Better than Music Maker?

[NormireX]

Hey all, I am into making my own electronic music and other styles using software like Music Maker. My question is, would this be better than Music Maker or is Samplitude more for live recordings of real instruments?

I'm basically just trying to find the best low cost DAW that doesn't break the bank to get me started. I have been using Caustic 3 for a while now and recently got Music Maker 2014 Premium mainly because the samples were superior to those used in Caustic.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

[listener6]

You can make "electronic music" in any daw. Demo as many as you can and see which you like best. But if you've already bought MM Premium you might want to learn your way around it first.

[NormireX]

Originally posted by listener6:

You can make "electronic music" in any daw. Demo as many as you can and see which you like best. But if you've already bought MM Premium you might want to learn your way around it first.

Yeah. I am finding my way around it, still a lot to learn and mess around with. One problem I have with Music maker, is there appears to be a bug with the Vita Power Guitar instrument. I was using it for a track and had a drum track and another Power Chords track and when I would try to play the song I was working on it began stuttering and making clicking sounds and things just weren't playing correctly when they were all going at the same time. Putting each track in solo mode they played fine, just seems Power Guitar doesn't play wll with others.

I removed power guitar and the Power Chords and drums played fine and I even added a synth just to see what would happen, and everything seemed to play fine, so I am thinking there is something wrong with Power Guitar or something.

[listener6]

Yea, I like the Magix products I've bought, but have experienced bugginess with both of them. But I haven't tried a version of Samplitude yet and they have had a strong following (although I don't think in the US) for a long time. In lurking various music forums over the years I've seen that lots of Samplitude users just love it.

If you're doing mostly pattern based stuff you might want to test drive FL Studio. I don't think there's a better piano roll editor out there if that's important to you. I've bought the 'pro' versions of FL Studio, Sonar X3 and Mixcraft. Mixcraft is hands down the easiest to use imho. I'm 'trying' to make Sonar X3 Producer my regular day to day daw, but frequently it feels like piloting an aircraft carrier. Sometimes I just want to focus on the music and not the software and that's when I end up back in Mixcraft. It doesn't have all the shiny gizmos that Sonar X3 Producer and FL Studio Signature do, but I can get stuff done much faster in Mixcraft in general. They're all great daws though and I'm sure Samplitude is as well. It's really just a matter of personal preference for us hobbyists. There are at least half a dozen other daws I've not mentioned that many people would call excellent as well.

[NormireX]

Originally posted by listener6:

Yea, I like the Magix products I've bought, but have experienced bugginess with both of them. But I haven't tried a version of Samplitude yet and they have had a strong following (although I don't think in the US) for a long time. In lurking various music forums over the years I've seen that lots of Samplitude users just love it.

If you're doing mostly pattern based stuff you might want to test drive FL Studio. I don't think there's a better piano roll editor out there if that's important to you. I've bought the 'pro' versions of FL Studio, Sonar X3 and Mixcraft. Mixcraft is hands down the easiest to use imho. I'm 'trying' to make Sonar X3 Producer my regular day to day daw, but sometimes it feels like piloting an aircraft carrier. Sometimes I just want to focus on the music and not the software and that's when I end up back in Mixcraft. It doesn't have all the shiny gizmos that Sonar X3 Producer and FL Studio Signature do, but I can get stuff done much faster in Mixcraft in general. They're all great daws though and I'm sure Samplitude is as well. It's really just a matter of personal preference for us hobbyists. There are at least half a dozen other daws I've not mentioned that many people would call excellent as well.

Very true and I get what you are saying about wanting to concentrate on music rather than the program.

Caustic 3 is extremely straight forward and intuitive and you can crank stuff out in it pretty quickly but at the same time it lacks in solid samples and effects. Also Caustic does not have a way to undo Automation which is not good. I have one track I was working on and have some automation I would like to remove but alas I can't, I would have to rebuild the track entirely which is sad.

Other than that I do prefer how Caustic handles the piano roll and everything better than Magix. I'm not the type of person to read tutorials really, I like just jumping in and experimenting, so with Magix I have no clue how to have it just give me a simple 1 bar/4measures of space, instead when I create a track it gives me like 16 or some really high number and so I have to muck around with the loop limiter thingamajig(real techincal I know.heh) just to get it to play the single bar or 4 measures I have made.

But anywho, I will continue trying to learn Magix, and I'll have to check out Mixcraft, it sounds like it might be up my alley depending on samples and effects and stuff.

