My personal experience is that I've been able to create and record more music, by a factor of about one thousand, using FOSS/Linux tools than with commercial apps. Also, the music I've made is stranger and richer, which I like.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 1:00 AM, Thorsten Wilms <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:t_w_@freenet.de">t_w_@freenet.de</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
On Mon, 2009-08-31 at 20:56 -0400, Brett McCoy wrote:<br>
<br>
> I have to admit complete ignorance here, but what is it about Live<br>
> that makes it advantageous over DAWs like Ardour, Reaper, Sonar, Pro<br>
> Tools, etc? Is it primarily loop/clip/synth based rather than a hard<br>
> disk recorder/mixer like a traditional DAW?<br>
<br>
My knowledge is based on reading about it in magazines early on and much<br>
later using the trial version for a bit.<br>
<br>
When it came out, using software for live performance was seen as novel<br>
idea (there might have been an "underground" scene thinking<br>
differently).<br>
<br>
The minimalistic graphics optimized for clearness were a revelation.<br>
Dialogs are avoided, it's all in one window.<br>
<br>
AFAIK it allows tempo changes and immediately stretches/shrinks all<br>
audio to fit. Sony Acid might have been earlier with that.<br>
You can also add markers on clips and then move these markers and the<br>
material between markers will be stretched/shrunken to accommodate. The<br>
version I tried would do so "only" linearly :)<br>
<br>
I think the central new concept was having a matrix view, where you have<br>
columns for tracks/instruments and rows for "Scenes".<br>
Have a look at:<br>
<a href="http://digisound.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/3-big-rocker.jpg" target="_blank">http://digisound.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/3-big-rocker.jpg</a><br>
All those rectangles with play symbols are patterns.<br>
If you look down the "Master" column, it should become clear what scenes<br>
are about. Note that you can trigger any of the patterns any time.<br>
There's a sync feature that can make sure patterns will be started on<br>
the beat/next-measure.<br>
<br>
There's also a "traditional" arrangement view:<br>
<a href="http://www.kaosaudio.com/images/software/ableton-live-7-le-arrangement.png" target="_blank">http://www.kaosaudio.com/images/software/ableton-live-7-le-arrangement.png</a><br>
<br>
Nowadays there's a collection of deeply integrated synth "plugins".<br>
<br>
<br>
GUI-wise, you could always add such a matrix to an existing<br>
DAW/sequencer (not a small project, of course). But you need a backend<br>
that can play any pattern any time, with a sync-to-beat trigger feature.<br>
And live time stretching.<br>
<br>
So, none of the linux audio apps comes even close.<br>
A set of separate tools can never be a replacement (except with a<br>
not-seen-before sophisticated level of optional integration, perhaps).<br>
<br>
People can talk about the real or perceived shortcomings of linux audio<br>
tools all day. Doesn't change a thing. The vague and sometimes silly<br>
comparisons and the very foggy ideas what some commercial apps actually<br>
offer are damn frustrating. Would surprise me to read something *new*.<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
Thorsten Wilms<br>
<br>
thorwil's design for free software:<br>
<a href="http://thorwil.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">http://thorwil.wordpress.com/</a><br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br>