What sequencer do you guys/gals use?  I’ve used Cubase, Logic, seq24 (linux), and now I’m thinking of switching to Ableton Live.  Anybody have any experience with it?  I hear it’s quite simple and intuitive.

There’s always a big discussion about sequencers, there’s the logic crowd, claiming that
logic is the very best sequencer around… on the other hand there is the cubase fraction,
complaining about the “difficult to understand and use” structure of Logic. Now there are
also people searching for alternaitves, and try new or other sequencers…

Personally I think that this discussion is not necessary. I’ve started with mod-trackers a
very long time ago, later bought cubase, then I saw logic at the studio of my friend and liked
it very much… and now I can use both in a satisfying way.Talking about Cubase and
Logic, I think they are almost the same, practically I could do the same with both.
The only main difference is the way you work with each sequencer.
So I think you should use the one you feel most comfortable with, a sequencer that
supports the way you normally work and think. You should use the sequencer which
gives you the best possible workflow, the one that is most compatible with yourself
and the realization of your ideas. For me, this would be Logic, but there is no
“Logic is best” (neither do I have a mac).
The question is, best for what? Well, for YOURSELF! I know people doing amazing stuff
with Reason and stuff like Fruityloops, it’s all a matter of taste and the way you’d like to
work. So stay true to yourself and find out what’s best for you. There’s no quality
difference in sound using nowadays major sequencers (although every sequencer has
its unique sound characteristics)...

Unfortunately I don’t have any experience with Ableton, but anyway, my opinion is just to
find out who you are, what you want and which things serve best for your needs - this
is an universal rule applicable to all things in life!
So just check it out…

Greetz,

mux

I spent some time with Live last night… so far I’m really impressed.  It’s very intuitive and has some excellent effects.  It’s quite different than Cubase, Logic, Cakewalk/Sonar, etc.

I agree that with most modern sequencers you can do the same tasks - the difference is the path to get the results you want.  I’ve used Cubase, trackers, Linux sequencers, recently Logic, but I would argue that for some types of music some sequencers ARE better than others for doing certain things.  For example, I doubt Live would be the sequencer of choice for a country act, although you could easily write a country song in Live.  The differences are subtle, but they do matter.

...but I would argue that for some types of music some sequencers ARE better than
others for doing certain things…

Yes, I think so, too. I can’t exactly generalize which sequencer is best for each genre,
you have to find out by yourself again. I think that trackers for example had a very “linear”
character, just like all stepsequencer-things. If you want to do straigth and ongoing stuff,
this is not necessarily bad. But talking about ‘real’ sequencers,  I find logic useful for
modulation of all kind, since I like the way it handles the automation data. But again, this is just
personal taste, and the perception of each sequencer’s character and its use
would be different if I was another person.

So I’d also say that I tend to choose different sequencers in order to do different styles, but
maybe this is just paranoia… 

Greetz,
mux

ready for this one?

FLSTUDIO!

haha. seriously. we are all up on the FL tip…

i’ve messed around with logic a few times, as well as reason… but FL is just so fluid and it’s really flexible.

people always give us crap for it…

but they can go…

eat my shorts.

haha.

- two

I used FL for years and thought it was great.  I just wasn’t too keen on the MIDI implementation because it gave me the gears with my external hardware so I switched back to Cubase (this was way back though, like v3.5, it’s probably much better now).  To this day I still can’t write drum patterns as easily as I did in Fruity though.. I miss that.

You could still write your drum patterns in FL, export them as audioloops, and integrate these
into the sequencer of your choice… guess ableton would be really nice for such loop based
stuff,  don’t know it that much, but at least this was my impression when I first saw it… the
only disadvantage is that you will lose flexibility in editing the drum sequence directly using
such pre-rendered audio loops. Well, you could slice it and load it into your sampler
as a drumset, but then again, it would miss your aim to create drum patterns the easy way.
Anyway, this becomes a little bit off-topic, because it is about sequencers rather than about
drum-sequencing techniques.

so just keep experimenting, and find one path in a million.

mux

Re: sequencers

[quote author=“ckm000”]What sequencer do you guys/gals use?  I’ve used Cubase, Logic, seq24 (linux), and now I’m thinking of switching to Ableton Live.  Anybody have any experience with it?  I hear it’s quite simple and intuitive.

Try using a Alesis MMT-8 and see what you can do with it..
They are brilliant and I used them for about 16 years..They are so good that Orbital relied on them for tourng through the early 90’s right up till at least 1999..

The hardware sequencers force you to use your ears rather than looking at the screen..So you get more into your tracks and actually “hear” what your doing..

But, since you asked about Ableton..In tried it a few times and it wasnt for me, BUT thats because Im a hardware sequencer type..I tried Vision in the 90’s and it was ok, and then I tried Cubase and liked it much better than Live. Cubase is somewhat like Vision in a way..
My mates use Live and they love it..And the staff is very supportive and cool, something you dont see with many companies…Plus one of the employees there likes my records, which is cool as he hooked me up with a limited edition (50 only made) shirt!
Cool cats they are…

Another sequenzoor…

I recently stumbled on a thing called ‘Energy XT’, which is rather unknown I guess. It is a one
man project, coded by some very nerdy guy.
It is a modular environment with integrated sequencer, with full ASIO and VST support. Don’t
get fooled by its simple looks, this proggy is a secret weapon. It meets nowadays sequencers
sound standards easily and is utmost flexible and easy to use - as long as you are
familiar with signal flow and manual routing. If you are not, maybe this is not for you. You can
try a demo which lets you save, but not load again. If you like it, go and buy it. The full version
is highly affordable and it is worth every cent - you simply won’t get a better software for the
money, and you won’t feel bad at all supporting Jorgen with his very nice project.
For me and all you modular freaks out there this proggy is just pure pornography… whoaa!!

Check it out at  

Greetz,
me