1 Sep
2009
1 Sep
'09
10:39 a.m.
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Betreff: [LAU] What Live is about (was: Re: ableton live in vmware)
Gesendet: Di, 01. Sep 2009
Von: Thorsten Wilms<t_w_(a)freenet.de>
On Mon, 2009-08-31 at 20:56 -0400, Brett McCoy wrote:
Thank you for this. It makes me crazy when I read "You don't need fancy apps like
this, hydrogen is good enough" or "sooperlooper do the job".
I use AL because it is a masterpiece of music software and it fits my needs for a creative
workflow. It is the state of art today and contemporary technology for musicians. It is no
hype, it is an answer for the question: How you can make music without touching the limits
of software.
When I read "just put together a few apps on Linux with JACK and you have the
same" it make me clear that most of the Linux fanboys here are never seen or used
modern software and they don't know what they are talking about. Even David Philips
never seen Garageband, but he talk about. It is no good idea to hide behind the small
world of Linux audio. The progress goes on, and now it is 2009.
Michael
I have to admit complete ignorance here, but what
is it about Live
that makes it advantageous over DAWs like Ardour, Reaper, Sonar, Pro
Tools, etc? Is it primarily loop/clip/synth based rather than a hard
disk recorder/mixer like a traditional DAW?
My knowledge is based on reading about it in magazines early on and much
later using the trial version for a bit.
When it came out, using software for live performance was seen as novel
idea (there might have been an "underground" scene thinking
differently).
The minimalistic graphics optimized for clearness were a revelation.
Dialogs are avoided, it's all in one window.
AFAIK it allows tempo changes and immediately stretches/shrinks all
audio to fit. Sony Acid might have been earlier with that.
You can also add markers on clips and then move these markers and the
material between markers will be stretched/shrunken to accommodate. The
version I tried would do so "only" linearly :)
I think the central new concept was having a matrix view, where you have
columns for tracks/instruments and rows for "Scenes".
Have a look at:
http://digisound.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/3-big-rocker.jpg
All those rectangles with play symbols are patterns.
If you look down the "Master" column, it should become clear what scenes
are about. Note that you can trigger any of the patterns any time.
There's a sync feature that can make sure patterns will be started on
the beat/next-measure.
There's also a "traditional" arrangement view:
http://www.kaosaudio.com/images/software/ableton-live-7-le-arrangement.png
Nowadays there's a collection of deeply integrated synth "plugins".
GUI-wise, you could always add such a matrix to an existing
DAW/sequencer (not a small project, of course). But you need a backend
that can play any pattern any time, with a sync-to-beat trigger feature.
And live time stretching.
So, none of the linux audio apps comes even close.
A set of separate tools can never be a replacement (except with a
not-seen-before sophisticated level of optional integration, perhaps).
People can talk about the real or perceived shortcomings of linux audio
tools all day. Doesn't change a thing. The vague and sometimes silly
comparisons and the very foggy ideas what some commercial apps actually
offer are damn frustrating. Would surprise me to read something *new*.
--
Thorsten Wilms
thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/
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