Ableton sound quality

What do you mean "lacks in sound quality"? Its as good as it gets...better question why do YOU think it lacks in sound quality?


I can assure you it is not the program, but perhaps your equipment. The subjective nature TASTE allows for multiple opinions on any matter. People argue daily over what the THINK is best, but the only thing that can be KNOWN is what is best for YOURSELF.

If you could elaborate more on your sound quality issue, I could definitely give you advice on how to fix it.. but I am afraid my orange is your blue in any case.

When it comes to DAWS, It is all about quality--but the only thing that really matters is the quality of yourself because Ableton,Logic,FL, Reason are only as effective as the minds that put them to good use.
 
When I say "sound quality" I mean it doesn't sound as crisp such as eqing compression etc. as it should in my opinion maybe its my mix but this only happens in ableton for me.
 
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This has always been brought up with Live a lot actually... I think they did something to 7 and it sounded better from what the users were saying...You ever notice the high quality button on, or option in some of the effects...

I used live since 5 but always been hot n cold with it, using other Daws when not...and my ears weren't really open...really started using it more seriously in 7...then 8 came and started using it exclusively...Well maybe Reaper for other tasks and USB work. I've never really noticed then, but others have... there's a chart on FP somewhere where it compares most of the major Daws.

People have said that once again Live 9 the quality is improved and sounds much better...

I've noticed my mixes slightly more sharper from loading my live 8 projects in it....only a tad bit not in a horrific nightmare destroyed my mix way.

What you are asking about is the summing engine....

here did the hard work for you.
Live Summing Engine

---------- Post added at 04:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:07 PM ----------

Found what I was looking for...This is a touchy FP subject...Triggers DAW wars because people like to think they're using the best of the best...but really its not noticeable at all or to most actually hearing it. I found the sample rate conversion comparisons...but I think there's another for the summing engine.

SRC Comparisons
 
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Ya, my DAW's summing engine sucks! It always comes up with 5 when i tell it to add 2 and 2 together!

All things being equal, daw's sound the same. DSP is a different issue, and that's generally to do with how you've set your preferences.

Maybe this will be of interest to you: A REAL DAW summing test - Cockos Confederated Forums
 
The problem is that a lot of people are eager to jump on the bandwagon and blame esoteric reasons such as this "summing problem" and looking at those SRC charts and not really understanding much about them or, in the specific case of Live, abusing the warping options and then claiming there are "sound quality problems". But hey, surely it can't be my amateurish mix! And so the case spreads on the internet like wildfire.

I'm not saying everyone's wrong (nor even that I'm somehow an expert on digital audio), just that what gets called out as a summing engine issue is often just a combination of misunderstanding and lack of experience with how Live (or any other program) actually treats audio. In other words, it is very easy to f*ck up your sound in Live; that doesn't mean it has quality issues. Not totally ruling out the possibility that there would be some issues, but they tend to be very very specific situations rather than overall problems with the audio engine.
 
krushing said:
The problem is that a lot of people are eager to jump on the bandwagon and blame esoteric reasons such as this "summing problem" and looking at those SRC charts and not really understanding much about them or, in the specific case of Live, abusing the warping options and then claiming there are "sound quality problems". But hey, surely it can't be my amateurish mix! And so the case spreads on the internet like wildfire.

I'm not saying everyone's wrong (nor even that I'm somehow an expert on digital audio), just that what gets called out as a summing engine issue is often just a combination of misunderstanding and lack of experience with how Live (or any other program) actually treats audio. In other words, it is very easy to f*ck up your sound in Live; that doesn't mean it has quality issues. Not totally ruling out the possibility that there would be some issues, but they tend to be very very specific situations rather than overall problems with the audio engine.
Click to expand...

Definitely my thoughts. I honestly didn't even think first of the summing engine. I would presume that any actual problem that would stem from this would be imperceivable to the average user (perhaps not 5+ years ago with older versions of live).

The chance you will come across this issue being a show stopper is extremely slim...its just that the potentiality for error is a conversation piece shouted among many (any sort of objective reasoning why A is better than B, mixing facts like this to assert an opinion). But the reality of it is that those who are concerned with problems such as these usually aren't accurate enough to fall victim to the inaccuracies.

And in the broader scheme of things, don't look at it as a negative. Rather a characteristic of our times. Looking back at analog recording in the 60's all of those nuances in the process are part of history and it didn't stop producers then. Just like 40+ years from now everything we are all doing is going to have characteristics and nuances that may even be laughable to producers then. Id just say look at a bigger picture and if an issue like that is inhibiting you from creation then just take a step back and think hard about it.
 
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I think Ableton sounds great. It's all about the musician's control over the software and not the software guiding the musician.
 
SRC in Live isnt good. But SRC in many DAWs isnt good and most decent producers will probably eliminate it from the workflow anyway. For example you should be exporting floating point files from Live, recorded material should be at the right SR etc.

So if someones process involves using lots of 44.1k audio loops that are just thrown into the DAW, then the SR of the DAW is gonna have a huge impact.
 
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MarcDHall said:
SRC in Live isnt good. But SRC in many DAWs isnt good and most decent producers will probably eliminate it from the workflow anyway. For example you should be exporting floating point files from Live, recorded material should be at the right SR etc.

So if someones process involves using lots of 44.1k audio loops that are just thrown into the DAW, then the SR of the DAW is gonna have a huge impact.
Click to expand...

What is SRC/SR?
 
There is nothing wrong with Ableton's or any other DAW's sound quality. They're all the same and yes this topic has been beaten to death on multiple forums. The most common mistake people make in regards to Ableton's "sound" is it's warping. Someone who is unfamiliar with Live's warping and places for example, an acapella and the warp algorithm is left on "Beats" then there would be an audible difference.

With all things being equal and warp mode turned off there is no audible difference in sound quality. It's all 1's and 0's.
 
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I think that ableton sounds great as well, it just depends how you use it, sure SR in Ableton is not that great but if you have a small editor just as adobe audition or soundforge you can perform the SR separately. But globally they need to improve that SR algorithm.
 
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