general question

[paradive]

FL Studio is pissing me off.

is Ableton for composing music or recording live music?

and what's the difference between Live and the others?
which one would i be looking at if i want to write?

 

[kcearl]

Ableton is for composing music and for playback in a live situation...hence its name


its main attraction, or difference is the fact that it has two views...one is a for playing back events, or loops, in a live mix...also a great tool for sketches or seeing if sounds work together

the second view is like any traditional DAW....with arranged recordings running from left to right

its ideal for beat making and has some great features...highlights would be its sampler, drum racks, and audio warping...also some FX are geared towards electronic styles such as beat repeat and its built in arpeggiator


bear in mind its not beginner friendly and takes a bit of investment...but put it this way, I have sonar studio, and installed Logic9, thats all I did, installed it because its ableton that gets opened first everytime

 

[kingsmen]

To me Live isn't a full-fledged DAW, it's a production and performance tool. A really good one, it's excellent for sample manipulation. There is easy recording as well, which I use it just to lay down some guitars or bass on beats.
If you're all about MIDI composing, there might be better suited software, like Cubase. Not saying Live sucks at this, but as far as MIDI goes it might not be up there with programs like Cubase.

Like kcearl says, it excels in beat making and electronic music production.

Oh, and the MIDI portion is definitely better than FL's.