Are there any people here who make music on their Macs?

Cromulent · 5 Jun 2022 at 19:45

When I was in school about 20 years ago I did a GCSE in Music and part of it revolved around composing your own music using Cubase. I basically forgot about it up until a couple of months ago but since then I've really got a desire to start making music again. The problem is I'm so out of touch with the whole music scene I don't know which DAW to use. I think I've settled on either Apple Logic Pro or FL Studio with me pointing more towards FL Studio rather than Logic Pro.

I need to get a MIDI keyboard and from looking around the M-Audio Oxygen Pro 49 key seems like the best option for me. Does anyone have any advice for someone getting back into this after a long break?

R.O.S.S.I · 6 Jun 2022 at 16:12

Id take a look at Ableton, its really intuitive and pretty easy to pick up IMO. But having said that all of the DAW's do the same thing, just their workflows are slightly different, so go with the one you think you know your way around most, and looks the easier to you to use.

I used to have an M-Audio Oxygen Pro and an M-Audio Axiom too but the slightly bigger version (with more keys). Have you considered what audio interface and speakers you are going to use with it? If you are producing mostly electronic musics you will be fine with a simple interface just for the speakers but if you are going to want to connect some keyboards and guitars and other instruments you will need something a bit more robust.

I used to produce electronic music mostly dancey, trancey stuff and got on fine with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.

Cromulent · 6 Jun 2022 at 16:20

R.O.S.S.I said:
Id take a look at Ableton, its really intuitive and pretty easy to pick up IMO. But having said that all of the DAW's do the same thing, just their workflows are slightly different, so go with the one you think you know your way around most, and looks the easier to you to use.

I used to have an M-Audio Oxygen Pro and an M-Audio Axiom too but the slightly bigger version (with more keys). Have you considered what audio interface and speakers you are going to use with it? If you are producing mostly electronic musics you will be fine with a simple interface just for the speakers but if you are going to want to connect some keyboards and guitars and other instruments you will need something a bit more robust.

I used to produce electronic music mostly dancey, trancey stuff and got on fine with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.

Thank you for your reply.

I did watch a few videos about Ableton Live and it looked good but the top end package is like £500 and then you need to update every year or two whereas with Logic Pro and FL Studio you don't have to worry about paying for updates.

As for the audio interface, I was just going to use my AirPod Pros because I live in a shared house and I don't want to bother the other residents. I won't be recording live audio like instruments and vocals at the start though so I thought I'd be alright to start with?

Maccy · 6 Jun 2022 at 16:21

Logic is great and well worth the money (I'm a few years out of touch, but always loved it for making music - Pro Tools for actual recording I found better though).

I'd look at a USB interface with some dedicated headphones, your Airpod Pros just won't cut it.

Cromulent · 6 Jun 2022 at 16:25

Maccy said:
Logic is great and well worth the money (I'm a few years out of touch, but always loved it for making music - Pro Tools for actual recording I found better though).

I'd look at a USB interface with some dedicated headphones, your Airpod Pros just won't cut it.

Do you have any suggestions for an audio interface and headphones? I can't afford to get something mega-expensive though.

Cromulent · 6 Jun 2022 at 16:37

Would a Focusrite Scarlett Solo be OK?

Maccy · 6 Jun 2022 at 17:09

Cromulent said:
Would a Focusrite Scarlett Solo be OK?

Yup that would be absolutely fine to start with, they usually come with a copy of Ableton Lite so you could get a feel for that if you wanted too.

Cromulent · 6 Jun 2022 at 17:10

Maccy said:
Yup that would be absolutely fine to start with, they usually come with a copy of Ableton Lite so you could get a feel for that if you wanted too.

Awesome. Thank you.

ShortWarning · 7 Jun 2022 at 09:41

I'm a pro tools user but if I was starting my music journey today I would absolutely go with Logic. By far the best bang for your buck.

As for getting back into it? It's a long old process, it takes a very very long time to train your ears and there are no shortcuts unfortunately. Just enjoy the process and it'll come!

Cromulent · 7 Jun 2022 at 13:05

ShortWarning said:
I'm a pro tools user but if I was starting my music journey today I would absolutely go with Logic. By far the best bang for your buck.

As for getting back into it? It's a long old process, it takes a very very long time to train your ears and there are no shortcuts unfortunately. Just enjoy the process and it'll come!

Thank you! I'm really quite excited

.

muttclugg · 8 Jun 2022 at 21:18

Logic has a 90 day trial as well just in case you weren’t already aware.

Cromulent · 9 Jun 2022 at 11:30

muttclugg said:
Logic has a 90 day trial as well just in case you weren’t already aware.

Oh, really? How do you access that?

1337z0r · 9 Jun 2022 at 16:02

If by chance your looking at making electronic music I highly suggest looking at Bitwig Studio it just a much better version of Ableton, I've tried every DAW over the last 15 years and hands down Bitwig is the end game. On MacOS Bitwig is the most stable DAW I've tried, you have endless ways to create sounds using their built in plugins. Work flow is great, projects load faster than any DAW and it does not crash the whole program when 3rd party plugins crash due to the plugin sandbox. You can also run ARM64 Native and x64 plugins in the same project with out needing rosetta, If you try the trial wait till July as they have a summer sale coming up where it is normally $100 off the retail price, or you can rent to own from splice for $15.99 per month.

