Will I survive just fine with Ableton Suite?

[Mixikyr]

Deleted post.

[LeifonMars]

First of all; coming from 4 track tape recorder era I can't take seriously these "do I now possess enough tools to make decent music" appeals. Then again, I do know, that limitations are often key to completing something unique. I can't answer, no one can, if suite will be the deal that unleashes your creativity. Surely there is enough tools to allow that. ATM I have Octatrack and Evolver in my setup and I use Live only for fx'ing and routing audio and MIDI. Maybe in few months it will change, who knows.

[Anubis]

I got it and never use it. I end up using third party suites(e.g. Komplete). That's not to say that it's not worth it, but you can survive without it.

[Forge.]

First of all; coming from 4 track tape recorder era I can't take seriously these "do I now possess enough tools to make decent music" appeals....

+1

[jer_mcclain]

I got rid of everything except Live Suite and M4L. For me it came down to having less options both in terms of sound generation and the number of controls. One of the reasons I like Live's instruments is that you have a limited set of controls(excluding M4L of course). The Komplete instruments drive me nuts with the number of controls available and there are way too many presets. So for me, it comes down to having less of what I consider distractions.

I think anyone would be fine with Live, or Reason, or Logic or whatever really. The real question is are you making music now? If not I would suggest reading something like The Artists Way and work on your creative side. I went through a long period of not writing and buying lots of software thinking that was a solution. It's a trap. I am more productive with a limited toolset and spending time on nurturing my creativity.

These softwares only help you realize your inspiration, they don't provide it.

[Dhak]

As a fairly new Live Suite user and someone who just their first third party plugin (Camel Audio Alchemy VST), I would say that the answer to your question depends on what your intended goals are.

While Ableton Suite does feature powerful instruments such as Analog and Operator, I find that it takes a lot of knowledge and tweaking to get a nice sound out of them. In Alchemy I am finding I can really just mess around and still come up with some nice sounds. But when I use Operator I can't seem to get anything pleasing to come out of it. I'm not saying that it isn't capable of making good sounds, but I do think you need to really know what you are doing.

Are you more into sound designing or putting together music? I thought I would be more into sound design yet when it comes down to it I really just like to make music. I don't want to spend a whole day to make only 1 synth. It would take weeks to put any musical composition together. That's just me though, someone else might feel different.

I also find that most of Ableton's pre-sets were really weak sounding. In fact I was quite surprised that for the extra $300-$400 you pay for suite, there were not only very few pre-sets but even fewer that I would ever touch (even as a starting point.) Browsing through the Alchemy pre-sets made me realize this even more. To me they just sound so much fuller and nicer than the ones that come with Ableton.

As far as people using pre-sets to make their music: To each their own! I think it's so funny and pathetic how many arguments people have online about music related topics. Music is music, and everyone has their own way of making it. If you want to design every single synth, bass, and drum hit from scratch then that is awesome and I applaud you. But I personally enjoy making music and leave the sound designing to professionals who do strictly that. Nothing wrong with either way.

I prefer the middle ground: I have no problem using an un-tweaked pre-set and often do, but most of the time I use a pre-set as a starting point for the sound I am looking for and then add my own effects or slightly change it to fit what I want.

Load up operator, don't touch anything, and start playing notes on your keyboard. Well, there is sound coming out of your speakers isn't there? That's a "pre-set" sound right there. All you are doing is altering it, adding filters, etc. How is it fundamentally any different then taking a pre-set from anything else and tweaking it?

It depends entirely on YOU and what YOU want to do. Check this video out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYCuPafLUEQ

Number one song on beatport and he uses not a pre-set, but a straight up LOOP! I personally wouldn't go that far but when you read Steve Angello's counter-argument to all of the criticism he received, he does make some valid points. Not only that but there are thousands of people who still defend him and love that song regardless of how he made it.

So once again, it's entirely up to you! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise

[twisted-space]

If you think reaktor is a toy you might as well give up now.

[nylarch]

Check out Flying Lotus' twitter stream. He was lamenting yesterday that Reason 3.5 doesn't work on his new MacPro as that's all he's used up until this point.

[Warrior Bob]

You probably ought to define what exactly "full production capabilities" means. I think what you're really asking is "am I missing anything huge by not buying these two other software packages?" and the answer is "only if you want something that's in them." I own neither and don't feel terribly limited, other than when there's some particular sound I really like that one of those tools is particularly good at. I've got bigger limitations to worry about anyway (crappy room, unfamiliarity with tools I already have, not enough time).

Every tool has it's possibilities and its limitations. Live Suite has more than plenty of neat stuff in it to go off and make all kinds of music. Get other tools as you discover needs for them. Trying to guess it ahead of time probably isn't going to help anything.

[mholloway]

Just asking because I tried out the aclaimed Reaktor and my mouth was left open by the sheer absurdity of seeing "toys" like this thing that just generates random sounds upon pressing play.

Apologies, sir, but you have not the slightest clue what you are talking about here. Reaktor is the most complex, deep and user-programmable instrument on the entire fucking market, and I'd love to see someone try and disagree with me.

-M

[mholloway]

Check out Flying Lotus' twitter stream. He was lamenting yesterday that Reason 3.5 doesn't work on his new MacPro as that's all he's used up until this point.

Awesome! I love information like this: it's very grounding, and reminds us that those of us who spend so much time obsessing over the latest plugins and DAW upgrades are probably the same of us who are producing the least amount of quality music on a regular basis.

Another example: Kanye West doesn't use DAWs, and doesn't like 'em: he does all his sampling and sequencing with a fucking ASR-X and some iteration of the MPC. "The ASR-X is like my left hand," says Kanye.

-M

[Press Enter]

Check out Flying Lotus' twitter stream. He was lamenting yesterday that Reason 3.5 doesn't work on his new MacPro as that's all he's used up until this point.

Awesome! I love information like this

It's a pity then that he's lying.

[sondericker]

I'm a relative newb but I use mainly Ableton Suite; usually operator, analog, drum racks and sampler for most things. I still feel like I don't have a complete grasp of what can be done with just those tools. I pull in a VST once in a while for some novelty but really not even all that often. I'm actually waiting for the day when the tools I have feel limiting. Right now the biggest limiting factor is my ability to know how to use the synths I have well enough to be able to think of a sound and then reproduce it faithfully.

[abl385]

Reaktor is a toy? What did you say about my mama?

[abl385]

Check out Flying Lotus' twitter stream. He was lamenting yesterday that Reason 3.5 doesn't work on his new MacPro as that's all he's used up until this point.

Awesome! I love information like this: it's very grounding, and reminds us that those of us who spend so much time obsessing over the latest plugins and DAW upgrades are probably the same of us who are producing the least amount of quality music on a regular basis.

Another example: Kanye West doesn't use DAWs, and doesn't like 'em: he does all his sampling and sequencing with a fucking ASR-X and some iteration of the MPC. "The ASR-X is like my left hand," says Kanye.

-M

Do you also like it when he says "ableton sounds like poopie in the studio but its good for live shows"?