Ableton 10 Vs Reason 10 for Sound Design

[teilo]

the best for sound design is

Reason 10 and Bitwig 2.

Ableton live is a joke compared to Bitwig

And yet, Ableton has Max, and Bitwig does not. Nor does Bitwig support ReWire, so using it with Reason is a PITA.

Yes, Bitwig's modulation system is super easy to use, but there is nothing that Bitwig does in the way of sound design that Ableton/Max cannot. The opposite is not true. In Bitwig, you are limited to the bundled modulators. In Ableton/Max you can write your own in any way you can imagine, including designing entire synths from scratch. Yes, the learning curve is high, but that is the case with any similarly powerful system, such as Reaktor. So, no, not even remotely a joke.

FYI: I have Reason 10, Live Suite 10, Logic X, and Bitwig 2.4x. I choose my tool based in the needs of my project. I only use Reason via ReWire in Live and Logic.

[MuzzMaker]

If you want to expland your possibilities later - then you may want to use plugins. And for that you'll need something like Ableton Live or Bitwig or FL Studio. But I would recommend you Ableton Live.

[pdxindy]

Yes, Bitwig's modulation system is super easy to use, but there is nothing that Bitwig does in the way of sound design that Ableton/Max cannot.

The Bitwig modulators can be per voice with Bitwig synths... cannot do that in Live

Also, just cause something is theoretically possible does not mean most people can or ever are going to be able to use it.

The modulation is Bitwig is so much a better workflow than in Live. For example, put 4 LFO devices on a track in Live. Modulate say 20 different parameters of the synth and couple FX on that track. Now try to see an overview of all those modulations... ugh...

In Bitwig, add 4 LFO's to a synth with its nested FX. Modulate 20 parameters. Now select the synth and all 20 parameters are listed in the inspector and you can adjust the depth of each of the 20 or add new parameters from there too for any of the 4 LFO's. It's a massively better workflow.

And I agree, Live is no joke, but modulation is much better workflow in Bitwig.

[Rastkovic]

Ableton live is a joke compared to Bitwig

I also prefer Bitwig to Live, but the latter is not a "joke". Quit acting childish.

I guess D.K Envelope was in the nursery school when Ableton released Live 1.0....

[Rastkovic]

As the title says, looking specifically for editing samples, creating SFX, etc. I have Live 10 Standard but am thinking about upgrading to Suite. Also looking into Reason 10, as its features look really awesome for creating "racks" to run samples through.

Are you currently using Instrument/Midi/Audio FX Racks in Live? Besides M4L, that's one of my favourite features. M4L i'm using for routing signals (Expression Control, MultiPatch), but also midi effects.

https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/creative-extensions
https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/max-live-essentials

Reason is also nice, but Live is nicer....

[antic604]

If you want to expland your possibilities later - then you may want to use plugins. And for that you'll need something like Ableton Live or Bitwig or FL Studio. But I would recommend you Ableton Live.

You are aware Reason since 9.5 (and currently at 10.2) runs VSTs, right?

[teilo]

The Bitwig modulators can be per voice with Bitwig synths... cannot do that in Live

Correct, and there are other features that only work with Bitwig's internal instruments, such as per-note microtuning and expression.

It is for this reason that a lot people will skip such innovation in Bitwig. The Bitwig instruments are very good, but I rarely use them. My workflow has been built around VSTs for a long time, especially VA synths which have no analog in Bitwig (pardon the pun), and for this reason I cannot take advantage of these unique features. VST3 makes it possible to do many of these things, such as per-note automation, but I know of no plugins which support it (although I'm sure there a few out there), and, of course that means there's presently no reason for Bitwig to support it.

But I entirely agree with you on the workflow.

[synthesite]

I find Reason pretty limitless, and I think the audio editor is excellent as well. I used to use Bias Peak and similar sfw but today I find I can do what I need and for looping waveforms it's better than anything I've tried before.