Should I Buy?

mikepinkerton · Post by **mikepinkerton** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 5:47 pm

I've been using Live Delta for a couple of months, trying to find something a bit more "grown up" for multitrack recording than garage band. I'm wondering if I should plop down the $ for the real thing. FWIW, I'm on MacOS X 10.3.4

However, I've run into two issues that I worry will continue to haunt me:

1) Rewire support

I can't get rewire support to work at all with Live Delta. Works fine in garage band and tracktion so I know it works. When I asked here before, everyone was like "never used Delta, can't help" so I have no idea if it's just a limitation in the Delta version or if something deeper is wrong. I certainly wouldn't want to spend $$ to have this continue to not work and be unable to return it.

2) Style of music

I mostly work with rock, blues, etc. Not very much techno, which Live seems very well versed at. The (very) limited techno-style loops provided with Delta didn't do much to get me started besides give me something to play with while learning. OTOH, garage band has gigs of usable loops for rock and other genres.

I don't need it for live mixing, I don't do a lot of trance/techno. I just want something that is more grown up than garage band for recording guitar and bass and vocals.

Am I barking up the wrong tree with Live? Thanks in advance!
-Mike

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 7:55 pm

mikepinkerton wrote:I've been using Live Delta for a couple of months, trying to find something a bit more "grown up" for multitrack recording than garage band. I'm wondering if I should plop down the $ for the real thing. FWIW, I'm on MacOS X 10.3.4

However, I've run into two issues that I worry will continue to haunt me:

1) Rewire support

I can't get rewire support to work at all with Live Delta. Works fine in garage band and tracktion so I know it works. When I asked here before, everyone was like "never used Delta, can't help" so I have no idea if it's just a limitation in the Delta version or if something deeper is wrong. I certainly wouldn't want to spend $$ to have this continue to not work and be unable to return it.

2) Style of music

I mostly work with rock, blues, etc. Not very much techno, which Live seems very well versed at. The (very) limited techno-style loops provided with Delta didn't do much to get me started besides give me something to play with while learning. OTOH, garage band has gigs of usable loops for rock and other genres.

I don't need it for live mixing, I don't do a lot of trance/techno. I just want something that is more grown up than garage band for recording guitar and bass and vocals.

Am I barking up the wrong tree with Live? Thanks in advance!
-Mike

Well, as far as supplied loops go, GIGO - garbage in, garbage out. BUT, as we all know one man's garbage is another man's gold... So, if you don't dig the loops that come with Live, there are alternateives. Check out some of the commercial sample CDs out there for more 'acoustic' instruments, etc.

What I am saying is that supplied loops is a really fickle ciriteria to constrain you when choosing a software platform.

Second, rewire has ALWAYS worked fine for me on a Mac based set up. I easily brought Reason outputs into Live no probs.

I can't comment on Garage Band vs Live cause I have never used Garage Band, sorry.

Hope that helps.

L8er
Montrealbreaks

Ben Affleck · Post by **Ben Affleck** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:07 pm

i'd say go ahead and buy it. what the heck

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:54 pm

Anonymous wrote:
What I am saying is that supplied loops is a really fickle ciriteria to constrain you when choosing a software platform.

Second, rewire has ALWAYS worked fine for me on a Mac based set up. I easily brought Reason outputs into Live no probs.

It seems to me that Live Delta is really doing a bad job at selling Live.

Delta doesn't come with *any* loops outside of the demo. I understand (after much more reading here) that Live4 comes with about 100MB. Can anyone comment on what the loops that are bundled with Live4 consist of? Are they all techno, or a mix of rock/blues/techno/etc?

Again, the gist of these replies seems to be "i've never used delta so...". I guess most Delta users either buy or don't, but don't stay Delta users.

Oh well, i'll keep playing. Thanks for the info.
-Mike

ekko · Post by **ekko** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:25 pm

I've been using live since 2.0 and I mainly do pop and rock music. Check out the audio page on my website...all of the drums for each of the "Mary Thompson" and "Ekko" tracks were all done in Live which was Rewired into Cubase on my Mac.

I say go for it.

Forgot to log in · Post by **Forgot to log in** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:44 pm

OK, here’s the difference between Live 2.0 and Live Delta 2.1.2 (the latest version of Live Delta):

Live Delta 2.1.2:
* Can only record 2-channels at a time
* Can only record into the Arrange View
* Has no MIDI functionality at all
* Has 10 tracks maximum
* Has 5 scenes maximum
* Has 2 sends maximum
* Has only 5 effects
* Allows only 1 VST effect per project
* Has no ReWire support
* Has no Punch-In/Punch-Out
* Has no Tap Tempo
* Has no Tempo Automation
* Has no crossfader
* Does not support SDII format
* Does not have relative scene mapping

cathochic · Post by **cathochic** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 2:05 am

I had live delta shipped with my audiophile. It is a crippled version of Live. The rewire only comes with the full version. However, if you saved the green serial number card, there is a generous discount for upgrading to the actual live using the serial number from your delta version.

SinisterDexter · Post by **SinisterDexter** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 5:54 pm

mikepinkerton wrote:I don't need it for live mixing, I don't do a lot of trance/techno. I just want something that is more grown up than garage band for recording guitar and bass and vocals.

Firstly let me say (so I don't get flamed for what follows by the die-hards) I was blown away by Live 3. Live 4 I regard as phenomenal - for my purposes - but may not be the ideal choice for someone wishing to record "guitar and bass and vocals". Yes, Live WILL do that sort of thing but it's not its main strength.

For working with loops and live mixing work, Live is my no. 1 choice but if I need to record a band then I will use Logic (Mac) or Sonar (PC). It's all about using the best tool for the job...

mikepinkerton · Post by **mikepinkerton** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 9:34 pm

Thanks to everyone who outlined the differences with Delta and the real shipping product, *especially* wrt Rewire (lack of) support. This makes me feel a lot better about what I'll get if I shell out the $$.

I really appreciate the responses!
-Mike

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