Hey there, I tried the trial version of Ableton and was really enjoying it until it ran out. I can see the appeal for various genres (electronic genres in particular, of course) but wasn’t able to test out the stock sounds to make rock tracks.
What’s your experience using Ableton to create rock/hard rock/metal tracks?
Rock Music in Ableton
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Danilo Villanova Danilo Villanova https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=418331
- KVRian
- 1197 posts since 30 Apr, 2018
As long as you bring your own amp sims and drum plugins (if you need them) you should be fine. Clip launcher is actually awesome to test riffs for different sections and whatnot. Most people in my country doing metal use Reaper. I don't think Reaper is necessarily better at it but it lends itself to be used as a tape machine, instead of a composition tool, which is a difference between electronic and rock musicians. You do you and bring us some tasty riffs!
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- KVRian
- 705 posts since 25 Nov, 2010
Can't you use the demo after it has expired, but without saving then?? 
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- KVRian
- 546 posts since 8 Mar, 2007
I use it for rock music.
Last edited by careyletendre on Sun May 28, 2023 4:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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- KVRist
- 261 posts since 5 Jan, 2018 from Asheville, NC, USA
I use and probably will always use Live, but it has some major shortcomings for 'performance' based music like rock, metal etc. Fundamentally, Live is a sampler, and it operates in a way that likes to keep you in the box most of the time. A lot of its MIDI and recording bits were tacked on later, and while it has matured vastly over the years to incorporate tools from the more traditional DAWs, it's still set up like a sampler.
The way it handles latency when recording and monitoring audio is unlike other DAWs that were built to record bands, and it can really trip you up when trying to double-track a tight guitar part or sing along to a song with a reverb send going. It's also built to deal with everything in real time instead of offloading tasks that will eat up your CPU, so running the latest and greatest amp sims and acoustic drum libraries will bring Live to a screeching halt way faster than DAWs like Logic and Reaper.
As such, i work out my sessions carefully which ends up kind of working in my favor. I can't use the sends when i'm recording so i wait to mix until the song is arranged. I can't have more than one amp sim going to i just record to scratch tracks from a live input track where the processing is happening, meaning i commit to tones and parts way faster (like i'm recording to tape). I can't have my drum library running as i'm mixing so i bounce down my drum stems and treat them more like a recorded live performance...again, committing to things faster and moving on (and future-proofing my project!).
I find it worth doing all of this because Live, more than any other DAW i've used, just really clicks with me as a musician first and an engineer/sound designer at a distant second. You can tell it's designed by musicians, even if they're electronic-focused, and they've put a lot of work into making sure the program gets the hell out of the way of your creativity. I find this invaluable. Also, the Session View was a godsend for me as a solo guy...it lets me just jam out ideas before i have to start thinking about the arrangement. It's like a sketchpad to put the song together before finalizing it with your performance in the Arrangement View. I really don't know why more rock and metal people don't see the insane game changer this is for songwriting.
I recently watched a video with Yvette Young explain how she puts songs together using a whiteboard, and it reminded me very strongly of the Session View/Arrangement View paradigm in Live.
The way it handles latency when recording and monitoring audio is unlike other DAWs that were built to record bands, and it can really trip you up when trying to double-track a tight guitar part or sing along to a song with a reverb send going. It's also built to deal with everything in real time instead of offloading tasks that will eat up your CPU, so running the latest and greatest amp sims and acoustic drum libraries will bring Live to a screeching halt way faster than DAWs like Logic and Reaper.
As such, i work out my sessions carefully which ends up kind of working in my favor. I can't use the sends when i'm recording so i wait to mix until the song is arranged. I can't have more than one amp sim going to i just record to scratch tracks from a live input track where the processing is happening, meaning i commit to tones and parts way faster (like i'm recording to tape). I can't have my drum library running as i'm mixing so i bounce down my drum stems and treat them more like a recorded live performance...again, committing to things faster and moving on (and future-proofing my project!).
