I am accustomed to FL Studio, but due to a curious chain of events am left nearly possessionless save a Mac. Finding Reaper utterly perplexing, I am compelled to resort to Garageband. Perhaps a denizen of the forum would be so kind as to identify commonalities between the software packages, in order to ease the transition.
Well, let's see... so garageband might as well be called garbageband and Reaper is immensely awesome and God-like.
They do both require computers though, so I would say they may still be comprable in some small way. XD
Personally... I'd suggest giving Logic a try instead of going with Garbageband.
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At 4/19/11 02:54 AM, Back-From-Purgatory wrote: Personally... I'd suggest giving Logic a try instead of going with Garbageband.
If you have the coin that's the way to go. Trying to go from FL to garagband will just piss you off to no end. I like to advocate that you can make some pretty slick stuff with garageband but the truth to the matter is that you need to know EXACTLY what you're doing. If you're going to use garageband to make music as you would in a normal DAW you'll need to know a lot about digital audio production and fair bit about garageband.
I know nothing about reaper but I trust josh's opinion that it's a good program. Based on that I'd say stick with it and try to learn it. There's no point in down grading to GB if you have a capable DAW. On that note, stay posted and you're bound to get some more feedback.
At 4/19/11 03:09 AM, Laqur wrote:At 4/19/11 02:54 AM, Back-From-Purgatory wrote: Personally... I'd suggest giving Logic a try instead of going with Garbageband.If you have the coin that's the way to go. Trying to go from FL to garagband will just piss you off to no end. I like to advocate that you can make some pretty slick stuff with garageband but the truth to the matter is that you need to know EXACTLY what you're doing. If you're going to use garageband to make music as you would in a normal DAW you'll need to know a lot about digital audio production and fair bit about garageband.
I know nothing about reaper but I trust josh's opinion that it's a good program. Based on that I'd say stick with it and try to learn it. There's no point in down grading to GB if you have a capable DAW. On that note, stay posted and you're bound to get some more feedback.
I would posit the notion that whilst you may need to know a bit about digital audio production to get anything out of Garageband, you'd probably need a lot more knowledge to get something equally impressive out of Reaper. Every time I've sat down to use Reaper, I've found it to be terrifyingly counter-intuitive. Maybe that just says something about me and my level of ability, but I think I'd choose Garageband over Reaper at this stage (if I had to).
For everyone that reckons GB is shit, what about it in particular has held you back?
At 4/19/11 03:51 AM, jarrydn wrote: For everyone that reckons GB is shit, what about it in particular has held you back?
I've been wondering the same :)
However I've noticed most advanced producers here don't use GB.
Well, i use garageband and while i do have the coin to upgrade to more "Advanced" software, i wont.
I guess i just found it to be the fastest way for me to go from "Hey thats a cool melody" to actually record it, its really simple to use whit some highly advanced options "Under the skin".
And no, its not "just loops".
Whit some mediocre plugin-hunting its actually proven to be quite the powerful software, it just takes a while to understand where some of the options you have in other software like FL is located in the software.
Just look at some tutorials and you'll be fine :D
1.) I used to thought Garage band was good,
2.) then I got Fruity Loops.
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Macs just for music? BAH you might as well just go PC.
Dicks to the left of me. Dicks to the right of me. I want them all.
NOTE : This is solely opinion and what I think, If you don't like it I don't give a shit, frankly.
OK, Garageband is extremely frowned upon by the audio community because the major part of the people who use it (99.9%) submit duplo music, which is basically loops on top of eachother, hence the term 'duplo'.
As many people suggested, It's worth it giving Logic a try, reall,really worth it, it's an amazing piece of software which is used by the big wigs of music, You can makr practically anything with it, it's not very different from FL Studio, it has a playlist and stuff, so it's pretty damn sweet.
I don't know about Reaper though since I've never even touched it, but it seems pretty sweet, based on Pictures and demo songs and stuff, but try to avoid garageband use :)
Since you have a mac, which is extremely good for making music, invest in Propellorhead Reason if you have Money it's pretty damn sweet, if you need some tips or something contact the major users of Reason on NG, like SBB.
And also, Cubase is pretty sweet and many people here use it I think, I'd contact one of the best on NG who use Cubase, like Bjra .
Hope I helped.
Reaper is great if you're a freak for crazy routing and enjoy editing easily inside and outside groups.
It's tempo functions are also fucking class. It's one of the few DAWS were having a keyboard actually lets me work faster!
But if neither of those sound particularly interesting then a Logic is fine too. I wouldn't really know much about it but the idea of having to go scavenge for .AU plugins seems fairly unappetising.
At 4/19/11 07:37 AM, Decibel wrote: NOTE : This is solely opinion and what I think, If you don't like it I don't give a shit, frankly.
OK, Garageband is extremely frowned upon by the audio community because the major part of the people who use it (99.9%) submit duplo music
Firstly, omfg wtf, where did you get that number from? Out of every 1000 submissions made with Garageband, 999 are composed entirely of loops? Also, excuse me for getting irrationally pissed off right now, but how in the flying fuck does people "misusing" garageband somehow turn it into a "frowned down upon" tool? Most every piece of software comes with a bunch of presets and loops, and, I can guarantee that they are all abused in the same way by n00bs.
