I use ableton. I dont have any experience with the other programs but I have taking a liking to ableton.

The bridge feature is also nice.

Also it took a while to understand the program but now i can put mashup out in like an hour.

What are you trying to accomplish? Making Beats, Mashups, Remixes Edits, Dj live with it?

Altho i do use ableton I still gig with turntables, and sometimes with an APC 40 and the bridge but nothing will beat TT for me as far as gigging out. Altho it is def possible to do a whole set in ableton launching clips

Logic. I love it
then i run NI plugins mostly

i got mpc2000 is 98 and upgraded to the XL MCD in '05.
love it and bought a spare just in case.
i understand the theory of midi but i cant wrap my head around it...
i just recently got ableton and the apc/midi controller but coming from pro tools and only using PT as a recorder, ableton has got me fucking lost due to the differences in the work flow bW the 2.

but im sample heavy so its vinyl and the mpc for me

Tried FL, Reason, Acid and Cubase, settled on Ableton. It has a great learning curve that I found easier to digest than the others

Its all about workflow though these days as they all pretty much do the same thing - and none of them are 'easy' if you're starting from scratch

Ableton, various VSTs, Native Instrument Maschine.
Great worklfow.

Ableton + my Axiom25 replaced my MPC. Still have it but rarely use it anymore.

As for using FL Studio, you can load it as a VST into any host or even use ReWire to mash em together.

Ableton has the best of both worlds MiDi and pure audio, i always had troubles with samples and stretching in FL Studio. I still prefer the FL Studio piano roll though, i hate the ableton makes it so small.

Reason all day.

Ableton Suite. I think because the way it works is so similar to how I used to put tracks together when I was producing back in the 90's. Roland drum machine + sequencer + a couple synths...

Really Yoshi look into NI Komplete...use a MASCHINE for your brain and record into Ableton...Ive tried doing production in ableton and its not organic enough for my tastes plus the sound set is too limited. With the tools in Komplete I can add on forever or chop for days like on an MPC with MASHINCE.

Ableton. It does everything I need. I used to use MOTU's Digital Performer, but it was a pain. Then I tried Cubase but essentially it was the same thing. I ended up staying with Ableton Live because it works great for making mixes (back then only a handful of DAW's had warping abilities), and it's a piece of cake once you get past that WTF moment when you first open it.

Reason rewired through Ableton + a whack of VST's.

mpc2000xl
yamaha motif
korg triton

just got comfortable using that setup for like the past 10yrs.. its really time to step it up to software tho.. gotta do my research and find something im comfortable using..

ableton + 3rd party VSTs.

If I were to start over today, I'd probably seriously consider Logic just cause the price has come down so much. When I first started, Logic was $1000 and now it's $200 and I think it's still one of the best sounding DAWs out there...

Ableton is great though and I'm probably going to stick with it...

Ableton Live :)

Got a Mac, so cant use FL anymore, found Logic Pro to be a bit overwhelming and my workflow was snail like..

Now that I work for Serato, Ableton Live has become even more important for me as I have started messing with the The Bridge. For some reason it just seems to work for me, and I think its about time I just stuck to one platform and got to know it inside out.

Ableton Live is real quick and easy to make mashups/remixes etc too!

Hardware: MPC2000 and an SP1200 because of the way it sounds . I use ProTools to record with an M-Audio ProjectMix.
Sometimes I use Logic, because it's so quick to put down an idea and if it's maxed out with all the sample libraries you have tons of instruments/sounds.

I use Logic for production + lots of third party AUs
I use Live for quicker things - edits, mixtapes, mashups, etc.

When I get back home I will dedicate 1 week to testing out all of what you guys have suggested..
My biggest problem is workflow... software..these days = ROBUST and some aren't as intuitive as others...I have to click for DAYS to figure out where sh** is... I don't really do much when using protools except recording... then I use mastering tools so it's not like I have to do a whole bunch of manual editing...
I was just so used to hardware... but seeing/hearing people that are comfortable with Albeton, Logic, FL Studio.... they can resample, chop up, knock out a beat in like 10 minutes.

Ableton For me too, the work flow is just so easy. You can learn it in a few hours off free tutorials on youtube.

Its perfect for mashups and edits which can be done in minutes. I also like the bundled synths these are very flexible.

I am on the same tip as hydromatic, I use maschine to sketch out what I am going to do, then i bus out the individual tracks into ableton to do my sequencing and effects... it's kinda weird though... its like 1/2 of my work flow i need the tactile feel of a MPC/Maschine but the other half i need the visual organization of Ableton... I also have komplete 7 and anyone on this thread can tell you... NI has the BEST standard library of sounds... And with their browsing options in machine, everything is laid out and organized.. Ok i am gonna stop.. Sounding like a huge NI fanboy right now.. -_- lol

honestly I hate the layout in NI products...BUT it is the MOST usefull...I really dove in one the machine added scrolling of all the programs right in machine...

