Choosing Music Software That Works Best For You
You can get incredible sound out of a Mac or PC and use some great software doing it. These are just some of many music production and editing software currently available, starting with the industry standard Avid Pro Tools:
Avid and Pro Tools:
The most popular of the Avid family is probably the Mbox. There are various Mbox bundles you can get, all of which will come with ProTools. My suggestion would be to go with the Mbox or Mbox Pro. The Mbox mini should be used if you know you are not expanding much at all.
Now for about $120, you can also get your hands on the a basic Avid Recording Studio Bundle which includes an 2-input/2-output audio interface as well as ProTools.
Logic:
This is the natural progression in the Mac world for beginners. You've outgrown garageband and have learned a little from producers and the like on their respective programs, now its time for you to upgrade. Logic is now in the Mac family. It is integratabtle with garageband as any garageband file you've created can be opened in Logic.
Since it is now an Apple product, it is extremely easy to find information on how to use it. Apple even has a how- to section on its website with video instructions on how to use the product.
Propellerhead and Reason:
Reason is like a one stop shop which could be bad or great depending on how comfortable you are with the software. It has a massive amount of extensions you can add on, but adding on plug-ins from another company won't work. But Reason makes
its software so great that you really shouldn't have to add any outside anything!
On the plus side, when everyone else in the industry is paying for a Pro Tools update, you'll receive your Reason update for free!
Cakewalk:
Cakewalk can be used on both Mac and PC. The Cakewalk Sonar X1 Production Suite is comparable with other music production software like Pro Tools. You can create music notation, make custom channel strips, upload your music to social networks and so much more.
Another great software application to use is Ableton Live. It's a great option to have as Basic Equipment For Home Audio Recording. A few of my followers seem to love it and gave me great reviews on it! I'll have to try it to give you my person and professional opinion, but from what I hear it sounds good!
