[Loud]

I'm not quite sure where to look for help, but I'm sure that this place can get me started with the pretty wide variety of creatives here.

I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience in making music? I got a new system now I'm looking for the right software. One I'm looking at is Propellerhead's Reason (www.propellerheads.se )which has pretty much what I'm looking for, but I'm rather inexperienced at this end of the software spectrum. Does anyone have any opinions or preferences as to this type of software? I don't even know what to call it.

$400 bucks pretty good investment, but before that, any help?

Thanks!

[[Shizo]]

I use FruityLoops ($100), Hamster uses Buzz (free)..
If i were you, i would get demos and shareware of major software, testdrive it, and choose for yourself.

G'luck.

[balistic]

I've been making digital music for close to ten years now. I currently use Orion. Give it a try. There's a demo. Cheaper than Reason, and more extendable
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[Impaler]

buzz tracker
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QED, sort of.

[Giant Hamster]

You're as we call, a newb...Don't use Buzz. Use something more standard/basic/generally layed out such as Fruity Loops for now.

I'd actually have to say against using Reason aswell for it's low quality in most aspects and puffed up to look like more than it really is.

FruityLoops on the other hand is much more versatile and has a more typical layout for a software program. Would be easier to sink into...

ALSO! If you want to move on to bigger software afterwards moving from Fruity To Buzz or Logic is much easier than from Reason/Orion/Cubase, etc to Buzz, Logic or another piece of software.

Fruity might be all you need. If you ever come to the point where you decide you need more - Then BUZZ TRACKER is your next step.

Buzz tracker - simply put - is amazing once you put a little bit of logical thinking in your head. It's not a stupid-person's program. If it's not working, it's your fault. :D

[Giant Hamster]

Ohyeah, and just to answer your question on what to call it:

Soundforge, Cool Edit, Goldwave, etc = Audio Editors.

*Buzz Tracker, Aero, Psycle, etc = Modular Trackers.

Reason, Rebirth, Sidstation, etc = Hardware emulation synths. They try to be hardware...but they usually fall short and really only look kind of like it and sound even less like it...

Fruity Loops = A soft-studio or Virtual studio as some like to call them.

ACID = Multi-Track Looping software, as it simply loops sound files. That's really all it's good for...but even at that - it's damn good at it.


*Buzz is also labled as a true full-fledged Soft-Studio because it contains all of the items listed here aswell as more and some unheard of or hard to find things and synthesis types. To name a few of the more odd items: SID synthesis, ZX Spectrum(none of the audio clicking typically found in ZX spectrum synthesis either), Granular, FTT Block-based Effects(Smear, Weed, Contrast, Sparkle, Liquify, non-harmonic Frequency shifting, phase randomization, etc), Buffer override/sample-n-hold, and some effects that don't really even have names for their processes.

Another neat point about Buzz is the fact that anyone can make a new machine for it...and people do. about 10 or more machines came out or were updated in april.

Anyways, as you can tell I like buzz. :D Enough rammbling...I've filled up two large posts.

[[Shizo]]

I don't believe it.. Hamster doesn't hate FL anymore?!

Actually i've been doing some poop in FL recently that isn't half-bad. I'ma doing lotsa hiphop now, and hopefully get to the point when i can sell it off my website.

[Giant Hamster]

I don't hate FL, never have - I hate the users who think it's the best program on the planet. It's not. It's half par. It's meerly decent.

[wayfinder]

i use buzz. it is the good stuff.

reason is a nice toy on it's own. you can get into it pretty quickly and produce nice stuff in a very short time. the downside is, it's so closed that it doesnt allow you a lot of thing that would make a good song sound great. it gets more powerful if you slave it to logic or cubase though, so if you shell out the bucks and later decide to go more serious, they're not lost.

floops, cant say anything about it, never tried it.

renoise is pretty cool.

buzz rocks my house, i'm with jamez here, but it is a bitch to setup right, and if it isn't setup right, it wont be much fun. let alone the fact that it's unstable as hell if you dont have the experience to avoid a few things.
working with buzz, it also helped that i have 12 years of tracker background
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.think.big.

[[Shizo]]

[Matthew]

yea I�m trying to get into Buzz now and used fruity before, earlier I used Acid and fasttracker and I would say that Buzz reminds me a bit of Fasttracker.

Matthew

[Lunatique]

I've decided to get back into doing music, and I'm in the middle of waddling through my thick-ass Korg Triton LE Music Workstation manuals, and man, I really hate dealing with that little LCD for EVERYTHING(parameters, sequencing, mixing, programming..etc). So, I'm looking into what kind of stuff is on the market these days for music production. I'll describe my needs and you guys tell me what's best for me.

First of all, I'm not a noob. I've been doing music since 1991, and I've composed music professionally. BUT, I used ancient stuff back then--Roland 2 track hardware sequencer, 8 track tape recorder, Roland D-10, and whatever the early incarnation of Pro Tools was back then(I can't even remember what it's called now. My band mate used it on a mac--and it was B/W interface. Maybe it was called Studio Tools). A few years ago, I had tried Logic Platinum for a month, and due to compatibility issues with my PC, I could never get the digital audio portion to work--but I did compose a song with it using just general midi crap on my soundcard.

So, jump forward now to 2003. I have a Korg Triton Le Music Workstation that's a full-blown production enviroment--excluding sampling capability, since I didn't install a sampler on it. So, I should just use my Triton Le and be happy--except I hate the tiny LCD and lots of button pushing to get to the page I want.

So, this is what I need my production enviroment to do:

1)Be able to handle lots of data--and process/playback without a glitch. I used to run out of available voices on my Roland D-10 all the time because I'd arrange tons of instruments going at the same time. I don't want to ever deal with that again.

2)Versatility in sound. I do all kinds of music, so I want a production enviroment that can handle anything from jazz, electronica, rock, vocals, to film score/classical. And no "cheap sounding" crappy fake sounding pianos, violins, sax..and whatever acoustic instrument. Realism is absolutely essential.

3)No jumping through hoops to tweak my parameters. I should be able to apply complex effects, change parameters, set automated filter sweeps, program arpeggio patterns...etc easily and fast. No wimpy half-assed tone control either. I want motherfucking Waldorf calibur realtime controllers that can tweak the fuck out of my sounds on the fly. My sound should be able to go from a low, resonant, gurgling growl, to a high pitch flanged crazy-ass wah-wah bleep--with the simple tweak of a few controls.

4)A kickass drum machine that can be programmed easily, with advanced quantizing capabilities, overwrite/overdub/erase notes easily during pattern recording..etc. Should also allow me to tweak the fuck out of my drum sounds too--and with lots of options. I want a wide range from realistic Indian tablas, Japanese Taiko, acoustic drum set, to super fresh electronic stuff.

5)The sequencer should be very advanced. I should be able to easily manipulate any data in my music--from digital audio of vocals, guitars..etc, to midi information. Cut & paste, transpose, change key signature, translate time signatures...etc.

I've heard a lot about Buzz, and I'm wondering how a FREE piece of software can actually go up against professonal stuff like Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools..etc. Or, am I giving it too much credit?

Anyway, just so you know, Pro Tools is way out of my price range--so don't even bring that bad boy up.

[Lunatique]

I got pretty good feedback from these guys: http://studio-central.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=17233#17233