Essential Stuff? Options

[macshark]

Hello all. My name is Scott, and I am a newbie. Hello, Scott...

Okay, now that's out of the way, let me say that I have dug thorough this entire site as well as others, and I am still a little (lot) confused about the necessary equipment.

I have used/demo'd - Ableton Live, Bias Peak and Deck, Spark ME, Storm, Reason, and Metro. Haven't tried PT or Logic yet. I am on a G3 slot-loading iMac, OSX 10.2.4. I may be upgrading the computer w/in the next year if necessary.

All I want to do is record electric guitar and vocals into my imac, and do multitrack and editing on the computer. Also, I need some type of drum machine, beats, etc. Basically just looking to record my own songs for my own use (for now).

I don't have any other hardware (keyboard or midi-controller), but would consider getting an inexpensive one.

After all that, finally to the question at hand. What do I need to effectively do this? Live, Deck, and Metro seem to be the same to me in that they will let you multi-track. I like Spark a lot, and don't see where Peak is any better as a pure recorder. I could not figure out Storm or Reason. Not sure I really need all the midi-synth stuff. But I do NEED drum tracks.

Any suggestions, on software and hardware that I should look into?

Sorry for such a long request. Thanks.

Scott

[rickenbacker]

If you're not in a financial position to lash out a foolish amount of money just for your drums at the moment (who is?), have a look at Doggiebox. It's a simple, no frills OS X drum machine and it's pretty good for its $29 asking price. It would certainly give you an outlet for some basic rhythm tracks and get you started.

It's not exactly Battery or Reason, but it costs a whole lot less. There's also a good community around it, so help is easy to come by. It's not a VST virtual instrument, though, so like Reason you have to export your finsihed tracks as audio and drop them into your sequencer.

Other drum options? Steinberg's VST LM4 MkII, now available for OS X. I think that's around £90, maybe less. It's the same drum machine included with Cubase SX or SL, only on steroids (ie a lot better). The version in SX/SL is OK, though, and is called the LM7 (so you can appreciate its relation to the LM4).

I mean, once you have Reason or something you probably wouldn't bother using the LM7 again, but it's got some decent sounds and is as flexible as you need for knocking up a quick drum track. If you bought SL, I think you'd be happy enough for quite a while. Plus you get a bass synth and the new Waldorf-designed A1 synth, too, which is very nice.

Saying that, if you buy Logic (any version) you get 3 synths - the ES M, E and P, which are also very nice. Do you get the idea that all these sequencers are basically knocking themselves out to offer us the best bundle? You'd be right.

As for Reason files, that's exactly what I meant - you can isloate each individual drum sound per track for maximum mixing shenanigans. Same goes for the synths and samplers. Frankly, I'd just buy Reason and get the whole drum problem sorted in one go - version 2.5 has some terrific new features, too. You wouldn't regret it.

Cubase or Logic now both support ReWire 2, so if you really need to you can run Reason's output to your sequencer's mixer inputs and mix your whole track that way. Requires a whole lot of raw computer power to run two apps that way, so exporting as audio is still less stressful for your CPU.

If you did buy Reason, you get the key to a whole world of other sounds to spice up your music. Even if you just do guitar stuff, it's surprising how much better everything sounds with a little Reason magic sprinkled on top. A few days spent solidly working with the program and you'll get the hang of using it. It's not rocket science, even if at first glance it might seem like it.

Final word of warning: does the Big Box run in OS X yet? And does the Silver version of Logic contained therein support ReWire 2? As of now, only Platinum 6 supports it.

Any more questions, come right back at us.