Charlie May from Spooky bags the Ableton Sound Engine

[xyandrej]

In Computer Music 142 Charlie May of Spooky, who works with Sasha, notes that he has to bounce everythin out of Ableton Live and bring it into logic because "the summing engine just doesn't sound as good" This is like computer music mag is from August 2009 and is the drum and bass special.

You have to admit a lot of pros make this complaint. It's like non stop, almost makes you wonder.

most people wont be able to hear the difference in the summing until they are in a very good room with
very very good equipment.


your home studio, you can't tell.


truth.


that said, when i was working in a post production place with multiple Protools HD rigs in perfectly tuned
rooms the stuff out of protools sounds a LOT better then straight out of Live.. and this is through the
SAME gear..


to each his own.

not on this forum

Live ROX but this aint the place to analyse it properly.

Yes Ableton Rocks! but where else should we analyse Ableton then?

[Machinate]

Fuck, people now you broke the Henke generator!!!

Now we have to reset the noisefloor and reseat the science chips! Do you know how difficult it is to get the Rationalizer callibrated? FUCK!

[LoopStationZebra]

I wonder if every single thread started on this issue will immediately get to at least 3 pages?

[dysanfel]

I have started mixing in Harrison Mixbus for my CD tracks. But interestingly enough, I still prefer Live summing for my giging tracks.

[rbmonosylabik]

Best. Summing. Engine. Ever.

it heven has that warm analog quality

[kb420]

Best. Summing. Engine. Ever.

it heven has that warm analog quality

FAIL

[leedsquietman]

xyAndrej - you have worked in a music store for a year.

I have done 3 years of engineering, production, music tech courses at University and college (not online courses), started recording on cassette portastudios in the 1980s, progressed to 8 track reel and MIDI with Atari ST and Cubase and Notator (now Logic) and ADAT before arriving at computer DAW recording and worked in recording studios for 6 and a half years. Until I was recently laid off, I also worked with Cubase and Logic on a daily basis and a PTHD3 accel rig with I/O 192 and D-Icon controller on a fairly regular basis as well as Live. I also do mixing and mastering for other artists, akin to Tarekith and Nebulae etc. I own Cubase, Reaper, Live and Soundforge in my home studio and the only reason I prefer Cubase for mixing is because it has better support of dual monitors and I like the Mixer GUI better. Not because it 'sounds' better. On my electronic music projects, I still mix the majority with Live and have no issues with it.

BTW - sending your mix out to an ANALOGUE summing device (TL fat track) with lots of harmonic generation and tape saturation might well sound better than in the box summing, but this is not an indictment on the DAW itself. That is an argument for analog vs digital rather than Live vs Reaper or Sonar or whatever digital workstation.

This is what I'm putting my experience down to, when in my opinion there is no difference. Too much placebo effect/correctional bias/urban legend comes into judging Live against more established DAWS, rather than solid, tangible and audible differences.

To be frank, I think Ableton need to work more on the MIDI side of the program than audio.

[leedsquietman]

btw your Myspace link doesn't work ...

[kb420]

PWNED!

[morbid]

what is a DAW at it's heart?

when is a daw not a daw?

when its ajar!

[Pasha]

What I wonder is if Charlie May even has a dick at all, or is he really concealing a gaping vagina ?

Maybe that's what's 'Spooky' about him.

[bridgealantee]

Didn't read the whole thread but if anybody cares this is really easy to prove one way or the other doing a simple phase test. Bounce straight out of ableton, then bounce re-wired to logic. Open the files up in a neutral daw like pro tools. Line up the tracks and flip the phase on one. If you can hear anything then that is what the difference between the two summing engines is. Peace.

[Lazos]

Meh.

I'm off to make some badly summed music.

Most worthwhile post in this thread

[Atardecer]

Running your mix thru a good summing mixer does sound better than bouncing in your DAW, but i dont buy into one DAW sounding better than another when it comes to bouncing. Perhaps this guy is comparing bouncing a fully loaded set with heaps of MIDI/Audio running and pushing the processor, to a project with bounced stems in another DAW - a comparison which is not really fair. I use a Pro Tools HD rig at work, as well as a Cubase system with Reason and Live. Ive done mixes of the same projects in each and ive not noticed any difference. As one guy said, maybe if your in a seriously acoustically tuned room you might be able to pick up a slight difference - i dont know. Just get on with making your mixes good or at least get a summing mixer if it concerns you.

Jim

[Silence]

reading all these threads...i keep wondering... when have i ever thrown a audio file in a daw, bounced it... and called it a day?...
i usually send the tracks i have ready for release to a mastering engineer... and i mix them using a shitload of plugs if necessary...
so the tracks sound as fat as the engineers experience behind them. But now i finally got it... the problem is that i haven´t phase inverted tracks
and gotten the purest summing engine and all that jazz.


ok, ill say it... ill admit it... live sucks monkey balls and i still use it... so it seems that i suck monkey balls to... or maybe im wrong about that, i dont really care
and it would be wonderfully super great if ppl stopped caring about that which has the least effect on the music...