Which one ?

Nowdays we see lot of DAWs (digital audio workstations) and VST pluggins. But due its vast variety of options, sometimes it’s harder to find the right tool for your job. So in this article, I will discuss about various tools for your audio productions. So without further due, let me bring out the applications one by one.

Cubase

Cubase is made by Steinberg and is one of the most popular audio and MIDI Recording programs available. Cubase has been around for a while and is used by many hobbyists and professionals. This program runs on Windows PCs as well as Macs, although itís been historically more stable on Windows PCs. Cubase comes in several versions. The lowest version of Cubase is Cubase LE, yet very powerfull and handy. Cross-platform capabilities: Cubase can work on both Windows PCs and Macs. It seems that the Windows version is still more stable, but I donít hear a lot of complaints about the Mac version, either. This is one of the few programs that is truly cross platform. MIDI capabilities of this program is almost perfect. Working with soft-synths and MIDI instruments is easy, and you have a lot of flexibility in how you can work. This is a good program for anyone whoís looking for a decent blend between audio and MIDI capabilities.

Sonar

Sonar is a product of Cakewalk and it competes with the other heavy-hitters such as Pro Tools, Logic, and Cubase. Sonar is windows platform DAW, which handles loops quite well on par with ACID, the Loop Master program. Plug-in delay compensation: This is an important feature for people who use a lot of plug-ins on their tracks because the program automatically compensates for any delay that is introduced by processing the plug-in.

Pro Tools

Digidesign (the maker of Pro Tools) was one of the first companies to develop hardware that guaranteed a certain level of stability and performance. Pro Tools is probably the most used audio recording program in professional studios. Pro Tool has a immense power when it’s comes to audio recording and editing. With this program, you can make even the most exacting edits quickly and accurately. The layout of the interface is quite similar to that of a tape deck and analog mixing board. If you mess with lot of analog gear, this is the one you are looking for. One of the most used software doesn’t mean some thing like must have or the best one.

Acid

Sony Media Software is the makers of Acid. ACID is the most popular loop-based recording program. If you are working with loops I personally recomand this software to you. Acid have huge number of loop libraries, so painting those loops in your arrangement takes only seconds to build your music project. Unfotunately this DAW only runs in Windows. If you are interested in working with loops, many of the features in this program are useless to you. You can record and edit audio and MIDI by using ACID, but they are not on par with DAWs like Cubase or Pro Tools.

I tried my best to make this article short and well explained. The purpose of this article is to give you a rough idea of choosing software to your work. There are lots of other popular softwares to make professional sounds, that are not included in this list and once again there are no perfect ones out there. So your gonna need atleast couple of them to make your life easier. Just feel free to go to their websites and download and test the demo versions. In my next article, I’m gonna discuss about the VST pluggins. So until then happy making music!

AUDIO PRODUCTION

Here we talk about how to produce your own song with your DAW, from the beginning. So let’s get started.

Here is a list of soft wares I use.

Note- * marked are must have to produce audio without any hardware equipment.

1. FL studio 8

2. Reason

3.Cubase 4

4.Ableton Live 7/8

The digital music is most of the time is software related business and you need to have at least few the above mentioned, hence the name.

Now i'm gonna give you a brief explanation of what we about to do. First things first. You must have written your song or melody and have a good picture in your mind that what you gonna do.OK, the next very first thing we gonna do is deciding, what instruments we use. If you have a keyboard, try playing your song changing tones. This helps you to quickly choose synths or samples from your PC. After everything cleared, you are ready to start making your song from the beginning.

First thing we have to do is, input notes in to the DAW (Digital audio workstation), via MIDI key board or manually by hand. We use FL studio DAW for input MIDI data to PC manually by hand, which takes longer time than via MIDI key board.

Inputting MIDI data

To input MIDI data, I use FL because it has a good MIDI editor and its user friendly interface. So open FL by double clicking the icon. Now remember, we are not going to learn this software. we are here to produce a song and I'll teach you what precisely you need to know. We can make good sound track within this DAW, but some people claims that it has bad sound quality engine. So that's why we only use it to export MIDI clips to other DAWs like Cubase , Reason or Ableton Live. If you are a good keyboardist, you can start inputting notes directly to other DAWs. OK now press F6 on your pc keyboard and you'll notice the step sequencer apears. Now step sequencer is something containing the Samplers and synths. To reset the DAW go to File> New from template> minimal> Empty. Now bring out the SS (Step sequencer). you can see one sampler channel is in there. Before we input our MIDI data, we have to set our tempo. You can see the tempo display is in the upper middle of the screen. To set the tempo, hoover your mouse pointer on it and drag up or down the arrow. OK, now your tempo is set. NOw we have to choose a sample or synth to hear the sound that we play. Lets say that you want to record a intro bass clip. Now right click on the empty sampler and insert>sytrus. This will bring out the FL s built in vst instrument. Now you see a keyboard in it and just click on the keys. Now you'll hear a orchestral sound. but we need a bass sound. To select a bass sound, click the small arrow on the upper left corner of the Sytrus window and select preset, from the list choose a bass sound which matches your project.

OK, now we have selected the sound just to hear the sound when we input. Remember, this is not the bass sound we are getting for our song. Now open up the piano roll editor to input our MIDI notes, by right clicking on the Sytrus chanel on the SS. Then select piano roll. Now there we input our notes. Now press P on your keyboard. In this mode we can paint note using Draw tool. Draw some notes by clicking the wire frame and hit Space bar when you are done. Now you'll hear what you just inputted. Take some time and mess with this, then you will get an idea how it works. Note that piano roll and midi editor are same features, used seperatly by other softwares. Now I believe that you inputted some midi data to piano roll. The next thing we do is to export the clip in to MIDI file and send it other softwares like Reason or Cubase. To export first you have to save you'r project. After saving go to Tools> Macros> prepare for MIDI export. Clik OK. Now go to File> Export > MIDI file. Then give it a location and click start. Congratulation! You've created you'r MIDI file. I will talk what to do by my next posts. Have a nice day!