Help: Advice On Buying Sequencers, Plug-ins, Etc, sequencers, soft synths, hardware Options

[mceric72]

Hi, I was just listening to a demo of OPUS from the Vienna Symphony Library and thinking, wow, this would be a great addition to the home studio that I don't have. But seeing's how this would run me about $1k, I am forced to really think about what makes the most sense in building this studio. I have my controllers (with some leftover modules), I have my Dual 867 G4 (old school, i know), my recently inherited Reason 2.0, and I have my wallet with a music store credit card that'll allow me to spend about 2k on the 12 month special ($1,500 would be easier to swallow). But on the other hand, I have a unique opportunity to actually create a library of cues for commercial broadcast - so economical is good but not at the expense of productivity. I also here alot of people talking about manipulating envelopes and algorithms and editing loops, and while I'm sure these can be very powerful features, it all sounds very unmusical to me as I much prefer to find solid presets with little to no tweaking required while I would opt to play most of my rhythm tracks via a padded controller.

Here's where I could use some guidance:

I know Reason alone won't cut it. Logic Pro 7 is highly recommended as a Mac User, plus it has its own library of soft synth sample to add to that of something like OPUS. But assuming that OPUS is what you would call a third pary plug-in / will this even work with Logic or others as it seems to be discussed in association with Gigastudio and some kind of digital performance tool. This also puts me a little over budget, so are there competive libraries of this genre that are cheaper?

Is there a more practical option over Logic Pro i.e. buying Digital Performer at half the cost and adding OPUS plus another third party library and how much do I compromise on compatability with my Mac as I have heard there are streamlining issues? Would Logic Express be a smarter option and what do I lose with Express.
So that's alot of questions, here they are in summary:

1. Since I'm not recording, mixing analogue, is 867 Dual, 512 RAM enough to run 20 MIDI tracks or so enough processing power to avoid latency problems?
2. Are there great libraries in the vein of orchestral and contemporary score music (think Matrix, Trevor Rabin, etc). And can I get good mileage out of these without out having to constantly re-invent the samples via envelopes.
3. How do you know if a certain third pary synth is compatible with a certain sequencing software?
4. What am I compromising if I don't go with Logic Pro 7 in favor of say, Sonar or DP4.5 and is the extra $$ better saved or spent on another library, application, hardware, that would be more useful.
5. If I went with Logic Express, what am giving up?


Basically it seems to come down to finding a combination of sequencer and virtual instrument packages that will give me the most bang for the buck.

thanks in advance,
e

[Nolot]

There sure is a lot of questions here.

1. Since I'm not recording, mixing analogue, is 867 Dual, 512 RAM enough to run 20 MIDI tracks or so enough processing power to avoid latency problems?

You could maybe use more costless ram but this computer should do the job no problem.
Latency is directly related to the quality of your audio interface and plugin capabilities. This is what you should wory about.

2. Are there great libraries in the vein of orchestral and contemporary score music (think Matrix, Trevor Rabin, etc). And can I get good mileage out of these without out having to constantly re-invent the samples via envelopes.

Sure their are great libraries arround but all of these will ask you a lot of work to get a result slitly close to real orchestral musicians.

3. How do you know if a certain third pary synth is compatible with a certain sequencing software?

Most sequencer manufacturers have their own formats

Steinberg = vst
motu = mas
Digidesign = TDM / RTAS
etc...

Therefore just make sure the plugs you want to buy are compatible with your sequencer.

4. What am I compromising if I don't go with Logic Pro 7 in favor of say, Sonar or DP4.5 and is the extra $$ better saved or spent on another library, application, hardware, that would be more useful.
5. If I went with Logic Express, what am giving up? 

So many things have been said about logic 7... Have a search in the forums That should awnser your questions :
http://www.macmusic.org/agora/forums/?lang...g=EN&act=Search

Why don't you think of Digidesign Digi 002?
It's rock solid, from now on you will find great synth, samplers etc...

Basically it seems to come down to finding a combination of sequencer and virtual instrument packages that will give me the most bang for the buck.

There is also the ease of use to worry about...
I'd put a bet on digidesign for that.

Search the forums, you'll find awnsers to your questions.

Hope this help

This post has been edited by Nolot: Fri 19 Nov 2004, 11:00

[mceric72]

thanks a bunch for taking the time to answer!!!!

[Nolot]

My pleasure,