Tired of reaper, I want to try Ableton

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

After ten years at least with reaper, today arrives at home a new computer; I’m a little tired of reaper, everyday, year after year, same screen, same templates, etc. and I would love to try Ableton, right now I’m totally into electronic music (before was ambient guitar, indie, etc…). I’m sure that Ableton it’s more basic than reaper, but I need something different to record and experiment. I need a fresh start. Id buy the standard edition.

But I’m on the fence and I don’t know if it would be a waste of money. I think I need a fresh and new workflow…

#2

Based on my own aggravation from working with Ableton, I advise you to try bitwig first

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#3

I would love to try Bitwig, but money here is the problem. Bitwig license costs 399 EUR against 279 EUR from Ableton. I don’t want to spend so much money. Thanks!

#4

Bitwig offers everything for that price though.

Meanwhile, Ableton- to get all the built in sounds and instruments, M4L, everything else- its like 900 or so dollars

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#5

I think I don’t need the full version of Ableton. I’m covered with samples, but I don’t want the lite license where you have onli 16 tracks of audio and midi available. So… The next and cheaper version is the standard…

The problem here is that 300 would be my limit, I’ve spent a lot in the new pc… But thank you very much for the advice. Yesterday I was reviewing Bitwig but I can’t pay the license.

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#6

Sorry, I really should have asked this first- but I got too knee-jerky when you mentioned getting Ableton.

What i should have asked from the get-go is:

What is it you are wanting to do that Reaper doesn’t offer?

#7

Wait a minute… There is a Bitwig producer version for 199 EUR :sweat_smile:

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#8

I never noticed that!

Yeah, just the modulators are fun.

You won’t have The Grid, but I haven’t really explored that either :grinning:

#9

A new type of workflow , with clips I think, a new visual screen something different. Reaper has a lot of different skins but at the end it’s still being reaper as always.

#10

I hope you’re aware that there’s a mighty cost for looking at something different.

That cost being a new workflow that may require you to relearn everything you know how to do already in Reaper

#11

I am seeing a lot of videos on YT of people producing electronic music and ALL use Ableton. Sometimes they share projects… But I would love to try it

#12

Yeah, Ableton is the old dog in the fight. But Bitwig is quickly becoming the up and comer

#13

Yes, I know that would be difficult, but nothing it’s more difficult than reaper :joy::joy::joy::joy:

#14

I haven’t fully researched this.

But this might have clip launching and its free

https://www.tracktion.com/products/waveform-free

#15

I’ve been using Ableton almost since the beginning. I’ve tried ever other DAW out there, and always come back to Ableton. It’s just so fast, and we’ll thought out. I do think Bitwig is pretty swell, and I love the modulation options as well as the grid, but something about it’s UI just doesn’t feel as good as Abletons. Can’t put my finger on it. Maybe if I used it for over a decade I’d come to move around it as seamlessly as Ableton. I will say that Ableton and Bitwig are my top two DAWs though. You could easily never need for anything else with either ones premium offering, especially Ableton. Their plug-in offerings are top notch. I only have dozens of third party plug-ins because I’m a degenerate, although I don’t feel guilty having U-He, Reaktor, Soundtoys, and Fabfilters stuff.

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#16

Thank you. How the clip function works? You have a vertical row of clips with variations and drag to the arrange view?

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#17

Seeing a modulator video of Bitwig, it. seems that conditionals and a little bit reminiscence of the electron hardware machines… Very tempting.

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#18

Honestly man, just try Live Intro.

If you can’t make cool music with 16 tracks then it’s not really the DAW’s fault. :pray:

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#19

You can also do modulations in Ableton as well, but Bitwig has them setup differently as their right there already. If you like the Elektron style of blocking, you can get a Push 1 for dirt cheap, hold down a pad, move a knob tied to a parameter and it’ll lock it. You can also use a drum rack in Ableton to do the whole sample blocking as well. For both the clip stricture is very similar. Make clips and launch them like you would with various samplers, or drag then into the arranger and do what ever you want with them. Sometimes I just record a bunch of clips experimenting with my hardware and save them. Then I’d go back through them and start to arrange songs using various clips I’ve recorded and slice n diced over the years. You can do just about anything in Ableton, as well as Bitwig, it’s just that I’m way more proficient with Ableton.
If you have modular gear, you can control it using Abletons CV tools and a DC coupled audio interface like MOTU or Expert Sleepers, or record the CV into a Blue/Blackbox and run the outs to your modular. If you’d like don’t have euro gear, you can D/L VCV Rack and load it as a VST into Ableton and use it to control devices, or process audio, and vice-versa. Sky’s the limit.

#20

@Amy ABleton do free Live 12 Lite and Bitwig may still have free 8-track version. They tend to come bundled with MIDI keyboards etc, if you ask around someone probably has a copy they don’t want. Might be worth asking here?

Also - NEVER pay full price for Ableton Standard or Suite. They have a zero-fuss licence transfer policy and people are always selling it on KVR forum, Knobcloud etc.

Live intro is very cheap anyway and Bitwig lowest version is similar price I think. I love Bitwig but Ableton is also a really great piece of software, it’s very popular for a reason.

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