I find it worth doing all of this because Live, more than any other DAW i've used, just really clicks with me as a musician first and an engineer/sound designer at a distant second. You can tell it's designed by musicians, even if they're electronic-focused, and they've put a lot of work into making sure the program gets the hell out of the way of your creativity. I find this invaluable. Also, the Session View was a godsend for me as a solo guy...it lets me just jam out ideas before i have to start thinking about the arrangement. It's like a sketchpad to put the song together before finalizing it with your performance in the Arrangement View. I really don't know why more rock and metal people don't see the insane game changer this is for songwriting.
I recently watched a video with Yvette Young explain how she puts songs together using a whiteboard, and it reminded me very strongly of the Session View/Arrangement View paradigm in Live.
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- KVRist
- 128 posts since 13 Aug, 2017 from Gothenburg
I also use Ableton for rock/metal for essentially the same reasons voidhead23 gave.
You would need to get the Suite version to get the Amp, Cabinet and Pedal fx. They sound decent and with some mixing effort you can make them sound good enough for release quality, but they are a bit old now and they don't stand up to something like the Neural DSP amp sims.
The same goes for the acoustic drums, you need Suite here as well. The standard edition only have a very basic acoustic kit. But with Suite you get Drum Booth and some percussion packs. They definitely sound good enough if you put some effort into it, but it won't beat something like Toontracks Superior Drummer 3.
You do get good piano and key instruments in the standard edition, but you need Suite to get their orchestral packs. Those all sound really good to me.
The standard edition is unfortunately not enough for that.joman9298 wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 11:54 am but wasn’t able to test out the stock sounds to make rock tracks.
You would need to get the Suite version to get the Amp, Cabinet and Pedal fx. They sound decent and with some mixing effort you can make them sound good enough for release quality, but they are a bit old now and they don't stand up to something like the Neural DSP amp sims.
The same goes for the acoustic drums, you need Suite here as well. The standard edition only have a very basic acoustic kit. But with Suite you get Drum Booth and some percussion packs. They definitely sound good enough if you put some effort into it, but it won't beat something like Toontracks Superior Drummer 3.
You do get good piano and key instruments in the standard edition, but you need Suite to get their orchestral packs. Those all sound really good to me.
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- KVRist
- 179 posts since 5 Jan, 2008 from Atlanta
I think the foundation of Rock is live instruments especially Guitars and Drums.joman9298 wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 11:54 am Hey there, I tried the trial version of Ableton and was really enjoying it until it ran out. I can see the appeal for various genres (electronic genres in particular, of course) but wasn’t able to test out the stock sounds to make rock tracks.
What’s your experience using Ableton to create rock/hard rock/metal tracks?
Keyboards are usually more background so stuff like Organs, Pads and such. Or a Piano which Live is okay. Or prog Rock, synth leads and stuff is more important (which Ableton can pull off but better VSTis are available like Diva or Arturia).
Live Suite is good for those type of instruments especially Pads (As i think any instrument could cover the background
sound). You might want a good B3 Organ emulator though, or a better piano VST like a good Kontakt library.
Synth guitars usually are too cheesy for Rock.
For the harder stuff you are mentioning B3s, Pianos, I think Live could work especially if those instruments will be more background stuff. Pads would definitely work.
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- KVRer
- 22 posts since 12 Jun, 2018
The issue I had doing metal in Ableton was with recorded clips that have a wee bit of audio before the actual beat, like breaths or just beginning of attack of an instrument. I’d love to have such clips trigger slightly early, but never figured out how to do that in Live. But it was awesome for testing out riffs and composing ideas in Session View otherwise.
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- addled muppet weed
- 111293 posts since 26 Jan, 2003 from through the looking glass
ignore me 
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thecontrolcentre thecontrolcentre https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76240 - KVRAF
- 37262 posts since 27 Jul, 2005 from Scottish Borders
Move the start point of the audio clips in the wave display editor until they fit with the timing of the project, and move the start point of the clip bar above the wave display to the new start point. You have to double-click on it iirc.holzon wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 8:57 pm The issue I had doing metal in Ableton was with recorded clips that have a wee bit of audio before the actual beat, like breaths or just beginning of attack of an instrument. I’d love to have such clips trigger slightly early, but never figured out how to do that in Live. But it was awesome for testing out riffs and composing ideas in Session View otherwise.
I hope that makes sense