Live 7 getting too expensive?

dr_dohh · Post by **dr_dohh** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:55 am

Am I the only one who thinks Live is becoming too expensive? It's a very good product, in fact it's very useful for me, but I haven't upgraded since Live 4 because I can't sustain all of the yearly upgrades. In fact I think the price I spent for my first Live program is the same price as the upgrade! Since I upgraded to a Mac Pro, I haven't been able to use it.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:08 am

If you upgrade to the basic Live 7 that is a reasonable cost. You will get a ton of features not available in Live 4 and it will work on your Mac under OSX.

It is the (optional) extra instruments in the Suite that add on to the price and frankly, for everything it offers, I don't think it is overpriced by much.

Excepting the new low price on Logic 8 studio, this applies to everything else IMHO.

jb61264 · Post by **jb61264** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:22 am

I guess the question "is it too expensive" is a really relative term depending upon who is answering...you know there are going to be some who say its way too expensive but then you are going to have those who think Live is worth every penny of the musical creativity that it provides them

I personally have never balked at paying for any upgrades to Live, but then again I have money coming out of my ass...LOL...just kidding...I don't have money coming out of my ass...but I think Live is worth every penny I've had to pay for it so far.

dr_dohh · Post by **dr_dohh** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:00 am

well Logic 8 is my main DAW right now. i'll be using live for quick beat making and time-stretching so the other features aren't really very attractive to me. i guess that's what makes it expensive for me - the fact that i'll only be using Live's time stretching and some plugins.

So far Live's been great for my career. And I do understand that this is a business. But it doesn't seem like a great bargain like it did when it was still new.

BTW Sonar 7 is also a great DAW especially with its low price

j2j · Post by **j2j** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:00 am

I think, like... well. LIve brand new, as a first time buyer, and getting everything you possibly can get with it, is less than 1000

Just try and achieve the power of recording you get with a package like this, for a tiny thousand dollars in 1980...

seriously I don't have money at my ass either, but... come on. ITs Live, its not frikking.. um, shareware music gizmo...

seriously this thing is starting to give Pro Tools a run for the money. The compresser in live is as good as the PRO c. thats a 200 dollar value, included right in the program.

can you imagine how much coding they had to do for this upgrade? I don't think people realize...

Its a professional music studio on your computer how much would you like to pay for it?

I am very sorry, but, few programs for music have this functionality.

Think about it. 15? 20? 30? thousand dollars in 1990 for a home music studio.

come on. LIve... cheep as chips!!! ok, a 100 or so dollars every year. ten, or 20 bucks a month... for your hobby... I guess..

or your profession...

or just because you love music...

I love music, so the cost of live is really nothing much to me

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:17 am

Analog 8 track recorders used to cost 1500 - 2000 dollars and that was without the outboard mixer or any kind of gear such as compressors, reverbs etc.

j2j · Post by **j2j** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 6:09 am

It just doesn't make any sense. why does everybody think everything should be so cheap?

How much for ableton live? $15.00? a 15.00 dollar live 7 upgrade?

In what world? They must have had 20 people at least coding this thing.

Plus, support! plus free updates till next major version. and seriously, there is a huge difference between LIve, and what it can do, and other programs that cost less than a hundred dollars... but I don't want to name names...

but, really, they can not sell a program like this for less. its fairly cheap allready if you think about. its so cheap.

I paid 329 to get live. because of live lite.

329 for LIVE!!!

Cryptic UK · Post by **Cryptic UK** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:00 am

Yeah well why not expliote all of you gullible bastards

dr_dohh · Post by **dr_dohh** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 12:35 pm

j2j wrote:I think, like... well. LIve brand new, as a first time buyer, and getting everything you possibly can get with it, is less than 1000

Just try and achieve the power of recording you get with a package like this, for a tiny thousand dollars in 1980...

seriously I don't have money at my ass either, but... come on. ITs Live, its not frikking.. um, shareware music gizmo...

seriously this thing is starting to give Pro Tools a run for the money. The compresser in live is as good as the PRO c. thats a 200 dollar value, included right in the program.

can you imagine how much coding they had to do for this upgrade? I don't think people realize...

