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OT/ Any Ableton Live users?


Kayvon

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I'm gonna invest in a new sequencer package while i'm still a student (one month left now) so I can get an educational price and though i've been brought up on Cubase i'm tempted by Ableton Live 7.

 

I was just wondering if anybody had moved from more traditional sequencers like Cubase/Sonar/Logic to Ableton Live and had any advice on the benefits of that program. (workflow seems to be one of the most mentioned things)

 

The things that are swaying me to Cubase 4 are the supposedly superior midi editing, score editor and the better quality sound engine & plugins. Also, the video editing features could be very useful in the future.

 

Bundled VST instruments aren't too much of a draw as I have some nice hardware pieces but VST effects are something I don't really want to spend extra money on.

 

My sometime production partner has completely moved over to Ableton and is always extolling its virtues but he is more programmed dance music based. I compose more by playing my input live. I have a copy of Ableton Live lite and i've had a couple of cursory looks through it but without spending a lot more time on it I don't think i'll really get a feel for the program. I'm real busy at the moment so I can't really put the time in before i'm no longer a student.

 

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

ps if anyone has anything to say on alternatives like Mackie's Tracktion please chime in. I've downloaded and used Cockos Reaper but it seems a little more than I need without as nice a interface as Cubase (plus not as many bundled goodies)

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Do you feel you're missing something in Cubase? Are you able to accomplish your musical goals with it? If so, then why spend more money on more software (ie distractions) just because you get a discount? If Cubase isn't working for you, then by all means look around, but if it's accomplishing what you want to accomplish, save your money.

 

my 2¢

A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable.
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Do you feel you're missing something in Cubase?

 

Actually, no i'm not come to think of it. When I used SX it did pretty much everything I needed.

 

I don't own Cubase at the moment but I guess the main reason I was attracted to Live was the sleeker interface. Now with so many transport interfaces on the market (from Frontier Designs, Presonus and Steinberg with this CC121) I think I could get on with Cubase just as easily. I think my mate gets on so well with Live because of the way he works with loops and timestretching.

 

Well that was an easy decision! :wave: Thanks Kevin.

 

I think i'm prob gonna spend the extra $260 for the improved Eq's and VST effects in Cubase 4 over Cubase Studio though. You don't actually save a great deal of money buying the reduced version with the educational pricing. I just hope my 1.66Ghz Intel dual Core laptop will be able to run Cubase smoothly when i've got a couple of plugins running.

 

Thanks again Kanker :)

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I just hope my 1.66Ghz Intel dual Core laptop will be able to run Cubase smoothly when i've got a couple of plugins running.

 

Thanks again Kanker :)

Oh, you'll get plenty of work done with that much power. Unless you're running lots of convolution reverbs or big Reaktor patches, you should have lots of horsepower there. Just be sure your RAM has been maxed...

 

And no sweat man. I see people buy tons of software and get nothing done, or just end up using the same app they've always used because it does the job they need. If Live were going to work for you, you probably would have used the lite version quite a bit by now. More software doesn't exactly always equal more productivity.

A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable.
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What I like about Live is that it's a lot easier to get anything tied to a controller. I found Cubase (used to use SX 3) incredibly cumbersome and nearly hostile in that aspect. Ableton's a lot more relaxed in that, except for most of the NI stuff (but that has a MIDI learn of itself).

 

When I switched to Live, making music got fun for me again, and that's what counts for me.

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I use Live a every gig to host VST's and trigger loops. To me, that's where it rules supreme. I use Logic as my main DAW at home and in the studio, and for "convenional" recording, I like Logic's workflow a lot more, but Live does have a really special thing. I don't think I would use it as my only DAW, though.

Turn up the speaker

Hop, flop, squawk

It's a keeper

-Captain Beefheart, Ice Cream for Crow

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