Ableton Forum

The context is solo classical guitar. Hoping for perfect continuous takes, but reality is probable that I will need to do multiple takes and edit for one good take.

I've been looking at several DAW demos, and I've narrowed it down to Ableton and Mixcraft as to what seems to be the easiest for me to grasp onto quickly when it comes to function and workflow. I only need 2 audio channels and some noise reduction and reverb. I do not need midi.The Focusrite interface that I have ordered will come with Ableton Lite Live 8, which is plenty for what I need.

Anyone here using Ableton in a similar capacity?

hi

ableton is a great program
but for editing single clips
i use sony sound forge or audicty
i would like to see a decent sound editor
built in but the way i am doing it is not
that much of a pain
and i do play guitar and use live as a back up band

devobtch

I use ableton for recording my band, which is about 80/20 organic/midi. A few of our tracks are just guitar/vocals with minimal processing and Live works just fine for that.

Since it's coming with your interface, there's no reason to buy something else since Live Lite will do everything you need it to, and the limitations will never hinder you if that is the entire scope of your projects.

Look into Studio One V2.5 Comping feature for another DAW option.

I just did a test run, and the editing capabilities in Ableton BLOWS! Seriously, can you guys include a decent editor with the program for those of us that record actual acoustic instruments?

kmaaj wrote:I just did a test run, and the editing capabilities in Ableton BLOWS! Seriously, can you guys include a decent editor with the program for those of us that record actual acoustic instruments?

What exactly about the audio do you want to edit?

kmaaj wrote:I just did a test run, and the editing capabilities in Ableton BLOWS! Seriously, can you guys include a decent editor with the program for those of us that record actual acoustic instruments?

I'm not sure what features you're looking for, I edit acoustic audio almost exclusively and I have zero issues.

If you're not interested in playing live with a laptop I'd actually recommend Reaper. I'm currently learning it as I'm interested in being an engineer/producer for rock bands, solo artists, etc. It's only $60 (unless you make over $20,000/year from music) but the features on it actually are above a lot of the major DAWs out there. I'd definitely check it out since you get a 60 day fully functioning demo. A lot of other users on here recommend Reaper as well. The way they have setup their slip editing makes everything such a breeze.

I'm always going to use Live though, the interface (session view) makes it such a creative tool for sampling and creating music but I'd agree, editing on Live is a complete pain and editing multi-tracked instruments is impossible.

kanuck wrote:If you're not interested in playing live with a laptop I'd actually recommend Reaper. I'm currently learning it as I'm interested in being an engineer/producer for rock bands, solo artists, etc. It's only $60 (unless you make over $20,000/year from music) but the features on it actually are above a lot of the major DAWs out there. I'd definitely check it out since you get a 60 day fully functioning demo. A lot of other users on here recommend Reaper as well. The way they have setup their slip editing makes everything such a breeze.

I'm always going to use Live though, the interface (session view) makes it such a creative tool for sampling and creating music but I'd agree, editing on Live is a complete pain and editing multi-tracked instruments is impossible.

I've tried Reaper and I like the editing capabilities but I like Ableton's stock reverbs much better.

I got a little help from another acoustic fingerstylist on another forum, and I figured out how to edit in Ableton, but it is much easier in Audacity. A friend in Nashville once told me that when Chet Atkins recorded a solo piece, if he made a mistake, the tape kept rolling, and Chet would simply pause, back up a measure or two, and resume playing. At the end, the engineer would slice out the mistakes with a razor and splice the tape back together. This same approach is incredibly easy in Audacity, and easier to see as well. I've found it -can- be done in Ableton, but it is more difficult and harder to see. So....as it stands now, I'm going to record in Ableton, set up Audacity as the default editor, and go from there.

kmaaj wrote:

kanuck wrote:If you're not interested in playing live with a laptop I'd actually recommend Reaper. I'm currently learning it as I'm interested in being an engineer/producer for rock bands, solo artists, etc. It's only $60 (unless you make over $20,000/year from music) but the features on it actually are above a lot of the major DAWs out there. I'd definitely check it out since you get a 60 day fully functioning demo. A lot of other users on here recommend Reaper as well. The way they have setup their slip editing makes everything such a breeze.

I'm always going to use Live though, the interface (session view) makes it such a creative tool for sampling and creating music but I'd agree, editing on Live is a complete pain and editing multi-tracked instruments is impossible.

I've tried Reaper and I like the editing capabilities but I like Ableton's stock reverbs much better.

I got a little help from another acoustic fingerstylist on another forum, and I figured out how to edit in Ableton, but it is much easier in Audacity. A friend in Nashville once told me that when Chet Atkins recorded a solo piece, if he made a mistake, the tape kept rolling, and Chet would simply pause, back up a measure or two, and resume playing. At the end, the engineer would slice out the mistakes with a razor and splice the tape back together. This same approach is incredibly easy in Audacity, and easier to see as well. I've found it -can- be done in Ableton, but it is more difficult and harder to see. So....as it stands now, I'm going to record in Ableton, set up Audacity as the default editor, and go from there.

