Recording program for Mac suggestions

[SeanBNS]

Hey everyone,
I'm currently writing a bunch of new music for my band and we will be recording it for real soon. In the past we have just used audacity or something shitty and free and it was on a PC. I bought a Mac like a year ago and have just been demoing stuff with Garageband and it basically does everything for you. I want to 1. gather a better knowledge of recording programs 2. have our new recordings sound as good as we can make them and 3. have the program be something that works for Mac. I will admit that I am technologically retarded, hence I have a Mac and use Garageband, but I would like to gather a better understanding of a "good" program, just not something shitty haha. Any suggestions?

BTW, I'm brand spankin' new to this site, so hello!

[astretch4glory]

hey, i say since your brand new to recording (for the most part) they're three programs that you need to know about and you need and audio interface. The industry standard is Pro tools. Lets say you recorded at your house you could pretty much take your session to any place and they could mix and master it for you if you so choice that. Also you can get a Mbox for around 450 bucks if your doing acoustic or just really crappy demo's (it only has two mic ports so micing a drum set is hard) or spend 2 grand for a digi 003 with 8 inputs.You have to buy pro tools type of interface cause it kinda works like a serial number for the program (so you can't steal it).

The next two you can use whatever interface you like. There are tons of them out there go out and really do some researching about them.

Logic is Apple's program. It's has a "harder"(i disagree but w.e) learning curve than pro tools.

Cubase is my program of choice. All the plug ins are great and it has really good latency compensation. Also all the things with midi for it are really amazing. you can assign chords to certain notes if you can't play keys to well. its just absurd.

All work for Mac's.

Any Questions let me know.

[SeanBNS]

Thanks a lot, man. I actually have an audio interface right now. I don't remember what it is called, I'm actually at work right now. I think I'll definitely give those programs a look at.

[apsterling]

Thanks a lot, man. I actually have an audio interface right now. I don't remember what it is called, I'm actually at work right now. I think I'll definitely give those programs a look at.

Logic is wonderful- works nicely and allows a lot of software synth/sampler involvement and non-destructive effects with reasonable computer load.

[SD_John]

Yeah, I'd get Logic. I'd also check out(since you're new) Pro Tool M-Powered. Its basically a cheaper version of pro-tools. You can get it with any M-Audio interface i believe. I'd also get a mixer. with more than 8 mic inputs. And get mixing down. That would allow you to record drums and not have any trouble in the editing process. You basically wouldn't have to re-record. Good luck!

[Esrb99]

I personally use logic on my mac, and here's why.

in audio, you normally charge clients by the hour. pcs come with various hardware choices per vendor, making it harder to standardize drivers. thats why many audio places use macs, or specialized pc's. the less troubleshooting time for the client, the better, and this can be further maximized by using a sequencer/daw amde by apple. if you have a mac, and it is able to run logic, you are set. drivers are for that specific hardware. as far as interfaces go, apogee is again made only for macs, specially for logic. a control surface in the real of the euphonix or mackie universal control are both made specifically for logic. so by getting those products, I can be about 95% sure it will all work together with minimum problems. I can spend more time hunting down where that radio sound is coming to my reel to reel than wondering why im getting system overload errors.

[kylestarr]

logic is fantastic.

[astretch4glory]

I agree with all of you totally the only thing with logic is integration between logic and other programs; i.e. SampleTank (i recommend everyone get its so great imo) is a little trickier then pro-tools and cubase.

[qazx]

http://rizabek.bloguje.cz/

[The Boathouse]

Realistically speaking, Garageband can do a lot more things than people give it credit for. If you don't understand how to work compressors, build reverbs, work with automation (volume, panning, effects, etc), or anything else along those lines in Garageband, getting Logic or Protools isn't going to make you understand those things. My biggest word of advice is this: use garageband til you reach a point that you can use all those things. Because your shit won't sound legit, even if you use Logic, Protools, whatever, if you can't figure out how to properly compress things, whether they're individual tracks or the entire song, and if you can't decide what the proper reverb is for a given instrument in a given setting.

Go get books. The more you read about it, the faster you can learn and apply it. If you don't understand any of it, sitting there and moving sliders around won't MAKE you understand it.

Furthermore, if you don't have a snake and some decent mics (or knowledge of placement for that matter), I wish you luck recording drums that don't sound like a tin can army. But that's neither here nor there.