Its a professional music studio on your computer how much would you like to pay for it?

I am very sorry, but, few programs for music have this functionality.

Think about it. 15? 20? 30? thousand dollars in 1990 for a home music studio.

come on. LIve... cheep as chips!!! ok, a 100 or so dollars every year. ten, or 20 bucks a month... for your hobby... I guess..

or your profession...

or just because you love music...

I love music, so the cost of live is really nothing much to me

consider that Logic Studio and Sonar 7 are at $500, and they can both do surround, offline processing, and able to use Waves plugins (yep those $$$ plugins)

also consider that i got my legal copy of live 3 for only 200 through one of ableton's promos, the same price as a live 7 upgrade.

basically what i'm saying is that Live isn't competing against 90's home music studios or analog tape machines anymore. all of their competition have cut costs by using software.

I'm happy that you find that it's worth what you paid for, it's just that they aren't making it difficult to crossgrade if you think about it.

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:39 pm

I think it is fairly cheap.

Emissary · Post by **Emissary** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:56 pm

I guess it is getting more expensive, but its the only thing worth using in my opinion. yeah maybe the sound quality isnt as good and its missing certain "pro features" but I just do everything in it, I spend at least 5 hrs a day engrossed in it and it never becomes boring. I know it like the back of my hand. Before live i used Cubase, Sonar, Logic, Protools and never felt happy using any of them. then live came along and music making just became so fun. Ableton are Great team of individuals, from the progammers down to the dude who helps me get extra unlocks from time to time. I can only hope they remain as good as they do, and i have no problems giving them my cash for such a great product.

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:39 pm

Emissary wrote:I guess it is getting more expensive, but its the only thing worth using in my opinion. yeah maybe the sound quality isnt as good and its missing certain "pro features" but I just do everything in it, I spend at least 5 hrs a day engrossed in it and it never becomes boring. I know it like the back of my hand. Before live i used Cubase, Sonar, Logic, Protools and never felt happy using any of them. then live came along and music making just became so fun. Ableton are Great team of individuals, from the progammers down to the dude who helps me get extra unlocks from time to time. I can only hope they remain as good as they do, and i have no problems giving them my cash for such a great product.

Exactly how I feel. I have tried most of what is out there and Live is what works best for me.

4ace · Post by **4ace** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:42 pm

It cost's more and you get more......

Personally i'd like to hear a lot of samples before i'd consider spending all that dough on the expansion packs..

Live itself is definitely worth the $119 upgrade this year and that doesn't mean you HAVE to upgrade every year.

I've been on since ver.4 and plan to upgrade to 7 as soon as i recover from the holiday...

It really is relative though.....

thehuman · Post by **thehuman** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:17 pm

I think it's horribly overpriced. The only way to get it for a reasonable price is to buy at a student discount, which can be tricky if you're not a student. I recently turned a friend onto Live, and I made sure to sell him before I told him how much it cost.

That being said, I can't function without it. My entire workflow has adapted itself around Live. I try to leave, but nothing else works for me the Live does. It's a real love/hate relationship between Live and me.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 6:50 pm

Also, Ableton have excellent educational pricing and they give educational discounts on upgrades too - many other companies do not give discounts on upgrades, Steinberg being a notable example.

I don't see how the Live 7 Suite is overpriced at all for all the features and instruments it contains, it is on the money for me. If you have an array of 3rd party plugins, just go for the basic Live 7 and save a lot of money. However, you'd be missing a lot because the instruments are really cool and cover almost every sound you could imagine.

Every professional DAW costs money and the only one that is offering amazing value is Logic 8 and that is only because Apple are trying to swamp the Mac market and put MOTU and Steinberg in the grave, then you can bet your lest testicle they will put their prices up.