Live 4 as main DAW?

AcousTronic · Post by **AcousTronic** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 9:17 pm

Hello all,

This is my first post here, so be easy on me...

I know versions of this question have been covered, as I have searched like crazy. But where many people are used to thier preferred DAW format and are contemplating a "switch", I am brand new to computer based recording, and am wondering if Live 4 will be everything I need right from the start...

I am somewhat familiar with Live 3 from the old demo, and loved it's ease of use and layout, but I've been thinking (up until version 4) that I would use Logic for my linear based stuff, and Live to bring in the loop stuff. Now, with all the wonderfull things 4 offers, I just need a couple of questions answered before giving Ableton my credit card info...

1) Will I be able to get the top notch sound quality from Live that I can get from a Pro Tools or Logic?

2) Editing capabilities / plug-ins / effects of Live compared to PT or L?

3) Is it a good idea to use an external Hard Drive for Live files such as it is when using PT or L?

4) Does Live need to be installed on that external HD or can it be on the CPU's HD?

I appreciate any feedback you folks can provide, and once again am sorry if my questions are redundant

Thanks

AcousTronic · Post by **AcousTronic** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 1:28 pm

Bump... Anyone??? You don't have to answer every question, just one or two if you know the answers... Thanks

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 2:30 pm

1,you won't get the same sound quality but you can edit in live & do your mastering in protool.
2,live has the best editing interface in the business , use vst plugins if you want very good fx quality.
3,an external hd gives you always more tracks to play simultaneously.
4,you instal it on your main drive with the other aplications.

i use protool or cubase to record live bands , i have been using cubase since the atari days , since live 4 has come up i haven't opened cubase nor protool (i think that says everything).i still do my main masterings on cubase or PT depending on the computer i use.

AcousTronic · Post by **AcousTronic** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 2:50 pm

Great!! Thanks Spider, That's what I needed to know!! Since you are using Live for pretty much everything other than mastering, I may look into a dedicated mastering program such as Bias Peak or something to tighen mixes after I have tweaked them in Live... I'm thinking a dedicated midi controller for Live will be a good idea to speed up the proccess too. I really appreciate you input and am ready to take the leap...

drush · Post by **drush** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:36 pm

do the same thing here. 80-90% of the work happens in Live then gets dumped to PT for mastering, maybe a little editing.

milfbait · Post by **milfbait** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:42 am

How would the sound quality in Live be lower? I know it can use 24 bit audio files and I would assume the engine and FX are 32 bit, so theoretically a pre-master mixdown should be on the same caliber as say Logic or Protools. Shouldn't it or am I missing something?

musick · Post by **musick** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 1:00 pm

I don't know how, but I find SX sounds better when mixing/mastering tracks as Live. Especially on higher levels (more to 0 dBFs) it looks Live has a 'build in compressor' or so.

muthafunka · Post by **muthafunka** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 1:52 pm

musick wrote:I don't know how, but I find SX sounds better when mixing/mastering tracks as Live. Especially on higher levels (more to 0 dBFs) it looks Live has a 'build in compressor' or so.

Pure speculation an hearsay but I heard SX uses some kind of saturation effect to warm the sound on the master bus. If so, while it may sound 'better' to some, it may not actully be more accurate. You takes yer pick...

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 2:04 pm

I use Live4 for everything now. It has its own unique sound but the quality is there. It is just to damn fun and productive for me to consider going back to any other the other complicated crap out there.

ocp · Post by **ocp** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 5:29 pm

I use LA6, Cubase SL, DP3, have used a TDM system in the past and still use Protools free, and there's no significant difference in sound quality.
I've listened to results in Dynaudio BM6A monitors, Proac Studio 100 and my Fostex PM1 (as well as other less accurate systems) and they all sounded fine.
So, it all depends on what you use in the process and how you use it.
If you manage to do it right until the end, the outcome should be OK!

BTW, Live 4 is my main DAW