Live Intro or Live Lite 7....

[Wilty]

I've had Live Lite (I think its 7, might be 6) installed on my DAW for a fair while and not really touched it (it seemed too geared to performance for me) but lately I've been getting really wound up by workflow in Cubase, I get sidetracked with niggly little things and fidgeting with settings I forget where I'm going with the track and end up with an over-processed 8 bar loop, a headache and no more time to spare.
I've seen and heard people talking about sketching ideas out in Ableton then moving on to their main DAW (a lot of pros seem to do this too) with stems or rewiring Live into whatever.
But I can't afford Live 8, and don't think I'd use it to its full potential anyway, but have heard basically nothing about Intro other than marketing speil.

My question, eventually, to people that may know, is this: Is it worth shelling out for Intro and starting with Live again, or getting to know Live Lite first? Are the differences huge, considering it would be a sketchpad for production, I won't be doing live sets or anything? Or should I save it and just upgrade to Cubase 5 (if anyone is using both)?

[tehlord]

I remember reading that Live Intro had a much richer feature set than the older 'lite' versions of Live

Live does have a completely different workflow to Cubase and although I haven't used it in depth i've seen enough of it to appreciate it's workflow.

If I had the cash laying around i'd probably buy it to give it a real test but I still love the workflow in Cubase tbh. What is it about Cubase that's troubling you?

[Wilty]

Fiddly Automation really, little things like that. And the Project page, while having everything relatively handy, isn't as intuative as I'd like. I just seem to stutter when doing things with Cubase and after researching Live a bit it seems to fill gaps a little. It'd be nice to get ideas down in a broad sense then fiddle with them in Cubase, as oppose to fiddling from the outset.
If I had a Mac I'd go Logic, after watching videos and such, but I don't. So I can't.
I may be way off base and Live wouldn't help me at all, it may be the way I work that needs to change, but I don't think so.

[tehlord]

I think if you want to sketch in Live then just make the move over to Live comepletely, especially as you mentioned a lack of spare time. Obviously check it out first though

I've never really had an issue with the Automation in Cubase but it is supposed to be greatly improved in Cubase 5.

Sureno went from Logic to Live, see what he has to say too

[Khazul]

I would dump cubase altogether and move over to Live 8 full version.

What you described is a large part of the reason I gave up with Cubase for other than conventional tracking and mixing work.

Personally I find that because 'sketching ideas' tends to involve quite alot of audio routing and processing, then starting in one daw for ideas, then moving to another one is just a complete pain, also Ableton live is (IMHO) way way more flexible and powerful than cubase for the kind fo thing that I do.

Also for me, I actually use quite alot of Lives own plugins by choice - and especially make my own layered instruments, fx and drum racks etc - these dont translate to another daw.

For me, the point to move to another DAW perhaps for better final mixdown and post production would be after a track is pretty much complete in Live, then I might consider bouncing all the stems (including fx returns) out to mix it in record (just for that nice sounding mixer).

In practice I usually stick with live to the end of a track - its simple and very flexible audio routing and bouncing etc just make setting up intermediate full mix tracks for various stages of post production very easy - far easier than Cubase 4 (I havnt realy used 5, so it may have improved a bit).

The thing against live is that it doesnt have a conventional console style mixer in it - switching between arrange and session views tends to get a bit annoying (as the mixer is in session view), however I have long got used to it.

I guess it depends on the kind of music your are doing and the kind of production styles/process you use.

If the conversation was about Live vs Logic, then TBH - I think logic is far better for electronic production styles than cubase, but unless you are really tied into the conventtional tracking and mixing cut and paste approach, i strongly suggest taking the time to get to know live well - *if* you find it suits your creative style. Creativity and sketching for me only stops once I stop working on the track - not after I have made a few loops, so the argument about starting in a more creative DAW then moving to a more convention one doesnt make alot of sense.

[tehlord]

Wot he said ^^^

I've seen the master at work with Live and it was quite the eye opener

[Wilty]

I think really the thing that always threw me off of Live was the fact it seems geared for live sets and djing, and the only versions I used were the lite ones that came with hardware. I'm getting more and more annoyed with Cubase, can't work out if its me or not. I think I may invest in Intro then upgrade if I get on with it, especially as they seem to have altered a few bits since I've last used it. I know on the future music 'in the studio' vids those that use it really use it.
Thanks for the input guys, just the sorta thing I was hoping for. Its a pretty big jump in software types from what I can see, need all the advice I can get.

[tehlord]

Originally Posted by Wilty

I think really the thing that always threw me off of Live was the fact it seems geared for live sets and djing, and the only versions I used were the lite ones that came with hardware. I'm getting more and more annoyed with Cubase, can't work out if its me or not. I think I may invest in Intro then upgrade if I get on with it, especially as they seem to have altered a few bits since I've last used it. I know on the future music 'in the studio' vids those that use it really use it.
Thanks for the input guys, just the sorta thing I was hoping for. Its a pretty big jump in software types from what I can see, need all the advice I can get.

Google 'Airbase tutorials'

He uses live in those videos and goes into a lot of compositional detail and automation/routing etc.

[Wilty]

Cheers bruv, will give it a look.

[Khazul]

Its well worth downloading the whole Live 8 suite demo and making full use of the trial period.

Live lite/live intro let you use the features, but IMHO they are too crippled for writing a complete track in all but some 'minimal' genre or other.

As you say, these version are more suited to live play from stems etc.

[Wilty]

Once again I totally forgot about demos. Thanks for the advice.