I'm sorry, but if you look down on a software package because some of the users are fucking idiots, then you are at least as dumb as them.
If you hate Garageband because you're sick of hearing the same loops over and over again, then you have exceedingly poor meta-cognitive abilities and the intellectual reasoning of a fucking 8 year old. If you argue with this, then you have just proven my point, go sit in the corner.
As many people suggested, It's worth it giving Logic a try, reall,really worth it, it's an amazing piece of software which is used by the big wigs of music, You can makr practically anything with it, it's not very different from FL Studio, it has a playlist and stuff, so it's pretty damn sweet.
I haven't used Logic since 5.5, but as far as I can remember, it was nowhere near the same as FL. Also, GARAGEBAND IS FREE ROFL
I don't know about Reaper though since I've never even touched it, but it seems pretty sweet, based on Pictures and demo songs and stuff
HELPFUL
but try to avoid garageband use :)
WHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?! Have you ever actually used it? OR have you seen pictures and heard demo songs and thought it seemed pretty gay? If you have used it, how long did you use it for? If you haven't used it for an extended period of time and come to grips with a fair amount of it's features, then your criticism is worth MUCH LESS than a bag of stinky, rancid farts.
I've never used Garageband in my entire life. I'd like to take a crack at it some day though, because I SUSPECT that it is nowhere near as bad as people are making it out to be. I don't have any particular basis for this theory, besides my past experience with popular opinion.
IF PEOPLE SAY SOMETHING SUCKS, IT'S PROBABLY AWESOME (ie, Skrillex).
CONVERSELY, IF PEOPLE SAY SOMETHING IS AWESOME, IT'S PROBABLY FUCKING WRETCHED (ie, Inception).
THERE ARE OTHER EXAMPLES.
Since you have a mac, which is extremely good for making music, invest in Propellorhead Reason if you have Money it's pretty damn sweet, if you need some tips or something contact the major users of Reason on NG, like SBB.
Look, if English isn't your primary language, then I apologize, but the words (and combinations thereof) "pretty", "damn", and "sweet" are absolutely meaningless when it comes to describing something as deep and complex as a DAW. From what I can gather though, you think that all DAWs are "pretty sweet" (including the ones that you haven't used), and that Garageband is something to try and avoid.
...
WHYYYYYYYYYY????
And also, Cubase is pretty sweet and many people here use it I think, I'd contact one of the best on NG who use Cubase, like Bjra .
Yeah Cubase is pretty sweet.
Hope I helped.
All I can say is that the only thing you've helped me do is cause me to post comments THAT I AM PROBABLY GOING TO REGRET.
jarrydn said :
All I can say is that the only thing you've helped me do is cause me to post comments THAT I AM PROBABLY GOING TO REGRET.
lol, It's ok, I think I was drunk when I posted that. :p
Listen to jarrydn, all of the above statements were affected by alcohol.
Sorry mate =P
At 4/19/11 02:25 AM, billingsworth wrote: I am accustomed to FL Studio, but due to a curious chain of events am left nearly possessionless save a Mac.
Curious, eh? There seems to be a lot of uses for that word these days...
If you're still around, I have some "curious" news for you, if your Mac meets these requirements:
Is it an Intel Mac? If yes, then that opens some doors. Aside from emulators/virtual machines like CrossOver and BootCamp, I believe I once read about a certain combination of a version of FL Studio and a version of Mac OS X could run darn near natively, but I can't find that source right now. Crossover, BootCamp, Parallels, and heck even WineHQ may help you return to FL Studio world, if you were truly attached to that DAW.
Finding Reaper utterly perplexing, I am compelled to resort to Garageband.
Never worked with Reaper, but have tried a demo of it. I think I'd agree with you. I think even MixCraft would've been easier to pick up on from the beginning.
Perhaps a denizen of the forum would be so kind as to identify commonalities between the software packages, in order to ease the transition.
I'm a bit stuck here. Do you want to hear the difference between FL Studio and GarageBand, or GarageBand and Reason, or all three? I've dabbled 'round with FL Studio (apparently, GarageBand's my main music maker at this time), and can point out some differences between them for you now:
Depending on how you see it, FL Studio is more of a middle-weight DAW, in that it shares similarities between Logic (and other heavy-weight DAWs, namely the beat step sequencers) and GarageBand (which I'd place under the light-weight level DAW).
If you want to stay "in the middle", at best you should give Logic Express (and I do emphasize "Express") a look at. It has beat step sequencer ,UltraBeat, like its Studio/Pro version, which is one of the few things that make FL Studio/Logic Express differ from GarageBand (no beat step sequencer that I know of exists for it).
If you have more questions about GarageBand, if you're not interested or cannot afford to go the venture of Crossing Over or going to Boot Camp, I suggest posting them at ~>The Garageband Q&A/Chat Corner!<~. It'll also be of great help if you could provide the version of GarageBand your Mac has. Who knows, some of the postings there may help answer some questions you have.