No offense, please, but you're doing something wrong. That's how I record everything, slicing up different takes and putting them back together. Are you using the arrangement view? You just need to zoom in and highlight things then right click (or memorize keyboard shortcuts) for slice and consolidate. If one of the sections is too loud/quiet, you can then go into that section's clip properties and shrink/expand the waveform to fit. It's really dead simple, you may be thinking too hard about this process.

Scotty Danger wrote:

kmaaj wrote:

kanuck wrote:If you're not interested in playing live with a laptop I'd actually recommend Reaper. I'm currently learning it as I'm interested in being an engineer/producer for rock bands, solo artists, etc. It's only $60 (unless you make over $20,000/year from music) but the features on it actually are above a lot of the major DAWs out there. I'd definitely check it out since you get a 60 day fully functioning demo. A lot of other users on here recommend Reaper as well. The way they have setup their slip editing makes everything such a breeze.

I'm always going to use Live though, the interface (session view) makes it such a creative tool for sampling and creating music but I'd agree, editing on Live is a complete pain and editing multi-tracked instruments is impossible.

I've tried Reaper and I like the editing capabilities but I like Ableton's stock reverbs much better.

I got a little help from another acoustic fingerstylist on another forum, and I figured out how to edit in Ableton, but it is much easier in Audacity. A friend in Nashville once told me that when Chet Atkins recorded a solo piece, if he made a mistake, the tape kept rolling, and Chet would simply pause, back up a measure or two, and resume playing. At the end, the engineer would slice out the mistakes with a razor and splice the tape back together. This same approach is incredibly easy in Audacity, and easier to see as well. I've found it -can- be done in Ableton, but it is more difficult and harder to see. So....as it stands now, I'm going to record in Ableton, set up Audacity as the default editor, and go from there.

No offense, please, but you're doing something wrong. That's how I record everything, slicing up different takes and putting them back together. Are you using the arrangement view? You just need to zoom in and highlight things then right click (or memorize keyboard shortcuts) for slice and consolidate. If one of the sections is too loud/quiet, you can then go into that section's clip properties and shrink/expand the waveform to fit. It's really dead simple, you may be thinking too hard about this process.

That's interesting. Although I've found Ableton's reverb to sound ok for more unique reverb sounds I found it far from realistic and would rather use third party plugins, but to each their own.

Yes as the poster above said, all those types of editing can be done in Live. I'm not sure what you're struggling with exactly. What I mentioned before is still impossible though and that is multi-track editing. Therefore if you used 2 separate mics (not stereo) to record your guitar or have a mulit-tracked drum kit you won't be able to edit them together. This is due to the fact that you cannot group clips in Live whereas you can in other DAWs (at least most of them).

you can group the tracks that you've recorded in Arrange view. hit Tab.

you could... consolidate all of your guitars into one file by routing to another track and recording the output of the source tracks.

you could use loop brackets to record multiple passes of the same material... and/or use a foot pedal to trigger the transport control to start stop and record - hitting stop twice would start you back at the beginning of the loop.

there are a lot of different ways to do things with Live.

kanuck wrote: Although I've found Ableton's reverb to sound ok for more unique reverb sounds I found it far from realistic and would rather use third party plugins, but to each their own.

Yes as the poster above said, all those types of editing can be done in Live. I'm not sure what you're struggling with exactly. What I mentioned before is still impossible though and that is multi-track editing. Therefore if you used 2 separate mics (not stereo) to record your guitar or have a mulit-tracked drum kit you won't be able to edit them together. This is due to the fact that you cannot group clips in Live whereas you can in other DAWs (at least most of them).

I do use 2 mics on separate tracks panned hard left and right; to my ears it just sounds better than one stereo track.

I've gotten into a routine where I record and add reverb in Ableton, and I have Audacity set up as the default editor. I have learned since how to edit in Ableton, but the separate track issue makes it not feasible, and even if I did record like that, the view, function, and workflow of basic editing is just plain easier in Audacity for how I do it.

Which third party plugins are you using for reverb? I'm still considering switching to Reaper, but I don't care for any of the stock reverbs.

kmaaj wrote:

kanuck wrote: Although I've found Ableton's reverb to sound ok for more unique reverb sounds I found it far from realistic and would rather use third party plugins, but to each their own.

Yes as the poster above said, all those types of editing can be done in Live. I'm not sure what you're struggling with exactly. What I mentioned before is still impossible though and that is multi-track editing. Therefore if you used 2 separate mics (not stereo) to record your guitar or have a mulit-tracked drum kit you won't be able to edit them together. This is due to the fact that you cannot group clips in Live whereas you can in other DAWs (at least most of them).

I do use 2 mics on separate tracks panned hard left and right; to my ears it just sounds better than one stereo track.

Eh?

You don't need anything else than Ableton.