Who Knows Anything About Pro-Tools?

[Anthony]

how would you record audio into it?
any other music workstations/applications that are user friendly?


my friend and i wanna work on some projects and i want the easiest and cheapest way to get this done. we already have audacity, which is free, but there seems to be some poor recording options and i'd like something a little more "snazzier looking". i also want something that comes with beats/instrument sounds so we can create music tracks from within the software.

adios, muchachos.

[sabotai]

Mixcraft 4. I have not used Pro-Tools, but after a quick google, it looks like it's a bit cheaper than Pro-Tools, and a lot of review sites said Mixcraft was their favorite music software.

http://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/

[Anthony]

thank you, i'll look into that. i will digitally tweak your nipples out of gratitude for this piece of info.

do you use Mixcraft? what do you use to record into the program? what we currently use right now is the free audacity and the microphone that came with my PC. not exactly a winning recipe for a stellar, high quality sounding end result.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

thank you, i'll look into that. i will digitally tweak your nipples out of gratitude for this piece of info.

Please don't.

do you use Mixcraft? what do you use to record into the program? what we currently use right now is the free audacity and the microphone that came with my PC. not exactly a winning recipe for a stellar, high quality sounding end result.

I use it a bit, but not much. I use it to record guitar and keyboard, but I have not tried it with a microphone. I've tried Audacity and hated it.

The demo for Mixcraft is fully functional and it gives you 30 days to try it out (I think).

[Anthony]

jeez, this thing is only $65. now that's a bargain.

[Noop]

Unless you have the pro-tools hardware I wouldn'r recommend using Pro-Tools. After upgrading to Pro-Tools I wasn'r impressed by the quality of the music because to me it sounded the same as it did when I recorded on Cubase.

That being said it depends on what exactly are you trying to achieve. If you want something that's mostly for yourself and likely won't see radio play then I would suggest Cubase. Provided you have a good microphone, a good pre-amp and a good sound card. With those things you can get a pretty clean sounding track if you know how to mix and eq.

As for making instrumentals I personally use Reason but for some people it is way to complicated.

[MJ4H]

I personally use FL Studio and Audacity (and Finale to compose). I have been learning Reaper (which is free to try forever but you are supposed to register it if you use it a lot) because I really like a lot of the things it does (and the price) but it isnt as efficient on CPU resources as some of the other DAWs. I can't use Reason because VST support is a 100% requirement for me.

[Anthony]

i had FL studio 8 on my pc not too long ago, a friend let me download it. i thought it was ok, i just couldn't record into it very well or at all. that part was hard to figure out. my friend recorded something simple on audacity with just vocals and guitar, i wanted to add drums and bass via some time of application and it just wasn't jiving. i tried doing it the long way and tried editing it all together in Adobe Soundbooth but that didn't come out so well. was just looking for something where i can record into it and then spruce it up and add different instruments if i wanted with some on-board library of sounds. i think this Mixcraft is what i'm looking for - i'll try the demo.

i guess i should just invest in a decent mic if i want to record.

[Zelig]

http://www.myspace.com/runtdie

Mixcraft seems pretty easy.

[Icy]

I used Cool Edit Pro to record my band's first CD and it was simple but really powerful. Protools might be too much to start with and i wouldn't use it without the right hardware either.

Edit: i see now that Adobe bought Cool Edit Pro and it's named now Adobe audition 2.0

[Anthony]

i agree icy, i think Pro Tools is overkill. we certainly aren't gonna invest in the hardware so if we're just gonna have a simple $100 or cheaper mic then it doesn't pay to go that route.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Zelig

http://www.myspace.com/runtdie

Mixcraft seems pretty easy.

you made that song with mxcraft??? that sounds awesome.


explain the process to me a bit - what part of the song was made via mixcraft and what did you actually record? how did you get that robotic sounding voice in there?

the sound quality, if made with something as simple as mixcraft, is pretty high.

[Zelig]

I just pieced together different element loops, I think some where called spped metal, some electronic, and some punk. They had some loops that had sound effects and one of those was the voice that said something electronic but when speeded up sounded like you're never gonna die. So, I went with that. I had never used it before and this took about an hour to do. The second song I just put in sound wavs from speeches. So, I never recorded anything manually.

I did both songs under 2 hours and never touched the program before. It was pretty easy. Downside is that there are no more loops to play with.

[Bonegavel]

Good timing with this thread. I was just about to post on Acid Pro 6.0 to see if anyone could recommend something cheaper.

I have an old Tascam 464 (love this thing) on which I recorded tons (60 tapes) of stuff back in 1992-95 and I wanted to transfer them to the PC and convert them to MP3 (as well as record new stuff).

Acid is good but it is frickin' expensive and I'm going to try their $55 music studio 7 (which has almost all the same feature) and see if it's any good. I won't mind dropping $55.

[Bonegavel]

oh, and has anyone seen this? Looks amazing.

http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna&L=0

[Noop]

I got that program. Very good and certainly has helped a dude I know who really can't sing sound decent.

[MJ4H]

http://pwatts14.googlepages.com/Fant...tanversion.mp3
http://pwatts14.googlepages.com/gorg...teredworld.mp3
http://pwatts14.googlepages.com/Ryga...gonianJago.mp3
http://pwatts14.googlepages.com/zeal-new.mp3

3 orchestra pieces (all samples) and one sysnthesizers+samples electronica style piece all done in FL Studio. I don't do much recording, but when I do I do it in Audacity and then use it in other software. Audacity does its job just fine. If you want to add effects or EQ or something, I find some other programs a little easier, but since Audacity supports VST effect plugins, it can be done there, too. The only thing I don't really like Audacity for is mixing.

