Is Ableton really for Electronic Musicians?

[falgorian]

I know it has just about everything an electronic musician looks for in a DAW but I have this tendency to write what I feel on a whim from electronic type sounds to rock to orchestral and I was wondering if this is the DAW that's ideal to write on a whim? I've been using Ableton Live 8 Lite and I simply love its ease and ability for me to be productive although I've never tried any other DAW Intro software. Any thoughts? Thanks

[andydes]

I know it has just about everything an electronic musician looks for in a DAW but I have this tendency to write what I feel on a whim from electronic type sounds to rock to orchestral and I was wondering if this is the DAW that's ideal to write on a whim? I've been using Ableton Live 8 Lite and I simply love its ease and ability for me to be productive although I've never tried any other DAW Intro software. Any thoughts? Thanks

Live got popular with electronic musicians because it allowed them to easily play sequenced stuff on stage without shed loads of hardware and giving them more freedom that just pressing play like other daws. You can of course do any style with it.

I think it's very good for getting stuff down quick and playing with ideas, he that's what you mean by no a whim.

[timothyallan]

A DAW's a DAW really. It's akin to you asking asking "is this notebook better for sketching horses or flowers?"

[infernal.machine]

I recommend you try out some of the other demos.

In my opinion, live really excels for recording and looping ideas quickly and efficiently. And coming from reason, I find live's interface to be a lot quicker and intuitive.

But you can use any DAW to make any style of music, so if you're asking if ableton can handle non-electronic music, the answer is yes, of course. I feel like your decision will rest more on your workflow and process of music-creation rather than the genre you're producing (especially since I assume you aren't recording full orchestras and are just using MIDI... which is electronic music ).

[infernal.machine]

A DAW's a DAW really. It's akin to you asking asking "is this notebook better for sketching horses or flowers?"

Lol well said.

[falgorian]

Yeah I've written many of my ideas down with ease I guess I'm just trying make sure that 599.00 isn't a mistake of an investment and thus far I don't see any negative sides. Thanks for the input

[rluk]

First of all, all popular DAW-s are extremely powerful and you can do all styles of music with any of them while barely scratching the surface.

Second, if you're mainly doing rock music and multitrack recording bands, there are other DAW-s that get the job done quicker and cheaper. (Studio One, Reaper)

Lives arrangement view can get cumbersome really quickly, and audio editing is also lacking.

[andydes]

Well there are are downsides. Possibly because live made it's name with electronic music, they have focused on providing things like instrument racks instead of features to make editing audio easier for example. So if you do a lot of recording instruments with mics, and need to combine different takes together, you may find live a little frustrating compared to other options.

[falgorian]

I know it has just about everything an electronic musician looks for in a DAW but I have this tendency to write what I feel on a whim from electronic type sounds to rock to orchestral and I was wondering if this is the DAW that's ideal to write on a whim? I've been using Ableton Live 8 Lite and I simply love its ease and ability for me to be productive although I've never tried any other DAW Intro software. Any thoughts? Thanks

Rock and orchestral aren't electronic though. I would say Live is ideal for electronic musicians. If you want to do rock or orchestral how exactly are you thinking of going about that?

Well as of a now, I'm just one guy, therefore I have no band so I record all the parts myself one by one so I don't have to even think of recording multiple tracks at one time or anything. I do enjoy creating some type of "industrial" sounding atmospheres as well so I would consider myself somewhat of an electronic musician and I guess that's why i've found the enjoyment of this lite version thus far. As far as doing the orchestral sounds, I'm just speaking generically for the lack of a better word, I have various strings in my synth and would just find some unconventional methods of approach through ableton to create an ensemble.

[puzzlefactory]

If you want to do rock or orchestral how exactly are you thinking of going about that?

Here's a good example of Orchestral work in Live.

http://www.youtube.com/user/dazexus/videos?view=0

[falgorian]

Good example indeed, I'm gonna watch the rest of that later today, I haven't slept all night. Thank you all for your input, I need to go to bed. I don't think I ever stayed up glued to something since I got the Super Nintendo and I'm 29 years old, Anyhow, thanks again.

[J0n35y]

I don't think I ever stayed up glued to something since I got the Super Nintendo and I'm 29 years old, Anyhow, thanks again.

Made me chuckle! In the same boat myself. I jumped in to Live a fortnight ago after being hooked on the demo and have spent hours exploring its capabilities and have only scratched the surface. The missus and the kids have barely seen me during the last two weeks!!!

While Live is a bit of a jack of all trades, you may find a more "traditional" DAW better suited for some of the music you indicate an interest in - everyone is different. For every person who can't stand Live's arranger view there are just as many who swear by it. Best advice is to try out a variety of demos.

But I would suggest you keep your eye on Studio One - especially once 2.5 is released and even more so when it gets back on to a 50% off special. I reckon I'll have a lot of fun with certain scenarios having Live Rewired into Studio One - especially tidying up tracks via the mastering suite and various multiple takes of things all into one Project.

[kitekrazy]

I don't think I ever stayed up glued to something since I got the Super Nintendo and I'm 29 years old, Anyhow, thanks again.

Made me chuckle! In the same boat myself. I jumped in to Live a fortnight ago after being hooked on the demo and have spent hours exploring its capabilities and have only scratched the surface. The missus and the kids have barely seen me during the last two weeks!!!

While Live is a bit of a jack of all trades, you may find a more "traditional" DAW better suited for some of the music you indicate an interest in - everyone is different. For every person who can't stand Live's arranger view there are just as many who swear by it. Best advice is to try out a variety of demos.

But I would suggest you keep your eye on Studio One - especially once 2.5 is released and even more so when it gets back on to a 50% off special. I reckon I'll have a lot of fun with certain scenarios having Live Rewired into Studio One - especially tidying up tracks via the mastering suite and various multiple takes of things all into one Project.

I love Studio One. I tend to think comparing DAWs becomes apples and oranges. No way would I do advanced orchestral stuff in Live. There is no notation editor. I don't mess around with loops in Reaper either.

[beatmunga]

Live is only really any good for electronic musicians if you have Suite and/or a lot of third party synths etc.

Otherwise the possibilities for sound design are rather limited, and you end up using the somewhat patchy presets or doing delux DJing with audio clips.

[mendeldrive]