Ableton Live or Presonus Studio One?

monquixote

I'm looking for a tool I can use for creating some electronic tracks with perhaps a bit of guitar on them.

I've used Reaper in the past, but that seems better for recording and mixing a band rather than composing EDM etc. 

The obvious thing is Ableton Live, but I hear good things about Presonus Studio One.

Any preferences, or things I should consider?

octatonic

Either are fine, pick the one you like the look of and learn it.

That is the the rate limiter, your knowledge of the DAW, not the DAW itself.

monquixote

octatonic said:

Either are fine, pick the one you like the look of and learn it.

That is the the rate limiter, your knowledge of the DAW, not the DAW itself.

Yeah totally agree. 

It's just picking which one to go with at the moment. 

Bod

I'm a S1 user, but have just bought Push 2 and Live.  So far I'm really impressed and enjoying Live as a songwriting tool - the session view is great for building ideas and arrangements, and the integration with the hardware is incredibly well done.

octatonic

monquixote said:

octatonic said:

Either are fine, pick the one you like the look of and learn it.

That is the the rate limiter, your knowledge of the DAW, not the DAW itself.

Yeah totally agree. 

It's just picking which one to go with at the moment. 

Live in the biggest departure in form from Reaper, because of clip view but Logic has that now too.

If you've used Reaper before then Studio One will be the most closely aligned with what you know.
But Live is really great for EDM.
As I said, I don't think you can make a bad decision.

Maybe download the trials- 30 days for S1, 90 days for Live.
I have both and use Live more than S1.
But I use Pro Tools and Logic most of the time.

Check out Cubase and Nuendo too though- they are both excellent.

TTony

I've found S1 to be (a) very functional and (b) very easy to pick up from scratch.

Product is tiered from free to functional to expert with an easy upgrade path between them, so start with free an use that until you hit its limits.

Also, lots of Presonus-supported YT vids to take you through every aspect.  You can either bite-size a specific function, or get into a series of in-depth tutorials.  They seem to be presented by normal people too, not annoying amateurs.

I realise that the same is probably true of Ableton Live too!

digitalkettle

I moved from Ableton to Studio One over the last year.

Really happy with Studio One but I think Ableton edges it for 'electronic stuff' with its session view and loop/clip stuff.

monquixote

digitalkettle said:

I moved from Ableton to Studio One over the last year.

Really happy with Studio One but I think Ableton edges it for 'electronic stuff' with its session view and loop/clip stuff.

@digitalkettle What prompted you to change?

monquixote

octatonic said:

monquixote said:

octatonic said:

Either are fine, pick the one you like the look of and learn it.

That is the the rate limiter, your knowledge of the DAW, not the DAW itself.

Yeah totally agree. 

It's just picking which one to go with at the moment. 

Live in the biggest departure in form from Reaper, because of clip view but Logic has that now too.

If you've used Reaper before then Studio One will be the most closely aligned with what you know.
But Live is really great for EDM.
As I said, I don't think you can make a bad decision.

Maybe download the trials- 30 days for S1, 90 days for Live.
I have both and use Live more than S1.
But I use Pro Tools and Logic most of the time.

Check out Cubase and Nuendo too though- they are both excellent.

I'm not too worried about something being like Reaper as it doesn't really meet my needs as a composition tool. 

The 90 day trial of Live is very appealing although it is of the mega version so I expect it would be very easy to accidentally use a load of features that potentially get very spendy.

digitalkettle

monquixote said:

digitalkettle said:

I moved from Ableton to Studio One over the last year.

Really happy with Studio One but I think Ableton edges it for 'electronic stuff' with its session view and loop/clip stuff.

@digitalkettle What prompted you to change?

I stumbled into Ableton years ago and had lots of fun...but was still mainly a guitarist tracking in the usual manner. Felt like a shake-up and Studio One was at an interesting place in its release cycle...Live felt a bit stale and Studio One felt all shiny. So I took advantage of a 'crossgrade' discount from Presonus. Ableton's focus isn't necessarily on dad-rock guitar players

Mainly wanted to get a more traditional DAW in my skill set. I still have both products (Live 10 Suite) but Studio One gets all the use unless I'm doing something like warping complex audio files for learning new tunes for my cover band (which, funnily enough is quite close to how Live started out, iirc).

monquixote

I got the trial of Studio One. 

