Replace Live with hardware?

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:01 pm

You guys suck.
It takes all of 2 minutes to get Live set up for a multi track recording, if you know what you're doing!

duluxdog · Post by **duluxdog** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:14 pm

so much bourgeois shit

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:30 pm

duluxdog wrote:so much bourgeois shit

how so?

doc holiday · Post by **doc holiday** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:45 pm

i used to have a room full of hardware, i unplugged it.

the grass is always greener...

Baron von Case · Post by **Baron von Case** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:59 pm

I abandoned hardware a few years ago knowing that computer music is a shitload harder and that I know nothing about it. What it comes down to is, DAWs give you infinitely more control over your music than a hardware workstation does.

If you want to transfer your ideas into music without making compromises, stick with Live. If you want the easy way out, go get a Roland Fantom G-series. But Renoir didn't stop painting just because photography was easier.

soundtechdan · Post by **soundtechdan** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:20 pm

I like the idea of both. I have recently bought a load of old and weird gear. Got a Sony tape cassette recorder for £2, its beautiful. Use live to drums then run it into the tape cassette and then run toy keyboard (circuit bent) with some other circuit bent and computer generated stuff. All with a mixer of plugins and FX pedals just to finish it off.

Then run either run each track individual track back into ableton live to mix or if I can get a good mix with the tape just run it on there. Sound unique and brilliant if I do say so myself.

cheers

soundtechdan

rbro · Post by **rbro** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:26 pm

I like to bang on a box with a stick

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 12:15 am

Tone Deft wrote:
I have an mpc1k
Use that, buy a desktop Evolver, and some old analog synth, and you're done. Record into Live after the entire song is written.

Live/the computer is the one band member that's always got little bits of drama.
Agreed, just dealt with RAM dying 8 months after purchase....

really, just curious what kinds of systems people would build up to replace Live, purely a GAS thing, hardware vs software, bang for the buck.

Your MPC1000, a desktop Evolver, a Matrix 1000 or Matrix 6, and some crazy old synth like a MS20. If you can afford it get something full on destructive like an Xpander. I just picked one up and it's pretty much like Zebra 2 on steroids and an OBX combined = God!
I don't see the point in digital hardware, but I hear good things about the Karma, and Waldorf Biofield sounds great. Both are too "now" for me though.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 12:25 am

This looked pretty cool to me as well.
http://www.sequentix.com/

aisling · Post by **aisling** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:12 am

duluxdog wrote:so much bourgeois shit

I just spit my coffee (french pressed with cardamon added) out lauging at that statement. Classic!

Newecho · Post by **Newecho** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 6:20 am

Tone Deft wrote:computers suck.

I'm starting to miss the days I could just turn on a piece of gear and use it rather than waiting to Live to load, getting automap running, syncing up gear, dealing with latency after recording...

GAS me.

Whether your using hardware or software, simplicity is the answer.

I used to gig - a lot! I played synth in a band and used to have piles of hardware. Managing the cabling was the really pain and trying to get everything synced up was tough. I then simplified my setup down to one keyboard - a Korg Triton with SCSI. Before every set I'd load up combis, samples, patterns from an HD. It was awesome and never ever failed. Two trips from the car.

I stopped gigging in 2003 and setup a home studio. I went all software. The funny thing is I went through the same evolution. I had multiple DAWs apps, piles of plugins, sample libraries. I had two systems, a desktop and a laptop. It was a bitch just to keep up with bug fixes.

In the last year I've gone through a simplification. One system, a laptop.
I'm using Live , operator, sampler, and reduced the number of vst's and tend to use synths that have one page interfaces (Circle, Vanguard, Toxic BioHazard). For controllers a Trigger Finger, a Novation Remote SL 25. I hang the controllers off of a laptop dock. If I want to work on a song with no startup time, I flip the lid, and work from the computer alone. If I need more control, I dock and I'm up in just a few seconds with all my controllers, my Nio sound card, and my headphones or monitors.

While the Novation does have automap and I do use it, I'm getting more into using midi lean within the vsts themselves. Synths like ToxicBiohazard remember the mapping per patch.

My next step is to pickup a Korg Nano controller so I can have a little more control when I'm not docked.

Mark

mesaboogiewes · Post by **mesaboogiewes** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:50 am

hardware - software - who gives a fuck? buy both.

It's not about what's BETTER. It's about what works for you. The audience out there that actually listens to your music shouldn't care how the sounds they like came about...they just like the sounds.

If you come up with better shit with Live, you should use it.

If not, you should buy something else.

Personally - I like the idea of using live AND hardware stuff to come up with the best mix of sounds.

snakedogman · Post by **snakedogman** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:14 am

pff if there was ever a piece of music software that you can just "fire up and play" it's Ableton Live.

heavensdaw · Post by **heavensdaw** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:35 am

snakedogman wrote:pff if there was ever a piece of music software that you can just "fire up and play" it's Ableton Live.

+1

I find that it works pretty damned flawlessly on my MBP...

@Newecho.. That's exactly how I work.. User control when needed..

Only the other day I went out with laptop and just got to work in a park.. great!! try doing that with an mpc!

I used to use the Roland MC909.. Little LCD, pages and pages of sub menus, not that portable... not very much fun to program, ok to tweak and all but... Nah...

To have the power and flexibility of LIVE and a bunch of well picked VST's IMO is hard to beat.. I love the fact that I can put my whole shit in the boot of my car and be mobile, in what 10 mins? No cables , no dusting, no complicated setting up, no need for masses of space.. dunno for me a laptop and LIVE has been a revolution... And it's not that I haven't tried hardware set-ups coz I have.. Many.

Anyway Tone.. You know you gotta do what you gotta do...

But from my perspective
Soft is the new hard!

Hd

Baron von Case · Post by **Baron von Case** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:11 am

Live takes a hell of a long time on my computer, but that's 100% my computer's fault. I definitely have my eyes on a Mac, but my first priority is feeding myself with what pathetic amount of money I have left after financial aid stole $7,500 from me.

Times are rough, and my music can vouch for it.

Replace Live with hardware?

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