I've discovered the amazing potential of Ableton Live (much better than FL Studio IMO). But I still have a few concerns that I would like to share. Maybe some of you guys can help me out with this.

I heard Cubase can "knock off" instrumentals to make an accapella track by taking a full song and substracting the dub or instrumental from it. Is it really possible to do the same with Ableton?

The plugins provided with Ableton are cool but they are somehow limited. Do you know where I could get other instruments/samplers/effects?

Finally, how much time did it take you guys to master or at least get a good grip of Ableton?

Thanks in advance

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You can't make an acapella from a completed song. Maybe Cubase can do something half-way decent but the physics of it just make it impossible to deconstruct to the individual elements of a song once they've been mixed.

As far as plugins, I don't really find them too limited, quite good for internal plugins actually... did you go to ableton.com and get all their software packages?

quote:

Originally posted by ponsshin I heard Cubase can "knock off" instrumentals to make an accapella track by taking a full song and substracting the dub or instrumental from it. Is it really possible to do the same with Ableton?

One Audio Track with full song in it. Second Audio Track with an instrumental, a perfect instrumental. 'Utility' on the second track with both left and right Phaze reversed. It'll get you...close? I dunno, never tried it, but them's the tools to use.

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The plugins provided with Ableton are cool but they are somehow limited. Do you know where I could get other instruments/samplers/effects?

the 3rd party plugins (both effects and instruments) that ableton uses are called VST's. Search google and you'll be overwhelmed... search KVRaudio.com and you'll be overwhelmed

Good luck with your findings!

if the instrumental + vocal vers are the same the utility trick can work, you have to line them up PERFECTLY together because all you're really doing is implementing phase cancelation... however if the instrumental has any added bells + whistles (which they usually do) you're going to get a whole bunch of unwanted frequencies

Thanks for all your info 3FO5Q, Clearvision and Zombie0729. I'll start looking for VST plugins and trying phase cancellation immediatly. I don't think the tracks has any added bells and whistles, but maybe some drumbeats that are panned on one speaker or another will be a problem.

We'll see. Check back later to see on my progress.
Thanks again.

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The party to end all parties (part one with Layo & Bushwacka!) (part two with Laurent Garnier)

you can't get perfect results anyway...

the reason is, that once there's a single with a vocal version and instrumental version, then both are treated like they were different songs, which means...each of them has a bit different mastering...like...lacking vocal in the instrumental will be kinda "fixed" by adjusting EQs etc...

at least that's my view...so you can't get it perfect even with phase cancellation..

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Thank you!

quote:

Originally posted by BOOsTER you can't get perfect results anyway... the reason is, that once there's a single with a vocal version and instrumental version, then both are treated like they were different songs, which means...each of them has a bit different mastering...like...lacking vocal in the instrumental will be kinda "fixed" by adjusting EQs etc... at least that's my view...so you can't get it perfect even with phase cancellation..

Yea I'm gonna have to agree with Booster... its virtually impossible... if the instrumental was just the vocal without the vocal, with absolutely no difference in the way they were mixed/mastered... then i guess yea you could end up with something decent... but thats never the case... even a lazy job where someone slaps someones voice over the instrumental will encorporate some sort of sidechain compression to allow room for the vocal to cut through.

ponsshin, I hope you adid buy your Ableton Live?
I heard that pirate-versions might "destroy" your songs later...

^^^ it's true. It'll automatically dub over certain tracks with Tay Zonday Chocolate Rain remixes.

doesnt work... tried it a thousend times... your vocal file will sound like a badly encoded mp3 in the best case.

btw... why exactly is ableton better than fl studio?

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Originally posted by soundrush btw... why exactly is ableton better than fl studio?

Well, pretty much personal preference. But you gotta admit that the design and layout are way more practical than in FL. And the sound sample tweaking features are shown more clearly. The session layout is awesome compared to the sequencer of FL. Quantization is also a lot easier in Ableton. Uses a lot less CPU with the Freeze feature.

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The party to end all parties (part one with Layo & Bushwacka!) (part two with Laurent Garnier)

quote:

Originally posted by ponsshin Well, pretty much personal preference. But you gotta admit that the design and layout are way more practical than in FL. And the sound sample tweaking features are shown more clearly. The session layout is awesome compared to the sequencer of FL. Quantization is also a lot easier in Ableton. Uses a lot less CPU with the Freeze feature.

mhh, maybe i give it a try when i got my new computer.