BMORE huh...ill be PMing you

@ DJ Yoshi, in the first week mess around to find the one with looks/feel/sounds that appeal to you.

Once you decide, stick with it! It is time consuming to jump from program to program, simply trying to learn how to do the same things but in a different program. You wanna nail down what you like and get intimate with it asap, any other time you spend trying to learn other programs is time wasted that you could have been making beats in my opinion :)

I personally wish I settled on Ableton Live a lot sooner!

yosh, there are lot of programs that you can use to mix your productions, programs to create and programs that do both.

i came from an mpc and today's music production can be exactly like the mpc days or more modern.

the mpc workflow is fun, but it is time consuming and inefficient. over the years i tried to figure out what workflow was best and i came up with the following: DAW + Midi Keyboard + Midi Pads

The DAW can be your choice. You have Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools, Sonar, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Reason and others. Some are more powerful and feature friendly than others. I have used all of them so i can say you will definitely prefer one over the other.

Ableton Live and FL Studio are the two contenders that i will say have the most creative potential. The workflow in Ableton let's you experiment and try out different ideas and sounds very fast without a lot of setup or switching windows. The layout and workflow in FL Studio makes music making extremely fast and fun. I was skeptical at first of FL Studio because i thought it was kiddie shit. Somebody on YouTube suggested that i give it a shot. Now i am a FL Studio convert. I highly recommend trying it.

My current setup is Cubase, Kontakt, Battery, Reason, Ableton Live, FL Studio and my some super secret decoder-ring soft synts.

Sony Acid Pro/Sound Forge (sometimes Vegas Pro) and a Roland MC-307 (that's seen better days).
I dont do serious music production but i do an animations for Youtube that feature my own music production. I record synths from my 307 into Acid Pro and arrange them on the multi track timeline. Acid Pro is an easy to use sequencer where you can import sounds or songs into your projects and apply FX and such. One of my friends, who has a studio, gave me the Waves diamond VST plugin bundle, which i might add, is VERY nice.

this is probably the best bet... there's a lot of parity in DAWs these days. Even though certain programs do some things better than others, every program has strengths and weaknesses so it really depends on what you want to use it for, and ultimately how you like to produce music...

Agreed! ^ you could spend forever milling over the ups and downs of each program, but you aren't making beats any faster by doing that!

ableton and FL

I'm the dumb a** that went FL Studio for home production and went Ableton for my macbooks since they're always with me.

Since i'm hardly ever home I think the FL studio part was the (I feel the need to have production software other than pro tools on that machine)....
thanks for your input everyone...hopefully I can knock out some hot sh**...
and now... time to mess around and learn.

from FL (a very long time user) to logic and acid pro for the simple edits , why ? coz thats all im master and im too lazy to learn others LOL, but im seriously consiering bigwit

*considering

*Bitwig

ah yes another typo T_T

you should be able to use ableton on both your pc and mac and use project files fo both - you just have to make sure you have the same VSTs installed for both computers...

LOgic Pro 9 is really cheap now, I agree with whoever said get a Maschine and Komplete 8, although I got a Maschine Mikro, having used both there isn't much in it. I have a stack of waves plug ins which are great and that is about it. I try and play a few things, then mess about with them to generate sounds. Logic has great synths and presets and Komplete will give oyu everything else you need.

I've got Logic and Reason and some other stuff but Ableton was the one i stuck with. it took a while to get my mind around it but once i did, it's like second nature. the gui appeals to me. it works with all the major vsts. it's flexible. it sounds good if you know how to use it. i do tons of edits.. maybe 15-20 a week... plus bootlegs and remixes and stuff. it's pretty solid. the Machine sounds dope for MPC guys but now that i've gotten into Ableton, i'm sticking with it.

Ableton! I love it. Ableton is the only D.A.W I know you can use to remix videos!

sony vegas can do videos,acid pr can do videos,windows movie maker can do vides ................. i can do ms paint LOL

Your right! BUT for an all in one remix, produce and master make it look good 1 stop solution yes I will go with ABLETON

Plus only one mentinoed that works with mac is ...ableton

Every time I got to render a video in ABLETON it crashes...whats your secret?

i still dont get how you mix with video in ableton does anybody have a tutorial or something they can forward to me

iMac with a lot of ram



Import a video from say YouTube or whatever. Import it to ableton in session view. A separate window will open for the video and the audio will be on the timeline. If you have an acapella for your video and let's say a instrumental that you want to use. Match them up on the timeline warp them then mute the original track and boom you have a remixed video.

i7 8 gigs...still crashes...now whats your other secret?

IDK kid my Ableton don't crash

which version and how are you rendering...

i dont quitte get it what if i want to use bits and pieces from different videos?

Check this dude out look at the post that made him famous
m.facebook.com!/VjElite?v=feed&__user=0

Ooops! Here you go www.facebook.com