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Subject:OT: Need Scoring Advice
Posted by: groovedude
Date:4/1/2004 4:30:40 PM
Not with the ladies of course-ha! I'm interested in composing with a digital orchestra (PC based) and am trying to figure out the best gear on a very tight budget. Below are some of the things I'm looking at. Your thoughts...? Headphones: Fostex T50RP http://www.bswusa.com/prod_item.asp?item=T50RP Zalman 5.1 Surround Headphones http://store.yahoo.com/xoxide/za51suulgahe.html USB MIDI Interface: UNO 1x1 http://musicmall.com/cmp/uno_1x1.htm Sound Card: DSP24 MEDIA 7.1 http://www.tracertek.com/media7.htm Midi controller: SL-880PRO http://www.mtlc.net/main.php?a=Products&ShowItem=354&b=All Fatar TMK-88 http://www.mtlc.net/main.php?a=Products&ShowItem=1237 RADIUM 61 http://musicmall.com/cmp/radium61.htm Sequencer: SONAR 3 Producer Edition http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/default.asp Samplers, VSTs: Garritan Personal Orchestra http://www.garritan.com/features.html Garritan ORCHESTRAL STRINGS - ADVANCED VERSION http://www.garritan.com/features.html |
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Subject:RE: OT: Need Scoring Advice
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:4/1/2004 7:51:34 PM
"Not with the ladies of course-ha!" LOL Looks all pretty good to me. (Were you going to get several MIDI controllers like the ones you listed?) Just remember to count tech support into the equation should you need it. Not to be a dork or anything, but where's ACID (or any other Sony app like Sound Forge or Vegas) in all this, hmm? ;o) (Or do you already have them?) HTH, Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid mD's ACIDplanet Page Guitars 4 Kids |
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Subject:RE: OT: Need Scoring Advice
Reply by: groovedude
Date:4/1/2004 10:53:32 PM
Hahah, yes I have Sound Forge, Acid DJ, Vegas, DVDA--so...am I in? No, I'm not going to get multiple controllers, I'm still deciding which one. I'm leaning toward the Fatar 88, the other 88 key is really expensive and the other one is 61 keys and I think I'd miss those 27 little ivories--but again I'm searching for some feedback from others who've gone down this path. Only prob with the Fatar is it doesn't have a separate pitch wheel, just one mod wheel. The Garrison Strings Gigastudio Advanced will probably have to wait, again expensive; but the Garrison Orchestra is affordable and diverse and great sound. I'll also have to tough it out with the Logic Soundtrack 24 sequencer that comes with the sound card, until I can afford Sonar 3. I looked at others but Sonar is made for PC and you can plug just about any plugin or VST into it. Anyway, looking forward to more ideas/opinions. |
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Subject:RE: OT: Need Scoring Advice
Reply by: DKeenum
Date:4/2/2004 7:45:12 AM
IMO, sonar would be would saving for. |
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Subject:RE: OT: Need Scoring Advice
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:4/2/2004 8:37:43 AM
> IMO, sonar would be would saving for. I’m curious as to why you think that? I just had to decide between getting ACID Pro 4 or Sonar 3 Studio Edition (I have ACID Music 3 and Vegas 4 already) and I selected ACID Pro 4 because it seemed to have everything I needed to record MIDI with softsyths, with the addition of exceptional looping. So I could play the verse of a song on piano and if I wanted three verses I just stretch the part out and it loops. I addition I could used looped drums with the chopper and make up all sorts of parts and I didn’t think Sonar did that as good as ACID. I also like the ACID interface much better. Sonar and Cubase have all these darn popup windows for mixing and buses and ACID just keeps them neatly placed at the bottom of the screen while you’re recording. I find it much more productive. Perhaps I didn’t use the Sonar 3 DEMO enough to really understand its power, which is why I’m asking why you think it would be good to own in addition to ACID Pro and Vegas? ~jr |
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Subject:RE: OT: Need Scoring Advice
Reply by: DKeenum
Date:4/2/2004 1:01:44 PM
Before I answer let me say that I use acid as my main mixing enviroment. I answered groovedude in reference to his question about scoring. I use acids midi/soft synth functions daily, but if you are going to get into anything like orchestral scoring your going to have to have more midi editing power than acid/vegas can offer at this point. I don't use sonar. I use acid. So I'm not trashing acid. I'm just answering the question. |
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Subject:RE: OT: Need Scoring Advice
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:4/2/2004 6:03:10 PM
