Live 9 Suite, Logic, Cubase or Reaper?

thomasross20

But don't you get similar things with Tracktion? This is what I need to investigate. I seem to recall Tracktion had an army of plugins. 

Question - I assume if I switch from one computer to another I don't have to buy the software again!

digitalscream

thomasross20 said:

Question - I assume if I switch from one computer to another I don't have to buy the software again!

Nope, not with Reaper. Just install the software and give it the license.

John_P

thomasross20 said:

But don't you get similar things with Tracktion? This is what I need to investigate. I seem to recall Tracktion had an army of plugins. 

Question - I assume if I switch from one computer to another I don't have to buy the software again!

Any package that uses vst plugins has a zillion you can use from a ton of sources - freebies, donationware through to super expensive.     
imo there isn't a lot of difference in the main features it more about whether the workflow of a package suits you.   I prefer cubase as I've been using it since the old days when it was pro24 and adapting to the upgrades takes no time at all.  After a period of time to adjust though I'd be happy tracking and mixing on pretty much any of them.

I'd steer you towards the software you will get more supoort with - I'm sure tracktion is very capable but more people use reapear, cubase and logic so it easier to get help if you're stuck.

thomasross20

I tried Cubase yonks ago but for me, it wasn't overly intuitive. 

Problem is I've most of an album here that I created using Tracktion so I know the DAW and it would be a natural progression. 

However there's a niggle at the back of my mind which says that Reaper looks very very nice. I'll try both demos for a bit.

I just read that Reaper does in fact have more plugins.

John_P

It will might come with more plugins as standard but the pc processing power is the only limit to how many you can install - once you start looking around at the number of cheap (or free) plugins you'll lose hours comparing the sound/features/style of them. 

Trying some demo's sounds a good way forward to see what feels right for you.

thomasross20

Playing about with both of these. Reaper seems solid when up and running, but it crashed on me once and takes some time to load up. Tracktion is lightning fast. Also I must admit I find Tracktion a lot easier to use - everything has a pop-up explaining what is does.. Reaper seems to have a million options. I largely want to record guitars, program some drums using jamstix and use a little MIDO to add FX... then do some simple mastering. I think Tracktion is winning - Reason looks great but there's a LOT in there... and I want the recording/mastering process to be as simple as possible.

The two main things I keep reading about why people prefer Reason to Traktion is that it has more in-built features & plugins (good and bad, depends on how complex you want things to be) and that the mastering is easier (it's inline in Tracktion and can look a mess, but I think it's intuitive). 

I'll keep messing around

EDIT - I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with Tracktion - it's just SO simple to use! I don't really care about loads of plugins - I like to keep things simple

sweepy

You sais Logic is "borked" is that because your Mac won't run Mavericks ?, if it can, Logic X is a no brainer for the money

thomasross20

Anybody use Melodyne?
Sounds like complete cheating to me! Seems really popular though.
Where does it end though? Why bother recording real guitars etc if all you're going to do is cheat by hiding bad playing with software edits? I really don't agree with this at all

Heartfeltdawn

thomasross20 said:

Anybody use Melodyne?
Sounds like complete cheating to me! Seems really popular though.
Where does it end though? Why bother recording real guitars etc if all you're going to do is cheat by hiding bad playing with software edits? I really don't agree with this at all

Melodyne to me is no more cheating than adding artificial reverb to a track. It doesn't matter how the music is made. All that matters is the end product. A great track using Melodyne is better than some pub rock bollocks played with 'real guitars'. 

thomasross20

Turns out with Tracktion I get a free copy of Melodyne Essential (otherwise costs $99) and can upgrade to the full package for $150. So - I ended up buying Tracktion!! Will try out this Melodyne...

thomasross20

That offer only lasts one month - anybody use the full version?

thomasross20

You can install Tracktion on 4 computers. Any more and you need a new license I believe. Harsh if you need many new computers over time!

thomasross20

On another note I've demo'd jamstix 3 and EZDrummer. 

Jamstix is great due to its "brain" which can jam to audio tracks, but you can also program drums in as you want.

EZDrummer sounds better but doesn't have the brain, only loops (which can get repetitive). 

Whilst EZDrummer sounds better, the difference isn't THAT great - I'll probably upgrade to jamstix 3.

Jalapeno

I expect full reviews ....

thomasross20

I spent half an hour on both Reason and Tracktion. I'm short on time and Tracktion came out on top as DAW for me. It's just so much more intuitive!! 

As for drums... EZDrummer clearly sounds better than jamstix, but you can buy both, use jamstix as the "brain" (if you don't want to do any programming yourself) and route that midi file into EZDrummer or BFD etc in order to use their sounds! Using EZDrummer etc on it's own means you have to do all the programming bar-by-bar. Likely what I'd do (and I think what I did in the past) was to set up the jamstix brain to drum over the whole track... then I'd go in and modify the kit sounds and individual bars if needed. Much faster! 

I remember why I chose Tracktion and jamstix in the first place now...! 

I also remember how much time all of this took... I aim to re-read the manuals, mess about for 2 weeks and then focus on guitars and tracks again. IMO these are just tools to reach an end goal and shouldn't take too much time. 

I don't have a midi keyboard anymore so if I want to do any midi, will just program it in. Doubt I'll be adding much midi, though. As for VSTs, again... I don't think I need much. There's an ocean of stuff out there and I need to streamline through it. Honestly, there are just SO many tools, it's overwhelming. I don't know what half of them are for! All I need are simple filters, volume controls, that sort of thing! Free with Tracktion I got Melodyne Essential (not the full feature one which can detect every note in a chord - handy but $150 extra on offer!) and elastik 2 - something to do with looping

So I bought Tracktion 2 earlier... I will see about whether or not to buy jamstix 3 because I know jamstix 4 is out at Christmas! They were also going to create "jambassist" but that seems to have been on hold for years. 

I found the master tracktion files for many of my songs - woohoo! However some really old ones have been lost forever

digitalscream

thomasross20 said:

I found the master tracktion files for many of my songs - woohoo! However some really old ones have been lost forever

I think that would probably be reason (heh...) enough to pick Tracktion, really.

Glad you came to a decision in fairly short order, even if I think you're wrong

thomasross20

It actually may very well be that I've chosen the wrong one and would come to appreciate something like Reason more with time. I just want to get recordings down fast with no faff and with as much help as possible and Tracktion does that for me. Reason was pretty good but a bit more "advanced" and that's not what I'm looking for.

Yep - I@ve no time to demo products for weeks - short and sharp!

Had big problems trying to run VSTs though - was up until 2am last night! Turns out I was trying to use old 32-bit VSTs whilst running 64-bit Tracktion, so have now switched back to 32-bit Tracktion and all works fine. I don't know what 64-bit buys exactly - more accuracy / faster program execution?

Jalapeno

Tracktion was a superb tool, only reason I dispensed with it was Mackie had seemingly mothballed it.  Now Julian Storer is running the show once more all is well.

As for synths/samples/loops - when you need them try the free Reason taster.  Reason has a learning curve, but is capable of producing anything you could imagine.

thomasross20

I guess that's the problem - I've got so much going on I've not got the time for learning curves.  

But I'm guessing I can get as may free VSTs as I Iike for Tracktion - surely VSTs can't be a reason to choose one over the other..? 

sinbaadi

Is Tracktion really that much more user friendly, or are you just used to it?  (Than Reaper)