Audio Editing - Music Production

L

liamski

macrumors member

Original poster

Jan 14, 2007

98

3

• Apr 4, 2007

• #1

Hey

I produce music and am looking to do more re-editing of tracks - for example, taking old disco records, and extending / re-eqing them.

I'm relatively new to Macs and am looking for the most user friendly applications. At a guess, I reckon my choices are..

Logic
Protools
Cubase

However.... I'm sure there are more out there I should consider.

Any advice would be appreciated. Note that I am mainly concerned with audio editing rather than midi-type features.

cheers

 

epochblue

macrumors 68000

Aug 12, 2005

1,671

0

Nashville, TN

• Apr 4, 2007

• #2

I'm not much of a music maker myself, but have you considered GarageBand? Comes with your Mac, so it's definitely cheaper than Logic or Reason.

 

bmcgonag

macrumors 65816

Mar 20, 2007

1,077

0

Texas

• Apr 4, 2007

• #3

liamski said:

Hey

I produce music and am looking to do more re-editing of tracks - for example, taking old disco records, and extending / re-eqing them.

I'm relatively new to Macs and am looking for the most user friendly applications. At a guess, I reckon my choices are..

Logic
Protools
Cubase

However.... I'm sure there are more out there I should consider.

Any advice would be appreciated. Note that I am mainly concerned with audio editing rather than midi-type features.

cheers

Click to expand...

If you have all of the separated tracks, then I agree with epochblue...garageband will probably work fine for you. If you are wanting advanced features, I would go with logic pro. Will take you more time to learn, but not much more, but also not free. I'm not a huge cubase fan, so I can't give a fair eval of that one.

good luck with your hunt,

Brian

 

rhoydotp

macrumors 6502

Sep 28, 2006

467

75

• Apr 4, 2007

• #4

if you're going to use it for producing music, don't use garageband. it is low-quality (audio) and good for quick-takes & demos. i would consider getting protools or cubase but for a bit of a price. then again, you can write it off as part of your business, if you have one

 

WinterMute

Moderator emeritus

Jan 19, 2003

4,776

5

London, England

• Apr 4, 2007

• #5

Garageband will record at 44.1Khz, 16 bits, which is CD quality, if you have a decent pre-amp it's good.

For ease of use I'd say GB is a good starting point, but Logic Pro is overkill and way too hard to learn from a beginners perspective.

You might want to look at Logic Express however, steep learning curve but cheap.

 

zimv20

macrumors 601

Jul 18, 2002

4,402

11

toronto

• Apr 4, 2007

• #6

pro tools is still the king of audio editing.

 

bmcgonag

macrumors 65816

Mar 20, 2007

1,077

0

Texas

• Apr 4, 2007

• #7

don't use garageband. it is low-quality (audio) and good for quick-takes & demos.

Click to expand...

I disagree with your statement about the quality, the quality is great, maybe you just don't know how to use it properly. <---(you see how I just made a statement without really knowing what i'm talking about.)

As far as good for quick takes and demos, true, but also good for entire orchestrations.

I do believe it would depend on your input source instrument, and the other equipment that you use before the audio get's to garage band.

Brian

 

M

mongushu

macrumors newbie

Mar 5, 2007

13

0

• Apr 4, 2007

• #8

Ableton live, ableton live, ableton live.

It fits the bill for what you want to do so well, that it warranted me saying it three times.

Live has an incredibly intuitive interface and features that lend themselves to manipulating, remixing, and mashing. This seems like what you are interested in doing. Also, it doesn't require that you buy any hardware (as would be the case with Protools). At the same however, should you choose to use a midi device, the midi-mapping functions are brilliantly easy to use.

Its affordable, "reWire-able", and more importantly, an amazing creative tool. In my opinion, one of the best.

definitely try a demo before you decide!

 

quigleybc

macrumors 68030

Jun 17, 2005

2,966

0

Beautiful Vancouver British Columbia, Canada

• Apr 4, 2007

• #9

all the above choices are good, so I might as well throw Digital Performer 5 into the mix if for no other reason other than it's the only one unmentioned thus far.

Have you used any of the programs listed before? If so maybe just stick with it if you already have some knowledge of it and are familiar with the interface.

I prefer Ableton and Logic personally.

pretty sure most of these programs have demos, try em all, and trash the ones you don't like.