yeah but with ableton you can build a good sounding track out of the box with the built in synths effects and sound banks which are also super high quality, such as very authentic roland drum sounds and powerful synths like the operator and analog. beats painstakingly cracking synths or trying to find something useful from a sea of useless free vst:s
especially if you find a daw which has everything built in too much of a work, can you really be expected to do all that research and go through all that trouble just to get started?
I guess for me I enjoy the search. Digital crate digging as it were.
I’m more of a cut’n’paste kinda guy. Dragging disparate elements together and chopping 'em and recombining them. So that method suits me. Each to their own though innit. Every method has its merits
none of them are gonna be “easy” to learn imo, theres always gonna be a lot to learn regardless of what software you choose. That being said I learned first on Reason, moved to FL studio, then went to Ableton (after fully getting comfortable with the prior two programs) and found Ableton to be by far the most intuitive and ‘fast’ DAW The learning curve is probably the steepest on Reason tho ime. Ableton is prob the ‘easiest’ since its very visual, comes with a ton of powerful tools (that all have good presets) and drum racks etc. FL is similar to Ableton in many ways but the interface is a lot more cryptic as it splits many things into different windows.
I’ve used Logic extensively as well and I dont really recommend it for beat making tbh. Its very tedious and it doesnt handle midi tracks in a very friendly way. Its great for mixing down tunes and comping vocals tho.
Yeah, I’ll pay when I have enough free time to actually use it for a decent length of time lol right now I just stare at text and numbers trying to figure out how to write a decent essay before the deadline…
they actually downgraded garageband with the newer versions lol, like straight up made it less capable in really stupid ways like fewer inserts per track etc, if I recall correct
just get Logic at that point imo, the older more featured garageband was just downgraded logic with more pictures and bigger buttons anyway
Logic defoes gets tedious to navigate with bigger projects tho
fewer? shit, i remember having only 2 fx per track + built in reverb and compressor which sucked pretty bad lol.
In that case i’d go for Reaper, just because of the way the trial works, but tbh it can be overwhelming for a beginner and doesn’t come with any synths (the built in ones are a bit too basic to be useful) or samples, so you need some 3rd party shit.
That said i love the DAW, license is pretty cheap as well.
I used the garageband 2011 version until this year lol. You had a compressor and an eq standard on every track then 4 or 5 inserts which could be any AU plugin, which was how you made it not sound so awful, cus yeah the in built compressor was pure dogshit and had no release knob. The worst part is definitely no buses or sends though, apart from terrible built-in reverb and delay buses. Can’t believe I stuck with that pos software for so long lol.
Yeah I know it can be a lot but just take it literally one step at a time until you get the hang of it.
My preferred workflow is:
Drums (+ basic FX other than 'verb)
Bass (+ basic FX other than 'verb) > Balance the two and sidechain or compress kick and bass together…
Reverb
Other synths playing melodies (+ basic FX other than 'verb)
(Got the main sections now)
Start mixing transitions across sections
Samples to break up the track
Final mixdown
Compress
I think the best advice I’ve ever had is to mix as you go along, like balancing everything step-by-step instead of dumping it all on there and trying to mash it together. Grouping bits that you’ve got done to your liking, like drums and bass, means it’s easy to mix extra elements later.
Even an ‘uncomplicated’ DAW is going to be a pain if you’re disorganised imo
+1 for EQ and basic mix as you go.
Each time you bring an element in get it working with the others before adding something else.
(Also never EQ a sound solo. EQ with everything playing around it.)
Basic guides are the same for any DAW. I guess it just comes down to personal preference in the end. No wrong answers.
FL Studio or Ableton, they’re all difficult to learn inside and out. Just watch a tutorial and learn how to use the software ow. Ableton is the best. What i’m getting at is they all suck ass to learn. You just have to go nuts and make something on something. Remember its all way more advanced than it was in the 90s.
why is reverb #3? seems a bit arbitrary and strange
anyways, i think its best to create the main drum pattern and the lead/bassline at the same time tbh. Programming drums on their own, then a bassline by itself, then a lead after is sorta babylon imo. Very limiting.
do they still ship Garageband with it?