Ableton Forum

I agree with the guy's general point - the sound quality of Live limits it's usefulness; I've turned to using it more or less as an effect, to play highly processed "ambient" loops, rather than tracks I've carefully crafted in other applications. I love it using it this way, and would like to use it for complete arrangements too, so that I could do away with other hardware (or software) for performing. Reason's sound engine, for example, is not perfect, and Live's, IMO, is not quite as good as that (yet).

Oneshot would mean playing a track back at it's original speed only, without changing (distorting) it at all. I too would like to see this before any other new feature, and I would like to see an improved sound engine for tempo-adjusted tracks as soon as possible after that. For me Live is an awesome interface without yet having the audio ability I hope it will soon get.

I don't want to get into an argument particularly, but I basically agree with the original post.

Cheers ...

live sounds DO contain audible artifacts but that has not stopped anyone from rocking the house with it like Akufen for example or creating critically acclaimed CD's like Scion.

I'm sure Fruityloops sounds better and the algorithms in live could be improved and whatnot, but that does not, in my books, diminish the work of either artists mentioned above or detract from their phenomenal talent.

It's good to constantly find improvements in the tools of ones trade, but it must also be put into perspective and understood that it is creativity that makes an artist- not his/her tools.

look folks, live is called 'live', not 'studio'. it's main function is a performance tool, not a compositional one. nobody needs precise metering and absolute sonic precision when performing in a dark, loud club with, at best, a mediocre p.a.. so lets not be so quick to judge live for it's performance when it comes to something that it really wasn't built for. live is, in fact, a 'pro' application. unless of course, there's someone out there who can show me a better program for doing what live does.. bangin' out loops on the fly onstage.


k

don´t you need a good sound quality when you play Live??

Can anybody give me some link to some forum where they talk about making music with live and NOT about who can feel like a professional musician because hes using it or whos got the best looking notebook?

kitchen

Anonymous wrote:don´t you need a good sound quality when you play Live??

exactly, i am playing Live with Live and sound quality is very important to me, i am trying to improve the sound in each diffrent club i play and i must say its NOT easy, i hear the diffrence between audio coming out of Live or lets say Logic Audio... it's huge. But who would use Logic Audio for playing live exept for virtual instruments or MIDI tracks?

jazze

Can anybody give me some link to some forum where they talk about making music with live and NOT about who can feel like a professional musician because hes using it or whos got the best looking notebook?

kitchen

Very sensible question ! Beside this forum, haven't found many other ones aimed at Live ....

Much of the sound quality issues are due to the realtime timestretching. In doing that for such a number of tracks while keeping tight time and performing a lot of other tasks Live beats all other applications I am aware of.

Sure, dedicated hardware like the VP-9000 has better timestretching, and I do use it for some tracks where I need smooth realtime pitch control - but then, it is as big as three notebooks, needs V-Producer (a PC hosted sequencer) for live triggering and control, has only six voices/tracks, and was quite a bit more expensive than Live even in the clearance sale.

And by the way, much of the sound glitches in Live disappear if you use samples that don't need time stretching, by being at the right playback speed to start with. Timestretching to the proper tempo in a non-realtime application like Cooledit can bring quite huge improvements to your sound...

Sevo

vp9000 sucks - cu soon @ radio - greets christoph -

here's the problems i'm having with live:

the output level sucks...i mean, i cannot EVER get enough gain , even through assorted mixers!!!

also, not having a "one shot mode" really sucks.

the sound quality, other than the sound level, is the problem.
+()Dd

guest - you probably need some compression on those loops if you can't get enough gain...

it's called "Live" for a reason. the fact that it even supports 24/96 is saying alot. it is not intened for pristine hi-fidelity recording. look at the box. it says "sequencing INSTRUMENT". play it.

word tj...word.

k

astromass wrote:here's the problems i'm having with live:

the output level sucks...i mean, i cannot EVER get enough gain , even through assorted mixers!!!

I used to have gain problems but realized it was a problem of the overall system setting for the input on the sound card.

Also, i don't mind the "bad" quality of the sound recording. it reminds me of the "bad" quality that analog tape recorders can give, a little noise and character. (I admit though that i do not change the tempo of my recorded samples though after recording them so i might be having better results then someone increasing the tempo on a bass line they recorded by 40 bpm's)