[DM-MUG] audio production

[Bryan Baker]

It depends on many things. I'm about to start thinking about this again 
myself, so let me walk you through the options I know about.

		BIAS Deck					Good solid multitrack audio editor, limited MIDI
         Digidesign ProTools			Expensive, industry standard, mainly 
audio, limited MIDI I think.
         Steinberg Cubase			Big name, came from Atari background, lots 
of MIDI integration.
         Emagic Logic				Owned by Apple, Lots of Audio and MIDI, looks 
pretty nice.
         MOTU Digital Performer		Still waiting for OSX version, but nice 
mix of audio and MIDI
         Sagan/OSC Metro				Mostly MIDI, checkered history (Independent 
-> OSC -> Cakewalk -> Independant)

If you only need audio not MIDI, then Deck and ProTools are both great 
candidates.
If you want to do mostly MIDI with some audio most of the others are 
good, depending on budget.
If you want to do both in one app well, I guess I'd lean to MOTU (once 
they release an OSX version) or Logic, since they have a tie in w/ 
Apple. I cut my teeth MIDI-wise on the original versions of Performer 
(MOTU) on an old Mac Plus and I'd say their interface and breadth of 
tools is excellent. I've owned both Deck (pre-BIAS) and Metro (OSC and 
Cakewalk) and both of those tools are good, but I often pined for the 
interface of Performer.

I've been out of doing audio for a while now, but I'm thinking of 
getting back in the game since my daughter is now pretty 
self-sufficient I can now get back to trying to write and record bad 
songs. ;-)
		

On Nov 9, 2003, at 10:42 AM, JDStites@aol.com wrote:
> I'm looking for multi-track audio production software.  Does anyone 
> have
> familiarity with what's available & how it works?
--
Bryan Baker
Technology Advocate
Iowa Legal Aid
Suite 230
1111 9th Street
Des Moines, Ia 50314-2527

(515) 243-2980 x1635

bbaker@iowalaw.org