existential software question

Sebastian · Post by **Sebastian** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:22 pm

Hi

I dont mean to provoke a "what is the best softwatre" thread.

Im going to take some some home studio recording classes locally and my final purpose is to record a demo that is good enough to be able to play my songs on radio, get on a compilation or on I tunes etc. This doesnt mean I wouldnt use the help of a real studio for mixdown etc but I would do a lot of recording at home, mostly guitars, bass and voice.

The question is, given that Im not a DJ or an electronica musician, wil Ableton cut it quality wise for audio recordings or do I need to move on to more "profesional" software. I realize personal opinion and needs is a factor in this question.

So if Im going to take studio recording classes, this may be the right time to move to Pro Tools or Digital Perfomer or whatever. By the way, ((I have Pro Tools but dont use (it came with my Digirack soundcard).

I do love Ableton and its ease of use.

thanks for your comments

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 9:31 am

For recording, the software really doesn't matter. When your are recording, your interface spits out digital data in the form of ones and zeroes. The application only stores those data in a file without doing anything to them.

You are not saying what material you are going to record, but what most likely will matter is your mics, mic setup, preamps and the acoustics of the room you are recording in.

Live is perfectly fine for recording, but if you are going to work extensively with recorded material, ProTools definitely has it's advantages in ease of use. On the other hand, if you are only recording vocals to use on top of an electronic soundtrack, stay in Live by all means.

Your recording classes will most likely use PT.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:36 am

Live is no different that any other DAW when it comes to recording audio. Just make sure you turn off warping on any clips you record, as they likely won't need it if you're recording external instruments.

Sebastian · Post by **Sebastian** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:03 pm

Im play rock, not electronica..............

Sebastian · Post by **Sebastian** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:04 pm

if I record some parts in Live and then use prof studio help, will it be possible for them to use my already recorded parts?

vijaywins · Post by **vijaywins** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:27 pm

Hi,

May I know why you are hesitating to address Ableton LIVE as a professional Software. It's a modern DAW with every feature for a musician/recording engineer. Ableton is more musical than any software. I used Cubase, sonar earlier, but now I migrated to Ableton just because of its modern features.

All you need is a Professional Sound Card.

If you wish to record few parts on LIVE then stick to the best File format.

24bit, 96khz Wave format. or
24bit 48Khz Wave format

Don't record at lower sample rates.
Hope this helps. Best of luck.

laird · Post by **laird** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:29 pm

Yeah, Ableton will be just fine!
If you go to a professional studio later, you can most likely use the files you've recorded previously (unless they are just bad recordings).

Good info above (use high bit depth/rate settings)
Plus I'll add these:

1) leave yourself some headroom (-3dB is often nice for mastering engineers to work with)... (but obviously not too much headroom).

2) if you are worried about your mixing skills, you can always render individual tracks as audio files, and take those to the Studio on a CDr/DVDr. That is much easier than trying to find a studio that uses Live, or trying to learn Pro Tools when you like and know Live already.

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 7:25 pm

Recording rock music is hard work! Vocals, guitar and amp, bass and amp, keyboard perhaps (easy) and the really hard one:drums.

While I generally agree with the above posters, I think that if you are going to work extensively with recorded material (which the above implies) then you should perhaps take the time to learn Pro Tools. I'm certainly no big fan of PT, but multi track recording and the subsequent audio editing is exactly what PT was built for.

dick nixon · Post by **dick nixon** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:23 pm

I record rock-ish stuff in Ableton all the time. It's awesome for building songs track by track and for mixing live stuff with midi parts / samples / loops (as opposed to recording everything live off the floor). The best part is how easy it is to change stuff after.

pulsoc · Post by **pulsoc** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:30 pm

Try Samplitude or n-track

p.s. How the hell is this question existential?

existential software question

existential software question

Recording Software

rock