Cubasis Vs. Reaper Vs. new sony acid music studio

General Discussion
21

A well known beatmaker (Neo Soul) Freddie Joachim uses Acid religiously and mentions the ease of use, he also mentions he does not use any MPC. There are actually many such hip hop artists who don’t necessarily use MPCs to make beats.

Illmind uses Protools and earlier he used to use sampler keyboards and Reason. He too never uses 16 pad setups.

9th Wonder uses FLStudio along with NI Maschine.

https://16-bits.org/ft2.php

Fastracker 2 and ProTracker clones for Mac and Windows. Apparently even Darude uses these trackers in his setup. Old skool!

@lettuce maybe you can try these other trackers for the new platforms and get both old and new at the same time.

22

What I really want is audiotracks in renoise one day.

If that is not going to happen then I think I will wait for the next generation of DAWs which should be all touch controlled.

Theres plenty to work on until then in tracker software.

It makes sense to have touch control, for x-y pads, for mixer faders, for pianoroll sequencing, onscreen keyboard / pads, zooming in out and using onscreen step sequencers with knobs ( like vst 808s )…

I’m still hoping for some kind of portable DAW hardware.

Surprised it hasnt been done properly yet.

The closest Ive seen are Cubasis ( iPad ), Sunvox ( PDA, iPad, Android ), Milkytracker ( PDA ) and LittleGameparkTracker ( PSP ).

Also Yamaha QY100, but it is kinda shitty. They had the right idea with the form…hope they bring out a new one.

The form and function of PS-Vita looks perfect for a portable handheld workstation DAW…touchpad on the back, touchscreen on the front, buttons.

Not sure how the audio drivers and shit that developers need are though.

People say that trackers dont work well on tablets with only touch control, but I disagree.

Once you get used to sunvox on a tablet it has a nice, hardware kind of workflow. Awesome design.

Also milkytracker D-pad + stylus is nice to use too and it allows for smaller screen and overall device size.

The problem with tablets is the holding it up with one hand whilst working with the other, either that or needing a table.

They shoul bring stuff out that allows for total control with only thumbs, so you can hold with both hands and dont need a table.

Carrying around lots of equipment really sucks, needing flightcases and bullshit…big bag of plugs.

Airline limit is 20kg…its not enough to include equipment alongside clothing and other necessities.

I remember getting hyped when I saw that tablet with the split keyboard for thumbs running ardour a while back…

It turned out to be shitty though.

Completely controlled by thumbs is a good way I think.

I was even looking at mbiras…they can sound frickin cool, though I dont like it when they add the little rings that rattle…clean sound is better

23

Lettuce how does the data entry thing work in SunVox? I mean unless you are using a keyboard , I suppose you are pressing keys on the visual paino keyboard in SunVox? Is that too tedious or you have some hacks around it. I find the UI nice but the data entry is not intuitive like on FT or Renoise. Usb keyboard and mouse over otg with a phone or tablet should work though.

24

You enter notes into the pattern editor with a resizable, multitouch, onscreen keyboard. Hex numbers and letters are also onscreen buttons.

That is in ‘fingers’ mode, but you can also use keyboard or stylus / pen mode.

Once you get used to it it is almost as fast as using a computer keyboard.

The idea is that you would use finger mode when away from your computer and keyboard when you get back to your computer desk, but I’m so used to finger mode now I just use that…It is really nice to use.

I dont know about otg cable but bluetooth keyboard works fine.

Sunvox has a really interesting structure and design in general. The timeline, the modules, the parameter faders, the pattern editor.

Everything is well thought out. One of the best developers out there. Sunvox is also available on every platform.

Its way better than say, novation circuit or some gear like that which tries to be a portable option.

You have to think out your module and timeline automation structure well though…Its a different way of doing things.

For example, you may want 16 tracks dedicated to only effects. In that case, you can place a separate pattern into the timeline for fx automation alongside the track which contains the notes.

It still lacks audiotracks though, like renoise, but I think ‘samples directly into timeline’ will be coming.

Also I think ‘sunvox as a vst’ will be coming, so it should be possible to work in sunvox inside renoise soon ( and have them tempo synced without rewire ).

If renoise is the king of sample based instrument trackers, then sunvox is the king of synth based instrment trackers.

Routing all those modules in different ways has endless sound design potential…

Sunvox also has a decent sampler though.

Many interesting things can be done with envelopes within the sampler module sample editor.

Renoise and Sunvox are the two best trackers ever made.

25

i really like the open structure of reaper, it also seems to be very customable

midi seems to me a bit fiddly (hard-disk recording is not intersting for me)

spend next more time and see how much I get with reaper and playtime

It’s customisability is the reason I’ve used it in the past as my on-stage plugin-host (couldn’t work out how to set up the MIDI routing we needed in anything else.)
But, because I was using it live I didn’t update it for ages until recently, and I’m still catching up on stuff on like Playtime.

Yeah “fiddly” is a good word for it.

RE: Sunvox; it’s cool to see something new in the Buzz / psycle / aodix tradition.

It def seems better with a keyboard though, even if its a mini-bluetooth one.

26

The multitouch fingers mode is great to use once you get used to it.

It seems a bit weird at first after coming to it from software that uses keyboard.

Once you know the layout well its a bit like using hardware or something.

There are menus on the left hand side and the right hand side, so if you have your tablet placed on a table you can use sunvox with both hands…

Navigating around the pattern editor with the left hand and entering notes or effects with the right hand, or playing keys with left

hand and adjusting parameters with right hand.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that it is quite well designed for two handed touchscreen only use.

Some things that might confuse people when first using it are that it doesnt have a mixer screen and that phrases are separate projects within modules.

Its a weird program but its definitely worth the time in my opinion.

Its not as good for touch only use on small screens. Needs an 8" tablet or more ( the bigger the tablet the more tracks or modules fit on screen ). It could do with jump to next / previous track buttons for small screens ( like tab or shift + tab ).

27

Reaper + Renoise for me is one of the most powerful unions of DAW + Tracker

I have both and i am slowly trying get Renoise actively in my music production workflow

REaper+REnoise+REwire = win

reaper claims to work well with multitouch but on my SurfacePro either i haven’t configured it right or its not intuitive enough

and apart from that Touch is more for mouse movement replacement, Renoise is a Keyboard friendly work environment

28

Reaper + Renoise for me is one of the most powerful unions of DAW + Tracker
I have both and i am slowly trying get Renoise actively in my music production workflow

REaper+REnoise+REwire = win

reaper claims to work well with multitouch but on my SurfacePro either i haven’t configured it right or its not intuitive enough
and apart from that Touch is more for mouse movement replacement, Renoise is a Keyboard friendly work environment

Right on.