Ableton Live for composing/recording.

CloudyJim · Post by **CloudyJim** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:48 pm

Please help me clear up any misconceptions I have of Ableton Live before I decide to buy/not buy it. I know I can download the demo, but I am at work and I can't invest the time until January.

It seems that it is geared towards DJs and electronic musicians. I am neither. I play various instruments and am looking for a composing/recording tool. My work will be based on improvisation and experimentation. Every bit of sound will be played by me. My live performances will have no computer equipment, all instrument will be played by musicians.

Here's an example of something I recorded in Sonar:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemus ... dID=447278

What sets Ableton apart from a package like Sonar? What tools does it have that will help me be creative? Am I barking up the wrong tree as I don't use midi or samples?

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:03 pm

live 5 is for me the best producing tool at the moment ,
a few years ago i was still rewiring live to cubase or sonar , now there is no real point to rewire live , it's become the master .

the only peoples i know who are disapointed with live are the peoples who can't make it work because they haven't read the manual & don't know how to use half the functions .
i am recording bands with it , produce the tracks , remix , live pa , dj , i even have started to do premastering & post production with live ,
you won't be disapointed .

nosuch · Post by **nosuch** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:17 pm

If you are just looking for a tool to record audio, live might be a bit over the top...
you can get along with something simpler and cheaper, like garage band, protools or similar in the pc world...
if you like too fool around with samples (that might be samples you record yourself) live is a good tool to try differnet version of an arrangement, as you can really play it in tehe session view.

CloudyJim · Post by **CloudyJim** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:18 pm

I just realized that I have Live Lite 4. It came bundled with my emu1616m. I didn't know what it was at the time, so I installed Sonar and went to it. I've only been using Sonar for about a month. It seems that my limited version only has 4 tracks. So, that kinda sucks. I guess it's no different than downloading the demo.

Is Live difficult to learn, compared to other tools? Could you give me a real-world example of how you would compose with it?

minimal · Post by **minimal** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:25 pm

CloudyJim wrote:I just realized that I have Live Lite 4. It came bundled with my emu1616m. I didn't know what it was at the time, so I installed Sonar and went to it. I've only been using Sonar for about a month. It seems that my limited version only has 4 tracks. So, that kinda sucks. I guess it's no different than downloading the demo.

Is Live difficult to learn, compared to other tools? Could you give me a real-world example of how you would compose with it?

If there is a easy to learn program it is live, you'll be on track in a few months, and I feel it's woth upgrading from delta to full 5 version

nosuch · Post by **nosuch** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:26 pm

no, you can have as many tracks as your computer can manage.
I found live very easy to learn, but I use it since 1.5 so I somehow grew with the software.

sometimes people have difficulties understanding the concept of session an arrangement views (we are so used to look at music lineary).

I personally use it to create music for theater and multimedia (commercials, games etc.) the concepts helps a lot to create ideas fast and then put things together. you can react very quick to alterations and come up with things in an instant using clips and scenes
i only wish it would have a video-window...

CloudyJim · Post by **CloudyJim** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:41 pm

"This product comes with a special version of Ableton Live Lite 4, a powerful and unique DAW application. Live Lite 4 brings you much of the audio and MIDI functionality of the multi-award winning Ableton Live, recognized for revolutionizing the DAW experience. In this version you get four audio tracks, four MIDI tracks, incredible looping, VST and Audio Unit support, software instruments, effects, and much more. Live Lite 4 turns your interface and your computer into a complete composition and recording solution."

Maybe I can get by with four for now. Any idea how much the upgrade costs?

More on my philosophy of use. I want to loop a rhythm track and improvise over it. Then, I listen to it and cut out the bits I want to keep and arrange them. The end product won't sound very loop based.

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:57 pm

Cloudy...

I am not a DJ or an electronic musician and I've been using Live non-stop for about 2 years now. I switched from Sonar.

I would say you should get Live based on the fact that you said you like to experiment with your music.

Live can do most of the things you can do with the other DAW programs like Sonar and Pro Tools.

When I was a Sonar user I felt like I had a cool multi-track recorder.

I feel that way now with Live, but there is something more there.

Live is an instrument.

The Live Lite demo probably isn't the way to go. Wait till you have the time and download the full demo version of Live 5.

CloudyJim · Post by **CloudyJim** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:59 pm

Ok, what are the limitations of the demo of Live 5? I don't even know what the limitations to Live Lite 4 are besides the audio track count.

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:17 pm

You can't save anything.

cherry-k · Post by **cherry-k** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:18 pm

CloudyJim wrote:Ok, what are the limitations of the demo of Live 5? I don't even know what the limitations to Live Lite 4 are besides the audio track count.

... the limitation is, that you can not save your live set. So you can try everything live can do. I am a guitarplayer myself and I have found within Live the best composing/recording/experimenting/remixing.... Tool ever plus you can use it as an Instrument itself. It is very easy to learn and use, and if you want to experiment with your own recorded tracks, they are easy to loop and able to manipulate in more ways you can imagine. The effects also are good too. Try the Live 5 demo.

greetz from Hamburg, Germany

c.

CloudyJim · Post by **CloudyJim** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:29 pm

Ok, the "live set" can't be saved. But if i use if for multitracking, I can save the final product? Please forgive the multitude of questions, but i wouldn't want to go through hours of learning something only to find out that I can't export the audio or something like that.

EDIT: From the ableton FAQ:
"What are the restrictions on the Live Demo?
The Live Demo cannot save, render to disk or resample the Master output, and ReWire use is limited to 30 minutes per launch. Other than that, the Live Demo acts like the full version."

So, in conclusion, Live Lite 4 seems like the one to start with. It's only got 4 tracks, but I get to evaluate the overall outcome. Is there a way around the Demo version not saving? [/b]

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 10:29 am

I used Cubase and Logic , now since over a year mostly Live. highly recommended. I am real time musician, composer . Live is great for everything except film/ video work

chris vine · Post by **chris vine** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 10:39 am

CloudyJim wrote:
So, in conclusion, Live Lite 4 seems like the one to start with. It's only got 4 tracks, but I get to evaluate the overall outcome. Is there a way around the Demo version not saving? [/b]

Jim, why don't you just download the Live 5 demo, if you only want to evaluate the application? It isn't such a big file anyway. Do you need to save right away?

Live is the most creative piece of software out there IMHO. It is not a fully featured DAW, but that's the beauty of it. I used Cubase SX (and Nuendo) for a few years and while I did like a lot of the editing features - they ARE great apps - they don't seem to have the creative flexibilty that Live allows for.

nosuch · Post by **nosuch** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 10:55 am

CloudyJim wrote:Ok, the "live set" can't be saved. But if i use if for multitracking, I can save the final product?

So, in conclusion, Live Lite 4 seems like the one to start with. It's only got 4 tracks, but I get to evaluate the overall outcome. Is there a way around the Demo version not saving? [/b]

You must be kidding!
Why do you ask all that stuff about how people use live when your only goal seems to be to get a crack? why don't you just start with the 4 track-version and try if you can lay down some tracks and if you want more you buy the whole thing

for the workflow you describe, live is the right tool.