operator arrives

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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ekko
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Post by ekko » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:41 pm

dave dominey wrote: am i bein paranoid or does this stink like a m$oft stunt, embedded software etc ie outlook and IE

I agree. The concept of embedding "demo" software inside of regular products stinks. How much longer before you have to pay to unlock a myriad of features?

"Sure, Live 5.0 has mp3 support and better Midi editing, but you have to pay an extra $50 each on top of your $130 upgrade to 'unlock' these features."

klangsulfat
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Post by klangsulfat » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:45 pm

ekko wrote:I'm quite QUITE thrilled with Reason 3.0. No letdown for me there.
That's absolutely true. The problem is: You have learn to love some of the new features in Reason 3. IMHO the new file browser is one of the best feature I've found in music software since years.

Not all improvements in Reason 3 are easy to communicate.

Kodama
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Post by Kodama » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:55 pm

Well I'm not sad, because Live is not a closed system as far as buying other synths , and because they have said they will fix midi issues, etc...

As opposed to Reason, where they took 2 years to make no new instruments and have no plans to give any major feature requests...

We just got Live 4, which had way more than most of us thought it could.

But, as far as the Op, I just played w/Operator.... And ummmm....ummmm..... I have some free synthedit stuff that whups it.

It's cute and sounds nice, but $149????

And it takes as much CPU as Tera???

I just want Live to pass midi amongst plugs so I can use an arp & I'll be happy.
GO VEGAN!!! - Macbook Air, Bass Station II, Some Korg shit, Live Suite, U-He, Audio Damage, Microtonic, Ohmicide, more soft stuffs, awesome controllers, euro rack modular synth,an awesome cat.

louZ
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Post by louZ » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:56 pm

ekko wrote:I'm quite QUITE thrilled with Reason 3.0. No letdown for me there.

I'm actually not "letdown" by the Operator, either. It's an optional add-on, not an integral change to the way Live works. No big deal, really.

Perhaps the fact that Reason and Live were such high quality programs to start with has made it difficult for them to be improved in huge ways. I mean, really, Reason and Live are unbeatable, IMO. 10 years ago two programs such as this were unimaginable.
They are quality programs, no doubt!

But there are some features REALLY missing from Live. Groove quantize, vst midi output, destructive sample editing to name a few of them. Then there's the bugs, like bad syncing and the CPU usage. I'm sure most Live users would've liked to see those solved, instead of another softsynth.

conny
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Post by conny » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:19 pm

CPU, one track, lots of notes, ordinary PC laptop, all osc going, all other things aswell:
12 voices - 50%
20 voices - 77%
Acer 1.5 GHz, 496 MB RAM
// C
PC Laptop Acer, XP Home SP2, build in crappy sound card.
Bleeps and Blops!
http://bluemoose.greatnow.com/

Angstrom
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Post by Angstrom » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:30 pm

I think the reason that most users feel let down by Ableton is not that they are forced to buy this donkey, but that Ableton obviously believe it will fly!
That shows a massive lack of awareness of what the users want and will pay for.

If Ableton believe in this enough to launch it alongside Kontakt2 (at namm) it shows they are very out of touch with what the users want. Now that's worrying.

I'm still waiting for a positive post off anyone concerning this product, bearing in mind this is the centre for Ableton chearleading - it's like the Mac forums giving the new iMac a 100% thumbs down. Pretty serious!

Ableton, concentrate on the Killer app before someone simply steals your thunder. It's not that hard really. Remember, you did it to Acid. :twisted:

dayjob1111
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Post by dayjob1111 » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:33 pm

expensive and redundant. sure it sounds pretty good and smooth- kind of like a pluggo synth but slightly better w/a better user interface but it's still redundant

i expected so much more. something that involved sampling- DSP.. anything but this- :roll:

conny
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Post by conny » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:34 pm

Sound is OK to my ears. But annyoing click at note on in preset "TEXTURE The Future Choir".
Brass fine, muted trump good!, crispy bottlecap.
Some unwanted noise when changing presets at times.
Weak oboe...

But, tweaking this thing, it comes alive more and more...

// C
PC Laptop Acer, XP Home SP2, build in crappy sound card.
Bleeps and Blops!
http://bluemoose.greatnow.com/

hoffman2k
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Post by hoffman2k » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:36 pm

conny wrote:Sound is OK to my ears. But annyoing click at note on in preset "TEXTURE The Future Choir".
Brass fine, muted trump good!, crispy bottlecap.
Some unwanted noise when changing presets at times.
Weak oboe...

But, tweaking this thing, it comes alive more and more...

