Is Ableton Right For Me?

T

Taffer

New member
I an currently a recording arts/audio engineering student learning everything I can about recording and digital composition. I hope to compose scores for videogames and perhaps music/tv some day. I enjoy traditional styles of music (classical, rock, metal) as well as more unique genres typically associated with scifi and fantasy. Musical/compositional influences span a wide range, including Michael Angelo Batio, Guthrie Govan, Hans Zimmer, Mark Fowler, Ramin Djawadi, Eric Brosius, Daniel Licht.

I am currently apprenticing with a local audio engineer and edm composer. His daw of choice is of course Ableton as he enjoys performing his edm compositions in a live setting. Currently I have both Ableton Lite and Reaper installed. I personally don't foresee performing any of my compositions live, I have crippling stage fright, but it is nice to have so many midi instruments/synths and samples all conveniently in one place, even in the Lite version. From what I have seen Ableton also has discounts available on many third party vst plugins, so that's another plus.

Reaper on the other hand provides somewhat of a different experience, only 1-2 barebones basic built in synths, quite a few fx, and doesn't seem to be quite as plug and play as Ableton in regards to hardware/controllers. Though I would say it is about on par for overall usability. I can get Ableton Standard for 380$ Cad, or Reaper for 80$ Cad, so I need to figure out if it is worth an extra 300$. Unfortunately I've already run out the trial on Live Suite, but it might be possible to renew it with a different email address.
 
Taffer, I know this is a week late, but in case you haven't decided yet, here are my 2 cents...

(1) Ableton Live has some nice features, especially if you're likely to use its loop-triggering mode during live performances. On the other hand, it isn't the only DAW with that feature anymore; Acoustica Mixcraft and Bitwig Studio both have similar modes. My biggest gripes with Live are that it's far too pricey for my budget (i.e., the old "Those grapes are sour" thing), especially since I doubt I'd be happy with anything less than the full version that has Max. My other gripe is that, despite being so incredibly expensive, Live doesn't let you work with MIDI SysEx messages. To be fair, SysEx capabilities are not absolutely essential to my needs, and two other DAWs which are high on my list of favorites (Acoustica Mixcraft and PreSonus Studio One) don't have SysEx capabilities, either. But other big-name DAWs which are priced on a par with Live do have SysEx capability, so it's disappointing that Live doesn't-- but it isn't a deal-breaker.

(2) On the other hand, Cockos REAPER is extremely inexpensive as DAWs go, and it does have SysEx capabilities. In fact, REAPER has a MIDI tool that's available as a free plug-in, hence I think you can use it to add SysEx capabilities to other DAWs, such as Live. But if REAPER's lack of virtual instruments is what's holding you back from it, you should know that (a) that's one of the reasons why REAPER is so inexpensive (the number and variety of virtual instruments that come with commercial DAWs are a major factor in their pricing); and (b) you can buy virtual instruments of your choice to use with REAPER. For instance, if you like synths, you might want to look into getting Arturia's V Collection, which can be a bit pricey itself but is frequently on sale for half price, if I remember correctly. And there are plenty of other virtual instrument packages available from other companies, not to mention free VST instrument plug-ins that don't suck (and plenty that do, unfortunately).

So unless you feel a burning need for Live's performance-oriented mode-- and like I said, Live is no longer the only DAW with that feature (although in their advertisements they still say that it's "unique")-- then you shouldn't shy away from a much more inexpensive DAW such as REAPER just because it's lacking in the virtual instruments department, since there's something to be said about being able to pick your own selection of third-party virtual instruments and effects plug-ins. Of course, you can buy those for Live, too.

None of us can really tell you whether you'd be happier with DAW A or DAW B. We can tell you which DAW is our own favorite, and why, but my personal favorite might be on someone else's "suckiest DAWs of the year" list, and vice versa. And if it sounded like I dislike Live, that's not the case; I have Live Lite, and I'd love to have Live Suite, but I just don't have a burning need for it.
 
Well, the poster doesn't seem to have evaluated many DAW. Maybe Fruity loops is the answer ?

What does one need to "compose" game tracks ? Decent GM instruments and some scoring ? The consumer version of Samplitude usually offers 20-23 VST/i "faces" - maybe some trend towards movie score the past few years
 
Sorry from me too...I missed this first pass.

Ableton's strength is MIDI--I use it for that exclusively. If your main need is MIDI instruments then it would be a good choice. However, as soon as I get into working with WAVE sounds, I find Ableton rather clunky--if you'll be doing much of that, then Reaper is the better choice. It's not at all bad for MIDI and also does a decent job on live music and vocals.

If I were you, considering the price tag, I'd download the Reaper trial and play for a while. If it does the job for you, then buy it. If not, think about Ableton. Or maybe you can do what a number of people do--use both.
 
SeaGtGruff said:
Taffer, I know this is a week late, but in case you haven't decided yet, here are my 2 cents...

