From Logic to Ableton

[gazo]

Has anyone here moved away from Logic to Ableton? I have been using Logic for the last 7 years. I purchased Ableton last year and having been watching alot of tutorials on the application. I am very surprised on what interesting stuff you can do with the application from a composing point of view. I could see myself moving away from Logic and focusing on just using Ableton.

I wanted to see what other users thoughts were on this and how their experiences have been with moving across from Logic. I have become accustomed to certain plugins and tools in Logic, and am wondering if I will miss them. I could use both and rewire them, but wondering if it is worth it.

[invol]

I started with Pro Tools in 1995, added Logic in 2000 for MIDI, then moved to Live for my own music in 2003. I still use PT for certain things, Logic for other task, but generally speaking, when I sit down to work on my own music I ALWAYS open Live first.

[gazo]

Cool thanks.

I have been mainly composing in Logic, and then have been bouncing stems down to Ableton to use for Live use. So I haven't really used Ableton for composing. But after watching a few tutorials I can really see how it can work for me. Just trying to plan how to do the transition.

I also used PT before Logic. I remember when I did move from PT to Logic there were a few things I had to change to get into the workflow. But I haven't opened PT again after that (only if I have had to open up older projects). I'm hoping the same will be for Ableton.

I have a few 3rd party plugins and instruments. I use a few of them, but found that I use mainly Logic's instruments and effects. Do you guys find that you use alot of 3rd party plugins in Live, or do you mainly use the built in effects and instruments?

[Sepp Ultura]

I moved from Logic to Live completely. I even do recordings and mixdowns of bands in Live now. The one thing I duly miss is Logic's Space Designer. What I did then is I bought Spectrasonic's Reverberate and now I use apple's IR samples with it. Apart from that I'm not missing any fx plugins. I found that Live's delays and compressors are easier to tweak and deliver nicer results. But that's just my two cts.

What I often do is I open mainstage, send MIDI from Live out via IAC and get the sound into Live via soundflower. Some of the Logic instruments are brilliant, that's how I get them to work in Live. Also, Logic's exs24 instruments open in Live's sampler. So make sure you get that one.

So, Logic has come to be some sort of huge sample library and instrument host for me. That's why I haven't wiped it off my HD. Apart from that, I do everything in Live.

This is my approach to it.

[toph]

Hi,

I moved from Logic 6 to Live (I think 5) completely back in 2004 or 2005 after working with Logic for nine or ten years. It was hard for the first three month, because of Short Cuts and some general working routines that had to be done in a very different way inside Live, but after that anything got better and I didn't want to switch back just one moment since then.

The only thing that is hard sometimes is not to miss the right moment to switch from session view to arrangement and start to arrange things instead of filling up session view and ending up with a few nice 8bar combis but no arrangement in the end.

When it comes to sounds: I own Suite and use Sampler, Analog and Operator a lot. But often it's more comfortable to use third party plug-ins because the Suite-GUIs got very tiny since screen resolutions got big. I hope Ableton will evolve the GUI concept regarding to this in Live 9.

FX: I use a lot of the included plug-ins, but for reverb I bought the very nice Redline Reverb some time ago and the even very nice Eareckon Earreverb for unbelievable 59,- Euros (wich is still available for two weeks or so). For distortion and overdrive I would recommend to join the D16 Silverline group buy or take a look at Ohmforces devices (Lives devices are quite cool, but those sound "little" better to my ears).

So, for me the switch took some time, but was definitely worth it.

C.

[gazo]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Time to get composing in Live!

[Sepp Ultura]

I wish you loads of fun!

And that's an other point. Live is so much more fun!

[perplex]

same here OP. I came from Logic to ableton. I loved logic because of the awesome itnernal plugs, and software instruments. but i moved to ableton, and i was like wtf this is soo easier and intuitive.

i love the fact that you can enable instructions/tips. so when you hover over a function you don't know about, it tells you what it is.

[nylarch]

Only thing I really miss in Logic is some of the stereo widening plugs...I really like Stereo Spread and the trusty old Sample Delay is so quick and useful. I use the free Voxengo Sample Delay to accomplish this in Live and I've tried various racks and approaches to replicate Stereo Spread but haven't quite found what I want yet. And I also picked up a convo reverb - in my case NI Reflektor which is excellent.

I miss how fast I can navigate in the arrangement in Logic using key commands - I think Live has some work to do in arrangement - but honestly I'm getting really fast in Live as well.

[perplex]

Only thing I really miss in Logic is some of the stereo widening plugs...I really like Stereo Spread .

i agree. stereo spread was really good in logic

[jezjonson]

I used to use Logic, but found it be be very boring with a terrible GUI.

Ableton is just mighty fine and loads of things it does too.......!

[billvb]

I moved to Live from Logic after Apple bought them. I miss some of the deep features of Logic (i.e., select all MIDI notes below a certain duration AND a certain velocity) but I find Live to be a much more intuitive and facile interface to work in.

[ekwipt]

I've noticed that my plugins GUI is a lot slower on Live, feels wacky to me?

I've read that you should use the VST version of plugs if you have them, but I hate it that then i have multiple versions in DAWs/Sequencers that can handle both (Maschine, Live etc)

So for me AU handling is not as good in Live

[gazo]

Live does seem more fun to work in. Sometime it feels more like a chore in Logic.

I'm loving the drum racks. So much easier building up a drum kit, that it is in the EXS24. I also love you how you can use Velocity percentages to change the velocity of your hits. To do this in Logic is so much more of a ball-ache!

[ekwipt]

The hyper editor in Logic is probably more powerful and easier to use

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr08/a ... h_0408.htm

I'm mainly using Maschine though now