Software for Musicians

For MIDI, Logic controls the market. For audio editing, Pro Tools does (though M$ controls the PC market and that doesn't make Windows the best OS).

Logic may be more machine than you need, but if you want to produce tracks from start to finish, the soft-synths and soft sampler provided by Emagic are astounding.

I don't know anything about the Yamaha WX 5, sorry.

PM me if you have any questions. I love helping aspiring computer based musicians get a jump start.

Dan

Re: Software for Musicians

Originally posted by Squire
Hi.

I was just wondering if any of you can recommend some music-creation software or play-along programs for the Mac. I've heard that "Band in a Box" is cool but it apparently has some problems with OS X.

I'm thinking about buying a Yamaha WX 5 wind controller (kind of a saxophone-like synthesizer- anybody here have one?) and I want to edit MIDI stuff on my Mac and just jam to some tunes.

(I'm still in the very early stages of educating myself about creating music on a computer so excuse my ignorance.)

Thanks a bunch,

Squire

Click to expand...

If you're even slightly serious about wanting to create music, then I'd recommend Cubase SL or one of the smaller Logic versions.

As a beginner you really don't need the features of the bigger products. But SL will give you the room to grow and learn without emmediately reaching the limits of the product. It will serve you for a long time

I've been a Cubase user myself for the last 10 years, and although the SX/SL version do lack some features that the old ones had, I really really love the stability on OS X.

Reason is cheap, sounds great, and gives you lots of stuff to play with:

http://www.propellerheads.se/

Check out these forums too:

http://www.futureproducers.com/

I could do with some help as well. I know about computers (having a CS degree) but nothing about making music on them. First of all are logic and pro tools aimed at different markets/for different stages in the music making process or are they compeating products? Secondly I'm not sop intrested in electronic sounding music or the like, I'm a bassist in a indie/rock/punk band. I'd like to be able to hook my bass and band mates guitars etc up to the computer and record them and arange, edit and produce the results. The most important parts to record at the moment I guess. What software would I need/you recomend, and would I need and special hardware? I guess I'd need some sort of interface such as a guitar port to hook up the guitar/bass or do I just need a converter to convert the large jack of the bass lead into a small one like the audio in on the back of a mac?

any help is greatly apreciated.

How much money do you have for this?

One neat solution would be to buy Didigesign's Mbox:
http://www.digidesign.com/

This gives you some fantastic quality analog to digital hardware that you can plug instruments or mikes into, and a lite version of ProTools software to handle all the recording etc. ProTools is what the big studios use, you wouldn't go too far wrong with this.

You'll find that the audio in on your mac isn't the greatest audio quality - better to get specialist hardware like this.

Here is a new product that may be what you're looking for. The US-122 interface. It comes with software, but I'm not sure which. USB powered.

http://www.tascam.com/products/computer_recording/us122/index.php

Also, look at the Logic Production Bundle which includes the 6|2m, which lets you record and monitor playback through audio monitors. USB powered. But I have heard that Logic has a steeper learning curve compared to SX.

http://www.emagic.de/products/collections/emi62m.php?lang=EN

i see some music/midi titles at office depot and i wasn't sure if they would carry decent stuff for music since office depot is more about office software and some games...actually...he he, a lot of games

they should call it office and game depot

I'd suggest checking out a demo of Reason. It has lots of stuff to play with, can get you some pro results, and since it mirrors the functions of a hardware rack full of gear, it will help you learn the basic foundations of MIDI and audio recording, mixing and routing. And you can even control it with that Yamaha wind thing. If you decide after using Reason that you need more, I'd suggest checking out Logic and Ableton Live, both are wonderful and inspirational.
Reason: http://www.propellerheads.se
Live: http://www.ableton.com
Logic: http://www.emagicusa.com