[Noop]

MJ4H what do you use this beats for? They sound like video game beats(no offense)

I will say this about your music it is nicely composed and shows that you have some sort of background into classical music because they way this beat was created with all the crescendos and what not; sounds like an actual orchestra.

Only problem I noticed (which seems to be true for a majority of FL Studio tracks) is that this track lacks that fullness.

Good Stuff though.

[Noop]

Originally Posted by Bonegavel

oh, and has anyone seen this? Looks amazing.

http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna&L=0

I looked at the video and my goodness is that amazing. I thought it was the same ole about the guy who sings. Amazing program.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by Noop

MJ4H what do you use this beats for? They sound like video game beats(no offense)

I will say this about your music it is nicely composed and shows that you have some sort of background into classical music because they way this beat was created with all the crescendos and what not; sounds like an actual orchestra.

Only problem I noticed (which seems to be true for a majority of FL Studio tracks) is that this track lacks that fullness.

Good Stuff though.

Saying it sounds like video game music is not offensive to me. For one, 3 of the 4 are arrangements of video game music. Thanks for the comments. Yeah, the reason it "lacks that fullness" is because I don't know anything about production and mastering and that kind of stuff. I mostly just compose. Just for fun.

[Anthony]

wow, that stuff is pretty good MattJ4H. i tried the demo for FL Studio but like i said i had big problems importing mp3's from audacity into it (since that's what my friend recorded his bare bones stuff on). one thing i found hard was writing melodies on their keyboard interface thing, this is probably one of those things where it helps to have a midi keyboard that way you can futz around on that and record into FL Studio. i play guitar, so my mind isn't able to grasp what's required to create intricate melodies like for synth keyboards. all in all i just want to be able to add drums, bass and tweak/mix the sounds.

i decided to go with Mixcraft, the demo made it seem rather simple to use. only $65, can't go wrong. at least i was able to import my friend's song's into it, which was what i was looking for all along.

[Anthony]

that Melodyne program looks outstanding. revolutionary, even.

[JetsIn06]

I'm late to the party.

HA...

I suggest trying out Reason. They have a demo up. The one problem is you can't directly record into it, it's more of a MIDI composer.

I got Reason and a $100 MIDI Controller and can make all kinds of music, but can't record guitar or vocals. But there are tons and tons of sound patches that come with the program.

I've had it for about a week and like someone else said, it's daunting. But you quickly learn your way around if you keep at it.

Here's something I was working on tonight.

http://users.bandzoogle.com/innervoi...files/4mp3.mp3

[JetsIn06]

Also...another thing is that you can easily make MP3's or WAV's of what you create in reason and put them into some other audio program and put vocals in.

[Bonegavel]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

I'm late to the party.

HA...

I suggest trying out Reason. They have a demo up. The one problem is you can't directly record into it, it's more of a MIDI composer.

I got Reason and a $100 MIDI Controller and can make all kinds of music, but can't record guitar or vocals. But there are tons and tons of sound patches that come with the program.

I've had it for about a week and like someone else said, it's daunting. But you quickly learn your way around if you keep at it.

Here's something I was working on tonight.

http://users.bandzoogle.com/innervoi...files/4mp3.mp3

Good shit!

Sounds like movie music. It's dark, of course, and the good guy is dressed in a black burglar outfit crouched down next to that crappy old door that every bad-guy warehouse has in the back. There are windows next to the door (which is why or good guy is crouching) and an occasional minion flashlight beam shines through the window threatening to expose our hero. He's trying to break in and rescue the girl.

Seriously though, well done.

[MikeVic]

Is there a program where I can create guitar riffs, bass lines, etc. using only my normal QWERTY keyboard? Something with a lot of cool guitar sound options...?

[Noop]

I believe FL Studio allows you to do that.

[Noop]

As for production my favorite to use is Reason. I produced a few songs for a friend of mines CD and his mixtape. Although since I have been in school I really haven't been making as many as I use to make in highschool.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

I'm late to the party.

HA...

I suggest trying out Reason. They have a demo up. The one problem is you can't directly record into it, it's more of a MIDI composer.

I got Reason and a $100 MIDI Controller and can make all kinds of music, but can't record guitar or vocals. But there are tons and tons of sound patches that come with the program.

I've had it for about a week and like someone else said, it's daunting. But you quickly learn your way around if you keep at it.

Here's something I was working on tonight.

http://users.bandzoogle.com/innervoi...files/4mp3.mp3

nice, this sounds very professional. i agree, it definitely sounds like something from a movie.

what is the link for that cheap MIDI controller you got?

i purchased a $100 recording interface: FastTrack by M-Audio (affiliated with Pro Tools, actually). it has several inputs that allow me to record directly into my PC. one for a mic, 2 inputs to jack your guitar/bass into and an output jack. i have a nice mic that's well respected in the industry - Shure SM58. i stole that from a rehearsal studio almost 15 years ago, i was sooo happy i found it in my garage.

i've recorded 2 songs (no vocals, but i use the Shure to record my acoustic guitar). use a huge library of live drum loops (i hate digital sounding wannabe drum loops) and i use MixCraft to mix it all together.

i definitely like the possibilities from using digital music like what you created though. i love heavily layered and textured music and that midi music would certainly add another layer to my shit.

[JetsIn06]

Coincidentally, the MIDI Keyboard Controller I got was also from M-Audio.

It's the M-Audio Key Rig 25. It has 25 keys which is basically two whole octaves from C to C. You can obviously change the octaves though.

It's a tiny bit of a pain in the ass if you want to record a piece that spans the usual range of a piano, but reason makes it very easy to add in notes. You could theoretically make music with just your mouse.