[Talk] Favorite music tools and software?

[floating_lettuce]

For your remixers, musicians and other creative music people, what are your favourite softwares and tools do you like to use to create music?

And as someone who is new to playing around with music, is there any software out there that is good for someone to mix a few beats and tracks together (preferably free and not audacity or garageband as I've already been using them for a while).

 

[Radix]

FL Studio is great. Has lots of advanced features that don't get in the way if you're a beginner. I've used other DAWs before, but I find Fruity Loops by far the most modular (with the exception of Ableton) and inituitive.

Here's some other stuff:

Reason: Restrictive and in general, just very dated. It's killed my creativity many times. And until Reason 9, which was just released, it's had terrible VST support.

Cubase: Cool, but better suited for recording. Has a lot of interesting sound engineering workflows, but Fruity Loops still feels more modular.

Ableton: A great DAW for live performance and makes some great mixing techniques a lot easier. Also has excellent automation support, although Fruity Loops still pretty much beats all in that category. Ableton is in some cases more modular than Fruity Loops. This is subjective, but using Ableton just didn't feel very fun.

Pro Tools: Excellent. Nothing else on this list can even compare in terms of audio quality and capability. It's a little clunky for arranging and composing, but Pro Tools is basically made for mixing. Sometimes I put my finished tracks in Pro Tools for the final master.

 

[Lucario]

Rosegarden is my DAW, as it has all the features I need, and is the only one that seems to respect midi time signatures. (plus being a linux user there isn't much choice).

I like qsynth as a soundfont player, I just like how simple it is.

I also make heavy use of cadence, catia patchbay, and carla (LV2 host)

My favorite LV2 plugins are the calf studio gear, and the infamous synths.

(See my next post)

 

[BlueJackG]

FL Studio, definitely! :P

 

[Lucario]

LMMS. It's like FL studio, but open source, with linux support. It's just the best you can get for free (and maybe the very best?)

 

[timaeus222]

I use FL Studio 12 (big surprise, lots of people do), and you'll often see me using Zebra2 as my primary synth VST. I also use Impact Soundworks' sample libraries (such as Resonance: Emotional Mallets, Pearl: Concert Grand, and Super Audio Cart: Retro Game Samples).

Granted, FL isn't a great DAW out-of-the-box, but I've been customizing my pool of sounds over the last 5 years and I've never felt the need to switch to a different DAW. I especially like the piano roll and pattern system; they give me a fast and efficient workflow. Sometimes I write a song from start to finish in a few months; sometimes a few hours if I'm really inspired.

 

[phazonruler]

I personally use a free program called Musescore. It is very similar to Finale except that you don't have to pay like $5,000 to use it lol.
I wouldn't recommend Musescore if you're not totally familiar with music notation. If you want to make music without learning how to read or notate music, I would suggest using programs like FL studio.

 

[Reyzadren]

FL Studio for most of my music-making process, of course ;)

One initial payment and free life-time upgrades, yes pls.

 

[Lucario]

I just got a novation launchpad mini. While not being software, one of my favourite "music tools" now. I'm using it with LMMS, with the help of a program I wrote called launch2lmms.

 

[DoomDoom]

I haven't used much in terms of software. I like LMMS on CP, but for convinience, I use an app in my phone called Caustic. I like it, I think it suits well for beginners like myself. But I guess FL studio is probably the best one.

 

[Lucario]

I've been getting into chiptunes, and I gotta say milkytracker is amazing, my new favorite music program. But it is a tracker rather than a normal DAW so it is slightly confusing to pick up if you are used to, say, FL studio.

 

[Kawaii Shoujo Duskull]

I feel like I'm the only person who uses Anvil Studio haha.
It's not a bad program though. It does everything I need it to. Plus the basic software is free(and, most importantly, relatively accessible for someone like me with almost no vision). What it doesn't do by default or through purchased "accessories" can be done with virtual instruments/effects and soundfonts(though I mostly stick to soundfonts because the vast majority of virtual instruments I've ever come across are inaccessible as hell).