Ableton is everywhere...

[dupont]

Ableton suite 800 $ + macbook pro 2500 $ + push 2 600 $
Soo many rich musicians.

[Aloysius]

Beer 2000 $ + Drugs 10000 + Hookers 5000 $.
Soo many poor musicians.

[toonertik]

Beer 2000 $ + Drugs 100,000 + Hookers 10,000 $.
Soo many poor musicians.

FTFY
Ratios were wrong

[Aloysius]

[kvotchin]

Hilariously, I’ve come around to using Ableton recently. After quite some time of not being impressed by it, decided to give it an honest try, and persist for a few days.

Huh. Like, each DAW has some good things to offer. But yep, I get it now. Perfect, no, but definitely clear as to why it’s so popular.

Perhaps not the best thread in which to admit this, lol. Oh well.

[jonljacobi]

It can take a while to get over the “hump”, like years in my case.

[Raddler1]

I love how people like to assume Ableton is the best DAW because of it's 'user friendly workflow' and the latter being the reason they use it. Personally I don't think it has anything to do with that. The dead honest truth is that you don't need to be a talented musician to get decent musical results out of Ableton. It's what makes it so much fun for so many mediocre 'musicians'. It is the most forgiving DAW in that sense. Throw anything at it and presto, out of nowhere something interesting begins to appear. No way you're pulling that off so easily with other DAW's. My theory is that it's all in the way the audio engine handles movement and groove. I speak from 5 years using live and 5 years using logic and various other DAW's. Never was it so easy to get things going than it was with Live.

[mcbpete]

I've actually found it a lot tougher to whack track out in Ableton than I did with my previous DAW of choice (Jeskola Buzz) - Though was mainly due to the completely different workflow/paradigm (and having around 20 years of nothing but tracker experience when composing on the 'puter)

[Raddler1]

I've actually found it a lot tougher to whack track out in Ableton than I did with my previous DAW of choice (Jeskola Buzz) - Though was mainly due to the completely different workflow/paradigm (and having around 20 years of nothing but tracker experience when composing on the 'puter)

Yeah, I can imagine that, esp coming from trackers. Well I think any DAW will slow you down if you are new to it and still learning the basics of it's workflow. My assumption was more based on an experienced user.

[tooneba]

I love how people like to assume Ableton is the best DAW because of it's 'friendly user workflow' and the latter being the reason they use it. Personally I don't think it has anything to do with that. The dead honest truth is that you don't need to be a talented musician to get decent musical results out of Ableton. It's what makes it so much fun for so many mediocre 'musicians'. It is the most forgiving DAW in that sense. Throw anything at it and presto, out of nowhere something interesting begins to appear. No way you're pulling that off so easily with other DAW's. My theory is that it's all in the way the audio engine handles movement and groove. I speak from 5 years using live and 5 years using logic and various other DAW's. Never was it so easy to get things going than it was with Live.

I think Acid was once appealing to those crowd.

[jonljacobi]

Ableton is extremely fast—once you learn how it does things. But it’s not friendly for users coming from other DAWs because it’s so different. There’s a method to the mad minimalism, but it’s just not apparent right off the bat. I kept skipped over it for years, then I watched someone who really good with it and was absolutely amazed at how fast they could get things done. That was that.

[tooneba]

Considering ableton being intentionally limiting its feature set I don’t think it’s fast daw especially when operated by expert. When it comes to the workflow which occurs when veteran users utilize and dive into convoluted features to maneuver repetitive chores, a few big player daws in the market win hands down.

No matter how long it’s been requested ableton aren’t letting live’s piano roll become more flourish, live have alias clip, comping, clip effect, etc. Because it breaks the “fast” workflow, and Live will lose its mojo.

[jonljacobi]

I like Ableton's piano roll. It's not for the paint by numbers crowd, but if you know what you're doing or can play an instrument, with a little practice it's fast as ****. I can comp very quickly with Ableton, though admittedly not as quickly as with some other DAWs. If I need per clip FX I move the clip to another track. Not saying it's perfect, but I don't want the extra complexity. The relative lack of complexity and reliance on the user developing skill with the basic tools it provides is why I use it. But to each their own.

[dupont]

I also find live sucks for live act, like MPC.
In order to spare CPU, instruments must be bounced in audio waves and you loose the ability to change instruments parameters on the fly so live act is too static.
Live is good for playing ready prepared professional sounding loops but is a headacke if you want to build a live act from scratch with instruments.

Workflow is not that good, no bounce in place or ability to drag a midi clip in a audio track and automatically convert midi clip to audio loop.
Freeze and flatten or resampling to another track is a lost of time.

[DJ Warmonger]

In order to spare CPU, instruments must be bounced in audio waves and you loose the ability to change instruments parameters on the fly so live act is too static.

...and how is that exclusive to Live, anyway? Which DAW allows you to save CPU without bouncing to audio?

Either way, all people that I know doing live acts with Live were using external gear for the purpose of improvisation. It's not very exciting to play a live act with nothing but your laptop, anyway