Using Live for linear sequencing

hat · Post by **hat** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:57 pm

I use the Arranger window all the time, no exception.
I've worked on Cakewalk, Acid, Logic and ProTools and nothing beats Live in terms of fun and workflow. I know most people use the Session view but when I first got Live, I went to the Arranger right away and never looked back. Much easier to edit on the fly as I'm piecing my project together. I think I'll have to learn the Session view when I'm ready to play small gigs soon, but until then, Live's Arranger works great for me. That said, the mix buss gets mushy realy quick, which is why I still prefer to mix elsewhere (PT).

braj · Post by **braj** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:23 am

hat wrote:the mix buss gets mushy realy quick, which is why I still prefer to mix elsewhere (PT).

By 'mushy' you mean cramped? If so, disable the clips from being viewable and you can get plenty of tracks displayed (Ctrl+Alt+P on the PC). I don't know why there isn't a button for this, but it is in the 'View' menu. I can have 23 tracks displayed with 2 busses without scrolling, which is more than I ever need. (that's at 1280x1024)

hat · Post by **hat** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:29 am

Nah, I meant the sound is mushy. Not that I want to open that debate on this thread, it was simply an afterthought. The mixbuss in Live sounds like crap. Ok enough if it's the only one you've dealt with (sometimes I wish that were the case), but compared to Logic or PT, trying to get good separation and headroom in your mixes is really difficult in live, eq and all...

In any case, the program still rocks my world for composing...

krank · Post by **krank** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:41 am

Thanks again for all the great input. Headquest: no apology needed at all, I appreciate you taking the time.

Couple of questions to the previous post: no meter changes - really!? I hadn't thought of that - it's a pretty big shortcoming. In regard to mix busses of various sequencers: I thought they were all the same, it's just ones and zeros, right? Maybe I'm being naive here - yet I read somewhere that sequencers with similar engine specs (like for example, 32-bit floating) and using the same samples and/or VSTs, should sound the same. Are you saying that Ableton's 'engine' is of a lower 'resolution' - or whatever this is called?

jahnlay · Post by **jahnlay** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 8:48 am

I used Logic for years and have now completely moved to Live, also used Pro Tools before for a couple of years. I love the workflow and speed with which Ican do stuff in it.

I disagree with the mixbuss thing above, I find that Live is great for mixing, and I've been a mastering engineer for the last 10 years. I think it might have to do more with you soundcard and drivers than with Live, check it out.

olafmol · Post by **olafmol** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:24 am

or maybe live has a little less headroom than PT?

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:31 am

Go ask about the ProTools Mixbuss on ProSoundWeb.

Go on.

StompyJ · Post by **StompyJ** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:09 pm

Lives midi editor conforms to live itself, its quick, fast, intuitive.

I tend to play everything in on kbds, and manually quantize only when I can't get a lick just right, this is why I absolutely love the midi editor.

Editing drums? create a 2-4 bar loop, and just jam over it till the parts sound just right, use the grid for kicks snares, easily turn it off for twiddly bits. It's been a godsend for me.

I hope it doesn't become the behemoth that logic/sonar/cubase have become, sure they have more features, but you can't use them "Live", its not just quick and easy to do something. I do use Sonar when I score larger projects with film, and huge sample libs etc. This is where those kind of editors shine, where you can't work realtime anyway, due to the large amount of arranging, midi cc's that have to go into it.

I do respect the fact some people like to point and click their music in, or do want that huge non-live kind of midi editor in live, but please don't make the assumption we all do. I use live, precisely because I can use it live/realtime/at the speed of inspiration.

(Note: I'm not saying if they couldn't add these features in a streamlined.intelligent.live way, I'd be against them, but just pointing out there are design decisions that must be made)

StompyJ · Post by **StompyJ** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:24 pm

I'm not trying to slag anyone off in my earlier post, just explaining my perspective.

Sinjin · Post by **Sinjin** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:50 pm

is that rand as in rand al'thor?

ok let me say for the record that live is the best thing out there for people who dont need to multitrack a band. its my favorite app in the world, so please, gerhard, dotn take my live away!!!

that said i really do love logic. exs24 + sample cds made to work with it = a lot of fun.

also reason is still the app ive gotten the most completed songs out of over the years. now for some reason i still havent gotten anythign out of reason 3, but versions 1-2.5 served me very well.

honestly i think if i hadnt been collecting software since like 93 and live was all i had, id be pretty discouraged, just because theres a lot of things youd like to be able to do that-well, i wont say theyre impossible..seems like EVERYTHING is possible with live-would be very difficult in live, e.g. string arrangements, midi programmable acoustically accurate drumkits, etc.

but man...i remember the days when i was trying to put together photek-style DnB with only soundforge to work with...just cutting, pasting, and inserting silence, and i do know for a fact that if i spent more time just using live and ONLY live, i would get more creative results-admittedly unexpected ones. but, i want to hear what i want to hear, so, its usually rewireing and vsti'ing until my processor catches fire.