It looks like an amazing piece of software.

The problem I'm having is I don't want to use it in my office as I want to make my leisure time about being away from a desk and with just a laptop it's like working through a letterbox wearing boxing gloves. 

I'm sure with time amazing things happen, but it's so much less immediate and musical than working with something like Korg Gadget. 

I'm thinking need something like Atom SQ so that I can have a more creative experience, but that immediately gets me into a financial commitment. 

digitalkettle

Yeah, I need a big screen to stay on top of things

I've got the Atom SQ...and it's immediately useful for trivial functions and triggering notes...but there's a lot of depth...almost like learning another instrument!

These have been on my watch list for quite a while:

monquixote

I had a bit more of a play with Studio One and I managed to do a bit more with it, but it definitely felt like I was trying to write music with a DAW rather than working with an instrument. 

I also thought for something that's meant to be very comprehensive the including synths Mai Tai and Mojito were quite uninspiring. The built in stuff with Korg Gadget was instantly way more creative and fun. 

I've downloaded the trial of Ableton Live and first impressions are that it looks way more shitty and old, but it opens in a much more interactive friendly way.

digitalkettle

How's it going with Ableton?

Disclosure: I've got a totally unused Akai APC40 mk2 controller that I bought just before I decided to switch to Studio One...ought to sell it really!

monquixote

So I've played around a bit more 

I really love that ableton give you a 3 month trial. It's going to really give me the option to understand and enjoy working with it and get a feel for if I want to continue with it.

I'm still feeling like I'm wearing boxing gloves at the moment, but hopefully that will pass.

I had another go with Studio One and it just doesn't really work for me as a MIDI instrument although I'm sure it's great as a pure audio DAW. 

Also had a quick blast with FL Studio which seems much more geared to EDM production and you get a lot for the money plus unlimited upgrades so that's quite tempting as well.

Bod

Hey @monquixote how are you getting on? 

I'm finding myself way more productive using Live than I have with any other DAW.  It's just so easy to get ideas down and build arrangements and song structures. Your boxing gloves analogy rings true a bit, so I can still see myself exporting to S1 for some of the finishing touches, which is probably more an admission of my lack of Ableton knowledge rather than the software itself.

monquixote

Bod said:

Hey @monquixote how are you getting on? 

I'm finding myself way more productive using Live than I have with any other DAW.  It's just so easy to get ideas down and build arrangements and song structures. Your boxing gloves analogy rings true a bit, so I can still see myself exporting to S1 for some of the finishing touches, which is probably more an admission of my lack of Ableton knowledge rather than the software itself.

I found that FL was the software that was simplest to just click and also gives you everything you need for a relatively low price so I got myself a "Producer" license and I've been working on trying to complete a song as a learning task.

Once I've done that I'll probably go back to Ableton and try a similar thing, but I found with chopping and changing I wasn't learning anything.

monquixote

This was the result of my playing about with FL Studio:


I'm checking out Bitwig next. I feel like Ableton is probably a more sensible choice, but I find the Windows 3.1 looks and insane pricing put me off.

Bod

Bitwig isn't cheap either, especially when you consider you only get 12 months of upgrades.

monquixote

Bod said:

Bitwig isn't cheap either, especially when you consider you only get 12 months of upgrades.

Yes that's true. 

FL Studio is amazing value at £180 as a one off purchase which includes a load of decent instruments and FX.

Bitwig is £300 for a year of upgrades, but they apparently have sales where it is £200 which isn't too bad.

Ableton on the other hand is a bananas £539 if you want the version which comes with enough stuff that you don't have to buy a load of extra plugins. That's for a Major version which effectively means about two years of support.

octatonic

monquixote said:

Bod said:

Bitwig isn't cheap either, especially when you consider you only get 12 months of upgrades.

Yes that's true. 

FL Studio is amazing value at £180 as a one off purchase which includes a load of decent instruments and FX.

Bitwig is £300 for a year of upgrades, but they apparently have sales where it is £200 which isn't too bad.

Ableton on the other hand is a bananas £539 if you want the version which comes with enough stuff that you don't have to buy a load of extra plugins. That's for a Major version which effectively means about two years of support.

Pro Tools Ultimate is £2k.
Sequoia is even more.