I'm in the market for a new computer and many are pushing macs and Logic Pro 7.
I want to be able to compose, arrange, record with all kinds of voices (live instruments and other live sounds as well as computer-gen sounds)
All the microtonal programs that I've found so far are for windows.
Any suggestions for getting a top notch configuration?
What do you use?
I'm not really dead set on anything yet. I've used Pro Tools a bunch at music school, but I really just want something that can be very flexible.
I want to be able to compose, arrange, record with all kinds of voices (live instruments and other live sounds as well as computer-gen sounds)
All the microtonal programs that I've found so far are for windows.
Any suggestions for getting a top notch configuration?
What do you use?
I'm not really dead set on anything yet. I've used Pro Tools a bunch at music school, but I really just want something that can be very flexible.
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Los Angeles
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Re: Equipment
Tue, March 22, 2005 - 4:14 PMWell I just found L'il Miss Scale Oven.
Looks amazing.
Any comments?
I'm leaning heavily towards that right now. The website looked great. -
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Re: Equipment
Tue, March 22, 2005 - 7:18 PMcheck out the pluggo compatable VET-1 synth. it has nice ability to change scale systems in MIDI as a protools plugin. and, it's free.
you can find it here:
launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/...oMusic/
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Unsu...
Re: Equipment
Tue, March 22, 2005 - 8:01 PMLi'l Miss' Scale Oven (LMSO) is indeed quite awesome.
Of course I may be biased... :-) -
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Re: Equipment
Wed, March 23, 2005 - 6:39 AMWhat other programs do you run w/LMSO?
Logic is SOOO expensive and I'm not convinced about what I need yet. -
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Unsu...
Re: Equipment
Wed, March 23, 2005 - 7:29 AMI use Cubase SX 3. SX 2 worked fine also. Cubase is stable and efficient. Either Cubase SX or Logic Pro are well suited towards microtonal work with LMSO.
For softsynths and samplers, I mainly use Reason, FM7, Absynth, Reaktor and Kontakt microtonally. I have also tested everything I can find and gotten -almost- everything to retune one way or another.
With Logic the advantage is you get a bunch of synths with it and such exotics as a convolution reverb (need a fast G5 for that).
The included synths with Cubase are fair to decent, but nothing really remarkable. However, it is less expensive and with the money saved you can get synths you really like.
If I did it again, I would probably go the same way, choosing Cubase, though either one is fine. The first Cubase I ever bought was version 1.0, for the Atari ST. It was the first program to use what is now considered the standard way of making a sequencer.
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Re: Equipment
Wed, March 23, 2005 - 1:37 PMI'd say PC 1st as you can put together a custom new one right now with all the latest specs (939 socket and Sata2, etc.) and top parts for less than $1200 (no monitor); I just upgraded after 4 years and have a sweet machine. I'm into Nuendo myself as I mostly work just with just audio. Nuendo is great for this and its sequencing capabilities meet my needs.
Chances are you could outfit yourself with a new custom built PC, a decent audio interface, and Nuendo for less or close to a purchase of a near comparable Mac + Logic.
Here is what I upgraded to recently:
Athlon 64 3500+ /w 3year warranty
Corsair TWINX 1024-3200XLPRO 1 Gig RAM
Antec NeoPower 480
Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu fan/heatsink
Asus - A8N-SLI-Deluxe motherboard
BFG GeForce 6600 GT (NVidia) OC 128MB
Super Lanboy Case
This is all top components; only the CPU and video card are ranked at the top of the mainstream range (IE you can throw down a ton more cash for slightly faster CPU and ~2X more for the best video card). This box has more and better RAM and a much better video card than what comes in any of the Macs bundles currently (Apple store).
I'm overclocking the CPU and getting fine results. ~3700+
I really promote building your own computer. After all it is the center piece for most folks music production. Most packaged computers will have some part somewhere that is inferior and thus brings total performance down.
Like anything else it takes more time and patience (especially if you are putting your 1st machine together; do it with someone who has done it before), but if you keep up to speed by reading sites like Tom's Hardware (www.tomshardware.com) it is easy to find the best parts. It also doesn't hurt to gain knowledge about what is inside the box.
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Re: Equipment
Thu, March 24, 2005 - 6:48 AMThanks Catharsis.
I've built a machine myself (w/a computer expert) before, and that's the only machine I have. It's from 2001, so its rather dated now. But I totally see the wisdom of building a machine.
I'm still stuck. LMSO looks like an amazing program.
And I have a friend who's selling a mac that'll probably work fine at a very good price.
And I have a couple friends who outfit and troubleshoot pc's for a living.
*SCREAM!*
And I'm a libra and it takes me FOREVER to make decisions as close as this.
AND I want to make music NOW damnit! -
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Unsu...
Re: Equipment
Thu, March 24, 2005 - 11:03 AMDan, what are the specs and proposed price on the Mac you are considering? -
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Re: Equipment
Thu, March 24, 2005 - 2:29 PMDual 1-gig processors, two 80 gig hard drives, 1 gig of SDRAM
He says less than a thousand, and he'll throw in a nice moniter.
That's puts me up to around $2200 for the computer, Logic and LMSO.
If I go Mac. -
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Unsu...
Re: Equipment
Thu, March 24, 2005 - 7:42 PMFor a desktop with dual G4s at 1 GHz, 1Gig RAM, and the extra harddrive, that's a fair price. You will centainly benefit from the 1G RAM if you plan to run samplers. With the monitor it's a steal if it's a decent monitor; at least 17" I assume. If its a flatscreen, it's a fantastic price. If you get it make sure that he gives you the installation CDs that came with it originally.
If you don't already have a USB MIDI interface or a USB keyboard, you'll probably want one of those as well, though they can be found for very little.
That configuration will be fast enough to do audio work too - it's faster than my machine and I am doing pretty well here - my system seems to be faster for music work than that of a friend of mine who has a 3GHz Pentium and complains of problems that I don't have. Having the dual processors does help to improve responsiveness when doing audio work, and Cubase and I think Logic too both have dual processor support built in.
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