Do you need a full DAW in addition to Live?

Pandamonium · Post by **Pandamonium** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 1:14 am

The main thing that you guys are missing is that it is insanely awkward (bordering on impossible) to comp vocal tracks in Ableton. This is the main thing stopping me from ditching Cubase and using Ableton as my main DAW. I predict this will be a feature of Ableton 7, along with a new beefed up impulse pay for instrument (Impakt anyone?) and sidechaining compressor.

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:11 am

What do you need to comp vocals?

Pandamonium · Post by **Pandamonium** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:23 am

rbmonosylabik wrote:What do you need to comp vocals?

The ability to see all the vocal takes at once and chop and mute minute sections down to sample level, and add crossfades, so that you can compose a good take out of different bits of not so good takes. Like you can in Cubase.

Either that or a plugin in Ableton to make all vocalists sing the perfect take in one take

As awesome as Ableton is, it is still pretty crap for doing regular recording of real instruments.

leisuremuffin · Post by **leisuremuffin** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:06 pm

the plugin is called "talent" I used it on Sister Nancy's vocal when i recorded her for DJ/Rupture's "special gunpowder" record.

Oh wait, that wasn't a plugin, it was actually talent.

anyway, yeah, if you're planning on tracking/mixing/arranging a "band" or whatever you want to call a group of people playing traditional instruments, there are certainly better things out there than abelton live.

but if you are writing electronic music, there isn't anything else out there that can touch ableton, and you certainly don't *need* and other software to do it. Some nice plug-ins wouldn't hurt you though.

.lm.

Pandamonium · Post by **Pandamonium** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:37 am

leisuremuffin wrote:the plugin is called "talent"

anyway, yeah, if you're planning on tracking/mixing/arranging a "band" or whatever you want to call a group of people playing traditional instruments, there are certainly better things out there than abelton live.

but if you are writing electronic music, there isn't anything else out there that can touch ableton, and you certainly don't *need* and other software to do it. Some nice plug-ins wouldn't hurt you though.

.lm.

Exactly, Ableton is great for bloops and bleeps but sucks if you need to record and edit real live instruments/vox. the music I do is a combination of real acoustic instruments, vocals AND assorted beats, bloops and bleeps, it would be great to be able to use Ableton as a complete solution, without having to rewire it.

franknputer · Post by **franknputer** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:31 pm

I find it hilarious that you would consider chopping at the sample level & crossfading between bits to create a good take from a bunch of crap "regular recording".

leisuremuffin · Post by **leisuremuffin** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:08 pm

Pandamonium wrote:
leisuremuffin wrote:the plugin is called "talent"

anyway, yeah, if you're planning on tracking/mixing/arranging a "band" or whatever you want to call a group of people playing traditional instruments, there are certainly better things out there than abelton live.

but if you are writing electronic music, there isn't anything else out there that can touch ableton, and you certainly don't *need* and other software to do it. Some nice plug-ins wouldn't hurt you though.

.lm.

Exactly, Ableton is great for bloops and bleeps but sucks if you need to record and edit real live instruments/vox. the music I do is a combination of real acoustic instruments, vocals AND assorted beats, bloops and bleeps, it would be great to be able to use Ableton as a complete solution, without having to rewire it.

well, i use "real" instruments fairly often, accordian, guitar, voice. But i never comp takes together so live works fine for how i do it. I will admit that i still track drums on pro-tools, but that's only because i can't do that at home on this lappy anyway....

.lm.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:09 pm

it simply totally depends on what you want / need to do...

there is no all in one answer to that question... unless you are very, very specific about your needs.

oops, sorry...

qveda wrote:

I'm strongly considering buying Live6 for home recording and live performance and general creative fooling around. Once I can perform well enough, I'd like to create some CDs - mostly for friends. They don't have to be full-on mastered for volume production. But I do want them to have excellent audio quality. I'll be using an RME Fireface 800 interface.

Given my goals above, do I also need a DAW like Digital Performer or Logic ?

given that, i say no.

live6 will do the job.

sebovzeoueb · Post by **sebovzeoueb** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:27 pm

I have had no problems using live for home recording, and you can chop up takes if you need to, in the arrangement view... I'm not sure of the exact definition of "comping" though, but if it's chopping up different takes then you can do that with ableton...

I have recently recorded a couple of demo tracks for a friend, with vocals, guitar, ukulele, bass, a bit of synth and some percussion (some real, some programmed). Live was perfectly sufficient for this.