software

[thecrawlingchaos]

i haven never experimented with music making software before, can anyone suggest a good but inexpensive product i can purchase? I'm a real novice when it comes to pretty much anything involving computers.

[mdslammer]

I guess this all depends on your needs and expierence.

Are you asking advice on sequencer programs like Cubase, Nuendo, Sonor etc. or VST Samplers like HALion / Kontakt that use sampled instruments or the actual orchestral libraries themselves?

Mark Dalzell / AudioScapes
Las Vegas, NV

[theghostwalk]

The choice out there is far and wide, competition is actually pretty good in music software and hardware. I think try before you buy, so you can figure out what YOU want, everyone is different.
The two I would head straight for are: Reason 3 & Ableton Live 5.
Both of these can load in your own samples and play them.
Ableton will record audio, sequance midi, fx etc.
It will also take plug ins of other software, so you can use Reason, software synths and any other VST plug ins, Audio Units etc, inside Live itself.
Reason is like a studio in software, racks of fx, processors etc.

They DON't edit audio, but free audio editors are ten a penny.
www.ableton.de
Download a trial version just to have a look and play around.

Reason link below
www.propellerheads.se/index.cfm

Reason Also comes with big sample libraries of electronic & orchestral.
Logic and Cubase have always been good, Pro Tools is good too but I think not as intuitive as a lot of programs. This is why Ableton have done so well, they listen to their users and change accordingly.
Then you get onto the hardware you can plug in, where choice is just bewildering. I'll give you more tips on that if you decide to go buy something, Edirol I've used and like a lot (Roland with a different face)

Hope that helps a bit, any questions just ask, I've spent (wasted?) THOUSANDS on this stuff over the years so I feel your PAIN.....

www.theghostwalk.com/mp3two/theghostthatwalks_sadistic_theme.mp3

This was made using Ableton Live and the instruments inside, the samples are my OWN, not presets.

Check
www.theghostwalk.com/listen.shtml
For more examples of what you can do.

[oberheimwaves]

Hey.....you know another great route to checkout is some of the magazines floating around most likely at barnes and noble, books a million, you fill in the blank with your local bookstore....magazines like future music, computer music magazine...come jam packed with free vst's, samplers, samples, sequencer's, and demo versions of software to check out in a dvd with each issue....i think future music costs like 13.00 an issue and you get to be introduced to plenty of software you may or may not want to purchase then move on from there.

[theghostwalk]

Yeah, Sound On Sound has been a good source of articles/reviews in the UK for many many years. You will learn a lot from them too, as they do beginners articles as well as in depth stuff. Reviews in Future Music sometimes tend to be a little biased, but Oberheimwaves is right you get a lot of demos and free stuff to play with. Pretty much all the main audio/sequencing programs will let you run Ableton Live & Reason inside the program itself. Whatever you choose, it's all personal preference. These programs can't afford to be crap because the competition is too heavy.

Quite a few bits of hardware you buy (like usb/firewire audio interfaces) come together with sequencer/audio program & free plug ins (cut down versions of Ableton Live & Reason come with Digidesign MBox 2 as well as Pro Tools, fx and processing tools on top as well.)

M-audio have interfaces with Live 5 bundles , look for them on the ableton site.

To give you an idea a big chunk of the Prodigy's last album was written using Reason. Then processed (I think) in Pro Tools.

www.theghostwalk.com
The Ghost Walks With You....