Live 7 getting too expensive?

divonic · Post by **divonic** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:12 pm

$119 to upgrade from old versions of Ableton Live to 7. That's a great price. It's about $10 a month. Your monthly cable bill is more than that, your monthly phone bill is way more than that.

What does Recycle cost? how about battery? similar features are now part of the base version Ableton Live. Sure all the instruments are not part of the package. you have to pay more for operator/sampler plus the new synths and sound libraries.

why do people think this stuff is too expensive. isn't it just that logic is less expensive? If you think Live is too expensive, don't get it. If you think that Logic offers more features maybe that is the program for you. but don't bitch about the price of Live. either it is worth it or not. that is a personal thing. If you think a BMW is too expesive buy an Audi but don't complain about the price of the BMW. It is what it is.

If it is too expensive then less people will buy it and ableton will learn their lesson and next time it'll be less expensive.

j2j · Post by **j2j** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:18 pm

leedsquietman wrote:then you can bet your lest testicle they will put their prices up.

Can you imagine? How True. Logic is a Loss LeadEr right now. There are attracting customers with that price.

If live 8 is the same amount of upgrade features as live 7, what we have here is a PRO TOOL KILLA!!

seriously. the only thing live is missing is elastic audio. They should license that Tech. And also they need to fix the built in reverb. and add a built in convolution engine!!

Maybe add some more neat audio and midi FX. and up those algorythms.

Live is a great program. I love it.

and if I spend 5000 dollars on Live over the cost of my life. its still cheaper than a lot of other things.

Software is not something that is owned now. its more like paying fees to join and stay in. Like a Gym, or a Golf club. you have to look at it that way

Rogue Scrunt · Post by **Rogue Scrunt** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:46 pm

Idonotlikebroccoli · Post by **Idonotlikebroccoli** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:56 pm

Live is WAY more fun than ANY sequencer I've ever used. Its ease of use makes it worth it without a doubt. It's the first sequencer I've tried that has the fun of a toy to it

FL Studio and Reason were both ok and have their qualities, but when I use them now, I only think how I could have done this and that way faster in Live.

stew · Post by **stew** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:07 pm

If you can afford a Mac Pro, why can't you afford to upgrade Live?

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:34 pm

Sonar is listed at $619 for Producer 7. Although some retailers are offering a discount on it. If you used Sonar you would appreciate why people are prepared to pay more for the Live Suite. Sonar has a terrible GUI and even though it has some great features, that kills it for me.

Cubase 4 - 800 dollars. Samplitude Pro - 1149.

Live can no longer be compared to stuff like Acid and Fruity Loops. To buy seperate vsts of the quality of Operator, Sampler, tension, Analog and Electric would cost somewhere in the 800-1000 dollar range. Yes, Logic and Sonar have some good synths and effects too but both of them are pricing artificially to drum up some new business. In 2 years time, if these products are still 300 dollars cheaper than their competitors I will cut off my own nuts and fire them from a circus cannon.

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:37 pm

Compared to how many hours of use I've gotten out of it, how much music I've written with it, how much hardware I haven't had to purchase because of it, and how many gigs I've played with it, I'd say it's a pretty damn good deal.

dr_dohh · Post by **dr_dohh** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:16 am

Sonar is listed at $619 for Producer 7. Although some retailers are offering a discount on it. If you used Sonar you would appreciate why people are prepared to pay more for the Live Suite. Sonar has a terrible GUI and even though it has some great features, that kills it for me.

Cubase 4 - 800 dollars. Samplitude Pro - 1149.

Live can no longer be compared to stuff like Acid and Fruity Loops. To buy seperate vsts of the quality of Operator, Sampler, tension, Analog and Electric would cost somewhere in the 800-1000 dollar range. Yes, Logic and Sonar have some good synths and effects too but both of them are pricing artificially to drum up some new business. In 2 years time, if these products are still 300 dollars cheaper than their competitors I will cut off my own nuts and fire them from a circus cannon.

I like sonar's GUI. I've been able to use Sonar for some audio post production like voice overs and sample editing. Live's great for music and quick work, also for time stretching but it's not that hot for more technical stuff like offline processing and sound design. but it does have some great innovative design tools on its own.

regarding your "300 dollars cheaper" challenge, i don't think that's fair. Most probably the other competitors are going to cut their price to match the cheaper alternatives, not that the cheaper ones are going to get more expensive.

Also I definitely don't compare Live to Acid or Fruity Loops. I do think of it as another link in my audio chain though. I kind of see it as a plugin more than a host nowadays.

to Stew - It's not that I couldn't afford Live, but it's not the great deal that it used to be. I paid $200 for it a couple of years ago!
[/quote]

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:48 am

you have your opinion and I have mine - I don't believe Apple will sustain their prices, they are going for a quick loss leader to try and put MOTU and Cubase out of the game. And probably doing well at that right now. First law of business, supply and demand. Eliminate the supply and create a monopoly on demand then you can charge anything you want, which will be more rather than less.

