Hi,

I am just now getting back into the world of music production and I was hoping some of you out there who do this could maybe list some of your favorite software that you use.

Some of my favorites are:

Battery
Pro Tools
Live
Glitch
TL Space
Waves
Camel Audio (Camel Phat, camel space)
Izotope ozone / trash
Absynth
Reaktor
Guitar Rig
FM8
Anything by Moog




Feel free to list anything you couldn't live without, I would greatly appreciate it!
And please let us not post any torrent links or anything, let's keep it legal, thanks!

Omnisphere

Your list is all pretty sweet.

IK Multimedia has some sick stuff. A bit memory intensive, but dope.

T-Racks for compression (the singles are more efficient)
Amplitube (though it is kind of a tossup with Guitar Rig)

Lexicon stuff is good as well.

Outboard gear with real analog and tube circuits can phatten things up real nicely.

*************8

Sometimes I prefer the Steiberg stuff (Cubase, Nuendo) over ProTools, but DAWs are all pretty much the same. Though, to be honest the new FL Studio might be even more efficient than either group depending on what you do.

Logic, Reason, Acid etc. all can be good, but mostly unnecessary if you already have the stuff on your list.

Truthfully, technique is more important than software at this point. You can make sick tracks with Cool Edit Pro if you know what you are doing.

Ableton Live is phenomenal, I think its a real game changer. its a super creative open ending piece of well thought out software.

The Native Instrument synths are pretty killer in my opinion.

I've been using Digital Performer for many years as well.

The gear is only half the story, once you get a working functional setup focus on creating good music.

As a guitarist I really like my Line 6 amp modeling technologies.

If you're looking to devote some time to learning the stuff, Max/MSP is a great program to be acquainted with. If you know what you're doing, you can create complex processes practically from scratch. I designed and created an interactive interface with it that was capable of a variety of functions. I had it analyze the pitch and amplitude of my playing and create a series of mathematical averages. The more random or diverse the pitch or amplitude, the higher the averages. I would then take the averages and have them plug themselves into a variety of parameters on a comb filter, thus the more diverse my playing is, the more aspects of the comb filter would change more dramatically thus encouraging randomness or diversity in my playing. I also had interactive delays set up in a similar fashion. I would have the resulting signal be run through a square wave generator to allow me a very computeristic way of playing (and I just love rectangle waves). If you're willing to devote some time to learning the workings of the program, you can do practically anything you'd like.

I think somewhere I have a recording that documents some of the computeristic sounds I created with my guitar/computer (don't think I have any recordings of the more interactive things I did), but if I can find it, I'll post it.

Jack Dark's Darkware

Cool, I'm a guitarist too...

Ableton live is great and easy to use.

I love VST plugins.

My favorites are the Ohm Force line and Synplant.

They have some funky ass interfaces but once you get 'em down, almost anything is possible.

REASON.


It's so simple and intuitive with the virtual hardware rack interface, and yet, you can pretty much create anything you can imagine, because there's NO LIMIT to how you can hook together all of the various modules, and use CV signals to control ANYTHING.

Example: I just made a dubstep-style wobble bass patch in Thor where I route the signal through a Scream distortion unit, then send it back into the synth using the audio inputs, creating a feedback loop! Adds some nice grit and warmth to the sound.



Also, if you have the time to spend learning it, Reaktor is unbelievably powerful. I created an awesome synth in Reaktor where I whisper into a microphone and modulate the sound with the microphone's output, so I basically have a totally effortless way to expressively control the synth while playing it live. I was tripping out on that thing when I first got it working. So much fun.

Pro 53 is a good vst I've been using recently that's not been mentioned. Been using a lot of maxforlive synths and effects that are quite impressive the retro synths are pretty great, also the granulator is impressive for weird and wonderful textures Max for live kills my processor, want to get a mac next, vsts on pc and maxforlive on the mac, hopefully that will solve processor problems.

I couldn't find much that I recorded with my max/mxp patch, but I did find this. It was capable of much more than this, but this is all I have for now. To be clear, no synths were used. This is my guitar and my patch.

Hyperspatial Code

Reaktor, Max MSP and Kyma

For virtual instruments, check out east west libraries. Their Beatles one is fucking incredible.

Logic Pro 8, Sonar Producer, waves, v-99, reaktor 5, and absynth. One step i really want to take is buying a new REAL synthesizer, not softsynth. Ive been looking at good options, but many are too expensive. A space station would be awesome i think.

Cool that theres so many musicians and and producers here on the nexus!

I completely agree. I LOVE reason. I don't have much to compare it to i guess, but the possibilities with that program are endless. I have used cubase a bit and Fruity Loops, but Reason takes the cake in my opinion.

I am getting the newest version of Logic soon, so am excited to see how it compares.

Ableton Live

I use synplant too, I love it for synth percussion.

cubase5 ftw

Soundloom is an incredibly powerful tool for sound design.

Reaktor - ridiculously ridiculous synth

Granulab - very cool little toy, you can download for free

Massive - great NI synth

there are others but I'm a bit out of touch these days *hangs head*

I was getting in to making stuff with fl studio 9 free trial and really enjoyed it.
Then I bought a mac and now I can't get fl studio!

Is there a program similar to fl for mac?
I liked that I didn't have to get a midi controller for fl.

I thought about getting the Akai MPK-25 with ableton live but did'nt want to throw down that much never having tried it out.

^ I'd say wait until Reason 6 comes out (which is in three days at the time of posting!), and then grab that. You honestly can't lose. All of Reason's classic hardware rack goodness PLUS audio recording and editing.