Home recording on a budget (Part Two) - Software
Software
Jon Penny writes...
Software
Sequencers / Arrangers | Scoring / notation | Waveform editors
1. Sequencers / Arrangers
Sequencers are the most important software element of your home studio, providing an environment for recording and arranging multiple audio tracks to create whole pieces of music. As with multi-track tape recorders of old, you can record a track of rhythm guitar, then go back and overdub a lead guitar, a vocal line, and so on.
However, with the wonders of on-screen editing, the potential for arranging your music does not end there. If you got carried away and the song is sixteen minutes too long, chop a bit out; if you fluffed a riff halfway through an otherwise perfect take, copy and paste an earlier section over the top; if the middle eight would work better as an outro, move it to the end; or if you simply cannot be bothered to record a whole track, play four bars and repeat it twenty times…
Perhaps this emphasis on the ability to cheat has put off some music-lovers, who believe in the sanctity of the original performance as it was recorded, warts and all. There certainly is a lot of potential for ‘faking it’, but if you are strong enough to avoid this temptation, there are still many advantages to be had from using sequencing software. More detail on this in future articles...
Steinberg’s Cubase series is perhaps the best known of the major sequencers, offered in three main versions according to budgetary and technical specifications. SX3 is the current top-spec version, incorporating numerous audio editing features; an Audio Warp option, which stretches or pitch-shifts audio parts in real-time; and video support to allow scoring of film projects. For a tighter budget, the SL3 or SE3 versions provide less fully-featured, but highly capable sequencers.
www.steinberg.net
Digidesign makes Pro Tools, which as the name indicates is aimed at the serious user, and is designed to work only with Digidesign or M-Audio hardware. Pro Tools works best at dedicated audio recording, and is considered by some to be the easiest and most logical to use of the top-level sequencers. However, if you are just starting out in home recording, the price tag, limited hardware options and overwhelming array of features may put you off.
www.protools.com
If you are a guitarist looking for a drastically simpler solution, Cakewalk’s Guitar Tracks Pro has been designed specifically with you in mind. Based on their Sonar sequencing package, Guitar Tracks eliminates much of the fuss of the more expensive programs, while retaining many of the most useful features. To these, it adds amp modeling, virtual stomp-boxes, and an interface designed to look much like a multi-track recorder. “Groove clips” allow you to add backing tracks easily to a project. However, if you want to use MIDI, or are a Mac user, this is not the sequencer for you…
www.cakewalk.com
Ableton Live takes a different approach to sequencing that allows greater potential for ‘live’ performance. The “Session View” lists all files related to the song in question, each with its own play button, allowing you to launch them in real time as and when you see fit, with the sequencer ensuring they launch in sync with the rest of the arrangement. Equally, you can view the time-line of the song in the “Arrangement View”, as in other sequencers.
www.ableton.com/
These are the big hitters in the audio sequencing world, but you may see many other products out there. Some, like Propellerhead’s Reason or Synapse’s Orion Pro are aimed at the electronic musician, providing them with virtual racks of instruments and effects to use within the computer, but will not allow you to record and sequence external instruments like guitars (although the more expensive Orion Platinum will).
www.synapse-audio.com
Mac versions of most of the above mentioned products are available, but Apple also makes its own powerful studio software, Logic, available in Pro or Express editions.
www.apple.com/logicpro/
Older editions of many of these programs can often be found cheaply if you take the trouble to hunt for them – Cubasis, for example, was the old entry level edition of Cubase for those just wanting simple tools to work with. Be careful, though – older versions may have compatibility problems with newer computers or operating systems (e.g. Windows XP).
2. Scoring / notation
Scoring software allows you to write, play and print music notation, taking inputs from MIDI, from on-screen palettes of crotchets and quavers, or from scanned sheet music.
Sibelius is probably the best known provider of this type of program, popular for a long time in the professional composing and education markets. G7 (endorsed by Andy Summers, no less) is an edition aimed at guitarists, allowing you to write tab, notation, chord charts and so on. An on-screen fretboard adds a learning dimension, allowing MIDI files or tab to be imported to display the fingering. Inevitably, playback using MIDI sounds will make even the most dynamic and exciting composition sound like the demo song from a child’s keyboard, but this is still a highly recommended tool for transferring a song in your head to one on the page.
www.sibelius.com
Coda Finale is a more powerful option for serious score creation, used for film soundtracks and by music publishers. A basic version can be downloaded for free from their website.
www.finalemusic.com
3. Waveform editors
You may already be familiar with the .WAV file, but in case you are not, this is the most common PC format for storing audio data for use in sequencers and so on (Apple’s version is .AIFF, but both are useable on PC or Mac). The audio “waveform” can be recorded at various sample rates (44100Hz is CD-quality, 48000 is normal DVD-quality), bit-rates (16-bit or 24-bit are most common), and in mono or stereo.
Although much editing and adding of effects can be done within sequencers, there may still be occasions when you need to edit a WAV more directly – to make final adjustments to the final mixdown of a song, for example - and this is where a good wave editor comes in.
There is plenty of choice out there, and you may find that your PC or soundcard is supplied with a basic editor that may do the job perfectly adequately. Steinberg supplies Wavelab Lite with much of its other software, for example. Other popular choices are Sony’s Sound Forge Audio Studio and Adobe Audition.
www.steinberg.net/24_1.html
www.adobe.com/products/audition/
psp.sonymediasoftware.com
As mentioned at the start of Part One, Wav files take up a lot of space. “So why not just record to Mp3?”, I hear you ask. Well, I’ll tell you… Mp3 is a compressed file format, meaning that it takes up much less space than a Wave file, but inevitably loses some of the original data – in the same way as reducing the size of a digital photo to send in an email produces a more obviously pixellated image. Whether this loss is noticeable or not depends on the bit-rate and the quality and nature of the original audio. Additionally, WAV files are highly editable. Of course, finished mixes can be converted from WAV to Mp3 in the click of a button, but again, choice of bit-rate is important to avoid making your song sound like you recorded it on your answering machine – 128Kbps is the ‘CD-quality’ standard, but discerning ears may prefer a much higher rate than this.
Jon Penny
Other articles by Jon Penny:
Home recording on a budget (Part One) - Hardware
PRS - SE Custom, Custom 22 and McCarty review
