Sequencer

[Parrot of Doom]

Anyone recommend a good sequencer to play with on the PC for composing electronic music?

[MitchT]

I don't generally know what's available for the PC but Reason 4 is and has got to be worth a punt. I'd recommend Logic Studio which I use but that's definitely Mac-only.

[PJR]

MitchT said:

I don't generally know what's available for the PC but Reason 4 is and has got to be worth a punt. I'd recommend Logic Studio which I use but that's definitely Mac-only.

Agreed, Reason 4 is excellent. I had dismissed it for years as a bit of a toy as music software goes. But I gave this latest version a go, and it really is very good indeed. The sequencer itself is a tad basic in that it doesn't support external midi devices bar controller/keyboard. But for the money, you cant beat it. I got it a couple of months ago, and its managed to take the place of nearly all my studio hardware which I had spent many thousands of £'s on.
YouTube comes in handy for tutorial vids too..
Grab the demo (a mere 92mb) and see if it jams your donut. I think it retails at £300 or so, but hunt around and you might find it for £200 or less. Dodgy copies exist on the net of course, but in my opinion, this is a bargain for what it does and how well it does it, so is certainly worth shelling out your hard earned for.

www.propellerheads.se

P,

[Parrot of Doom]

Thanks! Any recommendations for a midi interface for my PC? My only keyboard has 5-pin DIN sockets for Midi (the keyboard is about 20 years old!)

God that makes me feel old. 20 years old

Would one of the cheapy Ebay ones do?

[MitchT]

Parrot of Doom said:

Thanks! Any recommendations for a midi interface for my PC? My only keyboard has 5-pin DIN sockets for Midi (the keyboard is about 20 years old!)

God that makes me feel old. 20 years old

My keyboards range from truly ancient to very modern... some didn't even have the 5-pin DIN midi sockets and had to be converted! I use an Edirol UM-1X which has the traditional midi plugs coming out of one end and a USB plug coming out of the other end. This enables me to chain all of my keyboards and my Mac so that I can use my controller keyboard to play any of my synths as well as the numerous software synths that I have running within Logic Pro 8.

You'd do well to register on the Sound on Sound forum. You'll get all the answers you're after there, and pretty quickly too if my experience of the place is anything to go by. It's here... http://www.soundonsound.com/forum

Edited by MitchT on Sunday 23 December 22:38

[tribbles]

I've got a spare USB 4-port MIDI interface (Roland S-MPU64 from memory). Yours if you want it (PM me). I don't have the drivers, but last time I downloaded them from Roland/Edirol's web site.

[Parrot of Doom]

Thats a very nice offer but I can buy a simple one for a tenner - I wouldn't want to insult you by offering the same. I only have the one midi keyboard although I'll see how things go with the software I'm...ahem....demoing....I might just end up buying a decent midi controller keyboard, although I'd definitely want piano weighted keys.

[tribbles]

I wouldn't have wanted anything for it! Would've been nice to see it go to good home (I upgraded to a Mac, and it doesn't work on it - I had to get an 8-port one instead ).

[qube_TA]

If you just want a MIDI sequencer under Windows I'd probably use something like Cubase LE (it's the cut down version of Cubase), there's loads of fantastic software out there like Reason or SONAR but they're expensive and if you want to make proper use of them you need a decent machine with a decent soundcard (none of those built in jobbies) so it can get quite expensive. Also if you're just a casual musician and get tempted to just download some uber software then they're so complicated to figure out without the manual that you get frustrated.

Personally I've been getting into JackLab http://jacklab.net/jacklaborg/english/ it's a full DAW package but based on Linux (openSUSE) thus free and there's help from the community.

Coupled with an M-Audio Delta 10-10 soundcard, a Novation Supernova 2 Pro-X & a Roland Fantom (all S/H from Ebay) it's actually quite sweet and didn't break the bank.

[tribbles]

As it happens, I've also got a spare M-Audio Delta 66 available (for the same reason - doesn't work in my Mac ).

[Parrot of Doom]

I bet you're not giving that away though

[tribbles]

I've got no other use for it, so you can have it if you want.

[Parrot of Doom]

YHM!

[tribbles]

SHY!

(Not sure if that one's in common usage - I've just thought of it. So Have You!)

[Parrot of Doom]

Not bad this Reason 4 - and in realtime too, thats pretty amazing when you think about it.

[tribbles]

Nice - it's actually a bit similar to the stuff I do (http://www.tribbeck.com/music).

ETA: Although a bit more relaxed.

Edited by tribbles on Monday 31st December 21:33

[Parrot of Doom]

Ok I'll stop pimping now.

Well maybe after this:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tom.jeffs4/B3ta/song%...

I'm rather enjoying myself

[minimoog]

Have a look at Orion by Synapse

http://www.synapse-audio.com/

It's very easy to use, comes with some good sounding softsynths and samplers, full VST/DXi instrument and fx support, and also does external sequencing and audio track recording. Simple but very powerful if you want it to be, and a hell of a lot more instantly gratifying than the heavyweights like Cubase, Sonar or Logic.

Cheap too

Oops just noticed you went for Reason. Ah well

Edited by minimoog on Sunday 6th January 00:49

[Parrot of Doom]

Getting the hang of this now:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tom.jeffs4/B3ta/piano...

[PJR]

Nice. You managed to put more together with it than I did so far. I seem to make hundreds of nifty 8 bar loops. Then struggle to take them further

Tried any Refills yet? Theres a multitude of them out there to download and the good ones really beef up Reason no end.

P,