Sonic Reality

spillway · Post by **spillway** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:14 am

I just purchased Sample Tank XL and have been using it through Fruity Loops.

Of the sequencer programs that are out there, what would you recommend for someone who is used to a more multi-tracking environment like Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition).

If I want to record the instruments in Sample Tank in a more multi-tracking organic way?

How do Cubase, Logic, Live etc. compare for ease of use and have this multi-tracking format?

Thanks for your help. I am a bass/guitar player slowly going over to the midi-side.

Adam

dougsyo · Post by **dougsyo** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:12 am

I'm a Cakewalk fan myself ... so I'd say Sonar Home Studio. You're probably better off asking over in "Hosts", but I know you can use SampleTank et al in Sonar (5P here) just fine.

I have FLStudio and P5V2, and neither of them are that great (IMHO) for multitrack audio, but they're great for MIDI and ST2 works for me in both.

Doug

BERFAB · Post by **BERFAB** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:11 am

I'm on Cubase SX3 and I really enjoy it. But it's got a lot of horsepower under the hood. Competition is obviously fierce among software manufacturers, so they throw in hundreds of features that you would probably never use in a million years. But Cubase has a clean interface and a virtually unlimited routing possibilities for FX plugs, etc.

My studio computer is a desktop Dell. However, lately I've been thinking about rigging up my laptop with an Oxygen8 controller to get ideas down when I'm away from the studio. I've been looking at Mackie's Tracktion software for this. What I've seen is a very clean 1 page interface, good MIDI and Audio features, flexible FX routing, and a ton of plugs included out of the box. All for about $150. I don't have any feedback from anyone who's familiar with it though.

Hope this helps.

-B

Ildon · Post by **Ildon** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:22 am

I'd also recommend Cakewalk Home Studio. I know a lot of people who started with that. Even now I use it over Sonar, because I don't like Sonar's layout and don't need all of the plugins that come with it.

ShawnG · Post by **ShawnG** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:31 am

You can try demos for mostly everything but cubase, I would give a recommendation for tracktion 2, cheaper than most of the above, and easy to learn/ work with/ create

Kim Lajoie · Post by **Kim Lajoie** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:45 am

I use Cubase, but really you should try demos for a few and choose which one you like best. Choosing a sequencer is a very personal decision, like buying a car or a house - people can make recommendations for you, but ultimately you have to live with it.

-Kim.

spillway · Post by **spillway** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:02 pm

Does Cubase have a multitrack layout? Or is cakewalk a better choice for that.

I noticed the lack of demos for cubase.

Thanks for the advice.

SharkAttack · Post by **SharkAttack** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 2:11 pm

Try Energy-XT. It's a great modular host and besides that very affordable (39 euro).
http://www.xt-hq.com/download/

I replaced Cakewalk Homestudio for Ext. It's rocksolid, has many features the bigger one's don't have and a great user support community.

Regards,
Bas

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 2:22 pm

energyXT is a brilliant host (but not my noob reconmendation)

i would reconmend Tracktion 2 to any noob

Subz

Kim Lajoie · Post by **Kim Lajoie** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:19 am

spillway wrote:Does Cubase have a multitrack layout? Or is cakewalk a better choice for that.

I noticed the lack of demos for cubase.

Thanks for the advice.

Cubase (made by Steinberg) and Sonar (made by Cakewalk) both have similar multi-track style layouts.

The Cubase "demo" is Cubase LE - a version of Cubase that comes bundled with some audio hardware. Read this for for information.

-Kim.

Megakazbek · Post by **Megakazbek** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 5:04 pm

The easiest multitrack sequencer for software synths I ever used is Project5 version 2. You can do almost whatever you wish in just one or two mouse clicks. After I tried the Project5v2 demo I just couldn't work in Sonar anymore because it was so cumbersome and complex compared to Project5v2. So I bought P5v2 and almost never used Sonar since that. Tracktion 2 is also very simple sequencer but not when you're using multitimbral synths like SampleTank. It has very powerful "rack filter" feature that allows you to interconnect different synths and effects in every way possible, like in a modular synthesizer, but unfortunately there is no simple way to create several MIDI tracks which would output to different MIDI channels of the same synthesizer. The best way I found is to use that rack filters feature and some free MIDI transformation plugins but it's still way more difficult and intricate than any other sequencer. As for Cubase - one of my friends have it and I'd say you have to do lots of unnecessary actions and mouse clicks to do many simpliest things so I wouldn't buy it just for simple soft synth sequencing.
Of course, everything above is just my personal opinion so you should try all the things yourself before you decide. I think there are demos for all of them except Cubase (and that's because of their silly dongle (sorry for offtopic)).

spillway · Post by **spillway** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 5:18 pm

Thanks for all of the advice. I am basically looking to flesh out demos with sampletank in different tracks and probably adding some vocals and guitar.

My brother swears by an old version of ACID for its ease of use, but says the new version is terrible.

I gotta start loading some demos!

M'Snah · Post by **M'Snah** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 7:22 pm

Tracktion. Or, if you wish to invest more time in learning a great wonderful flexible tool, try energyXT. But Tracktion is the easiest of them all.

Sonic Reality

KVR Audio

Which sequencer...For a NEWBIE