Music Making Technology

you

Well-known member
I've wanted to ask these questions for a long long time. I'm on the verge of buying a new mac, an iMac with a nice i7 in it. Long term i'd like to start making music on it, I've had a go with garage band on my old emac but found it a little restrictive and forcefully formulaic. What are my options for the new iMac??? I'll have a guitar and will be looking for a new keyboard.
 

you

Well-known member
was thinking logic, but also fancy soundforge ( run through parallels ).... coz burial uses it!
 

connect_icut

Well-known member
When I started using a computer to make music, I mostly used Reason. I found it to be a really good mixture of user-friendliness and processor-light power. It's really just a collection of virtual instruments tied to a piano-roll sequencer, though, so it wasn't any good for recording guitars, vocals etc. Having said that, I think they might have added some audio/recording functionality in recent versions. Haven't used it in years, TBH. I'm all about Max/MSP now, which is not really a good place to start for computer music noobs.

Tip: If you're going to use the computer for live performance, get an external sound card. I like my MOTU Ultralite quite a bit.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Reaper is a solid platform for significantly less cash than Logic or PT. And it's got a completely unlimited unrestricted demo, so you can see if it suits you before committing anyway.

I wouldn't use Soundforge if you want to do anything beyond recording and editing stuff, it's just not designed for programming drums or doing synthesis in. It works for Burial but I've never heard of anyone else actually using it as their main piece of software.
 

you

Well-known member
wow, reaper looks great, will definitely check that out, thanks.

what about keyboards? Can I just buy a midi keyboard and plug it in?
 

alex

Do not read this.
you sure can, I am going to purchase one on the weekend, so will let you know my choice.

I'm running on the macbook pro before the one that has just come out with the 2 x audio in's & outs and thunderbolt. I plugged in a midi keyboard having not used one before, but familiar with how to assign keys from tutorials, and it started working straight away, no fiddiling with settings or anything.

I use Ableton Live 8.2 at the moment, does exactly what I want it to do, coming from a Fruity Loops background I have zero knowledge about Warping/Warp Markers, so I love the fact Ableton is as adaptive as it is. I use it like I use Fruity.

Operator and the analogue synth, and corpus, oh, and simpler, are my favourite instruments.
 
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