Thanks for bring arturia as a choice. I have no idea about other brand beside m audio, novation or akai. LOL. U just opn my eyes.
One question. Can i just start with the laboratory?? I check the review that it can work as a midi controller also. Its has knob, slider, n pads (even though only 4). So what am i missing on this? Can u explain to me why i need zero mk2 also?. Thanks
Agreed, wholeheartedly. I like it’s 303 (ESM or something).
Also…I havne’t been impressed with Arturia’s stuff. The Analog Laboratory demo makes it seem like it’s a crap ton of presets with very limited capabilities and that actually making patches would require you to also buy their individual synth emulations. Plus, there’s not enough control.
I’d forego it and just learn Logic’s synths instead. Or, if you’re like me, start shopping for hardware. But that’s a whole different can of worms.
Like u said bfore that i need a midi controller. And my choices are 25 sl mk2, or axiom pro. But some member bring it up arturia the laboratory, which isna midi controller with extra software.
Any suggestion from u about midi controller?
Not really. I use maschine to control the maschine software and it’s Mackie control emulation to control logic, though the MC template is kinda kludgy. My keyboard is a key rig 49 that a friend gave me at some point that kinda sucks but is good enough for how badly I play keyboard.
I’ve heard good things about the axiom an axiom pro and the bigger Akai controllers and liked the axiom I used for a while. The analog lab is probably fine, I just don’t like the software. And that same friend has an electric piano in his living room with 3 pedals and fully weighted keys, so I’d probably use that if I needed anything more expressive.
The after-touch on the arturia stuff is pretty cool if your synth can use it. But I’d probably look at a minibrute long before I’d buy one of the analog experience/lab things.
I’m also probably going to be getting into hardware anyway, so my needs for midi keyboards are pretty basic. And I haven’t liked much of what i’ve seen of keyboards’ DAW control compared to actually saving up for a DAW controller like a Mackie Control or the Avid Artist line. But I’ve also (briefly) used a big SSL desk, so there are a few things that I’d rather not have than have to use cheap copies of.
The Maschine MC emulation leaves a lot to be desired, but I’d rather have encoders than unmotorized faders, and if you’re doing that with a keyboard, you’re already talking about mapping it yourself, which is something that I think is a waste of time.
Thanks for the input. I dont think i can afford mackie interface at the momment. So i still can’t decide which one should i buy.
I really want to get the arturia the laboratory since it come with the software also, but it not automap. So i need to map it myself. So i cant decide. LoL
Oh, no. You don’t need a real DAW controller for a long time. Neither do I. That’s why Maschine works for me. I just don’t want to waste money on a stop-gap solution that I’m not going to be happy with.
Also, there are a lot of people who hate automap. IDK…I’ve never really used it.
i’ve talked to my friend again who is using the arturia laboratory 49 now a little longer than a week and could tell me some further experiences.
he admit that the midi-control function of the arturia keyboard is somehow limited and a config mess, because its always somehow controlling the arturia synth’s even when you try to config this knob to control something else, i’ve heard that the smaller ones like “the player” haven’t so much probs this way because they are from scratch more “just dumb midi controllers” which aren’t bundled so heavy to the software, i would say this whole thing needs to be checked and tested before i can say its a good bet to buy.
(for someone who doesn’t really aim for the synth-emulations and just want an midi keyboard with maybe some extra features)
the sl mk2 zero was just an addition to have automap and some more faders and encoders besides your keyboard, but it’s no need i think.
in reality nothing of this is a NEED, you can do everything with your standard keyboard and a mouse, until you WORK SO MUCH in your DAW that you BENEFIT from the faster way to do something with controllers, but before you come to this point you need to know what do to, which you’re need to learn before ^^
I believe Skrillex (whether you like him or not) also uses Ableton.
Other contenders include Cubase (used by Flux Pavillion) and even FL Studio (used by xKore).
Kinda shows that you can get results with any DAW and it’s horses for courses really. Different users will get on with different DAWs.
Personally, I have Ableton and Logic, as well as Reason on a Mac and Cubase on a PC. Out of all of them, I’ve found Logic the more intuitive one to settle on as it fits me and my style. However, I also like Ableton and use it with Reason rewireed into it a lot.
I then use Pro Tools HD 9 to master the productions. Kinda depends what yo’re aiming for and budget. For an all-in-one production and mastering tool, I’d go for Logic due to (whether noticable or not) technically superior audio core, the ability to use as a mastering tool with better/customisable mixer views and the ability to edit the workflow over dual monitors and see your arrangement and mixer views clearly.
Lack of being able to create a customised dual monitor workflow is one thing Logic absolutely kicks Ableton butt on as it’s not possible on Ableton. You simply have the option to stretch the Ableton screen over two monitors and that’s it. In Logic you can have arrangement window on one monitor and then mixers, samplers, piano roll etc on the other monitor to create a workflow that just works without stifling creativitiy.
As I said, Logic works best for me but veryone has their own ‘fit’.
