Moving to Apple

Zona Mona

Zona Mona

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Yeah, I am gettong a Mac for school next year (the tech guy in the music department recommended one) and I am currently a Cakewalk HomeStudio user. Since this software doesn't work on Mac I need some suggestions as to what new software to get. I was looking at Cubase and Tracktion. Does anyone have any commentas on these or other recording software for mac? Also what about some soft synths?

Thanks for the help
 
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Garage Band will probably ship with the OSX software. I was thinking more along the lines of Logic, Digital Performer, Pro Tools. It really depends on your budget and recording needs, if you care to share them. Since you mentioned soft synths, I assume you'll be doing some MIDI work. DP 4.5 has worked great for me, very good for integrating MIDI and audio in one package.
 
RhythmRmixd said:
Logic, Digital Performer, Pro Tools.
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Agreed.

DP is absolutely fantastic when it comes to working with MIDI (editing MIDI events is soooo simple), and ain't too shabby for audio recording and editing, either.

I also have a friend who does a lot of synth-based music, and he swears by Logic. I've never used Logic myself but I trust his judgement ... so take that for what it's worth. :D

And yes GarageBand will come bundled with iLife. Ultra-simple operation makes it a fun toy to play with, and most of the loops sound great which makes it worth keeping.
 
Zona Mona said:
Yeah, I am gettong a Mac for school next year (the tech guy in the music department recommended one) and I am currently a Cakewalk HomeStudio user. Since this software doesn't work on Mac I need some suggestions as to what new software to get. I was looking at Cubase and Tracktion. Does anyone have any commentas on these or other recording software for mac? Also what about some soft synths?
Click to expand...

It pretty much boils down to Digital Performer or Logic, IMHO.

Personally, I'm using DP 4.5. It's pretty nice for what I do, but I use it exclusively for audio. I sort-of get the impression Logic has tighter integration for virtual instruments. (Having never used Logic, and having never used either one for virtual instruments, I can only go by what people have said about them.)
 
You can spend money or you can make music.

I prefer to make music and I use Tracktion!

This is the perfect time to download the Tracktion2 demo and see if you like it while they're still keeping the street date a secret. The release version will have a bunch more softsynths and the compressors the demo version comes with are some of the best I've used.

DP is a $795 list program - Tracktion's street price will be $150-$200...
 
ssscientist said:
DP is a $795 list program - Tracktion's street price will be $150-$200...
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MOTU has a very liberal cross-upgrade policy. I "upgraded" from an eight-year-old copy of Master Tracks Pro.... Master Tracks Pro hasn't worked on the Mac platform since Apple released Mac OS 9.
 
my budget will be a little strapped because it will be my freshman year in college, and i will probobly not get a job right away. My recording need are farly small, just me on guitar, sax and vocals. I use midi for drums and sometimes bass, unless i can get my hands on one to record with

that price for traction seems pretty good, i will have to check it out, thanks.

but does it come with soft synths? good ones?
 
logic comes in a few price points, and kills traction.
really, go for one of the big names.
 
dgatwood said:
MOTU has a very liberal cross-upgrade policy. I "upgraded" from an eight-year-old copy of Master Tracks Pro.... Master Tracks Pro hasn't worked on the Mac platform since Apple released Mac OS 9.
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To be fair, that's true. But Tracktion has many other things in it's favor, like a rabid on-line support community and a one-screen interface that's hard to pry away from.

Zona Mona said:
but does it come with soft synths? good ones?
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For the price the soft synths are very good indeed. V. 1 came with some softsynths that I found hard to program because of the lack of a GUI but that sounded good. Now they've got a list of freeware and shareware softsynths that go above and beyone the $150-$200 asking price for the package. Have you been to KVR Audio yet? They have many free soft synths for the downloading there.

giraffe said:
logic comes in a few price points, and kills traction.
really, go for one of the big names.
Click to expand...
He bases this not only on his exensive 'traction' experience, but also on the fact that he wrote most of the logic code back before Apple bought it. :cool:
 
The one thing I hate about Garageband is that it can't handle tempo changes.

I'd recommend Logic. It was very intimidating at first (steep learning curve), but I picked it up in a week or two. And since you're in college, you can get an educational discount. Logic Express Academic is $150. Logic Pro Academic is $499. That's 50% off.
 
Mac user here

Maybe I just didn't toy with it enough but I didn't like tracktion much. The one screen interface sucked because I'm running a laptop connected to a LCD. This meant unless I booted up with the screen closed, the program came up on my laptop screen only, and I couldn't drag it over. Maybe an easy fix, but sure annoyed me. Also the layout and graphics are a little cheesy.
 
dgatwood said:
MOTU has a very liberal cross-upgrade policy. I "upgraded" from an eight-year-old copy of Master Tracks Pro.... Master Tracks Pro hasn't worked on the Mac platform since Apple released Mac OS 9.
Click to expand...

Agreed - I picked up DP 4.5 for $145 upgrading from DP3, so they understand that faithful MOTU customers aren't going to be left hanging. Good about keeping their products sofware updated too.


ssscientist said:
DP is a $795 list program
Click to expand...

Who do you know that still pays list price? DP 4.5 is $499 at Sweetwater, and I've seen it cheaper than that elsewhere.
 
Zona Mona said:
does logic have a demo i can download?
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Don't know about Logic demos. I sort-of doubt it, since they use hardware copy protection. I think there was a deal for a while where you could buy some book and order a dongle with a limited time trial, but I get the impression that ended a couple of years ago.

For what it's worth, MOTU offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on DP if you're cross-upgrading from something. Not quite a free trial, but pretty close....
 
I swapped from PC with Sonar to a G5 with Logic at the beginning of the year. The G5 is great but Logic is clunky and difficult to figure out.

Id go with MOTU DP if I did it again !!
 
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