(1) Ableton Live has some nice features, especially if you're likely to use its loop-triggering mode during live performances. On the other hand, it isn't the only DAW with that feature anymore; Acoustica Mixcraft and Bitwig Studio both have similar modes. My biggest gripes with Live are that it's far too pricey for my budget (i.e., the old "Those grapes are sour" thing), especially since I doubt I'd be happy with anything less than the full version that has Max. My other gripe is that, despite being so incredibly expensive, Live doesn't let you work with MIDI SysEx messages. To be fair, SysEx capabilities are not absolutely essential to my needs, and two other DAWs which are high on my list of favorites (Acoustica Mixcraft and PreSonus Studio One) don't have SysEx capabilities, either. But other big-name DAWs which are priced on a par with Live do have SysEx capability, so it's disappointing that Live doesn't-- but it isn't a deal-breaker.

(2) On the other hand, Cockos REAPER is extremely inexpensive as DAWs go, and it does have SysEx capabilities. In fact, REAPER has a MIDI tool that's available as a free plug-in, hence I think you can use it to add SysEx capabilities to other DAWs, such as Live. But if REAPER's lack of virtual instruments is what's holding you back from it, you should know that (a) that's one of the reasons why REAPER is so inexpensive (the number and variety of virtual instruments that come with commercial DAWs are a major factor in their pricing); and (b) you can buy virtual instruments of your choice to use with REAPER. For instance, if you like synths, you might want to look into getting Arturia's V Collection, which can be a bit pricey itself but is frequently on sale for half price, if I remember correctly. And there are plenty of other virtual instrument packages available from other companies, not to mention free VST instrument plug-ins that don't suck (and plenty that do, unfortunately).

So unless you feel a burning need for Live's performance-oriented mode-- and like I said, Live is no longer the only DAW with that feature (although in their advertisements they still say that it's "unique")-- then you shouldn't shy away from a much more inexpensive DAW such as REAPER just because it's lacking in the virtual instruments department, since there's something to be said about being able to pick your own selection of third-party virtual instruments and effects plug-ins. Of course, you can buy those for Live, too.

None of us can really tell you whether you'd be happier with DAW A or DAW B. We can tell you which DAW is our own favorite, and why, but my personal favorite might be on someone else's "suckiest DAWs of the year" list, and vice versa. And if it sounded like I dislike Live, that's not the case; I have Live Lite, and I'd love to have Live Suite, but I just don't have a burning need for it.
Click to expand...

I won't be doing live performance, which I know is a big part of live. What I like about live is that is comes with a reasonable selection of good sounding instruments and many other higher quality instruments are right there on the Ableton store, both 1st party instruments and third party instruments available at a significant discount. With Reaper or similar I have to go and track down vst from all over the place and that will take a lot longer to get setup with and start making music. I'm happy to hear about alternatives to Live that offer a similar "all in one place, hassle free" kind of ecosystem. So far the only other thing I know of that offers that would be Apple Logic, and whatever $ I save on that would be lost on buying a mac, and maintaining a separate pc for gaming. There is also something to be said for using the same set of tools that my instructor uses, which is entirely Ableton.

Right now I have both Reaper and Ableton Suite Trial installed, and when I get the urge to piece together some music, I can just open up Ableton and everything is there, I'm starting to think that is the strength of products like Ableton and Logic for music composers, overall ease of use.
 
You're right about the convenience of buying a DAW with plenty of instruments and effects provided, and that's the attraction of getting the "ultimate" version of a DAW, whatever the company calls that version. And if you get instruments and effects with the DAW, you're assured that they'll be well-integrated into it; whereas when buying third-party plug-ins you could potentially run into some issue-- the DAW might not support the plug-ins' format (VST, VST2, VST3, AU, etc.), or it might not support the bits (32 vs. 64), etc.

A major attraction of buying a less-expensive version of the same DAW, which has fewer instruments and effects included, or buying an inexpensive DAW that has very few included, is that you might already have a bunch of third-party plug-ins that you've amassed over the years, in which case you might not want to spend a few additional hundred dollars on a version of a DAW that has instruments and effects you don't need. Of course, the lower cost is another major attraction, especially if your budget is tight.

There are other alternatives to Live that have pricey "fully-loaded" versions. You might want to check out the most expensive versions of Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk SONAR, PreSonus Studio One, Avid Pro Tools, and others. You should also look for opinions from people who have those DAWs, especially if they have something critical to say, in case there are any aggravating problems you might be likely to run into.

Then again, if you feel attracted to Live, maybe you should just go for it. If you get something else but had really wanted Live, you might have a nagging discontent in the back of your mind that you should have gotten Live after all. But if you're about to spend several hundred dollars on a DAW, it would be smart to download trial versions for a few different ones, because if you end up being disenchanted with the one you buy, you won't be able to return it for a refund the way you can do with hardware.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top