Soft studio's why and which? P5, R, and FL

[Stupid American Pig]

here is what I do:

Sonar is my host, I then add FL dxi, and rewire in Orion, to which I rewire in Reason. at this point my CPU meter spikes at 100% so I dont really make any music, but I marvel at how I can have 4 audio sequencers running at one time, and think to myself, self, if you had a 10 Ghz machine you would have a really powerful virtual studio at your fingertips- Who needs to choose?

[wrench45us]

i'm pretty sure you could squeeze an instance or two of energyXT in there and still have the meter pegged at 100%

[Stupid American Pig]

I will try that tonite and let you know how it turns out

[ambe]

I wonder why then so little is said about it. This is the very reason why I did not include it as a main option. I remember someone in Computer music magazine writing in and asking for a tutorial or review of Orion it just seems strange to have that much of a following and the magazines hardly mention it at all.

That would be me.

At the time I was thinking the same things as you. Why dosen't Orion get any attention. I have realised its all down to marketing and advertising. Even though I write that, all they had one very shoddy review in that magazine and a tutorial of Orion in the next issue. Since then I haven't seen it mentioned again. Needless to say I kinda gave up on trying to promote Orion, although I will recommend it to anyone.

One of the reasons Orion users are probably never heard of is probably because they are happy with their software and its easy to use and figure out. 80% of people coming to internet forums do so with a problem, if people don't have a problem then they don't come looking for help.

Also, people looking for warez versions of music software are going to want to use the software that the pros use...seeing as Propellerheads like to do some name dropping, warez users want Reason because X Y and Z use it.

Reason probably has more "pro" attention because i doubt they have time to read magazines and browse internet forums for alternatives...or even care for alternatives. As long as they get paid the money they do and are happy with their music then why should they? Can't blame them either.

[deep.noise]

i use FLStudio...with eXT loaded as vsti
stable and creative setup, for me

bye
//deep.noise

[BONES]

It has tons of great effects built into it.

Since when? Version 1 had completely useless effects and almost none of them. I know that they've added more since but hardly everything you might ever want. Reason could never be the only tool you use to produce finished work, especially if you wanted vocals or guitar or something in there, so ho wcan you call it a "studio". Its more like an annex. We produced our entire album within ORION Platinum and we could easily have mastered it there too if we hadn't got our label to pay for professional mastering. These days we use ORION for about 90% of everything and the rest is done by plugins within ORION, the most expensive of which cost US$25. So I made an album with about US$200 worth of software and managed to get it licensed to the biggest alternative label in the US. How much did you pay for Reason and how much more do you think you would need to spend before you could finish a release-quality album?
Maybe Reason is really, really good but what do you do if there is just one, teeny-weeny thing you need that it doesn't have?

[gruberman]

Bones has a point there (OMG, I must be getting old . It seems like the group who loves Reason the most, has a host so they can rewire it.

Why not make a Reason Light, without the sequencer?

[Rellik]

It has tons of great effects built into it.

Since when? Version 1 had completely useless effects and almost none of them. I know that they've added more since but hardly everything you might ever want. Reason could never be the only tool you use to produce finished work, especially if you wanted vocals or guitar or something in there, so ho wcan you call it a "studio". Its more like an annex. We produced our entire album within ORION Platinum and we could easily have mastered it there too if we hadn't got our label to pay for professional mastering. These days we use ORION for about 90% of everything and the rest is done by plugins within ORION, the most expensive of which cost US$25. So I made an album with about US$200 worth of software and managed to get it licensed to the biggest alternative label in the US. How much did you pay for Reason and how much more do you think you would need to spend before you could finish a release-quality album?
Maybe Reason is really, really good but what do you do if there is just one, teeny-weeny thing you need that it doesn't have?

There are plenty of people who use Reason for everything from beginning to end of a song.

[soulkraka]

However, I was somewhat disappointed that Live 4 doesn’t handle MIDI very eloquently.

just curious what you need Live to do that you cant do in version 4.

[theshaggyfreak]

It has tons of great effects built into it.

Since when? Version 1 had completely useless effects and almost none of them. I know that they've added more since but hardly everything you might ever want. Reason could never be the only tool you use to produce finished work, especially if you wanted vocals or guitar or something in there, so ho wcan you call it a "studio". Its more like an annex. We produced our entire album within ORION Platinum and we could easily have mastered it there too if we hadn't got our label to pay for professional mastering. These days we use ORION for about 90% of everything and the rest is done by plugins within ORION, the most expensive of which cost US$25. So I made an album with about US$200 worth of software and managed to get it licensed to the biggest alternative label in the US. How much did you pay for Reason and how much more do you think you would need to spend before you could finish a release-quality album?
Maybe Reason is really, really good but what do you do if there is just one, teeny-weeny thing you need that it doesn't have?

I've made complete songs with only Reason, and I know quite a few others that have as well. There are plenty of them posted over on Propellerheads site. It's rare that I need something that isn't already within Reason when I'm writing a song that's completely based in that program. It's easy to pass around patches for all of the effects in Reason, so I often find great ones that help me out. If I ever do need to process a Reason instrument through something external, it's not like it is that difficult. I already own Tracktion for tracking audio or any VSTis that I like to use, so setting up a Rewire track is really easy.

I paid 295$ for Reason, and I have a $60 mail in rebate that I'm waiting on too. Now, Reason comes with 2 CDs of factory samples, and granted they're not all that great. There are tons of great samles out on the web, and Propellerheads gives quite a few links to some great free refills.

Now, I have never used Orion before, and I'm sure it's a great program. Reason was the first audio application I used that was almost 100% intuitive to me. So far I have yet to find myself limited by its programming.

[wrench45us]

There are plenty of people who use Reason for everything from beginning to end of a song.

that's good because every good song I know has a begining and an end. a lot of people have some rough spots with middles.

i assume you meant to say project or some equivalent production. there's the song, then there's the arrangement, then there's mixing/mastering

it's a word thing

and i think initially the topic was soft studio -- which may or may not be interpreted to mean full blown audio/midi recording/editing and clip looping/generation etc.
I tend to think of soft studio as a potential add-on to a more fully featured host, but there's obviously many levels of wants/needs and fulfillment at various price points.

[theshaggyfreak]

I tend to think of soft studio as a potential add-on to a more fully featured host, but there's obviously many levels of wants/needs and fulfillment at various price points.

Right! Now, I do more than just synths and drum programming. I honestly wouldn't want to be able to record audio in the same application as my soft studio, but that's just me. I just feel things are better organized by having my audio tracking in one application and my soft synths in another. When I want to mix, I can easilly send each instrument from Reason to a track in Tracktion. Rewire makes everything possible that I need to do.

[gruberman]

For me a soft studio is an app that I can do everything in. I think there's a reason the word studio appears.

[neverwhere2012]

For me a soft studio is an app that I can do everything in. I think there's a reason the word studio appears.

there's already a term for an app you can do everything in. DAW, digital audio workstation.

[mike85021]

However, I was somewhat disappointed that Live 4 doesn’t handle MIDI very eloquently.

just curious what you need Live to do that you cant do in version 4.

For one thing, the ability to incorporate VST plug effects. Granted, a good assortment is provided.

Probably my bad, but I can’t figure out how to assign General MIDI instruments or my Yamaha SYXG50 softsynth instruments into a track. You plug in Impulse, Simpler or a synth of your choice to generate sound, which turns MIDI quasi-audio. Not necessarily a bad thing, but different.

We like what we’re used to, and anything is easy if you know how to do it.