Moving from Logic pro to Ableton. Questions.

[benjamingordon]

I have to start this by saying I've been using Logic and Ableton for years, so know them both quite well, but Logic is the one i know inside and out… Ableton not so much.

There are some features in both that are great, but not one does them all… as is always the case with everything in life.

But… this doesnt stop me wondering at this point whether Ableton could satisfy some of my needs, as I'm thinking of making Ableton my main DAW for tracks.

There are a few things that i don't think Ableton can do and want to put them out there, just to see if anyone can tell me different.

This will help me to make my decision.

1. Quantising… logic offers many more variations and does this non destructively. This means i can quantise something and come back to it at a later point and turn off the quantise. Its quantise setting are also much more easily accessible for making constant slight changes… in Ableton you have to keep opening up the window, then applying your changes…. which you can't go back from at a later point...

2. Nudging.. i know you can turn the grid off and move the regions/notes back and forth ever so slightly but in logic there is a key command to shift forward/backward by a sample at a time… For me… this is essential as it allows me to keep hitting those keys until i get the exact position i want. Its much more accurate and reliable than actually moving the region with the cursor..

3. Delay.. There is a setting in Logic that lets you delay a region or note by a certain amount. Again this is non destructive and you can go back and change it at a later point. This again is a key feature for me when getting the right timing of things. Ableton allows you to delay the track, but not individual notes/clips within it.

4. More than one track per channel/instrument - In Logic i separate out variations of parts onto different tracks, but rather than duplicating the channel, i simply create a new track, which forms part of that channel. This means i don't have extra tracks i don't need and can process all of those parts under the same channel.

5. Automation - In Logic i can turn it off for all tracks with just one key. Ableton seems clunky and messy with this, with lots of lines and submenus for getting back to just the volume line for example.

Thanks for reading everyone. Looking forward to hearing your answers.

[Martin Gifford]

Sold! I'm buying Logic! Actually, I saw a video review, and I liked what I saw.

As for point 4, in Ableton you can group tracks together so that you can process them as one. Indeed, one thing I love about Ableton over my previous DAW (Cubase) is that I could forget about bussing and channels and routing forever. It's all quick and immediate with Ableton.

[Samuel L. Jizzle]

1. Quantising… logic offers many more variations and does this non destructively. This means i can quantise something and come back to it at a later point and turn off the quantise. Its quantise setting are also much more easily accessible for making constant slight changes… in Ableton you have to keep opening up the window, then applying your changes…. which you can't go back from at a later point...

Live's Groove pool has this down.

4. More than one track per channel/instrument - In Logic i separate out variations of parts onto different tracks, but rather than duplicating the channel, i simply create a new track, which forms part of that channel. This means i don't have extra tracks i don't need and can process all of those parts under the same channel.

Different MIDI track can feed the same instrument. Sorted.

As for the rest. Well. Hum.

[ansolas]

1. Quantising… logic offers many more variations and does this non destructively. This means i can quantise something and come back to it at a later point and turn off the quantise. Its quantise setting are also much more easily accessible for making constant slight changes… in Ableton you have to keep opening up the window, then applying your changes…. which you can't go back from at a later point...

You can just select a groove and it will be applied non destructive unless you press commit.
If you do not commit nothing happens destructive!

2. Nudging.. i know you can turn the grid off and move the regions/notes back and forth ever so slightly but in logic there is a key command to shift forward/backward by a sample at a time… For me… this is essential as it allows me to keep hitting those keys until i get the exact position i want. Its much more accurate and reliable than actually moving the region with the cursor..

Select a Note and nudge it with the encoder of Push or select a note, hold CMD (OSX) and nudge the note with the Arrow keys :
http://screencast.com/t/qKINE7wEbDX
This works very precise.

Hope that helps


~AnSolas