Ready to get into the production game
I have always wanted to get into producing EDM. I love it all, trance, dubstep, electro, house, dnb, and progressive. I have listened to it all since I was a kid. Unfortuantley I have never messed with any production software so I was wondering what would be a great software for a beginner like me. Any suggestions? I think I want to tryout electro house first…
Ableton, Logic Pro, Reason, Pro Tools, Cubase or Cakewalk Sonar.
most of those have lots of online tutorials and free trials.
I would download a few and give them a test to see what you’d like.
but there is no answer to your question. most DAWs can do everything, it’s all really about preference.
The only recommendation i have is pick one and then focus on learning it. if you spend a week on each one you wont really be learning anything and probably walk away frustrated and disappointed.
Thanks guys
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It’s all preference. Mine goes as follows:
Pro Tools >> Logic >> Ableton Live >> Everything else.
I prefer working in PT because of some of the workflow/UI features, though Logic is very close. Logic winds up the most cost effective if you’re already on Apple and don’t want to record any hardware, since Logic Pro is now like $200 and you don’t really need an audio interface just for output, certainly not to start.
Pro Tools comes in pretty close, since the cost of an MBox Mini + Pro Tools 9 is like $600 or so, which sound steep…until you realize that it’s actually a pretty good interface for the money, the stuff it comes with rivals Ableton Studio (which costs more without an interface) and in some ways beats Logic Pro, and the software actually costs $600 on its own, so the interface is basically free.
The only caveat about Pro Tools is that Avid’s a bit weird about support. If your computer isn’t avid certified (the information is on their website), there’s no guarantee it’ll work at all. And you have to be really careful about OS updates to make sure you don’t break anything. And I’m not sure which versions do or do not come with an iLok, but you need one (they’re like $50 on their own).
Agreed. You can switch later, but focusing on one first will seriously help.
The only difference between my advice and everyone else’s is that it’s hard to find demos for them and it’s even harder to make a legit comparison between them if you don’t already have a clue what you’re doing. So, go find as many tutorial videos as you can and base your decision on how much sense they make to you.
Yes, that means you’re going to be judging things almost as much on the quality of the tutorial videos as on your impression of the software, but that’s not horrible for a first DAW, since you’re going to be lost for a while.
I used Ableton as my first serious DAW and thought it was incredible. About the time I wrapped my head around it, I decided I wanted to shop around and tried all the major contenders. And Pro Tools won.
Thanks for all the help guys. I’ve actually started trying Reaper a few days ago & so far I’m enjoying learning it.
Reaper is not a terrible way to start. I’ve heard interesting things about it, though the version I tried was really buggy.
At ~10MB, I’m going to download a copy to play with.
It’s been a lot more stable recently I’ve heard from the friends I know that use it.
Yeah so far I haven’t had any problems. Very stable.