Is Ableton Live right for me?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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sersun
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Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:07 pm

Is Ableton Live right for me?

Post by sersun » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:38 pm

Hi all,

I am getting back into music and I'm trying to choose a sequencing program. I am really thinking about Cubase 4 or Ableton Live right now, and I can only justify buying one program. Excuse my ignorance:
  • I have used Cubase VST 4 (lite) in the past (it seemed clunky but got the job done, usually)
  • My computer is fast and is running Windows Vista.
  • I'll only be doing small pieces using some vocal, guitar, and synth/midi
  • I would like to use soundfonts but it isn't too important if Ableton has an alternative or can use them
Can Ableton Live be considered a replacement for Cubase?

Thanks!

Lo-Fi Massahkah
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Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 2:57 pm
Location: The south east suburbs of Malmö, Sweden.

Post by Lo-Fi Massahkah » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:25 pm

Does Camenbert taste better than Gruyere?

You should definitely try out some demos.

Welcome to the forums, by the way!

-M

pulsoc
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Post by pulsoc » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:57 pm

There are also some interesting alternatives like Reaper, Podium, and Energy XT.

leedsquietman
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Post by leedsquietman » Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:20 pm

There is no demo for Cubase 4 unfortunately. But I have Cubase SX3 and Live and they work really well together but I would probably just choose Live these days if I could only have one, depends what you want to do.

Live has a demo. Download it, play with it, see how it compares. A lot of things have changed in cubase since vst4 through vst5, SX, SX2,SX3 and now cubase 4. Cubase4 is a better audio and midi editor,
audio crossfades, features some built in vstis, the track presets is a nice idea, better mixer views and metering and has scoring and much more audio>video options. It also handles .omf and other less standard file fgrmats and has a built in encoder for mp3, ogg and real audio.

Live is better for composing songs quickly from scratch, has more flexible routing, better timestretching of variable tempo tunes, the cool ability to audition clips on the fly and live adjusts the tempo to keep the sync, and the inbuilt fx are weird and wacky and lend to creativity, such as beat repeat etc. Live's session view is just great for arranging, my productivity is much better for it.
http://soundcloud.com/umbriel-rising http://www.myspace.com/leedsquietmandemos Live 7.0.18 SUITE, Cubase 5.5.2], Soundforge 9, Dell XPS M1530, 2.2 Ghz C2D, 4GB, Vista Ult SP2, legit plugins a plenty, Alesis IO14.

simpleton
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Post by simpleton » Sat Jul 21, 2007 12:19 am

Well, generally speaking, if you're just a dee jay- chose Live. On the other hand, if you're a serious musician- go with Qbase.
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The Leveller wrote:Wow, a weird shaped dead coral with sh!t stuck to it. Proof indeed of supernatural abilities.

Lo-Fi Massahkah
Posts: 3604
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 2:57 pm
Location: The south east suburbs of Malmö, Sweden.

Post by Lo-Fi Massahkah » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:33 am

simpleton wrote:Well, generally speaking, if you're just a dee jay- chose Live. On the other hand, if you're a serious musician- go with Qbase.
Eeeehhh....?

Oh, wait... I'm not gonna be troll-bait.

-M

wilxon
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Post by wilxon » Sat Jul 21, 2007 8:32 am

Yes, Ableton live is right for you.

the girl next door
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Post by the girl next door » Sat Jul 21, 2007 10:12 am

I hate Cubase...To many Windows for my liking.Takes to long to get thing done !!
I love Ableton Live :P

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