What Software Do You Use?

[john]

Hey guys

What music software do you use? What DAWs, soft synths, soft samplers, effects, audio editors do you use? What do you rate as good/poor?

Cheers

John

[Chokai]

Im using Cubase SX 3, have been for some time now (plus SX4 is out of my budget right now!). Its really just what im used to so i genrally dont knock anything else.

Plugins (essential) for me are Absynth (fantastic, totally flexible) and Kontact. Also using Small64, tweakbench toad, albino 2. most sounds are generally made on the hardware.

Waveworm editing and some mastering is done on soundforge. I just cant fault it. its simple, straight forward, supports DX plugins and is fast.

Worth mentioning: Izotope Ozone. Lovely for mastering and adding the final shimmer.

[AnneC]

Anyone who has been here for any length of time knows I'm an odd duck. All I really need is notation software and the best for the money I could find to meet my needs was Noteworthy. Now that I know the keyboard shortcuts it's become even easier for me.

Occasionally I find that a music editor is a good thing to have so I got Audacity. I don't use it often though and so I'm not familiar with a lot of the intricacies of using it.

[FinnArild]

Cubase SX 3.1 still.

For sampling I currently use Halion. For synth/keyboard stuff I mostly get by with Absynth, Hypersonic, B4 and Mellowsound + some other freebies I don't remember at the moment.

I also recently got East West QL Symphonic Orchestra + the QL choir - both platinium. These are compatible with Kontakt, so I plan to switch sampler soon.

[tgrover]

have used sonar since version 3. Running at 8 now. Did use reaper for a period of time which i do really like but i know sonar inside and out and dont see the point in learning a new tool/system. I have sat in front of them all now and i dont see much difference between the platforms - very hard to say one sounds better than the other.

Use the sonitus comp and EQ with in sonar but thats about it.

Most EQ now with Voxengo Gliss.

And for everything PSP.

[toeshy]

I use audacity for recording the instruments that i can play but for the ones i dont i use vst host and instrumental plug ins then i write the tabs in a tab editor and export as an midi file

[bluage]

Hey guys

What music software do you use? What DAWs, soft synths, soft samplers, effects, audio editors do you use? What do you rate as good/poor?

Cheers

John

Howdy, Mr. Moxie...

I use Band-in-a-Box to compose my songs, then drag them naked and slimy into my sequencer, Cakewalk Music Creator Pro 24. There, I patch in sounds and samples from Big Fish Audio's First Call Horns, Vir2's V.I. One sampler, Garritan Jazz and Big Band, Native Instruments B4 II Hammond Organ, Miroslav Philharmonik, Edirol Orchestral and Super Quartet, Zero G's Sounds of the 70's and Satin Grooves. After converting my MIDI tracks to audio I use Celemony's Melodyne Editor and Sony Sound Forge for tweaking and editing. More rarely I use Sibelius to print scores that I read to increase my comprehension of written musical notation.

As far as rating the quality of my experience with the software, only one of the above-mentioned programs presented a real problem as far as software-hardware conflicts and "bugs" go, but that particular issue was recently put to rest in a new version of the software. In general I would rate their user-friendliness as good to excellent. I believe strongly in reading manuals and using tutorials. Everything I need is there if I just take the time to learn the proper way to get to what I want to hear.

'Bye, now!

bluage

[MikeRobinson]

I have been pleased with MuseScore (http://www.musescore.org) which is a very full-featured open source, free, music notation program that runs on everything. It is very solid, very complete, and (as you will see from the website) very well documented. The entire manual is on that site, and it speaks (well) for itself.

(AnneC, you're not the only "odd duck" around here.)

Edited February 18, 2010 by MikeRobinson

[FinnArild]

UPDATE: I got the UAD2 card with plugins and quickly became addicted. Can't live without, now.

[john]

ah ha...

Janishia... why would you say it is better for vocals? What have you compared with? The reason i ask is that most DAWs are now pretty sophisticated and much of the sound manipulation is due to plug ins of one variety or another... so I'm really interested in what people find differentiates one from another.

[Roflcopter]

Old version Sonar here (6.22 PE) and it suits me fine, so kept resisting the yearly upgrade pressure. Also use Audition, for small quick jobs Audacity at times. Other tools include Band in a Box, Reason, Recycle, and tons of software synths (Absynth, Dimension Pro, Xphraze etc). Main keyboards are just plain vanilla 49 keys plus a Korg padKontrol for special fx keying I cannot do on normal keyboard.

