#41

I use a DAW precisely so I don’t have to do this.

7 Likes
#42

Polls for people using Ableton:

1. I use Ableton for

  • Studio recordings (almost) exclusively
  • Mostly studio recordings, but some live performance too
  • About 50/50
  • Mostly live performance, but some studio recordings too
  • Live performance (almost) exclusively

0 voters

2. When working with Ableton

  • I record mostly live instrument tracks for my projects (including recording backing tracks for use in live performance)
  • I often use a mixture of live instruments and midi/sampler instruments in my projects
  • I mostly use midi tracks, instrument samplers, etc. for my projects

0 voters

3. For those who do record live instrument tracks

  • Ableton caters to all my needs, and I have never found myself struggling to realise my aims with it.
  • Ableton is generally pretty good, but I have struggled with it at times
  • I would not recommend using Ableton for recording live instruments compared to other DAWs like Reaper, Logic Pro, etc.
  • I dont record live tracks on Ableton but didn’t want to be left out of the fun!

0 voters

Sorry for the barrage of polls.

I’m trying to figure out whether Ableton would be a viable candidate for me to switch to from Logic Pro. I do compose a lot of midi tracks but also would want a number of live tracks, sometime including drums.

#43

I’ve been using Ableton for a couple of years now. At first I couldn’t get my head around the interface, the clips, how it all worked… but once I got past that it’s been amazing. Now I know what things do I find it very intuitive and versatile, not sure I’d ever switch.

Maybe the only downside is just how much there is you can learn and discover. I’ve had to be quite disciplined and work with limits otherwise it’s a bit overwhelming.

#44

I’ve never had any issues with recording and comping guitar/bass/vocals but my drums are all midi. Can imagine it being a bit more of a pain if you’re multi-micing a live drum kit simply because you don’t get that automatic drop down selection of takes to choose from. It’s easy enough to work around, but it’s just one of those things that will add a bit more time to your working process I guess.

I think they do a month’s free demo, so might just be worth having a go with that first and see if it’s a deal breaker or not.

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#45

I think they extended the length of the demo - 90 days which is a pretty decent length of time, if you know what you’re doing in another DAW you can certainly work out if it suits you in 90 days!

1 Like
#46

Ableton heads, do you prefer making stuff in

  • Sesh view
  • Arrangement view

0 voters

#47

Just realised I meant Reaper, not Reason.

#48

I said session view, but really, it’s a mix. I start in session view, sketching out ideas and loops and that, then once I’ve got a bunch of pieces, start putting them together in arrange, but then tab back to session view to build up b-sections or variations and such.

I know some people who use arrange view exclusively - I got to spend a morning with James Yuill learning how he works, and he works (or worked) almost entirely with arrange view and audio clips (except for synth parts) - so, for drum parts, he’d drop the drum samples directly into the timeline rather than use a drum rack/Impulse/Sampler or something.

#49

Absolutely could not be arsed with this unless you’re just doing 4/4 techno.

#50

Building drum parts in session view is my favourite thing in Ableton!

I’m about six weeks through the 90 day trial. I do like it, but I’m not sure I like it enough to spend £300 when the trial is done. I am a total bumbling dilettante newcomer though, so don’t take that as gospel.

#51

Out of interest what model are you currently running and where did you get it?

#52

If you’re planning on mainly recording live instruments instead of virtual ones, I think a Windows PC with decent specs should do you fine.

Pro Tools is fantastic if you’re planning to do mostly live recording, and it’s by far the best DAW out there for recording, editing and mixing imo. However, it’s always been a bit dodgy for composing and doing MIDI based stuff, so if you’re planning on using a lot of virtual synths/drum machines at some point, it would be better to get Cubase or Ableton (or keep with Logic if you go Mac).

My first set up was a cheap Dell laptop that had Cubase, Ableton, and Pro Tools installed. Somehow it managed to work ok with each of these for several years before it eventually broke down (it was probably only designed to be used for internet browsing and office applications lol). I currently have a 2012 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and both Ableton and Pro Tools still seem to run quite smoothly on it.

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#53

Wish i had the will power to have an offline/DAW-only machine. Must procrastinate.

1 Like
#54

DAWless/ tape only here

Computers are quite dull

2 Likes
#55

Currently;

Screenshot 2020-08-13 at 00.27.36
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(which cost an entire month’s wages)

running Ableton Live 10.1.25b1

Before that I was running Ableton Live 9 on a 2013 Macbook pro

but almost everything I’ve done - up to and including the Plasticine Pyramids LP I released in 2017 - was recorded on a 2002 Hewlett Packard desktop with a single core Pentium4 processor & Windows XP SPII running Ableton Live 4 through to Live 8.2

I still use the XP machine for backup in the studio too. It’s solid

Of course I mainly use hardware & just record the audio so the computer isn’t actually doing much processing

EeXVbUOXoAI6-Uz
EeXVbUOXoAI6-Uz768×1024 93.3 KB

2 Likes
#56

I use Ableton, but I want to try Logic and Cubase for something a little different. Not sure which route to go.

#57

Cubase has slightly better tools if you still want to use a lot of MIDI imho.

#58

Got a 2017 Macbook Pro refurbed from Hoxton Macs, was about £800. A couple of tiny scratches on it but otherwise works perfectly.

It’s only a 13 inch but I hook it up to my monitor. Runs Ableton/Logic like a powerhouse.

2 Likes
#59

Started testing out Studio One 5 this weekend.

I’ve been doing so much mastering work and using Ozone as a standalone for that, but looking at starting to integrate some hardware mastering pieces in the future. Can’t do that in Ozone as a standalone but as much as I like Ableton, it’s an absolute pain in the arse when it comes to organising a mastering session.

I have a Presonus interface which came with Studio One 4 and can get a very reasonable upgrade price to 5, and it’s got some very smart features for mastering.

Seems like a really comprehensive piece of studio software, somewhere between Ableton, Logic and Pro Tools enabling you to record, mix and master very well. There’s a live performance function that’s similar to session view in Ableton that they’ve just introduced, but I’ve not tried that out yet. Can’t see it being as fully featured because it’s new, but I tended to work in arrangement view anyway so we’ll see. On the plus side it has full mpe support which is great with my roli seaboard block, and full control from softube console 1, which is very useful for me.

I’d forgotten how weird it is trying to start working with a new DAW and not having everything laid out - or even named - exactly as you expect. Going to be slow going but I’m intrigued at the moment. Will be brilliant if I can find one piece of software to use for every stage of the process.

#60

I use the free version, it’s really good, can only imagine the paid one is brill

1 Like