Steinberg are not keen to reduce prices (they have only reduced Cubase 4 by 99 dollars, in spite of being 400 dollars more than Logic

. Magix have increased the price from 1049 to 1149 for Samplitude Pro 10. I don't see MOTU slashing the prices on Digital Performer.

Heck, even Reason with no audio capabilities has a list price of 500 dollars.

I really don't know what you think is a fair price for Live. The upgrade to Live 7 from 4 is just 139 dollars or whatever, you will get racks, freeze tracks, beat repeat, saturator, EQ8. the new sidechainable compressor, video support, slicer, drum racks, free routing of tracks, rex file support, more audio and MIDI plugins, improved MIDI, improved audio engine.

Seems to me that you should be looking at going Linux and running Ardour or Energy XT if you are truly looking for a bargain.

OvertoneZero · Post by **OvertoneZero** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:50 am

I anted up for the 6 -> 7 upgrade, I felt it was about $20.00 overpriced, but I love the program.

The pricing for the suite is absurd imo.. I shelled out for sample and operator and my upgrade price for the suite was something like $750...

dr_dohh · Post by **dr_dohh** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:40 am

again i have nothing against live's performance - pretty good at what it does. but most of the features for me are sort of redundant with my setup. I'd gladly pay for it if it were my main DAW, but it's not. Now for me it's a plugin. and spending for upgrades on a rewire plugin is expensive. Now I guess that's why i find that the price is too expensive.

live update from 4 is $219.00. I guess that's what gets me, not the initial purchase price.

j2j · Post by **j2j** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 4:56 am

well yes, if you are not using it all the time, its expensive...

but take this into consideration. I want, still want, still need, very rarely, a great distortion plug in. I do not use distortion much, and I run into a place where I feel, once or twice a months... hmm, this needs a seriously cruel disto.

Now, for 150 euro or something is the OHM forcE disto.. And on occasion I have been thinking about buying it. but I rarely use disto, so for me, this is very expensive. TOO expensive and I do not own it...

HowevEr. LIve I am using ALL the TIME. so for me, its cheap as chips. its more than paid for itself. IT is my most used music program ever. and all the features to me, are beyond important. and I do not own the suite, I have a collection of great synths. but the basic program, is Top notch, I keep it up 2 date. and it rocks, and is cheap to me...

Beyond that.. Apple will find a way with Version 9 to make Logic and insane upgrade, or they will release an entire new platform, call it next generation and charge a thousand dollars... Apple is a very sleazy company...

Yes I have a Macbookpro... but.. arrg, fucking microsoft, and vista.. vista is just a shit poor os x wannabe

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:16 am

j2j wrote: seriously. the only thing live is missing is elastic audio. They should license that Tech. And also they need to fix the built in reverb. and add a built in convolution engine!!

um what?

seriously though protools le will never be good enough for midi, so it's
already a pt killer.

for serious post production and film work though, live will never ever
ever ever beat protools, and it shouldn't, thats not a direction
live should go in..

j2j · Post by **j2j** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:29 am

gomi wrote:
j2j wrote: seriously. the only thing live is missing is elastic audio. They should license that Tech. And also they need to fix the built in reverb. and add a built in convolution engine!!
um what?

seriously though protools le will never be good enough for midi, so it's
already a pt killer.

for serious post production and film work though, live will never ever
ever ever beat protools, and it shouldn't, thats not a direction
live should go in..

um what?

don't troll. Pro tools will quantize to 64ths

and Reaper, and Tracktion have better time stretch than live.

however, I realize I made a mistake when I said it, because live is not all that sexy for recording live bands, and orchestra's, but when it comes to movie studio's and post production Nuendo is most likely being used more than PT. At least Hans Zimmer, as I know for a fact. is using Nuendo, and so is BT, when he is doing work for movies.

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 9:54 am

I think that Live now seems quite overpriced, for a number of reasons:

1) The price of buying the full thing new has gone up, while others have come down - within the last year the price of several rivals has been slashed - not just Logic but also ACID and Project 5 have dropped to half their previous street price... meanwhile and Sonar remains very cheap and FL STudio hasn't had a price rise for years. And then there's Tracktion (check out the bundled VSTs

) and Reaper...

2) The add-ons are expensive, and imho not very good.

3) Paid-for upgrades come out EVERY year (with many developers, they only want more of your money every 18-24 months... e.g. Reason, Logic, Audition, etc.)

4) Live 7 seems - as Computer Music magazine wrote in their review - more like Live 6.5.

Live 7 getting too expensive?

Re: Live 7 getting too expensive?