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Author Topic: Sequencer Software and the Pro's  (Read 7870 times)
Moon
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« on: November 28, 2008, 07:41:22 PM »

I had an interesting chat with a professional studio technician today. The guy works 6 months a year in a professional studio in Paris doing recordings for professional bands. He told me he didn't allways liked the job, but since he makes a nice living out of it he keeps up the works. The rest of the year, he's working on his own projects. Very interesting guy!

We did had a discussion on sequencer and I was surprised by one of his statements: 'the only two sequencers you'll find in most professional studios are Logic and Sonar'.

So my question: 'What about Cubase ?'.

Nop, no Cubase because of 2 reasons: too expensive and to buggy, even in it's latest version. Cubase is loosing it's market share... so it would seem.

Still, most people I know are Cubase lovers and I thought I was the only one prefering Sonar...

Moon
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Fred S
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« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2008, 09:15:19 PM »

and I thought I was the only one prefering Sonar...

Nope, your not the only Sonar guy here, Moon! Surprising about Cubebase. I only know Cakewalk sequencer products, but my guess is that they are all at least a little bit buggy. Especially since they all have to crank out a new version every year, to keep the $ coming in.

Have you upgraded to 8 yet? 
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Martin E
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« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2008, 10:48:15 AM »

I  use Cubase. It's not always rock solid but to call it buggy is an exaggeration A buggy program would be impossible to work with.

Furthermore I don't think Sonar is used on a widespread basis in Europe. In America this might be different. A lot of studios do use Logic but even a greater number still use Pro Tools.
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folderol
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« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2008, 01:01:03 PM »

I wonder how many people use FLOSS sequencers compared with commercially sourced ones.
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Marc JX8P
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« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2008, 04:28:35 PM »

To be honest, I sometimes get the impression that if you'd ask ten people in the business, opinions would vary wildly and be mostly based on a) their past experiences with a product and b) what most clients want. Reputation is a fickle thing.

In any case, I used to work with Logic on the pc before it went mac only. I loved the thing, the plugins sounded great and I loved the environment tools. Still, the last versions did have huge problems on my system that made it crash and made the timing unworkable. Still, I always assumed that was more due to my pc. In any case, when they went mac only I joined Cubase, right at the start of the SL/SX sequencers and I'm now at Cubase Studio version 4.5. I really like it, I've gotten into its workflow and it's very rare that I get a bug (and even then it's mostly due to a VST or VSTi I think). The built in plugins are not a big pull factor to me for a sequencer since I do like the idea that I would be able to switch to another host and just take my favourite VST's along including their settings.

In any case - CS does the job for me and has done so for years. It has some 'missed opportunities' such as the support for generic control surfaces which are hard to set up but on the plus side it has loads of cool stuff too. The key commands and macros are very powerful and the media bay/sound library feature is very handy, making it easy to find and tag favourite loops, sounds and even complete track presets including VST signal chains and instruments on those tracks.

Sequencers - especially the professional level ones - are very complex beasts and I suspect every one of them has its faults and advantages and depending on your workflow you would find thess of higher or lesser importance.
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Fred S
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« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2008, 08:51:14 PM »

but even a greater number still use Pro Tools.
I was always under the impression that Pro Tools was the go-to choice at the professional level.

As Marc mentioned, I assume, at the professional level, all are pretty deep and complex, and all may present you with a little bug here and there depending on your application. In fact, any new release of the same product is bound to be followed by the x.001 and x.002 "bug fix" releases.
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Oren
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« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2008, 09:03:11 AM »

I wonder how many people use FLOSS sequencers compared with commercially sourced ones.

I'm not familiar with the term FLOSS, Will. An example perhaps?

And, are we calling ProTools a sequencer?
I know PowerTracks Pro is originally a sequencer. How does one differentiate between a sequencer and a digital audio workstation?
And then there are audio editors that offer all the latest recording/mixing/mastering features, but don't work with MIDI... Roll Eyes
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folderol
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« Reply #7 on: November 30, 2008, 09:42:04 AM »

Sorry, I got so used to seeing it I forget not everybody hangs out in the same dodgy places Smiley
Free
Libre
Open
Source
Software

The 'libre' bit underlines that it's free as in liberty to use/modify rather than free beer!

Not all open souce software is free, and not all free software is open source Huh



These days I think you'd actually find it hard to get a sequencer that did nothing else!
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If you have a poem, I have a tune, and we exchange these, we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.
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Oren
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« Reply #8 on: November 30, 2008, 10:39:08 AM »

...Sorry, I got so used to seeing it I forget not everybody hangs out in the same dodgy places Smiley...
These days I think you'd actually find it hard to get a sequencer that did nothing else...

Gotcha. I have heard of some pro studios replacing ProTools with Ardour/Audacity/JAMin, but did not think to write down their names.

Here are two:
Mirror Image Recording Studios in Minnesota, MI (http://multitrack.us/) has been using Ardour for recording sessions since 2004. Their involvement with Ardour has been the subject of an article on SoS (http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb04/articles/mirrorimage.htm)

Harrison/GLW (http://www.harrisonconsoles.com) is using Ardour as a part of their new product line. Here's a picture of the product from the NAB conference in April 2006: http://ardour.org/node/227

And here's the Mac version:
http://www.sae.edu/en-gb/pages/80/Ardour_-_SAE_Edition

« Last Edit: November 30, 2008, 11:02:46 AM by Oren » Logged

folderol
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« Reply #9 on: November 30, 2008, 12:15:30 PM »

Thanks for the links.

The SoS article is especially interesting and well balanced - but then thats normal for SoS!
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If you have a poem, I have a tune, and we exchange these, we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.
- Will
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