Why do YOU choose Ableton?!

[davidsl222]

Session View way of workflow to Arrangement View.

And I was really angry at Pro Tools one day due to how buggy it was on my system and also didn't want to spend another $300 on another upgrade every year - so I tried Live and stayed. I'm still using my Mbox and it still acts buggy apart from whatever software I'm using.

And that all said, Live isn't the perfect answer but there probably isn't a perfect answer.

[Akshara]

I was helping a friend setup a ProTools HD system in his house, and we were discussing ways to pull off elaborate live productions with electronica and acoustic performers, and he gifted me an unopened boxed copy of Live 4. The Session View and the quick creative workflow really blew me away, and got me working with and thinking about music composition and production in a new way. After about a year of working on and off with Live, I decided to abandon Sonar, Digital Performer and EnergyXT and to go all in with Ableton for the next project, and was full on Ableton through Live 6, Sampler, Live 7 and eventually Live 8 Suite with the APC40.

I still choose Ableton for live performance and when working out creative ideas or for sketching out an arrangement, because the Session View and quick creative workflow are without compare in any other host. It's also an excellent phrase sampler on its own.

[david.barker]

For me its the sheer ease of being able to try ideas and sounds out,able to throw down some sounds and make stuff happen.

Very easy to use the arrange view/session to create a sound board, very nice workflow ha,ha

I use Live rewired to Reason for my ambient work,why? I like both software's,each has something to offer

Ok some people moan about Live,but its still a great bit of kit,no matter what people think

[Sibanger]

Seriously,

I was a Reason user, and doing a couple of remixes , and, as you can imagine, is was fucking hard, and a friend said, "check this shit out. It's got a warp feature. You might like it"... That was back in 2005 & even though I may complain when I have issues with stability and am troubled by the recent direction by Abes, I'm still hear....

Oh, and I only ever use warp for FX

[miekwave]

Hello fellow Ableton users and what not! I'm here to present yet another question for the masses

Let me start by saying a bit about myself and how this question came about: I go to an audio school where we strictly use protools. At first I was weary of the idea because I am extremely interested in music production and I was always told Ableton is the ideal DAW for my interest ( little do I know ). After months of using protools I have began to really love the workspace and been questioning where my heart lies. I never disliked ProTools, I'm just an amateur when it comes to DAW's,.

Now I I understand that EVERYONE is different when it comes to something like this and one DAW really can't be that much better than the other, because it all comes down to preference.

But that doesn't stop me from asking: Why do YOU choose Ableton over another DAW? What do you get from Ableton that you wouldn't get from ProTools, Logic, FL, ETC!

I'm very curious.


TL;DR?: why ableton ?

The BEST DAW is the one you are good at. If you are confortible using Pro Tools then stick with it. Having said that, ableton might not be useful to you unless you have Ableton Suite.

Ableton Suite contains 60GB of content (Orchestral Libraries, Loops, Samples, Guitar/Bass packs, etc), 9 Synth and sample Engines and Dozens of effects. Using Ableton Suite instruments and effects can be adventitious to using third party VST and VSTi since it is all self integrated. You can send any ableton track into any Pro Tools aux or bus track via Re-wire. Another benefit Ableton live will give you is clip mode, that is where where "Live" lives up to its namesake. In Clip mode, you can "perform" your arrangement in any way and record each performance into a stem on Pro Tools. I would suggest keeping all your microphone recordings into Pro Tools.

For liniar songs, protools is more arrangement and composer friendly. It is also easier to work with outboard than with ableton live. Ableton live does not have NRPN or SYSEX support like Pro Tools does. Also Pro tools allows you to import midnam files where ableton, you can't, you are stuck with msb/lsb values without a .nam reference. Also Ableton has a longer learning curve than pro tools in many aspects.

So Pros and Cons
Pro Tools vs Ableton Live
- Better External Midi Support (Pro Tools)
- Better Arrangement (clip view) Remixing (Ableton)
- Better integrated Instruments/Effects (Ableton)
- Better Microphone Recording (Pro Tools)
- Better Linear Arrangement Editing (Pro Tools)
- Better Musical Composition (Pro Tools)
- Better HDD allocation and file management (Pro Tools)
- Better musical idea generator (Ableton)

Hope that helps!

[Sibanger]

Soz

[eyeknow]

In soviet russia, you no choose host, host choose YOU!

I was away from live for years. Heard about the x64 beta, tried it with "lite" and fell in love. Too bad about live 9

Seriously, 8.4 was very nice. I expected 9 to exceed my expectations and I was wrong. Live 9 was a "free" upgrade after getting live 8 suite.

[Theo Void]

The browser

[c33]

I choose Ableton for its diversity. I like that it's both complex and user-friendly. That it's recording software and performance software. That it's an instrument.

I like that I've been using it for two years and have still barely tapped into all that it's capable of.

I'm happy with 8 for the time being, though. There are some things I'm reading regarding the features and functionality of 9 that make me hesitant to upgrade.

[justchris86]

I switched from Reason to live because of work flow

[murgatroid]

cuz it was there?

[glitchrock-buddha]

why ableton ?

Because Bitwig's not out yet.

Sorry if someone already made that joke (Didn't read the thread).

[v00d00ppl]

Actual Answer: Parallel Processing.

It's much easier and quicker to parallel process in Live than it is in most other DAWs. Most other DAWs parallel processing GUI involves creating cumbersome bussed insert tracks. These tend to be huge on space and poor on usefulness. I prefer to have a nested save-able rack of racks in Live.

Many other areas of Live have gone to hell, but the Racks keep me using Live.

Damn, that just blew my mind.

[djadonis206]

It's easy to use

[slatepipe]

i been using it since version 4, i'm no genius on it but i guess i'm pretty good.

for live performance it's great and i've always found it easy to interface with different midi controllers - i use it with a uc33e, fcb1010, joystick and custom midi bass guitar. all work fine with it (though the fcb was a right struggle, that wasn't live's fault)

i love how you can just fling a couple of random recordings in it and play around with them for ages and you can just end up going off in a multitude of directions that you couldn't have possibly envisaged when you started

i'm always finding eye opening little tricks on it, especially when working with other people

routing, racks, effects, warping. now i love the eq8 even more as you can expand it with the spectrum analyser button thingy

and more stuff