Anyone out there do music recording on your computer in addition to photography?
I'm needing to get a new computer and even had a Dell ordered. For a reason incomprehensible to me, the order was cancelled (AFTER I got the confirmation email!). I can go into that in more detail later, but the bottom line is that now I'm having second thoughts about a PC. I mostly use my computer for photography and some work at home with documents (creating/editing). But, I'm considering getting into computer-based recording for my music. I hear the Apple software is far superior than PC available stuff. Anyone have experience with music recording/editing on Macs or PCs?
No expert on music but working onn my PC make sure you have a lot of RAM. Use only Windows 7-64bit so the Ram is actually used. 32 bit only uses 3-4GB. Working with 10GB I have no slow down when doing basic, and I mean really basic edits on music files for my promo videos in Adobe Premiere Pro. I kinow MAC has the preferred softwear for Video editing.
If you want to do music and photography then the Mac is the way to go. Straight out of the box it will allow you to do recording within garage band. Best thing to do is to go to an Apple Store and play around on their machines. Ask questions and you will get your answers.
I'm enrolled in the Electronic Music Department at my school, which also delves into studio recording. We use all macs, but I have had experience with various software. For recording, the two best programs right now are Logic and ProTools. ProTools is available for both Mac and PC, while Logic is available only for Mac.
Garageband is an extremely slimmed-down version of Logic, works on the same engine but is missing a lot of the more in-depth features. It's fine if you want to record demos for a band, even recording multiple instruments at once (you need external analog-> digital hardware for this), but that's about as far as it gets you. The effects aren't amazing, but Logic picks up where Garageband leaves off. Even Logic Express ($250 or so, last time I checked) is a great bundle for recording and has 90% of the functionality as the professional version. Logic studio (formerly logic pro, and priced around $600) has more features but isn't worth the jump, IMO.
ProTools has been an industry standard for quite a while, but it seems as though Logic is competing with them now. I personally like the Logic interface better, probably becasue I came from GarageBand. All in all, they both record and let you tweak sounds quite nicely. I prefer Logic because it bundles together more software sounds (drum sounds, synth sounds, real instrument sounds) which I tend to tweak and use a lot. Protools doesn't come with these, but you can buy them as plugins (called VST's).
A third option I thought I'd put in is Ableton Live. This is catching on like CRAZY with the electronic music crowd due to its emphasis on live loop-based performance, but it also has the similar recording functionality to the other two. I don't like the recording interface as well, but I've heard some amazing work done on them.
Thanks for the info everyone! I ended up going with an iMac and will start with Garageband to get familiar with it, then look at moving up to Logic. For photo editing, I had CS3 on my PC, and am getting CS5 for the iMac. Hopefully, I'll be able to make the switch easily!
Garageband is like the Windows Movie Maker of the Music World.
If you're looking at getting into Audio Production you're going to need a lot of processing power and RAM. As mentioned, a 64bit OS with more than 4Gb of RAM will be helpful.
Also! Your audio interface is very important! You want the lowest latency possible so try to stick with an internal audio interface as USB is slow. Keep it on the Bus if you can as that's the fastest way to move your data.
Logic, Cubase and if you're interested in Electronic Music, FruityLoops is a very good and powerful DAW with VST support.
I've done a little production on the side for a couple years but I'd hate to sound cliche but... Some of my best friends do this for a living and have few record releases to their names.
