Noob Recording Gear

[Nightside]

Ok maybe not a complete noob but definitely far behind the times.

I am looking for answers on what programs I can use that will all be compatible with each other. I started out back in the old days with Cool Edit and I actually used Cubase LE on a friend's rig but there are so many programs out there now that I have no idea what I need. Basically what I am looking for is a computer-based studio with....

Recording program
Drum program
Synth program

all that can work with each other so I can kindof have a studio contained in my laptop. I already have NI Guitar Rig 3 with Kore but that stuff doesn't seem to work with Cool Edit. The laptop I am currently running is a cheap Dell Inspirion but I hope to get my Toshiba back up and running again soon.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[kayhen]

Reaper (daw)
Superior Drummer 2.0

synth i have no ideia....

 

[Larcher]

free synth I would recommend virtuoso.
if you wanna get some highend synth sounds, get omnisphere by spectrasonics

 

[pushpull7]

I was going to recommend omni too. It's best to have a computer that is up to date and x64 to take advantage of the possible ram usage though.

You can do virtually (no pun intended) anything with omni. Expensive? yep. But it does such a wide variety so well.

Also, second reaper and SD 2.3. Again, with ram, SD drummer can be a hog at times (though there are some options to curb this) but it sounds so good! And it's really stable.....and really stable in reaper

 

[Shotgun]

For daw Reaper is good and there is Pro Tools too which you can use on windows and Cubase 6 it is good as well. All of these daws can handle superior drummer, kontakt 5 etc. For drums Superior drummer or Steven Slate drums. NI Kontakt 5 to load some plugins, for example Steven Slate 3.5 or synths, pianos etc.

 

[KingAenarion]

DAW: Reaper, Studio One (has pretty decent synths in it)

Drums: Superior is standard around here, but I prefer the Steven Slate Samples.

Synth: Omnisphere, any of the NI ones are decent. Even the free ones can be great to work with.

 

[Nightside]

Thanks a lot guys!

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

For drums, Independence Free by Yellow Tools is a free one thats out there, works with Reaper. I've started messing around with it to learn. Honestly I don't have enough experience with other software to compare, but its free!

 

[Purelojik]

real big fan of presonus studio one pro. worth the money and if you go pro you get everythign they offer. it comes with kontakt 4 and reaktor 5. theres the abby road drums in the kontakt4 along with strings brass and pianos. also the in built instruments are decent.

get superior drummer on amazong for 170 bucks.

you'll be good to go!

 

[pattonfreak1]

If you search Google there's a way to get a copy of Cubase AI 6 for free. So far (for me) its rock solid. REAPER is a tremendous bargain that's light on resources too.
Ezdrummer is cheap and sounds good. I use it in conjunction with Steven Slate Drums.
There's literally TONS of free or cheap synths that are excellent to.

Crystal is a very powerful free synth that sounds marvelous.
HG Fortune has a ton of great sounding synths as well.

 

[Nightside]

Thanks for all the help guys!

Btw I forgot to mention in my "status update" in the Florida Child Support thread that this semester I found out my college has an A.S. for music production. So I signed up for the entry class as an elective for my General A.A. I have to say the shit is awesome! My homework is to watch live public events and see what equipment they are using and to pick my favorite album and find out the story of the producer. I will be working in the studio and learning all about this stuff. They use Logic but the instructor is pretty awesome and he said we can bring in whatever. So I am gonna see if I can use some of those classes as the rest of my electives and try to get my A.A. and that A.S. at the same time!

It almost feels like something is wrong because I'm going to school for something that I love to do and it doesn't feel like work or boring and useless.

 

[KingAenarion]

It almost feels like something is wrong because I'm going to school for something that I love to do and it doesn't feel like work or boring and useless.

Yep, the trick is that it's one of the most difficult careers to work in.

 

[Oli]

If you have the budget: Logic Pro, Superior Drummer and Omnisynth.
If you don't have the budget: Reaper, EzDrummer (DHF) and Omnisynth or any of NI's synths/plugins