Do you need a full DAW in addition to Live?

qveda · Post by **qveda** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:29 am

I'm strongly considering buying Live6 for home recording and live performance and general creative fooling around. Once I can perform well enough, I'd like to create some CDs - mostly for friends. They don't have to be full-on mastered for volume production. But I do want them to have excellent audio quality. I'll be using an RME Fireface 800 interface.

Given my goals above, do I also need a DAW like Digital Performer or Logic ?

Regarding the mixer and routings, I wasn't clear from the manual on these things:
How many Sends can you have in Live6 for a given track? more than 2 ? Can any Send be either pre/post ?
Can you have direct outs for tracks? or assign each track to a submix that has an output(s) separate from the "main outs"?

I'd really like to be able to do without a full DAW where I would seldom if ever use more than 50% of its capabilities.

thanks!
-Q

posssu · Post by **posssu** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:58 am

I quit using Logic and bought Live and I'm very happy with it. Live may not have all those quality mastering plugins that Logic has, but it still comes quite far. I switched to Live for the same reasons as you did: to perform live and home recording.

It has done a good job so far in both.

You can create maximum 12 send channels and all these appear to every track. Sends can be either pre or post (any of them, it's send-channel-specific) You can also route any track directly to your sound card's output port if you want. You can direct any amount of tracks to any track, so you can create a track for the submix and direct all the tracks you want there and then output this track to your soundcard's output.

I can very deeply recommend Live for your needs. I have felt relieved every day since I quit using Logic. I just had too much for me and Live does everything better and even more what I used to use Logic for.

simpleton · Post by **simpleton** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:11 am

Most of the users on this board recommend a serious DAW like Nuendo or Pro Tools HD

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 7:42 am

No i don't need,i only use Live.And i am Happy with it.

jasefos · Post by **jasefos** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:28 pm

With each new version of Live, I need other DAW's less.

Once Live gets:

- a Proper Meter track (i.e for time signature changes)

- sophisticated groove quantise implementation

- full customisable keyboard shortcuts (and more of them)

- better multiple monitor support (an example screen #1 - Session view; screen #2+#3 Arrange view)

- Support for automating plugin parameters beyond index#128 (i.e. if plugin has more than 128 parameters those above 128 are inaccessible by automation).

- Offline Processing of plugins with Offline Process History (like Nuendos) on a per clip basis.

..... I will no longer have need for other DAWs at all (well - at least for my own workflow).

Cheers !

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:53 pm

Honestly, right now the only thing that keeps me from leaving DP completely is Quan Jr.

Musicsoul · Post by **Musicsoul** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:59 pm

I got the same problem, using logic pro and ableton.
I'm gonna ditch logic when:

1 - The sound quality of live is at least the same as logic..
2 - Live brings more audio editting posibilties.

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:01 pm

Musicsoul wrote:1 - The sound quality of live is at least the same as logic..

step 1 - Turn off Warp
step 2 - Rejoice

mohler · Post by **mohler** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:03 pm

I would say it's possible to only use Live, I guess if that's what you have then you will use it to the best of it's ability.

I love Live for performance and fooling about with my arrangements, but I also love the power of Logic Pro and some amazing plugins. (which I wish we could use in Live.)

I do 90% of my writing in Logic and then I will often out but stems or tracks into Live to screw around with it in a more fluid way. Generally I bring the audio back to Logic to mix full tracks.

I also write my own loops in Logic for use in Live. When I'm setting up for performances.

qveda · Post by **qveda** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:26 pm

Thanks for the replies and helpful advice !

Do you think I could get by with Garage Band as a basic DAW , until I've determined specific needs for a full DAW like Logic or Digital Performer

When you use a DAW in addition to Live6, do you use them as separate standalone programs? or do you use Live from within the DAW ?

trying to get my head around this before I start buying s/w.
-Q

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:52 pm

I come from the typical DAW world (started with Pro Tools Free and began moving from there), so I just didn't feel at home with Garageband. Sure, it has some cool features and the bundled FX and instruments can do very good stuff, but overall I felt it was a very CPU hungry dumbed down DAW.

If I were in your shoes knowing what I know now, I'd start with Live. Then after you know your way around it decide if you really need the features that another DAWs offer, they can be fulfilled with an Audio Editor like Soundforge or even if you need something else at all.

tylenol · Post by **tylenol** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 9:49 pm

qveda wrote:Do you think I could get by with Garage Band as a basic DAW , until I've determined specific needs for a full DAW like Logic or Digital Performer

If you have live, I really don't think you'll need garage band. I think you could get by with live as a basic DAW until you've decided if you need something more, though. (Have you tried the demo, incidentally? This might help answer your questions.)

jasefos · Post by **jasefos** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:08 am

qveda wrote: When you use a DAW in addition to Live6, do you use them as separate standalone programs? or do you use Live from within the DAW ?

The only way you can use Live side-by-side on the same computer with another DAW is by launching Live as a ReWire slave.

More informaiton about ReWire and what it accomplishes can be found on the inventors website, Propellerhead (head to the technologies subsection on www.propellerhead.se).

When running as a ReWire slave application there is a important restriction: you cannot host 3rd party VST or AU plugins in it when running as a ReWire Slave ...

Cheers

YILA · Post by **YILA** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:22 am

combine it with a Powercore and your pissing all over logic.

YILA · Post by **YILA** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:23 am

combine it with a Powercore and your pissing all over logic. The only thing live doesnt do is edit audio very well, Audacity does that for free, and surround sound which you dont sound like you need.