Live as Future DAW ?

djgroovy · Post by **djgroovy** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:57 pm

evon wrote: Like which features?

- Folder tracks
- More flexible automation
- Ghost clips
- Some might say clip crossfades
- ...

feyshay · Post by **feyshay** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 8:31 pm

I'd recommend Live. It is unique as an instrument compared to the more traditional DAW's. My biggest complaints are the lack of folder tracks and limited editing options. For audio, I'll end up using Sound Forge.
Cubase 4 has excellent MIDI and audio editing.
Project always start and sometimes finish in Live.
If needing more extensive editing, I'll use Sound Forge or bounce the tracks and import them into Cubase 4 for more extensive work.
I could live without Cubase, as another poster mentioned.
Go with Live, and future improvements will be forthcoming. If not, Reaper can be used secondarily (once it develops further).

feyshay · Post by **feyshay** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 8:32 pm

BTW--not a fan of the suite.
Sampler is worth it and maybe Operator.
Otherwise, VST's work great for instruments and can be easily incorporated into Racks.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:43 pm

It's all subjective and depends upon which types of sounds you need but I REALLY like the Suite. In the electronic music world, there is more need for phat synth or bass sounds maybe than an electric piano and string modelling.

But if you need an electric piano vst or physical string modelling, Electric and Tension rock. And Analog has a fair range of phat synth and bass sounds or at least the capability - the covert operators number cruncher presets showcase this better than the built in presets.

feyshay · Post by **feyshay** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:51 pm

Yeah.
I'd be a fan of the suite if I didn't already have most of the NI collection, Reason 4 and Zebra 2.
Some are less put off by the price of Live if they buy the basic version, since much of the suite may already be redundant.
BTW--I am impressed with the instruments, but I have the sounds already.
I also like a change in interface once in a while and appreciate the different GUI's for variety's sake.

babkubwa · Post by **babkubwa** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:16 am

I think people are too scared of rewire for no good reason sometimes. I was myself for a bit.

I'm on a live into logic trip at the moment. Logics mixer and plugins/instruments is great - but the audio editing is such a pain in the ass compared to live

route all your live tracks into the logic mixer - alt tab in between while your editing stuff. For me it all seems like on big programm progress, just the best of both worlds without much pain at all.

I don't see the sense in choosing much - better to have a good selections of tools and not be dependent on any particular brand

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:33 am

This is a fair point but perhaps the original poster doesn't need to spend extra money on a second DAW to achieve what he needs to ?

Rewire is fine but if you're running an ageing computer it can be quite processor intensive to be running 2 apps together, especially considering that Live 6 and 7 are quite CPU heavy. I have done it before rewiring into Cubase and it is a useful option but now that Live has evolved quite a bit I find I don't need to anymore.

forge · Post by **forge** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:06 am

evon wrote:
forge wrote:very quick and creative for making music - there are some DAW features missing that can make it quite infuriating at times, but as a music making application it cant be beat
Like which features?

well personally I find the automation annoying to work with, and the arranger is still sluggish, the aforementioned crossfades would make life a lot easier in the arranger

but really I'm talking about more audio engineering focused stuff - so you are working with a VO track, editing basic audio, stuff like that, if you've worked in a commercial studio doing that kind of mundane work using other DAWs then you'll probably find Live quite lacking in that regard - just things like keyboard shortcuts for nudging clips left and right - silly little things like that can save you a huge amount of time and RSI

but for making music, the creativity and immediacy of Live, and its session view in particular wins hands down

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:57 am

fearslutz wrote: People do tend to complain about its intern mixing quality but i will let my ears be the judge of that.

The mix quality is fine, is 64-bit (unlike some more established DAWs). But it would be useful for you to read the Audio Fact Sheet that Ableton have published, as this gives you an idea of which features within Live (e.g. timestretching) have an impact on audio quality.

evon · Post by **evon** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:56 pm

forge wrote:
evon wrote:
forge wrote:very quick and creative for making music - there are some DAW features missing that can make it quite infuriating at times, but as a music making application it cant be beat
Like which features?

but for making music, the creativity and immediacy of Live, and its session view in particular wins hands down

Accepted, that is exactly what got me stuck in Live. Currently I am more of an artist thanan engineer. For engineering I use external editors. Also, I never worked in a studio before so I am not missing anything.

darkcatt · Post by **darkcatt** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 2:56 pm

I use it as my only DAW. Sometimes the editing features can be a little weak but thats only a concern if you are mastering inside it.