Obviously FL Studio would be amazing to have, but I do not have 500 bux to throw around.

[listener6]

There are three or four versions of FL Studio. I think prices start at around a hundred bucks, and sometimes they have sales. One great thing about FL Studio is free upgrades for life. That's the only reason I bought it, frankly. Although I rarely use it because I don't do much pattern stuff. It's really really strong for pattern based electronic music though.

I would strongly suggest you put a low importance on what 'content' comes with any daw, generally speaking. The important thing is how you like working with the daw itself. Think of the daw as "the music system" and the content as just secondary icing on the cake. If you stick with the electronic music hobby you'll probably end up buying 3rd party synths and samplers and the stuff that came with your daw will fade farther and farther in to the distance. So start saving now to buy NI Komplete later ;)

[Magnatude]

If you are fine with using Music Maker as you have it. Stay with that.

The advantages with Samplitude is mostly in live Instrument session recording and the audio editing.
This also has full CD creation.
If you are sticking with midi Music Maker works fine.
I do know that I've personally had problems with bugs in Music Maker MX and older. Minor but annoying.
I've has Samplitude for 2 months now and seen no bugs or crashes.
However I don't use the Synths as much, so if the Synths are quirky I wouldn't know.

[corruptreality]

spend the money and get a good d.a.w. - Logic pro is great for creating/editing midi. If your a student you can get some what of a good discount. Abelton has endless supply of VST's/Rewire and works great for live recording, see this -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfBh3lZZi8Q

Join this msg board before you purchase any gear -> http://www.gearslutz.com/board/

[corruptreality]

gear.sl.u.t.z.com

[listener6]

. . . there are at least a dozen "good daws". It's very subjective. There is nothing special about Logic or Ableton. I loathe Ableton personally. But try as many daws as you can and see what you prefer.

[Strateture]

It doesn't matter how good or expensive a DAW is if you feel uncomfortable while using it, NormireX. So. What it boils down to is cash in general and, as listener6 stated above, work flow in particular.

With that said and without undermining Samplitude as the competent DAW it is. If cash flow is the main issue I'd recommend Tracktion (www.tracktion.com), Renoise (www.renoise.com) or Reaper (www.reaper.fm). If not I'd recommend Studio One (www.presonus.com), Bitwig (www.bitwig.com) or Ableton Live (www.ableton.com).

[NormireX]

One main thing I look for is how many quality instrument samples does the DAW come with. And Tracktion and Renoise so far have not offered that info on their pages, or I'm overlooking it.

Continuing the research..............

[listener6]

Well, if you want an easy-to-use inexpensive daw and don't want to spend money on 3rd party vst's (synths & samplers) then I would again recommend Mixcraft. But, it's very very subjective. For the price I think they put together a very nice package of sounds that come with the daw. You're not going to get a comprehensive high quality sound library included with any entry level daw though.

Back to Samplitude. This product might also be a great choice. I don't know because I haven't bought it yet. But I do know that Samplitude has been around over twenty years and they have a strong following outside the US. That's enough reason for me to want to learn more about Samplitude as well.

[NormireX]

Originally posted by listener6:

Well, if you want an easy-to-use inexpensive daw and don't want to spend money on 3rd party vst's (synths & samplers) then I would again recommend Mixcraft. But, it's very very subjective. For the price I think they put together a very nice package of sounds that come with the daw. You're not going to get a comprehensive high quality sound library included with any entry level daw though.

Back to Samplitude. This product might also be a great choice. I don't know because I haven't bought it yet. But I do know that Samplitude has been around over twenty years and they have a strong following outside the US. That's enough reason for me to want to learn more about Samplitude as well.

Music Maker seems to have a ton of great quality instrument samples. The UI is just not as straight forward as something like Caustic.

I have been messing with Music Maker more and am starting to get a better feel for it, but exporting to mp3 is a little wonky. In Caustic when I export the sound levels are perfect without having to mess with the master volume, where as Music Maker I have to crank the master volume all the way up before I export otherwise the sound volume is way too low.

[Magnatude]

Try fooling around with the Loop Designer, NormireX
I like to mix it with the LiViD drums.
The Loop Designer has some great preset sounds (I usually turn off the bass end of it) and apparently there is a way to drop samples into it... however I havent had success with it (I have yet to try it in Samplitude, as I'm still importing a lot of stuff I already made in Music Maker MX)