Live is a serious DAW?

timk · Post by **timk** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:21 am

Hi All

I'm new to Live and currently use CubaseSX3 but as Steinberg are stalling on the Intel MacOSX upgrade was toying with moving to Ableton - who seem to be a much more flexible and supportive company.

I have a few questions though.

Is Live (and especially v6) going to be great at doing MIDI?

I score for tv & film using the Vienna Symphonic Library and I notice that most people here seem to be DJs - does anyone do something similar here? Is Live suitable for this (well v6 with video import anyway)

What's Ableton support like? For when deadlines loom and your DAW crashes?

TIA

Tim

Lo-Fi Massahkah · Post by **Lo-Fi Massahkah** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:33 am

and I notice that most people here seem to be DJs

Not quite true, my friend. Some time back there was a poll, and as far as I remember. There were more people using Live to make original material than DJ. Anyway...

From what I remember (been years since I used Cubase) Cubase's midi functionality is way deeper the Live's. That said - there's nothing I really miss back from the Cubase days. And I run some hardware... It's hard for me to make a decision for you, though. So, try out the demo for a few weeks. Then the beta for Live 6 will most likely go public.

Good luck,
Mikael

exz0rb · Post by **exz0rb** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:53 am

timk wrote:Hi All

I'm new to Live and currently use CubaseSX3 but as Steinberg are stalling on the Intel MacOSX upgrade was toying with moving to Ableton - who seem to be a much more flexible and supportive company.

I have a few questions though.

Is Live (and especially v6) going to be great at doing MIDI?

I score for tv & film using the Vienna Symphonic Library and I notice that most people here seem to be DJs - does anyone do something similar here? Is Live suitable for this (well v6 with video import anyway)

What's Ableton support like? For when deadlines loom and your DAW crashes?

TIA

Tim

Live is what you make it, but of course provides everything to be a serious DAW environment of course. I don't use anything other than live for production; ie; I do everything in live. I wouldn't use the live effects for mastering, but that's okay, just whip your favourite plugins via the magic of vst and bingo! - you can use these in live aswell

Some people hate live as a DAW whilst others love it. As always said I suggest you try it and if you love it stick with it, if not find summat else, but I'm sure you will love it...it's just a personal thing

Cryptic UK · Post by **Cryptic UK** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:56 am

Theres nothing better than cubase for midi.

If your already familiar with cubase id stick with cubase and get the update when it comes out.

theres nothing you cant do in cubase that you can do in live, that said there are things in cubase that you cant do in live.

If you know your program well you wont want to change.

musick · Post by **musick** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:02 am

Live is missing the overview when working with lots of tracks, I use Live as a creative tool and SX for mixing/aranging.

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:56 am

Also, Live only has movie support (pretty basic) in Live 6. So, using Live 5 would probably be pointless for you?

CWoodOne · Post by **CWoodOne** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:33 pm

I know I'm the only person in the world who would ever use it,

but Cubase has a score editor. And as it was said before, midi is way deeper.
Also the ability to apply grooves is more sophisticated than in Live. Also a drum editor, which Live sorely lacks. But Live is much more conducive to just flipping on the machine and making music.

musick · Post by **musick** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:37 pm

That's why I'm looking forward to Live 6's new feature to rewire MIDI from SX into Live, almost if Operator+Fx where a VST instrument

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:55 pm

Support from Ableton is much better than Steiny, and much more honest and open when issues do arise. I use SX3 as well, and really I'm just waiting to see what's going to be changed in ver4 of SX before possibly jumping into Live full on for producing. I just like knowing that my opinion (err, anyone's) will likely be considered when adding new features, versus Steiny who kinda add new features and just say "this is how it is, deal with it cause we're not changing anything now". The long delay in bug fixes is annoying too.

HOWEVER, as mention, midi is WAY more comprehensive in SX than Live. I don't think much has really been changed in version 6 regarding midi, so you can try the version 5 demo of Live to see how it is. Very basic though, no logical editor, no groove quantize, no iteritive quantize, only basic "input transformer" type functions achieved via the midi plug ins, etc.

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:23 pm

results of the poll,
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42406

although there was a lot of talk about the terms of the poll it is roughly indicative of the marketbase

there are a lot of things missing from Live which will have you banging your head on the wall (no drum map!), people persevere because it is quicker to write in.

Cryptic UK · Post by **Cryptic UK** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:28 pm

I think live is best used as a tool its not a daw really.

BANG!

Im dead.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:13 pm

Nah man, I agree

Lo-Fi Massahkah · Post by **Lo-Fi Massahkah** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:48 pm

I think live is best used as a tool its not a daw really.

Nah man, I agree

Call it what the hell you want. We all know what it can do.

-Mikael

kennerb · Post by **kennerb** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:39 pm

I'd have to add my voice to this as well. The midi capabilities in Live have a long way to go. That is my biggest gripe with it. Using them both together would be very good. If it weren't for the midi I'd say go for it with Live.

Cache · Post by **Cache** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:19 pm

midi in live is pretty bad. very inflexible. editing is horrible.
for audio manipulation its very quick, fast, powerful.

upwards of 20 tracks in Live, the arrangement window starts to get really slow. unusably slow.

working in live is very quick though for putting together ideas/sequences.

if as someone says you can rewire midi from cubase/nuendo into live for version 6 - then thats pretty useful....

otherwise, try out the demo. see what u fink.

Live is a serious DAW?

Live is a serious DAW?

Re: Live is a serious DAW?