Logic is also a good choice in terms of Value, I feel the workflow is not the greatest these days comapred to a modern daw like bitwig unless your primary goal is recording but it is still capable of producing great music and the built in plugins are very good.

Cromulent · 9 Jun 2022 at 16:07

1337z0r said:
If by chance your looking at making electronic music I highly suggest looking at Bitwig Studio it just a much better version of Ableton, I've tried every DAW over the last 15 years and hands down Bitwig is the end game. On MacOS Bitwig is the most stable DAW I've tried, you have endless ways to create sounds using their built in plugins. Work flow is great, projects load faster than any DAW and it does not crash the whole program when 3rd party plugins crash due to the plugin sandbox. You can also run ARM64 Native and x64 plugins in the same project with out needing rosetta, If you try the trial wait till July as they have a summer sale coming up where it is normally $100 off the retail price, or you can rent to own from splice for $15.99 per month.

Logic is also a good choice in terms of Value, I feel the workflow is not the greatest these days comapred to a modern daw like bitwig unless your primary goal is recording but it is still capable of producing great music and the built in plugins are very good.

Thank you. I'm actually planning on making music like ambient black metal and blackwave so yeah it'll be electronics based. I'll have a look at Bitwig.

visibleman · 9 Jun 2022 at 17:26

Bitwig Studio is definitely worth trying although with Ableton Suite currently at £404 (£5 more than Bitwig), i still think Ableton takes the edge as there's a shed load of tutorials and libraries around for it and you can do some cool stuff with Max(MSP).

Reaper is another option (believe Deadmau5 uses it along with Ableton), although i would say it's similar to Cubase/Nuendo(Logic/Protools perhaps) in that it's more audio/midi/library focused rather than "sampling".
Same company also does Ninjam (there's a plugin for Reaper) which essentially allows you to "jam" (near enough) real-time with others across the interwebs.

And FL Studio is ok but it's always had an arse-about-face workflow, especially with effects chaining and (audio) tracking, which doesn't really translate elsewhere and hasn't really improved since it's Fruityloops days. Saying that, there's been a lot of successful artists that have used/or still do use it.

Logic is worth trying, it's extremely popular but personally, i found it a struggle with Protools/Cubase being better for audio work and Ableton for creative stuff.

Best bet, download trials of the ones that take your interest and give them a week or two and pick whatever you feel works for you.

However, whilst not a typical DAW, give Bespoke (bespokesynth.com) a whirl - it's more akin to Reaktor/MaxMSP but you can create some awesome stuff with it and it's free too unless you want to donate.

muttclugg · 9 Jun 2022 at 19:57

Cromulent said:
Oh, really? How do you access that?

Logic Pro - Free Trial

Logic Pro is a complete professional recording studio on the Mac. Try it now with a free 90-day trial.

www.apple.com

You have to access it from a Mac.

Cromulent · 9 Jun 2022 at 20:29

muttclugg said:
Logic Pro - Free Trial

Logic Pro is a complete professional recording studio on the Mac. Try it now with a free 90-day trial.

www.apple.com

You have to access it from a Mac.

Cool. I'll wait for a little bit because I'm waiting to have enough money for my keyboard but then I'll sign up. Thank you.

Cromulent · 11 Jun 2022 at 15:57

Maccy said:
Yup that would be absolutely fine to start with, they usually come with a copy of Ableton Lite so you could get a feel for that if you wanted too.

I've been looking into decent headphones to use and found a pair that has excellent reviews, but the problem is they have an impedance of 250 Ohms which I don't think the Solo can power. Do you know of another audio interface that can handle 250 Ohm headphones?

visibleman · 13 Jun 2022 at 11:35

Cromulent said:
I've been looking into decent headphones to use and found a pair that has excellent reviews, but the problem is they have an impedance of 250 Ohms which I don't think the Solo can power. Do you know of another audio interface that can handle 250 Ohm headphones?

I believe most Focusrite USB powered Scarlett's tend to have a 200ohm limit on headphones, whilst the mains powered variants (8i6>) have a 250ohm limit.
You're likely to be ok, certainly my DT770's and DT250 250ohm Beyer's are alright on most interfaces although a decent headphone amp does make a massive difference. But i typically stick to my 80ohm Beyer's as i find them a lot more useful day-to-day as most things will drive them.

Cromulent · 13 Jun 2022 at 11:52

visibleman said:
I believe most Focusrite USB powered Scarlett's tend to have a 200ohm limit on headphones, whilst the mains powered variants (8i6>) have a 250ohm limit.
You're likely to be ok, certainly my DT770's and DT250 250ohm Beyer's are alright on most interfaces although a decent headphone amp does make a massive difference. But i typically stick to my 80ohm Beyer's as i find them a lot more useful day-to-day as most things will drive them.

Thank you. I did some research and found this DAC that looks good: Topping E30. Do you think that would be a good choice? Since I only need to power headphones and I'm not going to record vocals or instruments, I thought it might be a suitable configuration.