Ableton vs Logic vs Fruityloops .... ?

[Flying Lotus 23]

Folks, 

 

i would like to learn a bit more about production, what software would you recommend to start with?

I heard that FL is the easiest, but still very powerful. Yet as far as i know, Ableton Live is the most popular tool to produce and play live.

 

What is your experience and what will you recommend for beginners?

[Trala Lama 10]

I like Ableton a lot, not just for live playing but also to be able to produce 'live' as you can change and manipulate almost anything while the track keeps playing.

But for basics I still prefer Sony Acid Pro 7, which is a very user-friendly and cute piece of software.

 

[Sephira 5]

I have heard good things about FL.

 

I started with Live.

 

I now use Logic to produce and Live for performance. Logic, for me personally, is the nicest environment to work in when making music. Cubase also gets good reviews.

 

try them all and see what you like.

[Raul Jordan 13]

I'm using Cubase since many years but now I'm giving a try to Ableton Live, and I like a lot, because you can do an arrangment "in Live", you play the patterns as you feel it at any moment...

 

And to start, Ableton Live have many project examples, step by step, and a Help window that explain each parameter every time you put the mouse over.

[Mønsterhed 41]

I'm working in Live and have been since I started for real last year. I was toying around with FL Studio back when I was a small teenager, but it never really stuck with me.

 

What about Bitwig? Just throwing it into the discussion here. It seems to have the best features of Live and some of the others in a neatly designed package. And it's so pretty. 

[Flying Lotus 23]

I'm working in Live and have been since I started for real last year. I was toying around with FL Studio back when I was a small teenager, but it never really stuck with me.

 

What about Bitwig? Just throwing it into the discussion here. It seems to have the best features of Live and some of the others in a neatly designed package. And it's so pretty. 

 

here is a very nice comment about Bitwig from Ott -> https://www.facebook.com/ottsonic/posts/759807390723053

[Trala Lama 10]

here is a very nice comment about Bitwig from Ott -> https://www.facebook.com/ottsonic/posts/759807390723053

 

Bitwig can be tested for free, just download it, it will run in a sort of demo-mode, with just no 'save' of 'export' available

[unknown music 14]

I started back in the days of FL Studio 7 through 10. Now I'm using Reaper for all my projects, all of my new dream scatter material is all fully made with Reaper. Used to think that FL Studio had me covered and it served me really well for a long time. It kinda became very natural for me and was easy to use and flow with. I never thought I'd use anything else until I started getting into reaper gradually and realized that so many of the limitations that held me back in fl studio were solved in reaper. I'm forever reaper now.

 

I've given a shot at Cubase and Ableton and a few others but none of them really felt right with me as FL Studio did and Reaper does. Cubase is too slow and bulky for me, it's bloated like a new PC loaded with microsoft windows. Ableton just didn't suit my production style, but looks interesting for being able to play around live. I think it's ultimately up to you and how how you prefer to work and what sort of plugins you want to get bundled. FL Studio is a real nice way to start off and has a lot of creative possibilities especially for beat making. For me currently, FL Studio looks like a toy compared to Reaper; however, reaper doesn't come bundled with any instruments or vst plugins--which is okay for me as I prefer certain third party plugins. Reaper comes in a mere 9 mb download but provides an excellent fully customizable audio production environment, aside from the vst plugins.

[Gagarin Project 400]

I started back in the days of FL Studio 7 through 10. Now I'm using Reaper for all my projects, all of my new dream scatter material is all fully made with Reaper. 

 

you are not the first to give a very positive feedback to Reaper. And what is incredible is really accessible price of 60 usd for a "discounted" licence.

[unknown music 14]

you are not the first to give a very positive feedback to Reaper. And what is incredible is really accessible price of 60 usd for a "discounted" licence.

 

yes, I think their whole design philosophy and licensing is just so agreeable and when I took the time to read the manual and settle in, it feels right

[Sephira 5]

Logic.

 

But then I use Logic, so I would say that. 

 

I started with Ableton but I am more geared towards track writing that performance and Live just did not cut it for me.

 

But yes FL is apparently very nice these days.

[Phase47 24]

I now use Logic to produce and Live for performance. Logic, for me personally, is the nicest environment to work in when making music.

 

Same here. Live in Session view can't be beat for performance, but for production and mixing, I prefer Logic if I have to be working/writing/mixing linearly in an Arrange view.

[Mr. UPGrade 6]

I started my production journey with FL Studio back in 2012. Its very interesting DAW, it has realy fast workflow and is very easy to learn. The advantage is also that you have a LOT of free resources online (like for example http://howtomakeelectronicmusic.com/).There was one thing that i really didnt like, and that was lack of audio tracks. Clip based workflow is awesome for a lot of working with  midi. (which btw i think is awesome, especialy the piano roll and midi tools in it). 

 

While using FL Studio i downloaded almoust all software there is in trial versions and had a list of things that i wanted to test how they are done in other DAW (i.e. bounce track, bounce clip, editing notes, working with autiomation and stuff like automation follow clips, saving presets and efect chains and all that good jazz). After i think 3 months of testing, i bought my second DAW - Studio One (version 2.5) and I`m very happy with it. The workflow is awesome and the gui is realy clean. I didnt had any problems with crashing or anything like that. My killer feature number one is the ability to take and midi clip (one loop of youre synth killer bass line for example) and just drag and drop it into the browser and studio one will save midi, audio and whole preset for synth and all inserts on its track so whenever i`m doing any sound design sessions or while doing a track i did something that i`m not fully happy in that context i just drag it into "ideas" folder and i have whole preset with midi clip stored and becouse they where saved with audio files you can audition them in browser.

