Basic Recording Software

[Epicus Furor]

What do you guys recommend for starting off with when I get my I mac G4 .. I definataley I am getting Cubase SX3 and of course I'll have Garage Band from the Imac but what else would you reccomened for a decent recording setup (i.e drum samplers/other plug ins). For my guitars I'm thinking of getting a Line 6 TonePort ..

(b.t.w. my budget is around £200 - £300 for everything)

[Ant1981]

Sorry dude, SX3 is gonna set you back £500 or so, so that's your budget blown.

But a drum sampler vst plug in that I can reccomend is Native Instruments Battery V2, about £119.

[rgr]

http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion2/index.html

Check the list of Plug-ins too, it comes with a ton of useful stuff and is only $150 here in the US, can't be much more over there. Can a program this cheap really compete with stuff that costs 5X - 10X more? IMHO, yes! I have Logic Platinum loaded on the same machine, guess which program I use more.

[Epicus Furor]

meh .. i'm sure I saw SX3 on **** for about £15 but then again it was probably an instruction disk or something Hey rgr that looks pretty sweet, is it compatible with i-macs, also with programms like that, can you use cubase in conjunction with it some i can import peices from cubase into it and vise verser?

[rgr]

I don't think you can get Cubase that cheap! (I could be wrong, my wife tells me it happens all the time)

You can import the audio and midi files, don't think you can import the project files, I think that is pretty standard between most of the programs though.

[Epicus Furor]

Does Cubase come on a disk? If so could i just copy/get someone to copy it for me (i'm lazy like that ) Or does it have some kind of code protection ..

[rgr]

Well, that's illegal so you're on your own for that. Don't know about the protection, Logic has a Serial port dongle and you have to register Tracktion online. S'ware companies are getting smarter about registration, the internet definitely helps now too, so chances are that won't work. Oh yeah, did I mention that it is illegal?

[JESTER700]

There are tons of decent freeware programs & plugins out there to get your feet wet. Why not go to the KVR forums, check out their freeware database, and have at it?

[rgr]

He's using a Mac so that may limit the amount of shareware/freeware available. You can download a demo version of Tracktion from the Mackie site, unfortunately the demo doesn't have all the cool plug-ins.

[Ant1981]

SX3 does come with a USB copyright protection dongle, it will not work without it.

I've seen cheapos on e-bay, but ofcourse, they are illegal and might not actually work, due to the dongle protection.

But if you are in education or know someone who is, if you have proof some shops will sell you the same thing for £300. Full same version, different price.

[JESTER700]

Oops. Missed the Mac thing. But he said "when I get my Mac". If $$ is such an issue, why on earth buy a Mac?

[Epicus Furor]

I-Mac G4's are pretty cheap on **** .. they go roughly for about £350 which isn't much to ask for.

[Epicus Furor]

http://cgi.****.co.uk/Native-Instrum...QQcmdZViewItem

Is it worth it? All these programs are very expensive individually so maybe this little bundle would be worth investing in. I know they'l be copied but will they work o.k, do you need a dongle/other security protection to work them?