sorry to rehash an age old question of sequencer wars. i'm not looking for a cut and dry answer. i've been a producer for numerous years and have been a cubase user. The way i usually like to make a song is by creating an initial loop, and playing out from that idea. After reading into abelton, would it be an easier task to work out of the initial loop in Live, as opposed to cubase. Or just a general question, to ppl who have used both, how have you noticed your workflow pace affected by either.

We use to make electronic music with Nuendo, which is I think very similay to Cubase.

Lets see here some of the things you can do in Ableton and not in Nuendo:

- Double click an audio loop from the arrangement, and seconds later play your track again with the parts of a loop timed slightly different.
- Fold a midi loop into just the notes that are in it for better desktop usage. This is ecpecially handy for those clips with notes across multiple octaves.
- Single click access to all you fx and plug-in automation instead of having to screw with all these big blocky tracks that dont contain data anyway and takup screen space.
- No need for an external wave editor for most of the time since common manipulations like Start Marker Position, Loop Lenght, Pitch, Swing, Volume Envelope, and more are all integral part of Ableton.

This is just a start. The switch was a must for us after we discovered Ableton. Not to mention the live performance capabilities that are just amazing and without taking anything away from the studio production capabilities.

I hope this helps you pick one...

Last edited by Affiliation on Jul-27-2006 at 07:31

ableton is cool as long as your studio consists only as a DAW. if you have a lot of external gear cubase is a way better choice. for me ableton live is still more for live gigs and for me not really userfriendly in a studio environment. one of the biggest left downs is that the GUI can't be seriously strechted over multiscreens and the workflow of the midi implementation is still very unpractical.

quote:

Originally posted by thecYrus ableton is cool as long as your studio consists only as a DAW. if you have a lot of external gear cubase is a way better choice. for me ableton live is still more for live gigs and for me not really userfriendly in a studio environment. one of the biggest left downs is that the GUI can't be seriously strechted over multiscreens and the workflow of the midi implementation is still very unpractical.

Well we dont have all that much external gear but certainly some respectable amount. We dont have any problems in that area but I may somewhat agree with you on this. But it really is nothing in my opinion compare to what you gain in Ableton.
We use multiscreen as well with Ableton. Just keep the second screen for all your external Plug-In Devices. Usually the master chain is on the second screen.
Im not sure what you mean by the "workflow of the midi implementation"

use both....? thats what i think i will do soon. then if you ever get a booking that you feel you want to do 'live' then ableton will let you do that.. you could use cubase for your external duties and then import audio you record into ableton afterwards..

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We are sampling quite a bit from our externals using Ableton. I usually record more that what I need, position a Start Marker, an End Marker, maybee some Warping, adjust the master delay on that track and that is it; next loop....that part is no effort once you figure it out.

I used to use Logic Audio, now I only use Ableton, my workflow is much quicker and it's much easier to work with, I have Cubase SX but hardly touch it nowadays unless a client wants to use it.

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ive tried ableton lite but cant get my head around it. i dont think i could be annoyed spending a year getting to know the software when ive just got the hang of cubase. id be interested in looking into ableton for dj purposes just to see how it works and how its set up. although if it auto beat matches id be against that.

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use cubase to make ur tracks or loops
arrrange them in ableton!!

quote:

Originally posted by dj_kane ive tried ableton lite but cant get my head around it. i dont think i could be annoyed spending a year getting to know the software when ive just got the hang of cubase. id be interested in looking into ableton for dj purposes just to see how it works and how its set up. although if it auto beat matches id be against that.

mann!!!! ure missing the whole point in Ableton Live. Because of its amazing auto timestretching, the beat matching is obsolete!!! u can then have time to really make music, trigger samples and loops,mess with filters and vst effects, controlled with midi, playing live synths , manipulate audio inputs in real time, u know like a live act. i guess u can see ableton as a dj tool, but not with the traditional "oh i can beatmatch! im a dj now" way. it brings features and possibilities, that with cdjs or vynils u could never even dream doing..

+1

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i have live 5.2. I don't much like it. I got it because fruity was my main tool, and i did come to believe, as so many say (thanks janalay and p.s. gol admitted you're right), that the poor sound quality was hurting my music (even with waves bundle to replace the crappy verb etc). Ableton sounds great. And for live performance, it's perfect.

What I don't like is everything else. The audio warping and beat matching is not that impressive. Honestly Fruity's beat slicer can do the same thing. I am suprised cubase can't, it's pretty basic. In fruity you can draw pitch, beat, and volume curves and set multiple start/end loops unlike just one pair in ableton. It's overhyped crap. The midi editing is abysmal. No piano roll features, auto warp, and the "midi effects" are pathetic. It squishes you into a little corner with poor workflow. Also, ableton essentially loads 4 or 5 clips per "scene" and then you fire them and stop them in time. This forces you into this e-jay pattern thing (like fruity) and is not flowing and free-running like cubase or logic (i play a little with demos and hacks on those, so that's how i know how they run). Also there is no space for intuitive ordering like in cubase.

Bottom line, ableton is a dj app. Trackers are the best for classic midi/vst work. If you want midi and audio, cubase is your answer. If you need to perform 5 of your tracks, or a set live, ableton is your answer. You need them both probably. Since I'm a bedroom composer, mostly into idm now, i don't really see much use for ableton. I just use the basic tracker or midi routing programming of max/msp (or supercollider or reaktor if that's your taste) for composing work.

It all depends on what you're trying to do.