For basic sound recording, my advice is typically that you can't go wrong with Reaper when you're first starting. By the time you find it lacking, you should have the experience and skill to move up to whatever more advanced platform has the features you want and to decide what that platform is.
Sequencing, though, is a game I'm not familiar with.
How to choose music and audio software
So many options and opinions on this. Personally I think Reaper is immense for a beginner - cheap, light on CPU and very, very deep. The one negative is the lack of a score editor, but that said the scoring functions in Cubase and Logic (the pack leaders here) are still pretty basic compared with Sibelius. I use Reaper at home and Logic/Cubase at work.
The other software I use is Renoise - it's a tracker in the vein of the programs that videogame music used to be written on, is very geeky-looking, versatile and interacts well with Reaper. Once you've figured it out it is excellent for getting into the flow of composition and putting ideas down quickly. There are also some great modulation devices that work very intuitively with any parameter. Its capabilities as a sampler are also excellent. It's kind of half-way between a sampler and a DAW.
The bundled effects with Renoise and Reaper are pretty good, but I've fleshed mine out with Korg's MDE-X as part of the Legacy Collection pack, which is an excellent multi-fx vst.
Instruments for both programs are non-existent. That is a whole different ball game. Kontakt, Absynth, FM8, Superior Drummer, RealGuitar, RealLPC are essential in my opinion, but I have spent £1000s on other vst synths and kontakt libraries in the pursuit of other sounds.
For my needs my home setup is perfect while my work setup is annoying due to outdated computers and my growing hatred of Cubase.
Lacking from basically any setup is my dream of an integrated score, MIDI and audio program. I know Cubase/Logic/Digital Performer have score functions and I have used these but found them extremely irritating to use and work with, and ended up back in the piano roll/arrange window. They seem to be more focused on the creation of scores after the fact of their composition using MIDI, and the use of tools is stuck in the 90's.
But really I think the two most important things to bear in mind are:
1 - If you have friends that make music, what software do they use? Use that, then they can help you as you learn the software.
2 - Choose one DAW and stick with it, do not waste time and money on other programs if you feel your DAW is holding you back. It isn't, you just need to plough through whatever barrier you are encountering and figure out a more creative way to approach the problem.
So many options and opinions on this. Personally I think Reaper is immense for a beginner - cheap, light on CPU and very, very deep. The one negative is the lack of a score editor, but that said the scoring functions in Cubase and Logic (the pack leaders here) are still pretty basic compared with Sibelius. I use Reaper at home and Logic/Cubase at work.
The other software I use is Renoise - it's a tracker in the vein of the programs that videogame music used to be written on, is very geeky-looking, versatile and interacts well with Reaper. Once you've figured it out it is excellent for getting into the flow of composition and putting ideas down quickly. There are also some great modulation devices that work very intuitively with any parameter. Its capabilities as a sampler are also excellent. It's kind of half-way between a sampler and a DAW.
The bundled effects with Renoise and Reaper are pretty good, but I've fleshed mine out with Korg's MDE-X as part of the Legacy Collection pack, which is an excellent multi-fx vst.
Instruments for both programs are non-existent. That is a whole different ball game. Kontakt, Absynth, FM8, Superior Drummer, RealGuitar, RealLPC are essential in my opinion, but I have spent £1000s on other vst synths and kontakt libraries in the pursuit of other sounds.
For my needs my home setup is perfect while my work setup is annoying due to outdated computers and my growing hatred of Cubase.
Lacking from basically any setup is my dream of an integrated score, MIDI and audio program. I know Cubase/Logic/Digital Performer have score functions and I have used these but found them extremely irritating to use and work with, and ended up back in the piano roll/arrange window. They seem to be more focused on the creation of scores after the fact of their composition using MIDI, and the use of tools is stuck in the 90's.
But really I think the two most important things to bear in mind are:
1 - If you have friends that make music, what software do they use? Use that, then they can help you as you learn the software.
2 - Choose one DAW and stick with it, do not waste time and money on other programs if you feel your DAW is holding you back. It isn't, you just need to plough through whatever barrier you are encountering and figure out a more creative way to approach the problem.
I initially learned how to compose at school using notation on Sibelius, so when I started creating digital music I got Logic because of it's score editor. It didn't take me very long to get fed up with it and purchase Sibelius. I agree...Logic's score editor is very basic when compared dedicated scoring programs like Sibelius and Finale. However, now I use Sibelius and Logic side by side. I score my projects in Sibelius and then export the midi over to Logic, where I apply the samples and then shape and edit the sound. I wonder how many other people do something similar. I know most composers here play the music in right from the keyboard, but when it comes to orchestral composition it's so much easier for me to compose visually with the score.
I usually just play everything. I used Finale for years - infact I even got a part time job transcribing or digitizing pieces for professors while at school. That greatly sped up my Finale workflow but I haven't really used it since graduating. I totally get the scoring visually point and often will open up the staff view in Logic just to review or make fine edits on what I've done.
You can also rewire sibelius, with MIDIYoke/MIDIOX routing MIDI back to the host... this is an option I have tried but setting and changing MIDI channels as required on Sibelius is a total nightmare. They really ought to see the value in making this easy - older versions used to have this capability!
I must disagree with the concept, that choosing the right DAW is crucial; it's the external tools that you use within the DAW really matter.
The thing I really pay attention to, is how stable the DAW is when handling 3rd party tools. And this brings me to my second point. Some workstations, like Logic, have big sound libraries. While I agree that those libraries might do the trick in some cases, you shouldn't really rely that much on them. If we're all aiming to be professionals, then our works must sound top notch. That might be just my conservative point of view, but I think, that realistic instruments can't be pulled of with a daw's native libraries. My point is, that you shouldn't look for a DAW that has the biggest library. Instead focus on a DAW that can handle 3rd party instruments with ease.
For instance, I really love Cubase 5, but I often found its lack of stability with some VSTs very troublesome.
Can you tell which VST plugins and other software have caused you trouble? They should be a good starting point for DAW evaluation.
Each DAW offers a fundamentally different workflow. That's a very big part of the equation.I must disagree with the concept, that choosing the right DAW is crucial;
To all what is said above, which I second mostly, I would like to add batch/script processing. It is useful a lot especially when it comes to jobs with tons of recording hours and lots of files to take care of. It also releases you from doing those boring and repetitive things and let's you to have a while with a warm cup of coffie :).
I would like to add batch/script processing.
For batch processing, I use an audio editor like Peak (which sadly has now gone out of business) or Soundforge (mainly the PC version, the Mac version leaves a LOT to be desired in my opinion).
I use Reason 6 and I LOVE it. I don't think there is any sure fire way to pick your first DAW though, because it took me years of using an old cracked version (okay I know, I'm going to hell) to make me fully appreciate what the program could do, and how to achieve efficient workflow within it. In other words, I bought it because it was the DAW I was already most familiar with. I've noticed a lot of people I know tend to stick to what they know as well.
Perhaps a better way would be to look at each DAW's fundamental weakness. Reason's would likely be the lack of VST support, though the new Rack Extensions have more than compensated for this in my opinion.
All that aside, I hear Ableton is great.
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