Vegas Pro vs. Pro Tools, Cubase,...

B

Bloodbought

New member
yo wussup everyone. feels good to be here again. 3 years back i studied most of yalls input, and been out for a minute. im back and on fire to increase my knowledge of this industry. from da jump i preciate what yall have done, are doin, and will do for my attempt to prosper in this game. peace.. Ive returned to my studio and this site and found im behind, way back, know im sayin. dropped a single album in a "big time" studio last week and wasnt feelin it from jump. i need, my time..., with my music..., know im sayin. i know this has been asked but i guess im searchin for more. im workin with Vegas Pro, AKG3000b mic, Lexicon Core2 24 bit soundcard, and a dbx386 preamp. I will have my final mixin done in Florida. I just licensed my independant label to push Christian Rappers, includin myself, out. I need a home studio to record that will be worthy of puttin it on the shelf. Can u help? If its necessary to limit my budged, lets stop at 5-10g's. Thanx. Peace
 
This, like most Gear X vs. Gear Y questions, is really just personal preference, and most people haven't tried enough different products to make qualified opinions. The best you can do is figure out the features you need and features offered in the competing software. You can also visit each specific user site dedicated to the particular software, like www.sonikmatter.com for Logic, or the Cubase forum here, to see what current users are complaining or raving about.

To get you started, here's my opinions:

Protools: easiest solution since you just buy Digi 001 and you get your hardware/software package ready to go out of the box- at least in theory. Downside is you pretty much have to use their hardware which may not be the best for the money. Also, MIDI support in Protools is pretty limited.

Cubase: probably the best all around solution. Comprehensive midi and audio support. Last I looked, though, seems lotsa users were complaining about stability problems.

Logic: mac only. Supposedly steep learning curve, though this is what I use, and haven't found it to be too bad. It doesn't have the ability to mix the mutiple tracks down to stereo without actually playing back the whole song. This can be no big deal at times, and a complete pain in the ass at others. I bought it when they were supporting PC and now wish I had cubase.

Vegas Pro: could be wrong, but I think this has basically no midi?

Cool edit(hey don't forget cool edit!): don't know much about except whenever I hear someone say something about, they're raving, not complaining.

Hope this helps, and you really should've posted this thread in the "Computer Recording" forum here. Try searching that forum with something like "pro*tools AND cubase AND vegas"
 
I've tried Logic and Use Vegas- the lack of MIDI is not a problem; I use Cakewalk for MIDI.

Vegas just works intuitively for me. Likewise CW 6.01.
 
Nothing beats vegas for mixing (software-wise).

Pro Tools for editing and compatibility.

Cubase or sonar for midi.

Cool Edit for bang/buck ratio.
 
if you are working primarily on audio, vegas will do you just fine. Its interface will let you concentrate more on the music than some other apps I would think...but any of them will do. Just use the one you find most comfortable

I hope my Vegas bias isnt showing :)
 
Final mixing done in Florida? Yeah, you can use anything, really. most of the programs are essentially the same until you get into the esoteric stuff that you don't use every day. If the mixer is using different software than you, you'll have to figure out how to get your tunes into their program. If all else fails you can export your edited tracks one at a time and your mixer can just line them all up in whatever he's got.

It doesn't take a hot program to get audio to the disk. If you have Vegas, why not just keep it? Learning to use well what you have will get you far.

You've got a high budget for a home setup. That's dangerous in a way, because you can spend a lot of money and NOT get the result you are looking for- i.e. quality enough to "to go on the shelf." You're going to have to choose which avenues of spending you want to pursue, and I'd suggest taking it slowly. Upgrade one thing at a time and live with it for a while before moving on to the next.

Check in with the "Studio Building" forum and see what they are talking about. A LOT goes into building good spaces in which to place a mic and a sound source. If you can get a decent room where you are recording you are instantly several steps ahead of 99% of the rest of us home rec'ers. You can also spend your entire budget and only get part way there, if you aren't careful.

Rap, Hip Hop, and R&B are all focused heavily on the vocals. You'll probably want a high grade signal chain for recording vocals. Great vocal mic or two? Great preamp or two? Class A A/D convertor? You've easily eaten up your budget again.

The single most valuable thing you can give yourself is time using your equipment. Drop $800 of your budget on monitors for your current system, quit your job, and use the rest of your budget to live on while you experiment, play, and work with your equipment until you know exactly what it can and can't do. You'd pobably end up sounding way better than if you had spent that much on equipment. And have a much better idea of what you need to sound better.

Take care,
Chris
 
PipelineAudio: thats a relief for me man. appreciate it cuz i know vegas pro in and out now. if it can do what i need to do as far as importing music, bet! plus i could channel money elsewhere,

Chris, good lookin out man. that's real. Florida is a connect the Lord more or less dropped on me. Gotz some people down there workin for Gloria Estefan willin to help me mix and master. they will just mix the track levels as far as volume. they won a grammy 2 years ago as a engineering studio and do some work with southern rappers. I trust their skillz you know? thats all thats about. on the info u provided, thats strait cuz my anxiety tends to make rash decisions that hurt me in the long run. im tryin to set this up right. the budget is how deep im willing to go at this point to make "on da shelf" music. I understand your advice though. I got 3 artist and 2 beat producers standin by to make somethin happen so this is also an investment for me, know im sayin! we aint tryin to pay a studio on somebody elses clock cuz for one im a perfectionist with my music and whatever represents my purpose. I could eat up 20 - 30+ hours on a song if i wanted to! When that happens my pockets aint deep enough, know im sayin! but yo thanks man. I think i got the sound proof space on lock. Purdue Acoustics "world's #1 soundproofing manafacturer" (notice quotes) is based in Amarillo. Im in tight with them so they are helping. My hardware is all im worried about. Mic?Mixing Hardware (or software)Preamp.... Aight ya'll Peace.
 
For hip hop, I would seriously think about Sonar. It has great MIDI, audio processing, and looping tools (many of which are as good or better than ACID's). It's less expensive than a lot of it's competition as well.
 
Okay, I'll jump in. Most of the sofware platforms mentioned here are of solid reputation. My choice has been Cubase, and that was based, at least partly, from someone who has produced/recorded major label recording acts, had used a number of them (including Pro Tools), and voiced Cubase as his favourite.

Yeah, a lot of people complain about stability issues. A few important factors to keep in mind here, though, are:

- word has it that the cracked versions crash WAY more often than legit versions, for whatever reasons. Most of the legit users don't gripe about stability issues. I've been using it since VST 3.6, and stability has not been an issue for me.

- ANY software application can have issues in ANY hardware environment. Is your audio card getting along with your video driver, the motherboard chip set, and all those other things? Does the brand/model of processor you're using get along with....? I had WAY more stability issues with Microsoft Office than with Cubase. The problem there, was that Office did not get along with my Corel WordPerfect suite on the same machine. You get the idea.

- The hardware system you have needs - for any software application that is demanding on it - to be in good health and optimized as much as possible for what you are doing.

Hope that helps some.

Word out....

Chris
 
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