Ableton Forum

Ableton Live is my first DAW, I always hear about other DAW's like Logic and Cubase, which I have checked out but can never seem to get a workflow going. Is there a real benefit to Logic in comparison to Live? Are there still any benefits to rewiring Live with ProTools or Nuendo? I know this is all a matter of opinion but I am just curious if I should check out these other programs. When I tell others that I use Live as my DAW, they wonder what I'm doing, because the impression they have is that its a Mixing Utility. Its just my main instrument (which is what I tell them)

Is there anything out there that I MUST have?

If you aren't running into creative walls with Live I say don't worry what other people thing. Some other DAWs have more in depth Midi, built in/bundles synths, surround support etc. But if you don't need anything but Live rejoice and save your money.

hallelujah!

I was a logic user a long time ago, not even sure what version it was anymore. Lets just say that I ran it on a pc. I have also put time in with cubase, SAW Audio dating back to 95. I also have worked with the origonal Notator on a atari st..... you get the idea. I have also taken time out from computer sequencing and worked entirely with hardware in order to get the job done. At the moment I have Live and Protools LE on two different computers. I am not all that fond of protools but hey it is what I need for work. It sounds fine.

For best tools for creative flow (IMOP) is either Live or hardware. Hardware is great for just getting the ideas down fast and having lots of hands on controll right away. But I found that getting from midi to audio to be a total pain in the ass. I was running 24 track mixing desks mixing down to ADAT and so on just to keep things flowing. It was a pain. I could have recorded to computer I guess but ... ok wait that is a different topic....

So in the end My point is (again IMOP) the last version of live4 is the best tool for keeping creative flow going from begining to end. I dont have to bounce out of live to do anything. I sometime rewire Reason into live, and i use a sample editor but that is all. I love it.

And to get back to your question "is there anything I must have?" um no I dont think so. Spend the $1200 bucks that logic would cost you on some good soft synths like the Minimonsta or or impOSCar or lets see the Voxengo Elephant matering limiter, or umm the UAD-1 plugins SOUND FANTASTIC. I think you could get a nord modular for about that much...... um I also would recomend the.........

be happy that you started with live 4

I really like Live because within itself, it's such a flexible and crazy program. You can write a track and then immediately start playing it as if it were in a live situation. No need to convert files or anything. And the interface is so user-friendly that there's hardly a learning curve and creativity isn't prevented from having to figure out how to do something.

For me, the main thing that separates it from other DAW's is that it does not support video. I do a lot of post-production work and I feel that flipping between Pro Tools and Cubase works best since I'm often working in different studios. It just makes transferring files easier instead having to work on MY DAW.

But back to Live. I like it a lot for music production. I also write stuff in Cubase, but that's really only because I've been using it for some time. I suppose all I'm trying to say is that you didn't make a bad choice. At some point, if you decide to use Logic or Cubase you'll still be able to ReWire your old sessions and mix them down again.

Thanks a lot for your responses, I do also want to get into hardware, a Nord Modular or straight synth would be bad-ass. IF anyone else knows of a Must-Have (in their opinion). I'd be glad to hear about it. Can't wait to upgrade to 5 btw.

The only real limitation when using Live is for vocals. You can't do the kind of edits and layering that you can in Pro Tools, Logic, or Cubase. Taking this one step further (better?) is writing all your music in Live and then when you are ready for vocals simply Rewire or export your tracks to Pro Tools HD/LE/MPOWERED and you're golden! If you already use a compatioble

MarkH wrote:The only real limitation when using Live is for vocals. You can't do the kind of edits and layering that you can in Pro Tools, Logic, or Cubase.

Can you explain why you feel that way?

atomic wrote:Can you explain why you feel that way?

Pro Tools is designed in a way for the Producer to record live musicians (vocals, guitars, saxaphone, etc.) in multiple takes and then easily go back and extract only the best "parts" from each take and play back as if it were a single track. Live hasn't reached this point (yet). At least not in the way Pro Tools does it. If you're informal about your studio sessions it may not as big of an issue (more tedious) but when you bring in a professional recording artist you wouldn't want to propose doing it any other way.

MarkH wrote:

atomic wrote:Can you explain why you feel that way?

Pro Tools is designed in a way for the Producer to record live musicians (vocals, guitars, saxaphone, etc.) in multiple takes and then easily go back and extract only the best "parts" from each take and play back as if it were a single track. Live hasn't reached this point (yet). At least not in the way Pro Tools does it. If you're informal about your studio sessions it may not as big of an issue (more tedious) but when you bring in a professional recording artist you wouldn't want to propose doing it any other way.

I work in Arrange to create most of my work, but I record multiple takes as 'clips' along with my arrangement when recording some instrument parts. Then I can move these takes over to Arrange easily or slice them up into different parts to move to Arrange individually. I don't see how this is limiting in any way.

MarkH wrote:

atomic wrote:Can you explain why you feel that way?

Pro Tools is designed in a way for the Producer to record live musicians (vocals, guitars, saxaphone, etc.) in multiple takes and then easily go back and extract only the best "parts" from each take and play back as if it were a single track. Live hasn't reached this point (yet). At least not in the way Pro Tools does it. If you're informal about your studio sessions it may not as big of an issue (more tedious) but when you bring in a professional recording artist you wouldn't want to propose doing it any other way.

Is this similiar to beat detective in any way? I am becoming more and more curious about M-powered, mostly so I can mix people down into a protools format, and especially so that I can work on my experience (quite limited) with mixing- not that I can't get by with Live for MY needs.

I reckon using the session view for recording and setting the clips to legato mode would allow to use them for multiple takes of the same part? Not tried it... top of my head, it should work?

if you're into electronic music, live will probably do.
If you records lots of acoustic instruments, multi miking, like drums, you'll have a harder time with Live

Chris J wrote:if you're into electronic music, live will probably do.
If you records lots of acoustic instruments, multi miking, like drums, you'll have a harder time with Live

I would think that Live would make it easier working with acoustics, allowing you treat them in a "electronic way." Electronic meaning easier/efficent. I have yet to use Ptools so, can't say much there.

What does everyone think about the M-Powered Ptools?

if you ever do multi miking in live, I don't think you'll say the same thing