writing or even Audio Recording. But as part of my stage setup it has quickly become irreplaceable.