<It's good to know that Hell has had another snow day! :=D >
At 4/19/11 03:51 AM, jarrydn wrote: For everyone that reckons GB is shit, what about it in particular has held you back?
For something seemingly so simplistic, I find it incredibly clunky. I strongly dislike it quantization and midi sequencing. I also find, and I think thi a matter of opinion, all of its native VSTs/effects color thing oddly and are lo-fi.
:For everyone that reckons GB is shit, what about it in particular has held you back?
I haven't used GB in like 6 years so things may have changed, but I remember finding it either really difficult and counter-intuitive or even impossible to automate specific parameters of an instrument or effect e.g. cutoff frequency, compressor ratio/threshold etc.
Some synths had pre-determined CC mapping for the modulation wheel on a controller, but I couldn't find any way to change the routing, nor any way to map other controls to different parameters.
Automating volume and pan was piss easy though, so why did I find automating anything else so unworkable?
p.s. i am gay
At 4/25/11 05:03 AM, midimachine wrote:For everyone that reckons GB is shit, what about it in particular has held you back?I haven't used GB in like 6 years so things may have changed, but I remember finding it either really difficult and counter-intuitive or even impossible to automate specific parameters of an instrument or effect e.g. cutoff frequency, compressor ratio/threshold etc.
You can load up effects and automate those.
Some synths had pre-determined CC mapping for the modulation wheel on a controller, but I couldn't find any way to change the routing, nor any way to map other controls to different parameters.
I'm not sure if it's possible to change up the mod wheel :/
If you've got the money, go with logic.
I've been using it for 3 years and it has never failed me...
GB and logic aren't even comparable. I've used GB for a year before I went to logic and I have never wanted to go back since.
Probably because logic is just better in every way (and more expensive).
Plus It has great features and an easy to use interface.
Logic may be expensive, but its worth it.
At 4/25/11 10:58 AM, seargenthippo wrote: GB and logic aren't even comparable.
I'd say because of the similar interface they are actually uniquely comparable :)
In a nutshell GB is Logic sans any of the advanced MIDI/audio/video/plugin/compatibility/wo rkflow capabilities, and with a kind of interface and workflow that makes it feel more like a toy (heavy emphasis on predefined presets and templates and genre picking and such)
At 4/25/11 04:22 PM, statueofdiveo wrote: LOGIC!
and REASON!
They were made for each other, seriously
Reaper is by far the best DAW i've used to date.
It's the fastest and most stable DAW of any i've tried. I agree that to someone new though, reaper can be initially a bit difficult to use, but it's like this on purpose. The greatest strength of reaper, and the reason why many are switching to it from even many big name DAW's is because reaper is very, VERY flexible. If you don't like the way something works in reaper, there's a very good chance there's a setting in the options to make it work the way you want to. Reaper can be made to emulate the way any other DAW works (well, except maybe FL Studio since that handles many things in a very unique way).
And if that isn't enough, there is an enormous scripting/UI community for reaper that can make reaper work pretty much any way you like. Flexibility is Reapers greatest strength, but you need to be willing to sit there and set it up the way you want it to work. It's not like other DAW's where what you get is what you get.
I recall reading a while back in Sound on Sound mag where the author stated something to the effect that reaper is more than happy to provide you with enough rope to hang your self with, if you get carried away. If you like control, over your music, over your DAW and over your routing, reaper is definitely for you.
In it's stock setup I don't find reaper to be particularly amazing, but after you spend some time to configure it, it's very, VERY nice, and far more stable and efficient than anything else i've ever used. The amazing licensing costs are just an added bonus! Also, Reaper receives updates multple times a month The speed of the DEV team is mind boggling.
I swear I don't work for cockos, i'm just really passionate about their software, I consider my self a pretty big PC power user, and it's very rare to find a piece of software (audio or otherwise) so affordably priced that does so many things so well with so few bugs.
Fun fact: The guy(s) behind Cocko's and Reaper is also the same guy responsible for the torrent protocol as far as I know, which probably explains their business model/software practices.
I've given reaper two tries, a few hours each. Couldn't figure out how to make shit work, midi was a bitch and the recording/editing process was the sloppiest and most counterintuitive thing I've experienced yet. *Not a very good first impression. Better than Live though.
At 4/25/11 05:26 PM, SBB wrote: I've given reaper two tries, a few hours each. Couldn't figure out how to make shit work, midi was a bitch and the recording/editing process was the sloppiest and most counterintuitive thing I've experienced yet. *Not a very good first impression. Better than Live though.
Yeah it doesn't have much in the way of direct audio editing facilities which is the only major drawback at the moment, but realistically few DAW's have good audio editing facilities anyways, most people will have dedicated editors for that if they're serious about sound or music production. I use Sony's Soundforge 10 for audio manipulation personally, and it integrates nicely with reaper.
File/track manipulation in Reaper is one of the best things I love about it though, but to each their own I guess :). I love that there isn't a ton of different tools on a toolbar and rather it uses a context sensitive, non-destructive editing engine. Slicing, merging, crossfading, etc. can all be done without ever having to switch to a particular tool. If you're used to a tool based workflow though I can see why something like that would annoy you. It's hard to switch to a new DAW once you get used to doing things a certain way.