// C
that click is the attack on OSC B. move it a couple milliseconds to the right..

conny
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Post by conny » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:53 pm

My saviour, allways right behind my shoulder... 8)
// C
PC Laptop Acer, XP Home SP2, build in crappy sound card.
Bleeps and Blops!
http://bluemoose.greatnow.com/

Cache
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Post by Cache » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:53 pm

Pretty obvious all along what 'operator' was really.
Consider it - Live has a sampler, it has a drum machine. what is it missing? a synth.

Ableton is going after Propellerheads share of the market in 'all-in-one-studio'

I would be very worried if I was Propellerheads. I haven't used Reason 3.0 yet so can't comment on how good/bad that is.

New customers who are looking to buy either Live or Reason will probably believe they can do everything (and more) with Live than they can with Reason.

Personally, i think they are different beasts and suited for different moments.

illsub1
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Post by illsub1 » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:56 pm

I think this is great!! FM Synthesis made easy is not an easy feat. Do yourself a favor and go through the tutorials and see what you can come up with!! This thing can come up with very thick sounds! I don't have the money for it right now but I'm sure when enough people don't buy it at this price they'll make it a 50 dollar upgrade soon. Excellent job though, this tool makes it very easy to come up with great sounds FAST. For the time being just route the Operator track to an audio track to record some loops for free. friggin' stop with the ableton bashing. what would you do without this program? It's had a MAJOR revision every year and crushes anything else so why are you bitching? They make things SIMPLER for you so when you have the IMPULSE for a composition, you are a smooth OPERATOR!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU
keep up the good work guys just don't rape your loyal customers :)

Cache
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Post by Cache » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:58 pm

f*k. just burnt me toast making that last post. thats what i get!!!

let it be a lesson to us! Abes are more powerful than you think!

rajcoont
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Post by rajcoont » Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:06 pm

Angstrom wrote:I think the reason that most users feel let down by Ableton is not that they are forced to buy this donkey, but that Ableton obviously believe it will fly!
That shows a massive lack of awareness of what the users want and will pay for.
although this statement is somewhat over the top, i must say i agree with the general sentiment. I have been using Live since v2, and have not seen a foot put wrong so far at HQ since then. My setup has gone from outboard gear, synths, samplers, being used with whatever sequencer i hated the least at the time (i've tried and hated every one of them, from the most $$$ to the free) to being a drum machine, Live and some Waves plugs (which i regret purchasing) Thats all it is anymore! Ableton has been the biggest and best instrument/app/plug/what have you in nearly a decade of obsessively following music technology. It still is, but i do think operator is out of step with what their target audience wants/needs.

A lot of the moaning oft repeated requests on this board are by one or two people looking for their personal gripe to be solved (how many people care about ADC or whatever it is? a handful at best) but i was expecting to see some really fresh ideas out of the ableton camp again.

Every update since i've been using Live has had features that solved problems i've had since day one making music, in novels ways i had never thought of.....follow clips is the latest thing they added with little to no fanfare that has taken my music another level into the stratosphere, THIS is why i am so loyal to Ableton...its the little things only heads would think of to implement.

Operator looks like a great synth, but at the end of the day thats all it is, a better than average synth, of which there are SO many, i don't even bother reading about new releases anymore. They simply don't interest me. I don't have a single one in my Plugs folder, mostly because Live has negated the need for them in my personal workflow.

I'm aware I am not the average user, and most people love plugs, but the soft synth industry has certainly hit a saturation point most would agree and i doubt another one, no matter how novel, will create much fanfare....

The price also is surprisingly high, at $39-49 i would have bit, just to give the abe's more $$$ and to have something to tinker with, at $59, played with it, waited until i created a sound i HAD to have in a song and bought then. From 60-99, had to have been really impressed to purchase it. At $149 it's not ever even going be considered. The price is what really surprises me the most, it seems out of step with every other upgrade i've bought since using live....but in context it is an OPTION and doesnt affect me at all. I do not personally have a wish list for Live these days. It does everything i want.

I'm not disappointed (seeing as there were screenshots on this board 3 weeks ago, and it wasnt really tricky to figure out what it was) just sort of surprised.....

Credo
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Post by Credo » Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:19 pm

After downloading the 4.1 file five (yes 5) times I finaly got the install pack to work and had the beautifull moment of virgin ride with Operator

I need to confess I was a little dissapointed about it beeing a synth, but honestly Its a real synth. Not another freeware plugin. Its what you would expect Ableton to deliver if they were making a synth.

The sounds are very good and covering all sorts, very easy and intuitive to use. Its using a lot of cpu, but seems to reach a threshold at 75-80 %

I will use this a lot (using resample), but Im not shure I will buy it yet.

C
>>
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