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The time has come for me to upgrade my recording software (Cakewalk Home studio 6). What sequencers do you guy’s use and would you recommend them? As I wasn’t keen on HS6 I’ve always used Cakewalk products but this one has put me off, and I’m considering a change.

I know it's lame, but honestly I've preferred GarageBand over any other sequencers. I suppose Cubase would be an obvious one, though.

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Mage - wrong type.

Sonar era cakewalk is a whole different bit of software. It's miles away from 'pro audio x'. I haven't really used it to comment much, but I've heard a lot of good things.

I would personally avoid Cubase. It's ok but it always feels like it's full of unnecessary crap. I prefer things to feel fairly stripped down whilst still being versatile. Nuendo (also by steinberg and incredibly similar, supposedly more video based although cubase does video too) is better in this regard. It's a touch easier to use. However I've found that both have a tendency to sound a bit rubbish at times. It's hard to describe exactly how but I have a characteristic sound in my head and something in the processing seems to move things towards it. It's not very 'transparent' I suppose you could say.

Pro Tools. It's the bees knees. A little expensive, but so good for audio. There's a reason it's the industry standard. It's not so hot on midi sequencing, but it's still certainly functional. I never really used it for non-audio uses like that so I'm not sure exactly how good or bad it is.

Logic is one I never really learnt. It's good though, definitely very good. The interface was a little too far from Pro Tools for me. I found Pro Tools to be incredibly intuitive and logic a little less so. Combined with having got very familiar with Pro Tools it made it difficult to pick up.

It all depends on how you want to use it. There's recording straight in and mixing from there as though it's a tape machine. Recording audio and editing the hell out of it and a whole spectrum in between. Pure software synthesing and a mixture of synth and audio. If you want to use it for editing the audio for video that changes things a little too. It can also vary on how much you'll be using the software plugins and how much you'll be using external hardware.

In short my recommendations ignoring cost are pro tools for straight audio (regardless of pc or mac) and logic if you want to do some midi stuff too. Keep Sonar in mind.

James wrote:In short my recommendations ignoring cost are pro tools for straight audio (regardless of pc or mac) and logic if you want to do some midi stuff too.

i would agree with this.

there's ableton live too, not a million miles away from logic (although i haven't used it for a long time so i'm not sure how divergent it and logic have become over the past couple of versions- i'm still on logic 7).

If you consider pro tools, definitely go for at least 7.x

I learnt on 6.x and 7 only came out when I was near the end of my degree. It's a big leap in terms of the stock plugins. The EQ especially is miles better and way more flexible.

It's worth mentioning that Logic is a mac only app... But if you are on a mac you should make it your first consideration, it does pretty much everything you'd need audio-wise and still has an extremely powerful midi sequencer at its core... it also comes with a plug in called the 'space designer' which is the best reverb unit I've tried...

If you'r a PC user tho I'd assume Cubase or Nuendo would be the next logical step up...

I'm not a fan of cubase my brother in-law produces dance music and swears by it but it's not for me. logic is mac only so that's out, pro tools doesn't do midi. I think I'll have a look at Live and see if it's worth the learning curve.

Cheers!

i'm pretty sure the demo version of live is the same as the full version, only you can't save or export. it does save the raw audio though.

dezb1 wrote:I'm not a fan of cubase my brother in-law produces dance music and swears by it but it's not for me. logic is mac only so that's out, pro tools doesn't do midi. I think I'll have a look at Live and see if it's worth the learning curve.

Cheers!

Protools can do MIDI, just probably not the best program if that's going to be your focus.

Ableton is really good for midi. Not the best for audio recording.. but its useable. I've been using it a for a few years for audio and midi.

dezb1 wrote:I'm not a fan of cubase my brother in-law produces dance music and swears by it but it's not for me. logic is mac only so that's out, pro tools doesn't do midi. I think I'll have a look at Live and see if it's worth the learning curve.

Cheers!

Pro Tools definitely does MIDI. Even LE.

From what I remember they did a massive overhaul on it with 7 and it got a lot better. It did used to be shit, but I don't think it's that bad. How much do you use MIDI and what sort of thing do you use it for?