Don’t focus on the DAW. Pick one, learn it, and use it. It’s not the DAW, it’s how much time you choose to invest into learning your DAW. I myself use different DAWs in different studios. When I produce electronic I use Ableton, when I produce hip hop / rap I use Cubase and run FL studio in it as a VST to create my beats. The reason I do this is because when I produce hip hop it’s with 2 other good friends (one who raps and another producer). The other producer is used to using Cubase with FL inside it, so that’s why we do that.
As for MIDI Controllers the SL 49 MK II is perfectly fine. You don’t have to use Automap if you don’t want to. If you want to see what I use to produce, feel free to click in the link on my signature.
That’s wrong. If you honestly think Ableton sounds worse than Logic, it’s because you’re using Ableton wrong…probably by time-stretching everything when you might not need to.
I’m not convinced that the DAWs sound different at all as long as you know how to use them.
I agree with you about learning first, but I don’t think it’s just a matter of doing things faster. Having a real control surface can help your creative workflow…if you have things set up right, you can just do things instead of trying to figure out how to do them.
Workflow is IMHO the only valid reason to own things like analog mixing boards and hardware synths. And I hope to be able to afford both at some point.
I disagree with the first part of your statement. It’s hard to tell these days whats a VST and whats a real hardware synth, but the real hardware synth will still have a warmer feel to it. And it’d probably be easier to program a VST such as Razor rather than programming a hardware synth to use just because you can save presets on Razor, on your hardware synth (I believe) that each time you fire it up it’ll sound maybe slightly different even if you have everything in the same position because of the oscillator warming up / being at a different temperature when you use it. I do agree with the mixing board though. Shit makes life a while lot easier. That and a MIDI keyboard.
I said hardware, not analog. I can get sounds I like with a couple minutes in front of a virus. I’ve found exactly one soft synth that gives me anything even close to that (Dune), and it’s still a huge PITA, though I like it a lot better than anything else I’ve tried (only had it for about a week, though…still, much longer honeymoon than anything else).
And there’s no reason to save presets. Just bounce to audio. Working with audio instead of midi saves a lot of time because you’re not constantly tweaking your sounds. I like half-assed synth sounds a lot better than getting stuck in modulation engines for days at a time, and you can always re-record…it just gives you a little “is it worth it” sanity check that I find valuable.
I haven’t saved a synth patch in months, and I don’t miss it. YMMV.
hi there, im an audio engineering student who happens to have both software (educational editions which i bought at a discount from my school)
let me just say that both are really good - logic gives you an insane amount of included plugins and instruments, while ableton has much much better workflow in my opinion
for example, grouping tracks in ableton means pretty much holding shift and choosing all the tracks you want to group and then right click and choose group, now this group can also act like a bus (you can also create a bus track if you want to and route what you want individually) where you can put plugins that will affect everything that you grouped together, another thing is resampling midi into audio, in ableton its soo easy, just create new track, choose “resample”, solo whatever you wanna bounce to audio from midi, arm , press record, done ~ its just so intuitive and simple
i was trained to use all daw software in my school (protools, logic, cubase, reason) but one that i love the most for electronic music would be ableton for its super fast workflow
for tracking real instruments i would choose either cubase or protools, or logic, for me its all the same, once you understand the difference between the software the only difference between them are the interface / workflow, no one said theres something you can do in one software that you cant do on the other one, with some clever thinking everything is possible
if you are more leaning into the electronic side of music as you said, i’d say ableton is a good choice
at $200 logic will have a bit more value packed in though, does the $200 version include all 76GB of content? if so then logic is a good starting point price wise
Not quite.
It includes all the instruments, including a lot of ESX sample-based instruments. But I think they dropped the Apple Loops after realizing from “generic usage data” that the first time people accessed them was to delete them and recover wasted disk space.
There’s nothing missing that matters, at least nothing I’m aware of.
Midi Controllers are over rated. I blew a shit load of cash on a luachpad, Keystudio, and MPD 32, and all that’s left is the keystudio. And that’s only because i’ve been play piano since preschool. To anyone reading this, buy a midi keyboard, and then use your extra $$$ to buy software synths.
To anyone reading this, disregard the quoted post and think about what might fit your particular workflow (be it the presence or absence of MIDI controllers, usage of actual hardware vs. software, …).
I’m with 3heads. My keyboard is the only thing I don’t use (because I haven’t played piano all my life) and I find not having a good control surface extremely frustrating.
Well i thought it went with out saying that’s what fit MY workflow. If someone is asking what to do on here, obviously they want more than one end of the spectrum, no need to be snappy about it. If you can make a whole song with $2 worth of samples, and Analog in ableton, more power to ya.
Why give opinions and preference if the next guy is gonna say?
^Don’t listen to that guy.
My bad, i’ll stop helping newbies, since i’m doing it all wrong.
If you don’t record any real instruments (including Mic.) …then you don’t get main benefits of logic and also mainstage .. but you can use garageband for working with apple loops.
Ableton have better work-flow If you want to use it for djing…
or you can buy Midi Controller that native support ableton e.g. Launchpad,APC-20,40,RemoteSLMk2 all of this comes with Ableton live (them edition)…but anyway Midi-Controller never improve your skills or increase any knowledge of remix tracks as you point..you don’t need midi controller to doing this but hey…MIDI controller make this thing more interesting and more fun 