Ableton Live vs Mackie Tracktion (+ Reason)

regebro

regebro

Insane Genious!
For my venture into digital recording land, I'd just be interested in hearing your opinions on these two.

I really like Abletons pattern-based attitude, and it's support for automatically stretching and pitching beat samples to fit. Very nice. Sure, it's more expensive but I got a bundle version so I can get it cheaper.

sI'm pretty impressed by Tracktion as well, and both software have a huge benefit over Cubase et al: You don't have to beat it into submission! When you do something, it almost always does what you expect it to.

Instead of Ableton Live, a combination of Tracktion and Reason is a possibility. I like Reason, and I'm totally in love with the Malström synth. But then again, Reason is supposed to work fine with Ableton too, although they do have a lot of functional overlap.

So, what do you people say? Opinions? Thoughts? Alternatives? Catches?
 
I just bought Ableton and actually use it with Reason.

Didn't get enough time to try it out. I'll get back at you in a week or so.
 
Turns out that Tracktion 1 doens't have external sync. So that options gone, I can't use it.

Ableton has external sync, but it turns out that syncing audio tracks is slightly tricky. So, I'm a bit disappointed with all this. I'm still not convinced computers are making anything better or simpler. Unless I get Abletons audio to play nicely soon, I might have a Delta 1010LT for sale. ;)

Most computer recording software STILL sucks, in other words. In best case, Ableton Live may only half-suck. Maybe Tracktion 2 will be OK. I'm still gonna recommend anybody that wants to start making recordings to get a little HD-porta, like that Boss one, or so. Much easier.
 
regebro said:
Turns out that Tracktion 1 doens't have external sync. So that options gone, I can't use it.

Ableton has external sync, but it turns out that syncing audio tracks is slightly tricky. So, I'm a bit disappointed with all this. I'm still not convinced computers are making anything better or simpler. Unless I get Abletons audio to play nicely soon, I might have a Delta 1010LT for sale. ;)

Most computer recording software STILL sucks, in other words. In best case, Ableton Live may only half-suck. Maybe Tracktion 2 will be OK. I'm still gonna recommend anybody that wants to start making recordings to get a little HD-porta, like that Boss one, or so. Much easier.
Click to expand...

I think you're missing a bit here. You're comparing a hardware-based DAW to a free program and a program not really meant for multitracking?

Seems to me you should be trying something like Sonar or Cubase.

I had a Boss unit, and they suck compared to computers, sound quality and ease of use. Who the hell wants to edit on a 3" screen?
 
Actually, I'm comparing them to tape. ;)

But otherwise, yeah, pretty much. I have tried Sonar and cubase. And to them, both Live and Tracktions are heavens of simplicity and stability. Your comment shows a bit of the sorry state of DAW software, actually.

But, it is getting better. Up until Live and Tracktion arrived, every effort I have made of either tracking or MIDI sequencing on a computer have been a big fight AGAINST the software. And that was just trying to get started and record SOMETHING. I can do that with Live, and now I'm trying to dump my 7 tracks of tape + 16 tracks of MIDI to Live, and getting a bit of trouble. Up to that point, everything worked just honky dory. Tracktion 2, which will have MIDI in sync, may solve the troubles, but, it doesn't have Lives wonderful beat sample handling, which was the main reason I wanted to use it.


Todays realization was that I should forget about what the metronome in Live tells me during recording. The metronome sound turned out to be 200ms later than the actual beat. :rolleyes: That meant that I had the wrong sync delay before. Now the MIDI data is recorded in perfect sync (something that you might think it would be without setting a sync delay, when it's syncing to MIDI, but nope!).

I'll make a last effort on sound soon, hopefully tomorrow.
 
regebro said:
Actually, I'm comparing them to tape. ;)

But otherwise, yeah, pretty much. I have tried Sonar and cubase. And to them, both Live and Tracktions are heavens of simplicity and stability. Your comment shows a bit of the sorry state of DAW software, actually.

But, it is getting better. Up until Live and Tracktion arrived, every effort I have made of either tracking or MIDI sequencing on a computer have been a big fight AGAINST the software. And that was just trying to get started and record SOMETHING. I can do that with Live, and now I'm trying to dump my 7 tracks of tape + 16 tracks of MIDI to Live, and getting a bit of trouble. Up to that point, everything worked just honky dory. Tracktion 2, which will have MIDI in sync, may solve the troubles, but, it doesn't have Lives wonderful beat sample handling, which was the main reason I wanted to use it.


Todays realization was that I should forget about what the metronome in Live tells me during recording. The metronome sound turned out to be 200ms later than the actual beat. :rolleyes: That meant that I had the wrong sync delay before. Now the MIDI data is recorded in perfect sync (something that you might think it would be without setting a sync delay, when it's syncing to MIDI, but nope!).

I'll make a last effort on sound soon, hopefully tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Can't you rewire Live into Tracktion?
 
That could work, but means more software, more money and more doubling of efforts... sigh.
 
OK, I got Ableton Live sorted now. After getting the Midi sync delay set, the next realization is that Ableton Live doesn't compensate for latency when recording. Quite stupid, really....

So, it works now. That means the 1010LT stays with me, so next step it to chuck it in and connect it up. Tomorrow... :p
 
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