Recording DAWS for Mac

[digitaldeath]

i agree totally with you Aaron;
thinks its probably because there's a lot of people in this forum who.... no offence are have a go heros with a cracked version of cubase/reaper and a waves bundle who aren't making a living doing this and thus see no point in investing money in the best damn DAW there is.
there are of course exceptions; joey for instance, but he too is considering the switch formally lasse; who made the switch... you noticeing a trend..... i sure am

yet again. dont take offence cubendos, ilogicals and reapers i love you all

Oh I have no doubt that if I ever found myself in the same position as Joey currently is, I'd be making the switch too - but like Joey I'm gonna use whatever suits me best until that time comes...

 

[Let it burn...]

Man, this forum is so bizarrely anti-Pro Tools, I don't get it.

It's because you can't get an mbox from thepiratebay :Smug:



late the flames begin

 

[digitaldeath]

It's because you can't get an mbox from thepiratebay :Smug:

 

[Metaltastic]

iambrando, my input would be Pro Tools LE on a Mac. I don't know what your budget is, but you can get yourself a used Digi002 rack for under $500, and have plenty of inputs available to you while also using the best recording software there is.

And apparently one of the worst firewire interfaces there is too Sorry, I love working in PT, and fully admit its superiority in editing, but between having to use awful digidesign interfaces (though at least the Profire 2626 + PTMP solves that) and the fact that there are very few free/cheap plugins that are available in the RTAS format, PT is about the shittiest solution for someone on a budget IMO!

And when I say awful digidesign interfaces, I don't just mean the hardware, but also the drivers, at least on Windows, it's pretty much impossible to reliably use them as one's main sound card. And then the whole issue of limited track count and no ADC...

 

[digitaldeath]

And apparently one of the worst firewire interfaces there is too Sorry, I love working in PT, and fully admit its superiority in editing, but between having to use awful digidesign interfaces (though at least the Profire 2626 + PTMP solves that) and the fact that there are very few free/cheap plugins that are available in the RTAS format, PT is about the shittiest solution for someone on a budget IMO!

And when I say awful digidesign interfaces, I don't just mean the hardware, but also the drivers, at least on Windows, it's pretty much impossible to reliably use them as one's main sound card. And then the whole issue of limited track count and no ADC...

^^^What Marcus said! ^^^

 

[Metaltastic]

I really like the EQ, and all the midi stuff. I loaded up a piano preset one day and I swear it sounded just... real.. Utterly incredible, but I feel the exact opposite about most of Logic's stock plugins.
It's compressors and limiters... EW.

Hmm, that's interesting, I had always heard the compressor(s) was/were pretty good! And as for the limiter, well, when Voxengo Elephant is $80, that shouldn't even matter

 

[Aaron Smith]

And apparently one of the worst firewire interfaces there is too Sorry, I love working in PT, and fully admit its superiority in editing, but between having to use awful digidesign interfaces (though at least the Profire 2626 + PTMP solves that) and the fact that there are very few free/cheap plugins that are available in the RTAS format, PT is about the shittiest solution for someone on a budget IMO!

And when I say awful digidesign interfaces, I don't just mean the hardware, but also the drivers, at least on Windows, it's pretty much impossible to reliably use them as one's main sound card. And then the whole issue of limited track count and no ADC...

What's so bad about the interfaces? My Digi002 has been great for me. I've never used Pro Tools on a PC, but I can imagine that it might suck due to the fact that Pro Tools was designed for Macs, and thus had to be adapted to PC. And using the 002 as my main sound card has been a breeze, although little else gets used by it (iTunes, Peak Pro 6) as I have a dedicated recording machine. I don't know, I've been a PC guy my whole life, but once I got into recording, it wasn't even a hard decision for me to fork out for my first Mac so I could properly run Pro Tools!

And, free plug-ins aren't very interesting to me, plus I don't want to sketch up my computer with some poorly-coded VSTs from internetland... I would rather buy the plug-ins that I really need, from a serious company, rather than rely on some kooky free plug that may have an anonymous creator, will never be updated, and may become unusable when upgrading to a new computer.

It all just comes down to what the OP is looking for in the long run. If you just want to fart around and make all your gear decisions with extreme budget consciousness in the very front of your mind, do whatever you want, I literally have no input or care whatsoever as to which software/hardware you use...but if you think you might be kind of serious about recording, go with Pro Tools on a Mac.

 

[Metaltastic]

Well beyond the Windows drivers issues, I've heard nothing but bad things about the converters and especially preamps in the 002, though at least there's Black Lion Audio for that. And as for plugins and going Mac, well, that's your choice to make, but personally I love the free/cheap stuff and it works great for me! (and what makes you say that they're sketchily-coded? ) Also, one thing I can't stand about PT is the fact that in my experience there's always been a delay (and it varies in length between minor to infuriating) between when you tell it to start recording and when it actually does; since I use my DAW for songwriting and love to quickly stop and re-record a take/idea, this seemingly minor complaint would be a huge deal for me!

Regardless, you're happy with what you have and I'm happy with what I have, but you asked why so many people here dislike PT and there's my answer!

 

[AEL89]

I don't want to necessarily turn this thread into a huge arguement but I'll just give you my thought process when I was in your position.

Some of the reason I decided to go down the PTLE on mac route is for the way it reads. If you're looking to make a career out of music production, a website reading "I run Pro Tools LE expanded to 64 voices with multitrack beat detective on Apple Macintosh" sounds a whole lot better than "I use Reaper on a PC"

I know that sounds bad but I think a lot of us would admit that prospective clients are wowed by racks upon racks of gear, even if some dude using Reaper and mixing ITB can get near Black Album results.

So that being said, I just think if someone looking for the right studio/engineer/producer is caught between two minds about who they want to record their album with, small things like that can sway their choice.

I'd also like to say that I love Pro Tools. I used cubase for 2 years at college then when I decided I wanted to open a studio, I got some advice from a friend of mine who's a fantastic producer and he said to go for the 003 rack. No regrets. The music production toolkit now gives me 64 voices at 44.1kHz and multitrack beat detective. Audio editing is just so damn easy. Take the time to learn the shortcuts and you can get through drum editing very quickly!

One last thing... Massey plugins. Pro Tools is totally worth it just for them. That's my input, best of luck finding the right DAW for you!