Of course, they are each suited to certain tasks. I just try to not be religious about any of them, like some folks seem to get. If you know what I mean.
I loved ACID, had it since it first came out, Vegas as well, back when it was just a multi track audio editor, before they went down the video path.
From my experience, I think Magix tries hard but most of the old Sonic Foundry software can be quite buggy which is why I left Samplitude, and all the old Sonic Foundry apps and moved over to being almost all Steinberg. I only use Vegas for the occasional video edit.
I forgot about Cakewalk. I know a few that still swear by it and have used it for a long time and still feel it works very well. The Gibson days were poor which is when I left my Sonar license in the dust bin. But I think Bandlab has done a good job of bringing it back up to date even if itās not at much development as the paid products get. But hey for free, it doesnāt hurt to give it a look.
@ClaudioPorcellana I donāt know why you donāt just get the full version of Ableton. it has a lot more going for it and you wouldnāt have to learn a new DAW layout. Well worth even for a Jammer.
Iāve used Cakewalk for many years but keep trying out other DAWs as Cakewlak does seem to suffer from periodic bouts of instability (possibly due to legacy code as it has been around for a long time?). Also it can be a bit of a beast to get your head around, but it is free from Bandlab with really comprehensive midi routing, and has some excellent fx plugins in the Sonitas range (a bit old but really good quality): and Scaler works well in it as do vst2 and vst3 plugins.
One thing I will add to this is that Bandlab keep issuing updates which suggests that they are actively maintaining the software.
Because it has a lot of stuff I will never use, like the Standard version BTW
My current workflow contains a few plugins and they are more or less the same
I am not a professional, so I donāt need everything
For example, Minimonsta has about 600 presets, while my preferred ones are just some dozenā¦
And this is the reason why I will never ever think to buy Omnisphere with its mega-gazillion of presets
Which Max 4 Live device was this?
I mean Max4Live addendum, needed to use the BBCSOdivisi Project, that is the sole reason why I bought it, but I had tons of issues with BBCSOdivisi Project, so I gave up (after a whole useless afternoon, not 15 minutes as you may think )
Max4Live does not run in the Standard edition. You need the full Suite for that.
So it seems, like always, you are exactly where you want to be. You have the DAW you like. Why do you think you need to change? I donāt understand it. It makes absolutely no sense to me. My advise as it has always been - Learn the DAW you have inside and out. It will do all you want it to do.
Good luck and Happy Jamming.
Thatās rational ā¦ If you auditioned the standard Omnisphere library and took 30 seconds on average to curate each one, it would take maybe 15 day at 7 hours a day to get through them
They have however, developed a very good instrument and genre based browser, but it also has āsounds likeā matching, which means you can be quite selective in your sound searches.
However, merely listening to them is not helpful because you will have forgotten what the first 3,000 sounds like on about day 5. Hence, you need to spend time to have some form of catalogue or structured notes to have best use of of it.
However, it is an amazing synth (just look at the film credits on their web site) and itās my āgo toā, along with DUNE 3. Plus, itās 8 part multi-timbral, so it cuts down the set up in Liveā¦
Because Ableton is not ideal for certain MIDI jobs
For example, to send the Scaler output to different channels (for my Garritan or BBCSO for example) I must drop tons of MIDI tracks in the middle, so that the tracks area becomes enormous
In other words: the only thing I dislike about Ableton is the complexity needed to drive orchestral plugins as my Garritan or BBCSO; Apart that itās perfect
SO, Iāll simply forget the orchestra theme for now
BTW, my preferred orchestra could be a very crazy one:
No one main bandleader, but some dozens of single bandleaders, just tied up (partially) by scales
No scores at all
No instrumentalists that know the music theory, read the scores, or play properly their hardware
The day Iāll be ever able to found that orchestra, Iāll call it The Madmen Jam Orchestra
5 years ago, I bought Komplete Kontrol Ultimate Edition, with some over 30k presets, and I am still discovering new presets every day. Itās actually fun, lots of replay value
Same with Arturia Analog Lab Vā¦ maybe I should get Omnisphere too, LOL
Any reason you havenāt tried Bitwig? I just spent 10 minutes with it and it seems to hit all the points you were looking for. Scaler can go on the same tracks as other instruments so routing is a breeze. @Bernd is the expert so he would know more. Seems cool to me.
But as I said the only reason I tried Max4Live and other DAWs was to find an easier way to route Scaler to the various BBCSO and Garritan instruments
Apart that, Ableton Live Standard is just fine, end even superabundant
I recently checked better the BBCSO Ableton Templates, and they are a good base, and a lot of clicks saved
Iāll just to add the same number of Scaler instances, and save my BBCSO Ableton-Scaler Templates, then I can start composing like Bach (Ouch! Not that easy )
They are still pretty big from a track count perspective and I have been looking at other ways to manage the midi if you donāt want 75 players in the orchestra.
It seems to me that a critical issue is whether you drive each section of the orchestra with a different midi source, or whether you want to split one or more sources and direct the midi to one or more sections based on some rule such as pitch or velocity.
Iāve been looking at ways to deal with the latter without having the totality of the templates, and plan to maybe post some ideas in due course.
You may find it interesting to look at this, as itās simple, but for a novice like me very instructive. BBC SO would fit with thus nicely.
ātryingā Bitwig isnāt ideal. The demo version is very limited and missing half that features that make it the most creative and progressive DAW available imo. Left Cubase 12 Pro last year and couldnāt be happier.
I would suggest you check out Polarityās videos on YouTube, particularly Note FX and generative workflow.
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