Guitar FX are mostly hardware, I like being able to get the same sounds away from PC.

[SillyAce]

the D.A.W. i use is FL Studio

I have about a hundred little VST plugins that i use from time to time, but the ones i use most are: Izotope Ozone (mastering) Guitar Rig (Guitar amp Modeling) AutoTune (to help correct minor pitch flaws *i rarely use the so called T-Pain effect *) Addictive Drums (because my studio is too small to rig a drumset) Fruity Reverb, Delay, and Parametric EQ.

My audio I.O. is Guitar Rig Sessions (it has a 48v Phantom powered mic input, two line level inputs, Monitor headphone output and L&R Main outs)

I use an Ibanez RG for both bass and guitar (drop C over D *i have to use an octave manipulator to make the bass sound*) and two microphones. One dynamic Shure Sm57 and one condenser MXL V63M.

Thats it =) the rest is just a couple years experience with DAWs and loads of free time.

[Unicorn]

Hey guys

What music software do you use? What DAWs, soft synths, soft samplers, effects, audio editors do you use? What do you rate as good/poor?

Cheers

John

My software suite contains Logic Studio, KONTAKT 4.1, VSL Vienna Imperial software piano, LA Scoring Strings library, VSL Concert Guitar and Ocean Way Drums. Processing plugins include Waves Studio Classics & Silver bundles and Altiverb 6 convolution reverb. Except VSL Guitar I can recommend rest all stuff as go-to items if you want top quality samples, excellent playability and flexibility. They are CPU hog, so you need a high end hardware setup.

Edited July 25, 2010 by Unicorn

[StevenAram]

Mixcraft 5; Spent 75 Bucks on it :/

[Roflcopter]

75 bucks may look like a lot of money when you're 16, but I think a LOT of people here would throw a really wild party, to have ONLY spent 75 bucks on their software, and be done with it.

Most single instrument plugins cost more than 75 dollars...

[chrisadam7]

Effects vary by production and host, but the ones I use the most are Crysonic SpectraQ and SpectraLive NXT on the master bus. For individual busses I generally use a 4 or 5 band EQ, usually Waves Rennaissance.

For reverbs, Lexicon Pantheon (if Sonar), Wave Arts Masterverb (if Reaper).

For delays, it depends on what I want to achieve. For simple multi-taps I use Sonitus. For more complex combinations, Voxengo or Uhbik.

[CUR]

Up untill I got a new computer with a better sound card, I used Audacity. Now I'm using Adobe Audition 3.0 and am loving it.

[austinmackert]

I user Propellerhead's Reason 4 + Record. I mainly do electronic stuff so it works out pretty well, and the Record add-on lets me quickly plug up a guitar for a riff or two if I need it, as well as my hardware synth. I do look forward to buying into Ableton Live sometime next year as the workflow is soooo much smoother.

I use Audacity when I'm lazy and want to record a quick sample from say, a video game or a movie.

My Dad actually just ordered a Macbook Pro and purchased a Pro Tools/M-BOX bundle. I look forward to toying with that on his computer just for kicks.

Edited December 22, 2010 by austinmackert

[BobMay]

I bought an E-MU 404 stereo usb converter/pre amp so that I could use my old Sure 57 mic and go directly into the computer. I also plug my acoustic guitar pickup directly into it. And it is my sound card now.

It came with free Sonar SE and some other programs which I don't use. I've upgraded the Sonar to version 8.

Pretty simple, but that's all I need for what I do.

I need to get more ram memory though because it crashed today and I lost what I was working on.

I have to remember to save things before I start adding effects from now on.

Bob

Edited January 14, 2011 by BobMay

[BigBubbaBrown]

Cakewalk Music Creator 3 and until I can get a Vista compatible MIDI setup Melody Assistant for writing.

I'm constantly downloading and trying out plug-ins, but the ones I use in just about everything are Synth1, Super Drum FX, Taurus, and the rare times I want a drum machine sound Cubix. While I don't use it frequently, MiniMouge is another one of my favorites.

CMC 3 was a Christmas gift a few years ago and every VSTi I use is freeware so in 10 years I've only paid $20 for music software, which was the cost of Melody Assistant at the time.