Ableton Live vs. MOTU Digital Performer?

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Discussion related to installation, configuration and use of MOTU hardware such as MIDI interfaces, audio interfaces, etc. for Mac OSX
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BKK-OZ
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Re: Ableton Live vs. MOTU Digital Performer?

Post by BKK-OZ »

First, I would say that 'versus' is not the right way to think about it - they are DAWs, not gladiators.

Second, I would suggest you grab the DP demo: http://www.motu.com/products/software/dp/

Finally, ask yourself what features/workflows you want/need and compare and contrast.

It is not about which one is better, the question is, which one is better for you.

For example, if tight integration with MAX/MSP is your thing, go with Ableton.
If you need to score to picture, get DP.
And so on.
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BK

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Michael Canavan
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Re: Ableton Live vs. MOTU Digital Performer?

Post by Michael Canavan »

I'm an avid user of both. They are completely different, the only similarity is that they both have a timeline, host plug ins and record audio.

Live has crap linear automation, but amazing clip automation, basically for automating FX plug ins doing interesting things it's really very good, for doing surgical work on the final mix, it's not so great.
Live's time stretching is vastly superior to DP's, it's the one area it completely dominates DP in. Pitch conversion not so much, DP has better tricks for that.
Live takes IMO very little time to wrap your head around, it's mostly set up like an advanced Sampler that also records tracks etc.

Looping in Live is far easier and transparent. So if you're writing verse, chorus, break type songs, and want to mess around with the arrangement of that it's dead easy to do.

DP destroys Live in terms of mixing, in every single way, there are far too may advantages to list, but it allows multiple mixes of the same song in the same open instance, it allows multiple versions of the song in the same Project, it allows multiple choices of automation styles etc. etc.

DP Deals with SysEx quite nicely, Live doesn't do SysEx at all. DP integrates with OSX Core MIDI better than Live, DP plays better with video as well.

Editing wise it's just such a different approach between the two that it's hard to say 100%, DP can conform to an uneven tempo, so you can force the sequence to follow a sloppy piano players recording for instance, Live is slightly easier to use for rigid quantizing, although DP has quantizing preview which is a feature the other DAWs should have stolen if they had any clue.. in general DP is the king of doing film score type work, and give Pro Tools a run for it's money in terms of mixing and editing audio etc,

Realistically they are about as far away from each other in terms of DAWs as you can get, Live is a "modern" DAW and DP is a "traditional" DAW, and IMO they are the best of those categories.

I recommend you figure on buying both eventually and with that in mind probably DP first, because it's a bigger challenge. I went from DP to Reason to Logic to Live to DP in terms of buying DAWs, and DP and Live are what have stuck around. Live was dead easy after playing with other DAWs, but DP and Logic have learning curves.
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Re: Ableton Live vs. MOTU Digital Performer?

Post by James Steele »

fifa15plat wrote:Who can break down the pros and cons?! Little background.... running Macbook Pro 2.4 Dual Core with 2 gigs ram w/Alesis iO14. Lately I've been into remixing, mash-ups, etc. But I'm also a musician with musician friends, so I need a at least a decent sequencer/audio editing as well. Thanks!
Looks like spam in your signature. What gives? First post and spam? Explain soon or I delete your account and add your info to the stopforumspam.com database. Thanks.
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Re: Ableton Live vs. MOTU Digital Performer?

Post by Shooshie »

James Steele wrote:
fifa15plat wrote:Who can break down the pros and cons?! Little background.... running Macbook Pro 2.4 Dual Core with 2 gigs ram w/Alesis iO14. Lately I've been into remixing, mash-ups, etc. But I'm also a musician with musician friends, so I need a at least a decent sequencer/audio editing as well. Thanks!
Looks like spam in your signature. What gives? First post and spam? Explain soon or I delete your account and add your info to the stopforumspam.com database. Thanks.
His second post was pure spam. I think we know what he's all about.
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Re: Ableton Live vs. MOTU Digital Performer?

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This was his spam - he does not belong here.....
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