Hello all
I was googling accessible DAWS and came across this list. I would love some
advice on purchasing new equipment after being away from music composition
since 2012, mostly buying a keyboard as well as either/or software/hardware
sound libraries/modules.
I will make my story as short as possible but if anyone is willing to speak
privately through e-mail or skype, that would be great. I can pay someone a
little bit of money to do so if needed. I am asking this because I
understand equipment is expensive and I want to make sure I make the correct
decision. My wife will not allow me to buy and sell something I don't like
as I use to do many years ago!
I used cakewalk sonar with CakeTalking through my graduate degree in
electronic performance/composition and it worked incredibly well. Before
putting my items in storage in 2012, I was using a motif xs 6 which has been
sold. I still have and hope to be able to use the following.
: Mackie 1402-VLZ mixer
A delta soundcard, don't remember model number but it has 2 ins and 2 outs.
Roland USB 3x3 midi interface
My desktop purchased in January 2011 currently has:
Windows 7 pro 64 bit
Intel Quad core 3.0GHZ processor
8GB ram
SoundBlaster soundcard
Delta soundcard
500GB system hard drive
2TB storage hard drive
cd/dvd drive.
Jaws and related programs were installed in February 2011. So I think that
would be jaws 11, sonar 8.5.3, dimension pro/rapture full versions and
CakeTalking released in 2009? I know there is a CakeTalking upgrade from
2013 but not sure if I would need it.
So a keyboard. The Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol s61 intrigues me
greatly because of the accessibility recently added. I am very comfortable
however with just using hardware, loading in the instrument definition file,
mapping ports and accessing all banks/presets. I tried dimension pro for a
while, sort of got the hang of it but I just didn't feel comfortable with
it. I will reconsider my stance now however because of the accessibility
and amount of sounds included in komplete ultimate if upgraded from komplete
select. Hopefully I can try komplete select first.
I will also be purchasing the Motif Rack XS both for its keyboard presets
but mostly to load sounds in to user banks to play with a Yamaha WX5 Wind
Controller both live and for recording in to compositions.
I was also looking at the Roland Integra 7 for wind controller as well as
the large amount of ready to go sounds, especially the built in SRX
expansion cards for orchestral arrangements.
Haha yes I know I don't need all 3 of these and that the Roland is quite
expensive. Motif is definitely a purchase however.
With all of the above being said, first is desktop upgrade. I will
hopefully soon have someone look at the machine with me to determine what
upgrades it can handle. I was thinking maybe 16GB ram but definitely 2
512GB solid state drives, one for system, one for software libraries.
Second is komplete accessibility and usage. Will this work in sonar? If so
that would be ideal since I can also use any hardware modules I want. Can I
for example just be focused on a track, choose or edit a preset all on the
keyboard and just start recording?
Third is looking at Reaper and Samplitude with OSARA/NVDA and samplitude
jaws scripts. I would be willing to learn a new DAW in order to use
komplete as effectively as possible, forgot half of the sonar commands
anyway. I was reading however that they don't play nice with hardware,
samplitude doesn't appear to have an equivalent of sonars instrument
definition files. The wind controller parts will probably be recorded as
audio tracks most of the time but I still need to choose patches and will
want to use them with keyboard.
Fourth with this whole software thing, are there other accessible
instruments out there? I saw that Roland now has a software sound canvas
released in 2015. I also saw that reaper has a free midi control plug in
that will let you import sonar instrument definitions or use its own ReaBank
files.
A bonus! I also have a MacBook pro laptop but not sure about using it.
Guess I should stick with windows.
This will be happening in the next year or 2 so maybe desktop drive prices
will go down.
So I've rambled on long enough, thanks for those who have read this far.
Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. In reading
previous archived posts on this list, there is an incredible amount of
knowledge and experience here which is why I am asking for your assistance.
Thanks for your time.
Regards
Jay Pellis
