Abstract 175 Posted October 9, 2020 (edited) Splice is offering the Ableton Live 10 Lite lightweight digital audio workstation for free until December 31st, 2020. Live Lite 10 is a limited version of Ableton’s popular DAW software. https://splice.com/daws/38929163-live-10-lite-vst-by-ableton Edited October 9, 2020 by Abstract 1 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
abacab 1,844 Posted October 10, 2020 It's limited to 8 tracks and 8 scenes, but is a good way to try out the workflow of Live. https://www.ableton.com/en/products/live-lite/features/ 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
abacab 1,844 Posted October 10, 2020 From what I can see, the main drawback to Live is that it does not have a notation or staff view. 🤣 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paulo 1,956 Posted October 10, 2020 Meh. For me the only thing it really has going for it over anything else is the amount of hardware midi controllers available with proper integration. Cakewalk seems to have really fallen behind the other DAWs in that respect. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
abacab 1,844 Posted October 10, 2020 3 minutes ago, paulo said: Meh. For me the only thing it really has going for it over anything else is the amount of hardware midi controllers available with proper integration. Cakewalk seems to have really fallen behind the other DAWs in that respect. Yes, but in addition to extensive controller compatibility, I would recommend Live with it's live looping and sampling abilities, for actual live use over Cakewalk. So for live and studio use, you might want both. Nothing against Cakewalk, but it was not really designed for live use, although some do use it for that. Cakewalk works best as a recording studio, where Live is weak by comparison to a linear DAW, but it can be used that way. Just a matter of choosing the best tool for the job. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rsinger 77 Posted October 10, 2020 (edited) 18 hours ago, abacab said: From what I can see, the main drawback to Live is that it does not have a notation or staff view. 🤣 Considering it's called Live they don't have a way to specify that you want to record n number of bars of audio - you have to spend another $800 for push to do that. If you can live with one scene then you can use MSuperlooper. Zenbeats also doesn't support record n number of bars for audio. Both support it for MIDI. Edited October 10, 2020 by rsinger Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
abacab 1,844 Posted October 10, 2020 (edited) After FL Studio, and Studio One, Live is the # 3 most popular DAW in the world. Cakewalk made the list, at #8 this year. Guess free counts for something! According to Music Radar Edited October 10, 2020 by abacab 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paulo 1,956 Posted October 10, 2020 1 hour ago, abacab said: Yes, but in addition to extensive controller compatibility, I would recommend Live with it's live looping and sampling abilities, for actual live use over Cakewalk. So for live and studio use, you might want both. Nothing against Cakewalk, but it was not really designed for live use, although some do use it for that. Cakewalk works best as a recording studio, where Live is weak by comparison to a linear DAW, but it can be used that way. Just a matter of choosing the best tool for the job. Yeah, I was talking in terms of a DAW as a studio. Not sure that pushing buttons to trigger samples and loops is my idea of live either, but each to their own. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Magic Russ 333 Posted October 11, 2020 I was never able to get over how horrid the interface looked. I recently got a copy of this included with my ATOM and it did not stay on my machine long. I know Live has great capabilities but I was never able to mesh with it. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann 252 Posted October 11, 2020 I got this from splice and when I logged in to my ableton account to register it, there was a notice "Good news, a license for the latest version of Live Lite has been added to your account" For other people like me, getting this in order to get a free upgrade from a previous version (e.g., one that came bundled with hardware) - Check your account first, you may not need to get anything from splice 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kennywtelejazz 1,073 Posted October 11, 2020 (edited) 52 minutes ago, Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann said: I got this from splice and when I logged in to my ableton account to register it, there was a notice "Good news, a license for the latest version of Live Lite has been added to your account" For other people like me, getting this in order to get a free upgrade from a previous version (e.g., one that came bundled with hardware) - Check your account first, you may not need to get anything from splice this I'm glad I read your post . I have Live 9 Intro and after logging in I saw that Ableton had added Live 10 Lite w a serial number to my account . thanks , Kenny Edited October 11, 2020 by kennywtelejazz 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Starship Krupa 1,545 Posted October 11, 2020 4 hours ago, Magic Russ said: how horrid the interface looked Is that because of the "flat" look? The default orangey colors? I just installed it and poked around a bit and the UI got a lot prettier when I started adjusting the theme in Preferences. I'm interested to take it for a spin, and it will be fun to explore some of the further features of things like W.A. Production loop packs where they include Ableton Live templates and sample projects. Obviously, Ableton Live is a very happening DAW, but it seems like every program has its basic sillinesses. Two that jump right out at me are that it only allows the user to specify one VST2 folder, and no support for WASAPI. Really, Ableton? On the other hand, I was able to switch the driver mode from MME/DirectX to ASIO with the transport running, without a hiccup. I guess if your program was built with live performance as its basic function, audio engine stability is foremost. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pwalpwal 1,031 Posted October 11, 2020 15 hours ago, paulo said: For me the only thing it really has going for it over anything else is it's uninterruptible audio engine Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paulo 1,956 Posted October 11, 2020 1 hour ago, pwalpwal said: is it's uninterruptible audio engine I've probably never managed to be able to look at it for long enough to find that out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pwalpwal 1,031 Posted October 11, 2020 the gui is, for sure, different than the "mimic hardware" ui common in daws Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pwalpwal 1,031 Posted October 11, 2020 the gui can freeze - -normally a bad sign right - -but everything else just keeps going, including hardware controller stuff, it's the dogs for anything performed, er, live Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brian Walton 724 Posted October 11, 2020 18 hours ago, abacab said: After FL Studio, and Studio One, Live is the # 3 most popular DAW in the world. Cakewalk made the list, at #8 this year. Guess free counts for something! According to Music Radar Actually the list is of the favorite/best DAWs by the readers. I'm quite certain Live is more popular in terms of usage than Studio One. Personally not a fan of the GUI, but it is a good alternate DAW choice since it is effectively designed to work differently. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
abacab 1,844 Posted October 11, 2020 9 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: it only allows the user to specify one VST2 folder Which can be corrected by placing a shortcut in the VST2 folder that points to an alternate folder. For example, my main VST2 folder is: "C:\Program Files\VstPlugIns". So I created a shortcut in that folder to point to "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins", where all of my Cakewalk branded VST2 plug-ins reside. Live scans them all that way, by following the shortcut from the main VST2 folder. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
abacab 1,844 Posted October 11, 2020 (edited) 9 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: and no support for WASAPI. Really, Ableton? I was surprised by that too, although I have ASIO on my DAW. I had to use ASIO4ALL on my laptop which is RealTek audio only. I looked on the Ableton site and found this article in the knowledge base: https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003149240-ASIO-is-the-recommended-audio-driver-on-Windows Also found a 3 year old forum thread by the PC users in the Live 10 beta. https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=228482 They speculate that WASAPI may not meet Ableton's standards for latency. My observation is that WASAPI is a Windows only driver, where Live is cross platform with Mac, so it may not have as much priority with their devs for testing and QA. I mean, like Live just got VST3 support for the first time in version 10.1 last year, so QA for stability must mean something over there! Edited October 11, 2020 by abacab 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
paulo 1,956 Posted October 11, 2020 21 hours ago, abacab said: After FL Studio, and Studio One, Live is the # 3 most popular DAW in the world. 3 hours ago, Brian Walton said: Actually the list is of the favorite/best DAWs by the readers. I'm quite certain Live is more popular in terms of usage than Studio One. Also, popularity is always dependant upon who you ask and not necessarily a reflection of how good something actually is. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites