ableton live, look no further.

[foxjazz]

I have been talking to pro audio users in the Denver area, and they are saying that Live has replace their cubase and sonar. Not sure about protools, but anyway you look at it, live is the best I have seen in a multi-trak arrangement mixer recorder DAW.

It utilizes more than one processor if it can, and it is fast and flexible. Supports trak freeze, effects, vst, rewire, and much more. I am impressed.

And version 6 is going to work with video.

What more can you want, I run on a pc (not an apple fan) and this thing screams.

Fox

[Lunch Money]

Hrm. Supporting track freeze, effects, vst, and rewire describes almost every host out there. Working with video is old hat for many apps.

I'm not saying that Live isn't good. It IS. But you just haven't listed any particular reasons to be excited by it.

[S.HUSH]

Bah!!!! Live can kiss my anal butt
Honestly, i have been a Live user from day one and it is indeed a great app. BUT....i am looking at Energy XT version 2 as my be all end all app. My fingers are tightly crossed.
I may upgrade to version 6 but not any time soon.

[stale bread]

Ableton Live... yeah I use it so what...it's dope as f**k and I don't mean dope as in cool oh nooo I mean dope as in drugs, Live is a drug.. give it to your computer and watch it get high, that's right I gotta bad jones for it but i'm a mess man, don't be like me... i gave my pusher $400 bucks for Sonar and I would'a paid twice no...make that 3 times as much for Live, it's my fuckin daw maaa'n not yours... mine! all mine!!!
i gotta go now.. it's callin me

[Jason Brian Merrill]

hehe, live is in the same bin as tracktion for me. Cant stand it... hehe

the difference being is i have seen some people do some truly amazing stuff with live. Its just not my workflow at all. makes me want to vomit when i open it up.

[Synthbuilder]

Well, I like Live.

However, I can't help myself for wanting more. So I keep on looking at other apps, even though Live does everything I need. This new Sonar looks good, and even Cubase looks vaguely tempting. eXT is shouting out at me all the time, but in its current guise its not enough.

But, its not about 'need' is it? Its about what you think you 'want'. Like the VST addiction, or indeed any form of GAS, host fever takes hold and you end up downloading demos and using other apps and not making any music.

So I have to control myself. The 'wants' become 'waits', and the latest thing comes and goes.

So I won't be buying Live 6, as least not yet.

But the grass is always greener...

[loachm]

...I'm just about to sell my SX2 in favour to Live. It has turned out that the general concept of Live (Session View / Arrangement View) supports my creative workflow more than Cubase did (and Cubase had way too much features for me, though). But Live also has its weakness - no REX-support, a circumstantial handling of multi-out VSTis (especially when it comes to freezing) and Cubase's audio and midi editing features are far more improved. I will watch how Live 6 and Cubase 4 will be received and will probably upgrade and respectively buy the small version of Cubase 4...

[kovacs]

I have used live for about two years now and am very happy, but I can't really say it's "all you need"...that's just like saying that I should be happy with my Ford Focus every time I see a Ferrari cruise by (not often where I live).

[headquest]

I have been talking to pro audio users in the Denver area, and they are saying that Live has replace their cubase and sonar. Not sure about protools, but anyway you look at it, live is the best I have seen in a multi-trak arrangement mixer recorder DAW. It utilizes more than one processor if it can, and it is fast and flexible. Supports trak freeze, effects, vst, rewire, and much more. I am impressed. And version 6 is going to work with video.

As an owner of both Live 5 and Sonar 5, I would say that although I have much more fun working with Live 5, Sonar does many of the things you list more smoothly and/or powerfully than Live does.

HOWEVER, with Live 6 vs. Sonar 6 I think that changes. Basically their feature sets are rapidly converfing, and I don't think it would make a lot of sense to upgrade and stick with both. On the one hand, Sonar 6's Audio Snap feature might make up for Live's warp markers (though only running the demo would confirm whether it is really comparable) and it now has better MIDI controller support (which Live is already great at, but is also further improving in version 6).

In terms of Live 6 though, the new features which I think bring it closer to Sonar in terms of DAW features are

* Multicore Support (massive CPU improvement)
* Truly Stunning 8band EQ (I prefer it to the Kjaerhus Golden EQ!)
* Much better Level Metering, including peak readout
* Deep Freeze - truly the most powerful and fleible freeze function I have seen - and a lot better than Sonar's Freeze (which was previously considered by many to be the best there is).
* Ability to bounce all tracks seperately (e.g. for further mixing in Adobe Audition)
* Sample crop/trim function for isolating parts of a sample and improved audio editing.

The improvements these new enhancements make ensure that Live really does compete with Sonar in my view, so the conclusion is that at this point I am planning to immediately upgrade to Live 6 (having already tested it for over a month anyway) and almost certainly will not be upgrading to Sonar 6 at all.

What more can you want?

If you are using Live as you only/main DAW you may want to invest in some top-draw mastering effects.

[headquest]

Hrm. Supporting track freeze, effects, vst, and rewire describes almost every host out there. Working with video is old hat for many apps.

I'm not saying that Live isn't good. It IS. But you just haven't listed any particular reasons to be excited by it.

Well the exciting thing about Live is that it has a totally different approach to any of the others. Some people love it, others don't. That's the beauty of having choice in the marketplace.

Particular distinctives are: Jamming and Real-time sequencing in the Session View, auto-timestretch and warpmarkers, gapless audio and specific design for stage/real-time use, clip-based paradigm with detachable clip envelopes for generative composition, etc.

But you know all that Lunch Money, so I'm really wondering why you bothered to shoot down the KVR newcomer's OP

[headquest]

hehe, live is in the same bin as tracktion for me... the difference being is i have seen some people do some truly amazing stuff with live.

By implication, that's a bit harsh. Tracktion is a great sequencer and I'm sure that creative users can do loads with it. Check out some of pHz's tracks, for example.

[soulata]

I've Live5 and use it well, live (and as writing tool). I wouldn't use it for multitracking or editing multitrack tapes, for that I still prefer Cubase.

[original flipper]

HI

I would like to get hold of the Live Beta, but I always seem to get 'there' too late!

Are there any more Beta's coming out, if so - does anybody know when.

Flipper.

[headquest]

HI

I would like to get hold of the Live Beta, but I always seem to get 'there' too late!

Are there any more Beta's coming out, if so - does anybody know when.

Flipper.

There's new betas released every 2 - 3 days. We're on beta 18 at present. The beta group is gradualy being extended each week - there are now more than 1000 of us.

To register as a beta tester you simply need to follow instructions on the site or in the email notifications they send users.

However, I believe that there will be a public release of Live 6 very soon - it is advertised for the end of September, but they are not yet onto the "release candidate" betas, so I think it may be a couple of weeks. But the Abes are pretty punctual when it comes to published deadlines

[dgkenney]

All I want for Christmas is for Live to act as a proper rewire slave and allow VSTi's. Then I will die a happpy man having Live for composition and Cubase for mixing/pre-mastering.


Dan