Thanks everyone for the feedback!
@Sweetjesus and Macrostructure - I really appreciate your suggestions.
@Radib... why poke fun at me?
@Yotone - I'm surprised to hear he used FruityLoops when you saw him. Keith went to the Berkeley School of Music and is a very skilled pianist. His soundscapes that he has produced are quite simply waaaay beyond FruityLoops. I've used FL, and while cute and fun, I can't imagine it doing anything near the production level of Helios' "Unomia" album. I suppose he created/mastered his music in something else, and pushed it to FL for some reason?
@fatrabbit: I never heard that the sound of Live is inferior to anything else. I suppose my question really was incorrectly focused at Live vs. This or Live vs. That. I guess I should ask: What is your Signal Chain beyond Live? And with Live at the foundation, and a proper, semi-pro chain after it, and with (for the sake of the argument) creativity and skill coming out of your ears, does Live "do the trick"?
The artists I listed are not necessarily my favorite artists (by any stretch). They are artists that I've always admired the production quality of their sound. These artists are all primarily "electronic". I realize there is a lot of instrumentation beyond the DAW that they've incorporated. I was hoping someone on this forum may have shared an understanding of the production abilities of someone like Keith Kennif (Helios) or Jean F. Cochois (Timewriter), whether or not it is their favorite artist. I listed "Bliss" for example because of the quality of their electronic portions of their music. It is quite stunning really. And Royksopp, while certainly not my favorite artist, I've always admired the sound they are able to produce and have been curious as to "how they do it."
I should add that I've been in and around the music and film industry most of my life. I'd like to think that my ears actually already can hear the differences in good and poor production quality without the years of not being able to tell a difference as some of you have said. I appreciate many of yours candor, as I'm sure you receive this question from random Noob's to Live on a weekly basis, but honestly, I'm miles ahead of the average Noob in that regard. I'm merely a Noob to Ableton. I've used Sonar and Cubase in the past and liked them, although, I've always fell short on the hardware or "signal chain" as it is called, that goes from "idea" to "mastered audio".
One of my closest friends is personal friends with an artist named "Sasha", who is a big advocate of Live. While I myself, am not a huge fan of his music, it sparked an interest in me to check out Live. My buddy insists that I should explore music creation with it, and it has been 3 years since I've plugged away on making music. So, that's why I'm here. I've recently gotten the itch again to get musically creative...stop being such a consumer and get some of those ideas out of my head and into other's ears. I suppose that's what brings all of us to this forum.
Thanks for your feedback and for reading!
