I am a beginner at Orchestral. Made Pop-Rock stuff in Ableton & I found it just tailor-fitted to my hand. I always heard Logic, Cubase or Studio One to better at orchestral. I dipped my foot in the pond that is other daws, instantly got electricuted. There's always things I hate. I am very quick in ableton & know it quite well. I have decided I am not going to change DAW. Ableton is essential for me.

I have Cinematic Studio Series [Using it with DOT's CSS Script] & Paific Ensemble Strings, Royall Albert Organ & other libraries. Usually when I compose I find it essential to have the instrument hands on, which is quite easy for bass, drums or piano or synth. But, now I venture in Orchestral & there are articulations & that I get but still find it as hindrance. I tried SWAM & Total Performance Spitfire Violin but they cheap replacement of the feeling that I get when I play Garritan CFX Grand or Trilian Bass or SD3 Drums.

Also, Ableton doesn't have native keyswitching like Logic, thus I use each Articulation in seperate tracks. What features do you guys use that you find essential.

Also if anyone uses Ableton, I'd love some tips. [Fav. classical record - Solti's 2022 Remaster of the Ring]

 

Last edited: Mar 30, 2024

for your purposes you need the help of m4l gear in ableton. check out e.g. https://www.swub.de/de/software/keyswitch-expression-map-for-ableton-live/

 

I know about it, it's just not yet on the sister site.

 

I do not make Orchestral music. But I would look into the articulations in Art Conductor for both Cubase and Logic. There are both.

Art Conductor. https://www.babylonwaves.com. I just know people who like these things and use them. When I looked at it last time, I was nearly shocked to see that Ableton does not have any product available. It is Logic, Cubase, Studio One, Digital Performer and Cakewalk. Maybe you could figure out a way to use them with Ableton, but I saw that on their site a while ago and figured there was some reason. They have a product available for 5 daws but not Ableton. There is no Protools, but they have probably just tried Protools with Midi before.

If I wanted to learn that stuff, I am not sure if it would be better to learn more about Orchestral first. That would be using Logic. Or would it be better to just start with Cubase, because you are probably going to end up there anyway? It's not like another DAW software is going to screw with others. But it also may mean having to install 2 or 3 plugin format copies, of each plugin you install.

I might skip the plugin doubles, use Patchwork and dive into Cubase. There isn't really any reason not to. I would find something I could permanently stick with before putting the time into the wrong DAW. What about VSL ,are you using that? www.vsl.co.at

 

Last edited: Mar 30, 2024

That's my problem with Logic, I store most plugins in VST3 & I tried logic but even creating a new track is such bother in it. The speed advantage of ableton is not a sacrifice I wish to make. It takes seconds to insert effects & even chains of them, each of which is already set to provide a certain effect with the help of racks in ableton. In other daws even inserting a effect is painful to me.

I already use Dorico for compositions & scoring. The major problems are how to use these libraries to recreate what you hear on records. Like it's complex to create Double Stops or Chords like the beginning of Bach's Violin Sonata. It's far easier to re-create a Drum or Piano part but you have to go through loops to recreate same of strings. The issue isn't daw-specefic, it's just programming.

Also, my template isn't 800 tracks to rely on VSL yet. I like the logical editor in Cubase that can be set-up to nudge midi to fix latency but DOT's CSS script already does that for me. Cubase is also aesthetically very unpleasing to look at.

I'd still like to hear tips.

 

Last edited: Mar 30, 2024

Intrigued about the DOT script for CSS. What is that/how do you use it?

 

https://vi-control.net/community/th...her-features-1-8-now-with-winds.70174/page-31

 

sounds like you have a complaint about basically everything. here"s a tip then. don't bother replying

 

Aha, thanks. So can this be applied to Ableton Live or does it rely upon features found only in Logic?

 

Dude it's a Kontakt Script

 

I'd imagine for the thousands of dollars/euro's worth of software you have been able to "try before buying" over at the sister site, from DAW's to sample libraries in large large volume, you can probably find the money to buy the "KeySwitch & Expression Map for Ableton Live" and share it on the sister site in the spirit of reciprocity...

that would be the community thing to do anyways.