 

I wasnt fully happy with live while testing (a did 8, and demo of 9 when it lounched), it was interesting to think it in context of live (which i dont plan to do) but for me it missed many functionalities and the hardest part to work with was automation and midi editor which for me such big time. 

 

I have bitwig (bought it on some promotion) and i`m beggining to love it (its definitly not live ready) but it has all those "ableton live issues" fixed, for me its nsane for making fx and some wicked drones and stuff like that. The killer thing is that you have all those midi and audio controllers (no, not fx) that for example can control filter cuf off (or any other parameter) based on midi notes from other track. But i dont plan to use it to whole song stuff, when i will learn enought (and when they will polish a bit bitwig) i hope to do most "composing" in bitwig and export raw mixdowns for mix/master in Studio One (i dont know how but the mix quality and headroom are so freaking awesome i never can get similar efects in other DAW).

 

One more thing about bitwig - it has the open api controller which is f..... amazing becouse you can turn almoust any controller into "ableton push" or akai apc. I have maschine studio and the current functions implemented are insane and i think that with some more work done in bitwig this will be the killer DAW for live. 

 

PS. I know i have a lot of gear and software and i`m a lousy starting producer but thats the pro/con of working 10 years in IT, i have money but i don`t have time

[neil (spatialize) 77]

I think that with the current price of logic it is the best all round place to start for production.  reaper is good but imo has a lot of strange quirks when playing VSTs.  ableton is great for inspiration and for playing live but the automation and general workflow in logic, and fantastic built in effects and synths, makes it the top of the tree for me.

 

if youre on PC though you cant use logic so in that case i would go for either ableton or cubase.  i would choose cubase..

 

i dont think it matters if youre a beginner or not but it may depend on what your aim is.   if you want to make really high quality intricate stuff then logic or cubase is the place.  if you just want to enjoy a bit of a mess around with no thoughts of taking it too far then ableton might be the best place as you can whip up good stuff quite easily.  remember there will be quite a learning curve with any of those softwares and whatever you start off with you ,ay well end up using in the future so do your research and choose wisely

[ancientrealms 42]

I've used Ableton for many years but I agree with many of the posts that you should try multiple pieces of software because everyone has a different style, taste and flow.

 

However, once you have decided on a setup, stick with it, learn it, live it, don't give up on it. You will have to give whatever setup you choose your life energy to make it work and that takes time and experience.

 

Much joy on your journey.

 

Pax!

[Cygnica 0]

Folks, 

 

i would like to learn a bit more about production, what software would you recommend to start with?

I heard that FL is the easiest, but still very powerful. Yet as far as i know, Ableton Live is the most popular tool to produce and play live.

 

What is your experience and what will you recommend for beginners?

 

Nothing beats Session mode if you'r main goal is playing/improvising music. I work with Live exclusively after having tested FL and Reason. I also have Bitwig sitting on my computer waiting to be used,but time issues held me back yet.

 

For my personal taste most 'standard' DAWs like Logic/Cubase are too cluttered with all sorts of technical stuff, I produce for five years now in Live and never felt anything really missing, though there are better midi editors/arrangement functions out there.

[schofield 52]

I used Reason many years ago when I wasn't time-poor.  It never came to much but I found it easy to use.  

 

Now I am time-poor (work and family commitments will do that) and I am contemplating starting to learn to produce music Ableton from scratch.  I already use it for dj-ing, so I have some knowledge of how the clips and scenes work etc.

 

Learning the instruments will be interesting.  Lot's of you-tube videos and tutorials methinks.  If nothing else it is provide me with an additional music-related hobby.

 

I might need to get a midi-keyboard at some stage though, but I want to learn some stuff first and make sire I will stick with it.

 

I already have an APC40.

[neil (spatialize) 77]

Sounds ideal.

 

I would recommend having a keyboard early on if you think that you may not stick with it.

 

You can get very cheap controller keyboards and I think a keyboard just makes it so much more enjoyable in the first place. It's a bit of a phaff constantly adding notes with the midi editor and a keyboard gets your body more involved.

[thegoatboy 4]

I use fl studio and ableton.

 

out of the two I prefer ableton - it's so much easier attaching effects and stuff, but overall either does what I want it to do.

[schofield 52]

I would recommend having a keyboard early on if you think that you may not stick with it.

 

Thanks for the tip.  You may be on to something there, and for $100-150 bucks it's a relatively small outlay.  

 

Has anyone used the Akai MPK Mini Mk II?  Could be a decent starter and companion for the APC 40.

[Spinnet (One Arc Degree) 89]

I learned all the music production basics in Reason, used it for a couple of years. Then I switched to Ableton (in version 7 I think) and never looked back since! I tried to like Cubase, I really did, but the interface was really messy for me. I agree that one has to mess around with various pieces of software, never get too comfortable working on the same setup, if you want to constantly challenge yourself. So, in that spirit, I had a go at Reaper (clunky) and Bitwig (nice!). What I really want to wrap my brain around though is Renoise. I never used a tracker-based DAW before and Renoise has matured immensely, so I guess its time!

[andorra 117]

What I really want to wrap my brain around though is Renoise. I never used a tracker-based DAW before and Renoise has matured immensely, so I guess its time!

 

I use Renoise and I love it. I used FT2 back in the day and when Reason came out I tried that but soon changed back to trackers. I tried different trackers in early 2000's and when the Renoise was published I purchased that and I'm still rocking with the latest version of it. Trackers rules Not many use those anymore. It seems that Ableton, Cubase and FL are the thing. Luckily Renoise has developed so much to meet today's standards in music production that it's a very powerful DAW and superb sampler tool.

[Gagarin Project 400]

 

It seems that Ableton, Cubase and FL are the thing. 

 

+ Logic and Reaper

 

i decided to add a poll to this post feel free to vote for your favoutite (s)