Does ableton bottleneck sound quality?

TobiasHahn · Post by **TobiasHahn** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:34 am

condra wrote:The real problem with the sound quality in Live is the lack of cowbell.

This will be fixed in Suite 8.

mr.adl · Post by **mr.adl** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:46 am

m.nash wrote:So my friends and I were considering grabbing a UAD-1/2 card, but when we were chatting with a gent from the music store, he said we wouldn't be able to get out the quality of the plug-ins/card if we used Ableton.

That we would need Logic Pro or Pro Tools to really take advantage of it.

Any thoughts on this?

Ah dam nit!
I own 3 UAD1 and a UAD 2 Quad and i just found out why my music still sux

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:46 am

TobiasHahn wrote:
condra wrote:The real problem with the sound quality in Live is the lack of cowbell.
This will be fixed in Suite 8.

cool, will you be able to midi map the cowbell as well?

Geebag · Post by **Geebag** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:59 am

Check out abletons document on sound quality. It prooves the theroy of bollox untrue.

Warminstrel · Post by **Warminstrel** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:12 pm

I read the post thinking that Live 8 was to be supplied with a glass blues slide plug-in.

(*I'll get me coat*)

vicz · Post by **vicz** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:04 pm

I recently mixed and mastered a Jeff Wayne War of the Worlds midi file using Live, Logic and Reason. I used mainly samples in Sampler, EXS and NN-XT with native drums and Korg LDC M1 synth sounds (except for Reason). In each case I made it as well as I could, then took it via aiff to a 160 mp3.

Now these were all done on the same machine and all converted to mp3 using itunes without any itunes eq.

I then listened to each one 'blind' and rated them for audio quality. Third was Reason, Second Logic, and first by a long way, was Live. I was most surprised by the Reason result, because the mastering suite in R4 certainly looks the business. Maybe the NNXT synth samples just lacked the presence of the M1.

But the Live mix was by far the best. Everyone who heard it agreed. Maybe it is just because the tools are easier to use, and therefore I did a better job, maybe Live does a better mixdown, who knows? But this exercise was one of the key factors leading me to focus mainly on Live from now on, even though each of the others have a lot going for them, in their own way.

LoopStationZebra · Post by **LoopStationZebra** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:30 pm

m.nash wrote:we were chatting with a gent from the music store

After that I read no further.....

forge · Post by **forge** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:33 pm

glitchrock-buddha wrote:That sounds about right.

I often walk into a music shop to enquire about a certain product only to inform the person working there all about it because they tend to know fuck all about anything.

I went to get a fast track USB for my girlfriend recently and the guy informed me that it was USB2.0 and all of them were USB2.0 now. I queried him, looked at him and then just decided I really couldn't be arsed having the conversation

they are all full of shit, with the one notable exception of our very own McBoob who is a genius and can't be faulted!

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:40 pm

vicz wrote:I recently mixed and mastered a Jeff Wayne War of the Worlds midi file using Live, Logic and Reason. I used mainly samples in Sampler, EXS and NN-XT with native drums and Korg LDC M1 synth sounds (except for Reason). In each case I made it as well as I could, then took it via aiff to a 160 mp3.

Now these were all done on the same machine and all converted to mp3 using itunes without any itunes eq.

I then listened to each one 'blind' and rated them for audio quality. Third was Reason, Second Logic, and first by a long way, was Live. I was most surprised by the Reason result, because the mastering suite in R4 certainly looks the business. Maybe the NNXT synth samples just lacked the presence of the M1.

But the Live mix was by far the best. Everyone who heard it agreed. Maybe it is just because the tools are easier to use, and therefore I did a better job, maybe Live does a better mixdown, who knows? But this exercise was one of the key factors leading me to focus mainly on Live from now on, even though each of the others have a lot going for them, in their own way.

So you were using different settings on different instruments and plug ins, and completely different drums for each one. Not exactly a carefully controlled experiment.

But as we don't make music under carefullly controlled conditions, perhaps the only test that matters.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:37 pm

SubFunk wrote:
Tarekith wrote:Honestly the sound quality in Live sucks ass, it's really really bad. I've been donating (selling) my blood once a week just to save up enough money to buy back Logic. It sounds SOOOO much better, like I'd be signed to a real record label in a heartbeat if I wasn't using Live instead right now

At least the new Live 8 version will finally output 8 bit mixdowns, dealing with 7 bit mixdowns for the last year has been killing me.
i don't get the joke propperly...? right?
or are you serious?

