Ableton Live 8 - WOW!

[lhm1138]

I think I've finally found my software soulmate. My friend was showing me his copy. I like how easy it is to work in once you know how to do things, and how it shifts the transients across the board when you tweak one transient! Excellent! I think I can finally unload a lot of this hardware that was weighing me down...problem is I can't seem to sell anything for s**t now due to the economy. We couldn't figure out how to name hardware inputs, it seems inputs from hardware can only be named input 1, 2, etc., is it possible to name your external units? The sound quality was perfect enough for me, totally glitch free unlike a lot of apps I've used, excellent stretching with little to no artifacts. Don't get me wrong, I still love hardware especially analog effects and external processors/preamps, but this program, an audio editor and a handful of good software instruments...all you need!

I'm going for it.

[Stab Frenzy]

Welcome, you're now one of the enlightened! Live is fantastic for manipulating audio and midi, it's the ultimate sequencer/sampler.

[mono/noise]

Welcome, you're now one of the enlightened! Live is fantastic for manipulating audio and midi, it's the ultimate sequencer/sampler.

Well I'm still switching between Logic and Live but Live gets more of my time with every version. I'm hoping that they take midi to the next level with Live 9, then it will be the ultimate sequencer/sampler.....right now I get best of both worlds when rewiring and using Live for audio and Logic for midi.

[blitzdj86]

Live is pretty great..

I still prefer hardware sequencing (personal preference)
but for working with audio/samples, live kills everything else available.

[Stab Frenzy]

Welcome, you're now one of the enlightened! Live is fantastic for manipulating audio and midi, it's the ultimate sequencer/sampler.

Well I'm still switching between Logic and Live but Live gets more of my time with every version. I'm hoping that they take midi to the next level with Live 9, then it will be the ultimate sequencer/sampler.....right now I get best of both worlds when rewiring and using Live for audio and Logic for midi.

For me the big thing Logic has going for it is the quality of the instruments, if I could use the clip view for Logic's instruments it'd be great. I suppose if I just got a few nicer softies for Live it'd be the same thing. Then again I don't really control hardware from inside the computer, I use my hands for that.

[ladibrown]

Logic is great. It's just a learning curve but once mastered it's amazing.

[killanator]

Live is the only software I use now. It is so much better for live performing, and sampling is a breeze.

[SamSamba]

The time stretching / audio warping is something that to my knowledge doesn't exist on any other DAW, especially when it comes to ease of use, it's fantastic.

My experience comes from a few versions back (I think Live 6?), and I didn't have the time to learn it that deeply...been using Logic all this time. The new instruments in the "Suite" look quite nice, to be honest.

[MitchK1989]

Welcome, you're now one of the enlightened! Live is fantastic for manipulating audio and midi, it's the ultimate sequencer/sampler.

Well I'm still switching between Logic and Live but Live gets more of my time with every version. I'm hoping that they take midi to the next level with Live 9, then it will be the ultimate sequencer/sampler.....right now I get best of both worlds when rewiring and using Live for audio and Logic for midi.

For me the big thing Logic has going for it is the quality of the instruments, if I could use the clip view for Logic's instruments it'd be great. I suppose if I just got a few nicer softies for Live it'd be the same thing. Then again I don't really control hardware from inside the computer, I use my hands for that.

Yeah, I think I'm going to switch to live, especially since I use plugins for almost all of my instruments and effects anyway... With Vember Audio Surge, Cakewalk Rapture, Fabfilter One, Filterscape VA, and freebies from TAL, I'm not exactly bad off instrument wise.

[JohnnyX]

I ordered my copy of Live 8 last week. I'm going crazy waiting for it to arrive. I've been a Reason user for years now, but I wanna start playing some live shows and Live is obviously much better suited for that.
I'm gonna pick up the Akai APC40 when it comes out in a few months as long as it feels well built enough. What have the rest of you been using to control Live?

[JBlongz]

Reason works great when rewired to Ableton 8. I use it like a "hardware" rack. I open an external instrument track per reason instrument and wire it accordingly. No need to use the mixer in reason, just wire the instrument directly to the top interface set the routing in Ableton's track. There is also a forum on the web that provides an application that allows you to customize ableton skin colors. Not sure if I can post it here though...google is your friend.

[wrekkstylz]

I have live 7.0.3. I really don't like the warp feature. It works okay for loops that are already made but if I record something and it warps it, it sounds like a skipped cd in some spots. I usually click on master and uncheck warp after I record something. I'm also using Adobe Audition 3.0 to edit the wav. Trying to edit things in Ableton seems a bit tedious for me, mostly because I've only been using it for a few hours now, but I like Audition as my .wav editor because I can easily increase or decrease the wave amplification (this is not like lowering the volume with the fader), and also I can add panning to the spots i want. I think as soon as I finish pirating reason 4. i'm gonna hook that up to ableton.

[blitzdj86]

you need to delve deeper into warping from the sounds of things,
there are many ways of stretching that you can select, so that you dont get the skipping kinda sounds..

Something i just found out that REALLY makes me consider upgrading from 7 to 8...

You can finally disable default "Fade" on audio clips!! FINALLY!

[Stab Frenzy]

I have live 7.0.3. I really don't like the warp feature. It works okay for loops that are already made but if I record something and it warps it, it sounds like a skipped cd in some spots. I usually click on master and uncheck warp after I record something. I'm also using Adobe Audition 3.0 to edit the wav. Trying to edit things in Ableton seems a bit tedious for me, mostly because I've only been using it for a few hours now, but I like Audition as my .wav editor because I can easily increase or decrease the wave amplification (this is not like lowering the volume with the fader), and also I can add panning to the spots i want. I think as soon as I finish pirating reason 4. i'm gonna hook that up to ableton.

You just need to learn how to use it, sounds like you're only using beats mode and putting it on stuff that would work better with one of the other modes. Do all the tutorials that come with Live before you do anything else, you can't assess it it you don't know how to use it.

[wrekkstylz]

yeah i'm getting it a lot better now I'm actually having some fun with it now. I dont' think I'll need reason after all. I've downloaded a bunch of live packs with drum kits, etc. and I'm downloading a bunch of VSTs too. I could use a better midi controller because right now i'm using an m-audio trigger finger but other than that i'm getting the hanging of it. One of the cool things I like about it is that I have all my midis and audios set up and named and I saved it as a template so i don't have to keep creating them each time i start a new live set.

I do have it set up pretty organized

i have the program installed on C:\Program Files

Then I have folder on another Partition, D:\Ableton, for all the Temporary, Library, Live Sets, Live Pack files, and whatever I export as audio from Live

and then I have another folder, D:\VSTs, with all the vsts I download so I can use them with other programs as well and keep them in one central location