Recommend a Sequencer for a Beginner

jastro · Joined: Mar 14, 2005 Posts: 5 Location: SoCal

What's the best sequencer to start with? I'm looking for something easy enough to learn on, and sophisticated enough to grow/improve with. Also, I'm using WinXP right now but hope to end up on OS X in the future, so something with support for both would be good.

The options I'm aware of are Ableton Live and Cubase. Which would you recommend? Or a different one altogether?

seraph · Last edited by seraph on Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:13 pm; edited 1 time in total

elektro80 · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:18 am Post subject:

Cubase SE is a pretty solid one. It is easy to use and it kinda works pretty well. However, if you are on a PC you might as well try to get Cubase 5.2 VSt 32. They are cheap now and in fact a lot better than Cubase SX 1. On the mac you have Digital Prformer ( very good ), Logic ( very good ) and Cubase ( almost there ) . The full Cubase SX on the mac is slowish and hungry compared to Logic and DP. Works pretty OK though.. but ..

jastro · Joined: Mar 14, 2005 Posts: 5 Location: SoCal

seraph - Which one is linear and which is pattern based? Can you expand more on the difference, or your opinion of which is more appropriate for electronic music?

elektro80 - Yeah, it seemed like Logic and Digital Performer were the really excellent ones, but since neither have WinXP versions I was hoping to find something would cary over between platforms. I take it you'd recommend Cubase over Ableton?

Thanks all!

jksuperstar · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:15 am Post subject:

Live is more "pattern based" and Cubase more "linear". However, in Live, you can ignore the 1/2 of the program that deals with patterns, and it is a linear editor.

"pattern" being associated with loops, etc. Build a pattern, then stitch patterns together to form a complete song.

"linear" being more like an orchestral score: music that describes the song from beginning to end. If you use patterns in a program like this, you usually need to copy & paste to get a full song (or the program more or less automates this for you, I haven't used cubase).

Both programs have "trial" period versions, try before you buy!!!

seraph · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 2:13 pm Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:01 pm Post subject:

You are a beginner, don't want to spend any money, want something good, want something that works on XP and OSX, then get Tracktion.

http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-4290.html]

This is a good solid program with a neat user interface.

If you try those other demo programs and you get hooked, then you are in trouble because you'll have to spend money. Demo programs have limitiations, either in time before they stop working, or some features don't work, like you can't write files. Crying or Very sad

elektro80 · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:30 pm Post subject:

I am not sure that offer is still valid.

mosc · Yep, sorry... It expired Dec 31, 2004.

chuck · Joined: Apr 26, 2005 Posts: 58 Location: cincinnati, oh

For what it's worth. I teach a class to 7th graders using MOTU's FreeStyle. I've used this with all levels of students and taught over 1000 kids so far. The program has a very clear GUI and the kids pick up on it naturally. I've never found a kid who couldn't deal with the software and I've seen some fairly challenged student.

On the downside, while it's cross platform, it is not available for OSX. I don't know if MOTU has any plans for that, but I'd rather guess not. Still, its a great learning tool and you could make to switch to any other sequencer very easily.

Mohoyoho · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 10:28 am Post subject:

For WinXP I think Cakewalk's Sonar is outstanding. It comes in two versions. The Producer Edition has more bells and whistles. The regular version is much cheaper and more than adequate, and it can be upgraded to the PE. Cakewalk's customer service is one of the best I have found. If there is an issue with a new version, it will be solved in a matter of days. When you call them, you actually talk to a person. They have a very active online forum where Cakewalk employees will respond.

Cubase is very good too, but I am unfamiliar with its customer service. Plus it just got sold to Yamaha. .

Kassen · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 5:42 pm Post subject:

I play video games.

From time to time I´ll play a few demos and will curse the designers; "the controll scheme should not be a part of the dificulty level!".

I recomend Live.

jeffrey-o · Joined: Nov 26, 2006 Posts: 1 Location: toronto, canada

live is just so different in terms of composition and jamming flexibility. granted cubase compressors and eqs sound much better out of the box, but now that i am used to live, the million settings and configurations and pull down menus needed just to get a sound out of cubase just seem so counter-productive, with live it is just click click ROCK. to me it seems like cubase is built for an engineers brain and live is built for a musicians brain. live totally, for composition, performance and remixing. master on cubase or another. you can get things by accident in live that would take a great deal more effort in the old linear sequencers.

mosc · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:52 am Post subject:

jeffery-o, great to have you here.

blackbird · Joined: Jun 14, 2007 Posts: 10 Location: arizona, usa

I just bought this .. based on your post and reading about it on the net.

I've used some archaic versions of cakewalk in the past (by past I mean 10 years ago) and found that to be difficult.

So I am hoping this interface will be better for me.

mosc · Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:07 am Post subject:

Please let us know your impressions after you have used it for a while.

bbinkovitz · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:22 pm Post subject:

the first one i tried was renoise ( www.renoise.com ) which in its free demo version lets you do everything except export to .wav and .mp3. it's very easy to import samples and use them as instruments, and since i am not a "read the manual" kind of person, i appreciated that i could learn a lot from it by just noodling around. of course after i got to my noodling limits i started checking out the tutorials and FAQ on their site, which has been very helpful. i'm not super experienced with sequencers (having used only renoise and ableton live so far) but i have had a lot of fun with renoise as a beginner.

renoise is very different from the other sequencers mentioned so far, and can be a bit confusing, but what i did was take the sample songs that came with it, with their instruments already imported and whatnot, and just deleted the patterns and constructed a few of my own. since i didn't know anything about speeding up or slowing down notes or anything, it sounded kind of mechanical, so i went with it and wrote some music-box inspired stuff. when i got bored of that, i went to the instrument editor and started warping the sounds in various haphazard ways.

so basically i approached it as if i were a five-year-old disassembling an alarm clock. when used this way, it's great.

Rinxai · Joined: May 26, 2007 Posts: 10 Location: Flat Top Mountain

a different one altogether:

Zynewave Podium

only $90 for a kickass DAW

http://www.zynewave.com

since each and any sequencer/daw requires an investment in time in order to flatten the learning curve, i suggest its better to begin with something that will continue to serve you down the road.

v-un-v · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 4:04 pm Post subject:

I know this thread dates back to 2005 Shocked

But Brambos's Tunafish is great for a laugh. Really, really basic, but actually quite fun, and great for beginners. XP only mind.

http://www.brambos.com/

Rinxai · Joined: May 26, 2007 Posts: 10 Location: Flat Top Mountain

Yeah, only after making that enthusiastic chirp did i notice how old this thread was. Shocked

v-un-v · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 5:02 pm Post subject:

mosc · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:30 am Post subject:

blackbird · Joined: Jun 14, 2007 Posts: 10 Location: arizona, usa

OK so I have used Traktion 2 a bit ... actually I am still learning how to use it. One beef I have with it --- NO instructions about how to use the plug-ins.

One big problem I am having right now is latency. It only allows me 3 options and the first starts at about 46m ..... not really so great.

The instruction manual leads me to believe I should be able to set it at about 20m if I want, but the software doesn't allow that. Could it be something with my soundcard? Do I need a better one to allow more latency options? Anyone know?