I wish I was kidding, I truly do. Usually I'm one of those who defends Ableton sound quality, but after a recent trip to the doctor, it was discovered I had a large chunk of dirt in my ear that was blocking everything above 2kHz. Once they removed it, I could instantly hear this huge sound quality issue everyone talks about. I can see why they call it Live now, it's only suitable for playing gigs in crappy bars over jukebox speakers IMVHO. Unfortunately, it's my only DAW now, and the only way I can make things sound good is to compose with my laptop connected to my TV speakers. I'll likely sell my soundcard and HR825's so i can raise money for a better TV, with larger subwoofers built in.

kenporter · Post by **kenporter** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:43 pm

TobiasHahn wrote:
condra wrote:The real problem with the sound quality in Live is the lack of cowbell.
This will be fixed in Suite 8.

Nice! I hope the mixing engine will be improved again too though, because we all know that 64bit or 384dB of headroom is just not enough!

Ken

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:47 pm

Tarekith wrote:
SubFunk wrote:
Tarekith wrote:Honestly the sound quality in Live sucks ass, it's really really bad. I've been donating (selling) my blood once a week just to save up enough money to buy back Logic. It sounds SOOOO much better, like I'd be signed to a real record label in a heartbeat if I wasn't using Live instead right now

At least the new Live 8 version will finally output 8 bit mixdowns, dealing with 7 bit mixdowns for the last year has been killing me.
i don't get the joke propperly...? right?
or are you serious?
I wish I was kidding, I truly do. Usually I'm one of those who defends Ableton sound quality, but after a recent trip to the doctor, it was discovered I had a large chunk of dirt in my ear that was blocking everything above 2kHz. Once they removed it, I could instantly hear this huge sound quality issue everyone talks about. I can see why they call it Live now, it's only suitable for playing gigs in crappy bars over jukebox speakers IMVHO. Unfortunately, it's my only DAW now, and the only way I can make things sound good is to compose with my laptop connected to my TV speakers. I'll likely sell my soundcard and HR825's so i can raise money for a better TV, with larger subwoofers built in.

sorry to hear, whatever the opinions are, selling logic once you have it sounds like án extremely stupid thing to do for the plugs and pure mixdowns alone...

well, i do of lately more and more in live... still would never get rid of logic.
one more point, for pure mixing is the CPU efficiency of logic on a mac.

a step in the process where i don't need to do everything in real time...

not saying to buy logic, but ones you have it... selling it... stupid!!!

infiniteB · Post by **infiniteB** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:54 pm

Tarekith wrote:
SubFunk wrote:
Tarekith wrote:Honestly the sound quality in Live sucks ass, it's really really bad. I've been donating (selling) my blood once a week just to save up enough money to buy back Logic. It sounds SOOOO much better, like I'd be signed to a real record label in a heartbeat if I wasn't using Live instead right now

At least the new Live 8 version will finally output 8 bit mixdowns, dealing with 7 bit mixdowns for the last year has been killing me.
i don't get the joke propperly...? right?
or are you serious?
I wish I was kidding, I truly do. Usually I'm one of those who defends Ableton sound quality, but after a recent trip to the doctor, it was discovered I had a large chunk of dirt in my ear that was blocking everything above 2kHz. Once they removed it, I could instantly hear this huge sound quality issue everyone talks about. I can see why they call it Live now, it's only suitable for playing gigs in crappy bars over jukebox speakers IMVHO. Unfortunately, it's my only DAW now, and the only way I can make things sound good is to compose with my laptop connected to my TV speakers. I'll likely sell my soundcard and HR825's so i can raise money for a better TV, with larger subwoofers built in.

He said, "Are you serious"? lol lol....

xh9o · Post by **xh9o** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:56 pm

its bullshit as long as you don´t let live do its imho really awful sound manipulation/stretching with "warp" (which should be named "ruin"). abletons lack in common respect is nearly completely based on that.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:58 pm

xh9o wrote:its bullshit as long as you don´t let live do its imho really awful sound manipulation/stretching with "warp" (which should be named "ruin"). abletons lack in common respect is nearly completely based on that.

,

this is where my hope in the serato partnership is: time 'n' pitch algo...

hopefully they are that clever.

Does ableton bottleneck sound quality?

Re: Does ableton bottleneck sound quality?

A bit off topic but...why I use Live

Re: Does ableton bottleneck sound quality?