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What Pro-Level MIDI/Audio Tools Are You Using?
groovemaneuver asks: "Over the years, I've managed to build a small home-studio for composing and recording my music. The one component that has always been the biggest obstacle to my productivity has been the digital audio workstation. I started with a MIDI-only Atari, moved to a PC with Logic Audio, and now have a Mac with Logic Audio. The problem is that I seem to spend more time trying to get the software and hardware working than I do actually making music. I really love Logic Audio, but I can't stand the Mac. Surely some of you out there are having success on the PC making music. What are you using, and how much of your time is spent fiddling with your studio rather than making music? Is there Linux software that can reasonably fill the shoes of Logic, Nuendo, or Sound Forge?"
Propellerhead software makes a lot of really good stuff.
http://www.propellerheads.se/
Especially Reason. It may be expensive and non-free. But it can emulate audio hardware that you'll never be able to afford in your life. Technically it has infinite rack space. It may not be midi, but I know a lot of people who swear by it for making electronic music and remixes. It's cheaper and easier than actually buying the hardware, and it works almost just as well. If you have Rebirth Reason and Recycle you can make some really crazy shite.
For midi I hear Cakewalk is still numero uno. There's not much more to say there.
And for wav editing Cooledit seems to still be the best. My roomate has it and swears by it.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
At risk of making myself unpopular, the Linux apps just aren't there yet.
Of course, a Protools setup with a nice fat Mac would be preferable I'm sure ;)
Smegma.
CakeWalk Sonar XL - This is for MIDI and digital audio. Also has a great set of plugins based on DirectX. You can also use the VST plugins via a software adaptor.
Propellerheads Reason - An absolutely wicked piece of software used primarily for electronic music. But works great for "non-electronic" music as well.
I've had many instability issues with ProTools on the PC platform and wouldn't recommend it (on the PC that is).
Logic Audio is a great tool too, but is no longer supported on the PC. OTOH, I've always found Sonar more intuitive and easier to use for a home studio.
--is the noise in my head bothering you?-/muthanna.com/
I used to bounce between Sound Forge and Cool Edit, trying to decide which to use. Cool Edit was cheaper and seemed just as good, but Sound Forge was the de facto standard. I wound up opting for Cool Edit Pro for one huge reason - fast cut-and-paste editing. With Sound Forge, deleting 15 seconds of audio from the end of a 60-minute wav file is instant, but deleting it from the beginning of the sound clip requires that all data be shifted over by 15 seconds, which can take minutes. 90% of the work I do has do do with recording and copying/pasting, which Cool Edit Pro was far superior for. The rest of the time is spent normalizing and doing fades, which is the same for either one. I'm sure newer versions have been released and these concerns might not even apply any more, but I'm still using the version of Cool Edit Pro I purchased in mid-1998, and haven't had a single complaint or noticed any lacking features to date.
I use CoolEdit also, but you should be aware that the latest version of Sound Forge does instant deletes anywhere in a file.
I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants
Want a hassle free, no dickering with the technology studio? Get a turnkey solution. Any of the major music chains like Guitar Center or Sam Ash will sell you one. Additionally, you can go to Carillon Audio to get PC systems. They are the defacto industry standard. Even if you don't need a complete turnkey system, go to Carillon for the computer; they have components that work right for audio. When I switched to a Carillon system from a homebrew PC, all my tech problems went away.
As far as software, unfortunately, there is no Right Choice these days for PC. Now that Logic is Mac only, there's nothing really competitive left. You come down to choosing between limitations. Here's my breakdown of the major software kits:
1) Logic Audio. Best all around. Has very competent built in Score editor. Has very nice built in synthesizers (some for extra $$). Comes with the best, most comprehensive set of plugins. Its MIDI programmability is outstanding, and the integration with SoundDiver is very nice. Logic Control is top notch. Very customizable (also complex because of this), interface is cluttered compared to other programs. Will work with TDM systems, if you can afford it. A lot of people use Logic as a front end to DigiDesign (ie ProTools) hardware. Can't be beat for the price if you actually use all of the components. Note that many shortcomings compared to other programs have been addressed in the latest version (6.0).
2) ProTools. If you get LE, you only get 32 tracks. That's *mono* tracks; so only 16 stereo. If you're working with synths that make stereo output, this is a severe, cannot be overstated limitation compared to all other programs. To get around this limitation, you have to fork over for a TDM system, which is $5-$10K on the low end. Otherwise, LE is great pricewise because it's free with hardware, which is hard to beat. Best audio editing capabilities all around. Studio standard, and LE has full compatability with big studio rigs. Gotta watch for Mac/PC compatability (it's easy to do, but a lot of engineers don't even realise PT runs on PCs, so they never click the check-box. This has been a real PITA for me). No score editing, MIDI is mediocre, uses a different plugin format. Even the big rigs have pretty harsh limitations on inserts/sends per channel (5/5) compared to Logic (16/16). Cleanest interface (IMO). If you don't need the MIDI/Score/Synthesizer stuff from Logic, LE definitely has the best price/performance. Oh, and 6.0 supports ReWire, I understand, and 6.0 will be available for Windows in a couple more months, I guess.
3) Cubase. A real bear to configure. I still don't have it properly recognizing my audio hardware. I don't use it much because of this. It's got nice audio editing features, it has an interesting feature to link multiple machines together to run bigger projects (I haven't tried it, so I don't know if it really works). I've never tried MIDI with it, although there's no score editor. The interface is clean, but I find it very constraining. Logic is very customizable, and PT LE just works for me (so I don't care that it's not too customizable), Cubase's interface just grates me the wrong way and I can't fix it. So I wind up using Logic and PT LE. Also, I need missing features, so it can't replace Logic for me.
4) Nuendo. Cubase's big brother, it's expensive. Targeted at movie/tv/ maybe radio/post production houses. Never used it, but as I understand it, has lots of project management features. ProTools 6.0 TDM has a lot of these features; things like different logins for different engineers using the system, and remembering preferences for each one. Very useful in a pro environment, not so much at home. Otherwise, same general pros and cons as Cubase. Nuendo 2 and Cubase SX are based on the same engine, I think.
5) Cakewalk Sonar. Main plus: it's cheap, and works well for MIDI. Does have a score editor, I think. Does not support ASIO, whic
So many audio people, so little mac.
Anyway, everyone's pretty much mentioned the important stuff, but they left out Ableton Live. A pal of mine owns a license, and lets me play with it from time to time. Great little software package, and I hear it interfaces with the Propellerheads' Reason, though neither of us own Reason so I couldn't speak on the usefulness of that.
Also, search for Deck and Peak. They come in LE versions, for $99 at the Apple store (or cheaper online, if you dare to Google); while a lot of people will downtalk the LE versions (and I know you did ask about pro software), if budget is a consideration the LE versions work just fine.
- Cloud