I didn’t take your comment as trashing ACID. I was just curious because I’m not familiar enough with Sonar. (just what I saw from the demo) I’ve just started using ACID and I did notice that it’s MIDI capabilities are not as good as Sonar w.r.t support of setting up which patch for which track from your sound card, but once I started playing with softsyths, I realized that this was the way to go anyway (i.e., forget about the sounds on your card) and ACID has plenty of capability with softsyths. I guess the same would be true for controlling external MIDI gear. Sonar is probably better at that too. So I see your point. While I have lots of external MIDI gear, the softsyths render it unnecessary. (i.e., great for gigs but who needs them in the studio?) I was reacting to the original post (since he is Vegas/ACID DJ user) on using softsyths like Garritan Personal Orchestra to score. I would think that ACID Pro has everything he would need and he already understands the user interface. Sonar seems to have a steeper learning curve. Although Sonar does have the ability to print sheet music so that could be a big benefit in scoring. So I guess I agree that Sonar is probably better overall for MIDI recording. I'm happy with just using ACID Pro for now too. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: OT: Need Scoring Advice
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:4/2/2004 9:02:18 PM
It's probably worth mentioning that SONAR is more geared toward those who want more MIDI control in addition to multitracking. While ACID Pro (and to some extent, Screenblast ACID) does have MIDI too, it fits within ACID's existing paradigm, which is looping. It's not really meant to be a MIDI sequencer in the strictest sense; more like a MIDI loop sequencer. (There are, of course, those who use ACID like a MIDI sequencer. There are also those who use ACID like a multitracker.) Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid mD's ACIDplanet Page Guitars 4 Kids |
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Subject:RE: OT: Need Scoring Advice
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:4/3/2004 7:14:14 AM
> There are, of course, those who use ACID like a MIDI sequencer ...and that’s my intended use. The first MIDI sequencer I used (back in the mid 80’s) was a program called Texture. You couldn’t record a whole song. You would record sections (i.e., verse, chorus, bridge, etc.) and then go into another part of the program and string them together by saying, “give me the verse twice, then a chorus, the two more verses, then a chorus, bridge, verse and ending”. Then you would listen to that and maybe say, “I think it sounds better with two verse and the end” and you would just increase the number of a certain section or change the order or whatever, and I found it very easy for roughing out a song. So when I found ACID Pro, I thought, looped based MIDI is what I’ve been waiting for. ;-) Sony compares ACID Pro 4 to Sonar 2 in the comparisons on their website so someone at Sony feels Sonar is ACID Pro’s competition. That’s what made me consider ACID when I was looking for a MIDI sequencer.I agree Sonar has better MIDI capabilities but ACID seems to have enough for my use and I already own Vegas and ACID Music so there was no learning curve for me. If it were up to me, I’d ask for ACID support in Vegas and just use Vegas for everything. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: OT: Need Scoring Advice
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:4/3/2004 11:23:46 AM
Yeah, I saw the comparison chart too awhile ago. I actually cut my teeth on Cakewalk Express years ago. I wasn't too big a fan on MIDI then as it felt limiting, especially in the area where electric guitars were concerned. (Even though today's stuff can mimic guitars pretty well, it still cannot replace the real thing, IMHO.) I eventually ditched MIDI for digital audio. I actually was choosing between what was called Pro Audio (which morphed into SONAR) and ACID Pro. I chose ACID Pro because I liked its GUI better and it was flexible enough if I wanted to expand on it later, especially since I was going to pick up Sound Forge later on. When I chose ACID Pro (version 2.0), it didn't even have the ability to even playback MIDI. That didn't come later on until version 3.0. I know that Vegas can't timestretch or keystretch like ACID does, but I do know it can tell the difference when a media file is a loop (which is about the only thing it has in common other than its GUI). Your comment about wanting ACID support in Vegas is interesting, because there are also ACID users who want Vegas support in ACID (at least in regards to multitracking). Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid mD's ACIDplanet Page Guitars 4 Kids |