Home recording predicament!

[BillyMMM]

So I've finally got to the stage where I'm ready to try my hand at recording some music at home - Got my guitars, HD500, and now finally, a nice little Macbook Pro with Logic Pro X and Ableton Live 9 Suite. I've never used any sort of recording software, in any way, ever, at all. I'm guessing that's gonna take some serious Youtube tutorial video watching and SS.org thread browsing.

I'm happy with my entire setup as it stands. However, I went round to my frinds house the other night, who got himself a Line 6 UX2 with Podfarm, and played around on that for a bit. The only reason I bought the HD500 was so that once I got a computer decent enough to handle the software, I could start recording some sweet tunes. I haven't used it that much at all in the 6 or so months that I've had it, except for occasionally plugging my head phones in and jamming out for a bit. It seems a bit of a waste of money to have it sat their not being used to its full potential.

I've been pondering on a couple of things -

1. Would it be worth selling the HD500 and downgrading (if thats the correct term) to a UX2/Podfarm setup? Podfarm seems to do everything I'd need, and I'm not planning on doing anything incredible with it all, I just wanna have a bit of fun making music on my own. I can always upgrade things if/when needs be.

2. Is Logic X gonna be a good program to start off using? I'm pretty handy with computers and whatnot. Is it pretty user friendly, and easy to pick up the basics?

tl;dr - HD500 vs. UX2 + Podfarm. Is there anything better/more suited to what I wanna do than Logic?

 

[Rustee]

Honestly dude for the $200ish difference between the two, I think the HD500 would be worth keeping. You don't want to get to the point where your tone is lacking or your Mac is struggling in terms of CPU and you regret selling it. Plus you can use it live DI if you ever need to.

I haven't picked up Logic Pro X yet, but I've owned 9 for a couple of years. It's an awesome DAW if you're writing your own songs and getting ideas down. I'd say it's user-friendly, but like you said, it will take a few Youtube videos for you to get your head around it. Ableton is great for live stuff.

Good luck, and post some of your recordings down the track.

 

[BillyMMM]

Honestly dude for the $200ish difference between the two, I think the HD500 would be worth keeping. You don't want to get to the point where your tone is lacking or your Mac is struggling in terms of CPU and you regret selling it. Plus you can use it live DI if you ever need to.

I haven't picked up Logic Pro X yet, but I've owned 9 for a couple of years. It's an awesome DAW if you're writing your own songs and getting ideas down. I'd say it's user-friendly, but like you said, it will take a few Youtube videos for you to get your head around it. Ableton is great for live stuff.

Good luck, and post some of your recordings down the track.

It's a tough one! I've heard a lot of good stuff recorded using Pod Farm from here and on youtube. I've got a full board of stompboxes I use live in my band, so I'm not too bothered about that, as far as the HD500 is concerned. I'm 99% sure I'd never be playing live with the stuff I plan on recording anyway (instrumental/proggy/d**nt kinda stuff)

I wouldn't mind the cash, and ease of use/physical setup really. Moving house soon ya see, so every penny counts. The UX2 is around £160 new, and I could probably get around £350 for the HD500, so thats swaying me in that direction too.

Cheers for the reply dude

 

[Given To Fly]

Logic X is a good DAW, especially if you already own it! I think you should stick with your setup, make an effort to record some stuff for a week, and then make an effort to try and stop! It's seriously addicting!

 

[sepsis311]

Well you have the HD500, so use it, but I always saw physical processors as more of a live tool. I would however like to point out that Pod Farm is in no way a "downgrade" from the HD500, its all about what equipment you buy for your needs. I bought the UX2/Podfarm, and the reason I did this, I use Pod Farm as a plugin for my guitar tone in my tracks. That means I can always go back and change my guitar tone without having to re-record myself. If you would like this capability however, not all is lost. You can reamp with the HD500 as well, it just has to be connected to your laptop and on, everytime you want to go back and mix, and you have to utilize some tricky bus routing to get the audio out of your comp, into your processor, and back into your daw.

There are awesome free plugins for this as well, which I commonly utilize. LePou being my favorite, along with guitarhacks cab impulses.

The short answer, if you wanna play out, keep the HD500.

 

[SamRussell]

I've been using Logic for a while, I got Logic X recently - pretty easy to use, loads of tutorials about it online, so you can probably stick with it for life! It also has a lot of amp modelling on it (which is what Podfarm does) and while I've not looked into it, I'm sure you can find loads of awesome presets online!

Stick with the HD500 and get started recording some banging tunes 8)

 

[mongey]

you've got a great set up man. just get into it. the grass is always greener .


I havent used logic much but what I have I like it. I have used ableton since version 3 and I like it allot . learned to record on it so my workflow is kinda based around it

use the arrangment view and its a great daw to work in for recording live instruments