Just subscribed after hovering for a few months and playing about with lite versions of Ableton (using Launchpad and Oxygen keyboard).
I now want to get into more serious working with Ableton and producing some tech house/prog house stuff. I am considering buying the full version of Live or Live Suite but was not sure what would be better.
Should I buy Live Suite with its instruments - Operator, Analogue, Drum Machine etc - or would I be better going with just Live and buying a soft synth, such as Sylenth1 - which seems to be used on the tuts.
This is just a hobby and cash is limited so I want to make sure I spend my cash wisely.
To be honest I have the full Suite but don’t use the built in machines that come with it that much as things like Sylenth and others like it are very easy to use, sound great and don’t really cost that much.
I don’t think it would be a bad idea to have Sylenth1 if you want to follow along here, operator is not really considered a “go to” synth by most folks here, so I would factor that into my decision as well.
I have Suite and at first I wondered why really. I had used 6 and 7 and thought I would bite the bullet and go for Suite 8. After a while of experimenting and randomly picking different instruments to hear what things sounded like I am glad I did, it’s just more amunition when you go looking for new sounds to add. A little bit of learning about synthesis will really help understand the synth based instruments including simpler and sampler.
It’s not much different in price, however go for the box version not the download as you don’t get Essential instrument collection with the download.
I am a University student so I was able to qualify for the student pricing.
This was when Live 7 Suite was about $1000; with the educational discount, I picked it up for about $500. Then I upgraded to Live 8 Suite for about ~200 or so; that i don’t quite remember.
Either way, I found my self not really using many of the built in ableton synths besides simpler/sampler. I picked up some AudioUnits: Sylenth, DCAM:SS, & NI’s Massive.
[quote]Mussi81 (03/08/2010)[hr]standard live and sylenth is all you really need but we all like our gear/software porn[/quote]
thats all i use:D:D
i do have operator and sampler but never use them firstly cause i dont know how and secondly because i find sylenth much easier and i’m trying to master that one before confusing myself with anything else…
[quote]chris17 (04/08/2010)[hr][quote]Mussi81 (03/08/2010)[hr]standard live and sylenth is all you really need but we all like our gear/software porn[/quote]
thats all i use:D:D
i do have operator and sampler but never use them firstly cause i dont know how and secondly because i find sylenth much easier and i’m trying to master that one before confusing myself with anything else…[/quote]
If you spend a little (or a lot) of time with Operator you will come to realise it is one powerfull synth - but you are right get to know your synth then move on to the next - I just happened tostart learning on Operator before Sylenth
[quote]Stuart Braybrooke (03/08/2010)[hr]I have Suite and at first I wondered why really. I had used 6 and 7 and thought I would bite the bullet and go for Suite 8. After a while of experimenting and randomly picking different instruments to hear what things sounded like I am glad I did, it’s just more amunition when you go looking for new sounds to add. A little bit of learning about synthesis will really help understand the synth based instruments including simpler and sampler.
It’s not much different in price, however go for the box version not the download as you don’t get Essential instrument collection with the download.[/quote]
Yeah I agree with above…I have quite a few soft synths like Predator & most of the Native Instruments, but I now tend to use the instruments in Live Suite 8. It covers loads of sounds for different genres, you get a sampler, fm synth, pianos, organs, drums, guitars etc etc.
As mentioned above, if you learn how to program a synth you can create most sounds. There is a music tech special mag on synthesis & a one on Ableton 8, which are full of useful information & tutorials.
My latest track was 90% made in Live 8 suite (I did the final mix down in Logic).
In the end I went for Live Suite and I will stick with this until I am confident in Live and its instruments before moving onto the soft synths like Sylenth.
I also downloaded a number of freebies from Ableton like the Samplification live pack and Partner Instruments samples so these should keep me busy for a while!
Just out of curiosity, can you get Max for Live if you have anything less then the Suite version? I had the suite version, so I wouldnt know if I upgraded.
