Ableton Forum

I did a search for this, in case this has been covered before, but I wasn't able to find much. So perhaps we'd like to open up this debate.

I currently use Ableton for everything, but where it really shines is for my DJing. I use Ableton on one computer and run M-Audio's Torq on another and the system works fantastically.

My question is now regarding the production side of the house. Is there an advantage to using Logic over Ableton (or vice versa) in the production environment.. or perhaps even using both applications (via ReWire.)

I only know some basics of Logic, so I'm not really able to answer this myself. Your thoughts are appreciated..

BTW: I am producing mostly EDM, with occassional "real" instruments and vocals, in case that makes a difference..
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SuperAcidJax
www.myspace.com/superacidjaxmusic

I would comment, but I wont

The only thing I will say is that I only use live these days. Nothing else.

Oh, and I don't dj.........

superacidjax wrote:I did a search for this, in case this has been covered before, but I wasn't able to find much. So perhaps we'd like to open up this debate.

It has been discussed here ad nauseum. Though to your credit, the search function on phpBB does suck, and at least you tried to use it.

My question is now regarding the production side of the house. Is there an advantage to using Logic over Ableton (or vice versa) in the production environment.. or perhaps even using both applications (via ReWire.)

IMO, Live's strengths for production are its time stretching, and VST support (which I guess is technically feasable in logic should you decide to purchase the fxpansion AU->VST wrapper..), and easy "visual" layout. Logic has much better MIDI editing, built-in instruments, and sound quality.

That last point is very debatable, but it's worth mentioning it anyways, as there are people out there who believe that it does have an edge on live in this regard.

Logic 7 + Live 6 + Reaktor 5 = Endless possibilities

I thought Logic was supposed to be hard, but it just needs to be approached from a 'modular' approach.Plus, Live 6 is great on the go that way you can leave the dongle at home safe.

Apples (no pun intended!) & oranges...

I'd say Live will work for 95% of people's music production needs. A few people need more detailed editing options, and for them Logic makes more sense.

Well,

both are great packages - depends on what you do .... In the studio - logic, djing and live-mangling Live - complicated stuff logic.

the flexibility of Logic is just so great - logic is somehow a small version from what you get when you combine Max/MSP and Live - but more convenient and with some great stuff and reasonable audio quality.
Live has quite some short-comings (well, I am still in Live 5) and Ableton does not really care - maybe they even did not know about it before I asked them and after 6 months or more I still got no reasonable answer. They want to have their studio-enabled Live and pretend so ..... personally I think that is pretty lame.
Logic is far from perfect, but it is solid ..... and for me the flexibility of the environment is a great plus.
I have both and think that is great. If I had to choose - in former times I would have said I would go with Live (that was around Live 4) but today, I think I would first get Logic (or Digital Performer).

What I would really miss though is operator - it is quite expensive for what it does but it does some things so easily that it seems ok (and I got it second hand, so what - but than the update policy of operator is pretty dubious on the other side ) .....

hope that helps

For sale my logic pro 7, won't say it's a piece of j..., but it's totally outdated feature-wise compared to live with all of its options. My opinion only it is

sqook wrote:

superacidjax wrote:I did a search for this, in case this has been covered before, but I wasn't able to find much. So perhaps we'd like to open up this debate.

It has been discussed here ad nauseum. Though to your credit, the search function on phpBB does suck, and at least you tried to use it.

My question is now regarding the production side of the house. Is there an advantage to using Logic over Ableton (or vice versa) in the production environment.. or perhaps even using both applications (via ReWire.)

IMO, Live's strengths for production are its time stretching, and VST support (which I guess is technically feasable in logic should you decide to purchase the fxpansion AU->VST wrapper..), and easy "visual" layout. Logic has much better MIDI editing, built-in instruments, and sound quality.

That last point is very debatable, but it's worth mentioning it anyways, as there are people out there who believe that it does have an edge on live in this regard.

i agree, and i use both to get the best out of both worlds [apples and oranges, both tasty and i need all flavours]

Ott (legendary psy-chill producer and all round audio genius) spent some time testing the audio summing of various sequencers - Cubase, Logic, Live, Magix - and concluded that Live produces the best results and Logic produces the worst. And he's a die-hard Logic user.

I only use Ableton and Reaktor now because I can't afford Logic... but if I could, I'd use Live (and Reaktor) to develop sounds, melodic ideas and structure, then export/ReWire into Logic for mixing, precise automation and detailed midi editing. I have to say that Sculpture and Space Designer alone make Logic very attractive...

I have to say that i love them both and don't think I could make a choice between the two.

Love the apples & oranges reference, for me they are both different programs that have a certain amount of overlap. For some unknown reason I never record in Live, always Logic, I mostly arrange in Logic but love swapping projects between the two when I get stuck or am looking for more inspiration.

It's about 50/50 for in terms of which I write in but like I just said I nearly always swap between the 2 or rewire at some stage.

Scoring to Video I still use Logic, habit perhaps, I have yet to be convinced on that Live is going to do it for me.

I think I've possibly used Logic twice when playing out, although it's solid (for me) I will still use Live. and build all my arrangements (even if written in Logic) in a modular format for live experimentation on stage.

It's quite easy to see that some things really suit some people really well and for me the logic/live combo is great. I don't use cubase or protools because I never really fell for them but I think it's a personal choice.

i kept Logic for a while just for the exs library and for Sculpture. Sampler has taken over for me as it loads up the exs stuff quite nicely and Sculpture has been replaced with stuff like Absynth and general tinkering. i haven't written a track in Logic since Live version 1. prior to that it was my main deal for years. can't say i miss it at all. feels like using MS Office compared to Live.

Live and Logic are fundamentally different. Buy them both.

eyeknow wrote:Oh, and I don't dj.........

Neither do I....