Laptop here, but what software?

Well my MacBookPro arrivied yesterday and I was certain that I was going to go and ge Ableton Live 6, but now I have some queries!

I have about €500 to spend.

I want to be able to mix songs together and create my own tunes. Something along th lines of daft punk. Is creating songs through loops and some real instruments(guitar and vocals) possible in ableton?

I have been recomended to buy mbox2, which comes with a sound card, is this what I need?

Lastly has anyone here used http://www.playback-europe.com/digid...ox_2-8647.html ? Its 125 cheaper the in dublin!


Sorry for all the questions I dunno what to choose!

Also any recomendations would be great!

Cheers,

This may sound like a stupid question, but have you given Garageband a try? It comes with new Macs, so it should be in your Applications folder.

Now if you have already tried it, then I'll leave this thread to somebody who knows what he/she is talking about ;P

Oh I have been using garageband for ages! This isn't my first mac!

Thanks anyway!

Ahh, so it was a stupid question.

Carry on then

AndyMc said:

I want to be able to mix songs together and create my own tunes. Something along th lines of daft punk. Is creating songs through loops and some real instruments(guitar and vocals) possible in ableton?

Click to expand...

Yes, it can. Ableton, is, in my opinion a great song creator. Download the demo from their website and have a go at some of the included lessons. It has two views. Arrangement, like all apps, which is linear, then session view, which allows you to record, then use loops, very quickly and intuitively.
You can muck around in session view and create a basis for a song super quickly. Hard to explain, just go check it out.

You've obviously looked at Logic as well I assume?

cjay said:

You've obviously looked at Logic as well I assume?

Click to expand...

Logic's sampler also let's you adjust the speed of a song...which is verra nice.

If you're going to be recording external instruments, you may want to eventually look at an analog to digital interface. Something like the mbox. You can usually find something cheaper though.

A dual channel USB one can be picked up for fairly cheap. I usually don't reccomend USB, but if you're only recording one input at a time, it should work just fine. You can find these for about $150. They'll work with pretty much any recording software out there.

I use logic and the express version has some great bits to it. If you're a student you can get it straight from Apple for about $150 with the education discount.

I comes with a Sampler and a sequencer to make beats with. It does take a little bit to learn it, but I believe that it's a very good deal and could do what you want.

I'm not familiar with any other recording software for OS X, but then again, when I got the my MBP, it's main purpose was to run Logic for a studio.

Thanks for the replies!

I was looking at mbox alright but I wasn't sure if it was what I was looking for, but it does come with a sound card!

Asfor logic, I had that in mind but I wasn't sure if it was what I want, perhaps it is?

I will have to research further!

AndyMc said:

Thanks for the replies!

I was looking at mbox alright but I wasn't sure if it was what I was looking for, but it does come with a sound card!

Asfor logic, I had that in mind but I wasn't sure if it was what I want, perhaps it is?

I will have to research further!

Click to expand...

The mbox is the "sound card". It's pro-tool's analog to digital interface. You can only use it with protools software, which comes with it. Pro tools is like the Mac of the recording software, with garanteed compatibiliyt, and a higher price tag. Their entry level stuff isn't so bad, but once you get past an interface that records 8 tracks at once, The prices sky rocket.

With logic, you would have to use another a/d interface like something from presonus, apogee, or MOTU.

Just to remention Ableton, it does everything mentioned above that logic does, eg change the speed of a track/loop, comes with sampler, sequencer, etc. It is also fantastic as a live instrument, so can create your own loops, then adjust the speed to match a record, then drop the loops in, in real time during a live performance.
I thoroughly recommend you check the demo!

Have fun!

im not a user of sound software by any means - garage band is as far as i go.

but is logic any gd for your needs. ? or that sony program. sorry i dont know the name

Daft Punk use Ableton Live


i use it too
n_n

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Village Idiot said:

The mbox is the "sound card". It's pro-tool's analog to digital interface. You can only use it with protools software, which comes with it. Pro tools is like the Mac of the recording software, with garanteed compatibiliyt, and a higher price tag. Their entry level stuff isn't so bad, but once you get past an interface that records 8 tracks at once, The prices sky rocket.

With logic, you would have to use another a/d interface like something from presonus, apogee, or MOTU.

Click to expand...

you can use mBox with logic and as a system soundcard too...

Buy an m-audio external soundcard and you get ableton lite for free. The full version is then just a fraction of the price.

I use ableton for drums tracks. Cubase for productions and Soundforge (pc only) for mastering and recording audio/cutting stuff up.