Reason 4 VS Ableton Live 7

 

So I get asked this question quite a bit from aspiring and starting programmers, ” what should I get, Reason or Live?”  So I thought I might take a stab at addressing some of the pro’s and con’s of both as I see it.  I by no means claim to be an expert, but through trial and error, I have determined what makes the most sense for me as a programmer and drummer.

Reason 4:

This is the latest installment of Reason, the wildly popular music creation software.  The concept is that you have a virtual rack that you can then add different rack mounted instruments and effects units to create midi based music.  If you have been around music for a while, and understand signal flow to some degree, the interface is somewhat intuitive.  The scope of Reason is all encompassing from a music creation perspective, so not only can you use it to program beats, you can use it to create every instrument in the band.  I programmed an entire record for someone using Reason, I did all the drums, bass and keys on the record using it.  As a programmer from the drummer perspective, I like Reason because I think it comes with pretty decent stock sounds already that you can use for creating beats right out of the hat.  Some of the sounds are individual instruments, and some are preset loops.  I like the interface, and the usability of the program.  Where it falls short to me is incorporating Reason as a live instrument on stage, meaning, actually playing the beats that you have created from the program during a live set.  It seems like it was really created more as a creation software, not really a playing software.

Live 7:

This software hails from Germany, and was created out of the rave scene in Europe.  DJ who were doing really long sets of playing beats needed some kind of software that would interact and be as flexible as  turntables.  So the concept is, there are 2 side to the program.  One is the Clip page, which looks like a large grid where you can load many different audio clips into the program, and then through some pretty amazing algorithms, you can play those clips at any tempo at any time, and fire them off and have them come in on the next downbeat.  Brilliant in my perspective.  Second is the Arrange page which acts more like a conventional, linear recording software, like pro tools or logic.  This is a feature that Reason does not offer.  Live somes stock with quite a few, really good sounding plug ins, then they offer a ton of great combos, chains of plug ins that developers have created to really creep out and wack out your sounds.  Live is the ultimate software for playing loops and sequences because of the design of the software.  On the creation side of things, it does offer 3 instruments that come stock with the program.  Between these 3 you can do drums sounds which do come with the program, and some synth stuff as well that allows you to do keys, and guitars. The creation side of things seems to be a little clunkier than Reason, but you can still get it done.

So here is my conclusion:

I use both…… maybe not what you wanted to hear.  I actually use quite a few different programs to create, my theory, the more weapons in your arsenal, the better. But not matter what I use to create audio files with, I ALWAYS PLAY THEM WITH LIVE! That is the only program I trust to open on stage with me when I play because of how well it runs.  It was designed specifically for that.   So if you had to buy one program as someone who plans on using the software to create, and then play the audio as well in a live situation, I would vote for Live.

Again, I don’t claim to know everything about both of these programs, but these are my findings as a working programmer and drummer.  I hope it helps in some form or fashion.

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~ by drummingideas on January 4, 2008.