I thought it would be a nice article to go over some of the tools I use for creating music and videos. You might find some of these useful yourself. I’ll cover the ups and downs of all of it because if I’m honest, nothing is 100% perfect. But you come to accept that if you have a job to do and something is available to do it even if it has some problems.
Let me start with my main workhorse products as far as getting this stuff in the can.
Probably the first thing I open up in the morning after I get the PC up and running is Cubase 7. Cubase 7 is a digital audio workstation or DAW for short. Essentially what it is, is a software based music production studio. Instead of a crap ton of hard wired synths and effects devices laying around the studio (oh how I hated those days) everything essentially comes in a box. Cubase 7 comes with pretty much every music making sound module (VST) that you’ll need unless you have some very demanding projects sound wise, like really authentic sounding orchestral arrangements of top of the line synth sounds for dub step like tracks. Cubase 7, however, has the capability of importing other sound modules into the DAW, just like you could bring another guitar or keyboard into your recording studio. Just without the heavy lifting.
Cubase 7 can play the sounds, record them and create audio files for distribution. It has great mixing capabilities and can pretty much do anything I can think of doing.
Don’t get me wrong. Cubase 7 isn’t problem free. There are sometimes incompatibility issues with other VSTs that didn’t come with Cubase. Some keyboards, like my Axiom Air 49, tend to act a bit flaky with it at times and just lock the whole thing up. Sometimes things don’t record properly and you have to do some fancy manipulating to get the sound just right. But for the most part, Cubase 7 is a life saver. I couldn’t do what I do without it.
Another product I plan on doing a lot with, as far as production, is Easy Sketch Pro. In short, this is a sketch drawing piece of software. It literally draws images on the screen. It is very cool looking and a great marketing tool. It’s very easy to use. I made my first video without even reading the instructions. Heck, a 12 year old could do this.
Now, this doesn’t come without a cost. No, I’m not talking about the price. It’s actually dirt cheap at $27 (an additional $47 for a commercial license). What I’m talking about is that it’s kind of limited in functionality. If you’ve ever used something like Camtasia, you know how powerful that software is. Well, Easy Sketch Pro isn’t even close as far as functionality. Of course it’s also a fraction of the price. What it does however, I’ve yet to see anything else do in this price range. So if you need a good screen draw software that can import images and music, you might want to check it out. At the price, it’s hard to go wrong.
Inside of all this stuff (mostly the DAW) I have my workhorse synths or VSTs.
When you’re doing a lot of music scoring for clients’ videos, you’re going to find that you will do a lot of orchestral scores. Let me tell you something. The stock orchestral instruments that come with something like Cubase or any DAW are terrible. That’s all I can say. They’re fine for synth based orchestral stuff but if you want the real sounding thing, forget it.
There are a lot of solutions out there and good ones. Personally, I went with the East West Quantum Leap line of VSTs because to my ears, they sounded the best without breaking my bank account. The typical EWQL VST goes for about $300 but they often run sales and you can get a ton of them dirt cheap if you buy in bulk like with their Complete Composers Collection. The price per VST when getting a collection comes out to like $100 a pop. That is dirt cheap considering the sound.
And yes, I love all their stuff. I have just about everything that they’ve come out with minus a couple of things that I really don’t have a use for, yet.
I guess the only bad thing I can say about the EWQL stuff is that there are a few bugs in some of the modules, but very few. I think I have found a total of maybe 3 in all of them. Other than that, These VSTs are my bread and butter. And they have everything covered from rock to pop to orchestral to world music. You should hear their RA, Silk and Voices Of Passion collection.
For my electronic and dance stuff, I turn to my workhorse synths. These are, in no particular order…
Synthmaster 2
Zebra 2
Massive
Battery 4 (for electronic drums)
There are others that I use that are very, very good like ABSynth, FM8, Sonigen Modular, and even some of Cubase’s synths. But the above 4 are in almost every electronic or dance tune I do.
And I honestly can’t find a bug or problem with any of them. Maybe I’m just lucky.
For guitar based music where I need a rhythm guitar, I would be totally lost without my Revitar 2. I can’t say enough good things about it. My only complaint is that I can’t find any kind of users manual and some of the functionality I literally had to stumble upon as it’s a very complex instrument. And every once in a while it does get a little buggy. But those times are few and far between. Almost all the strumming guitar you hear on my tracks is made with Revitar 2.
If I don’t want to create the music real time and instead want to enter it through a notation program, for that I use Finale 2012. I don’t really love the instruments that comes with Finale, but it’s not made for sounding great. It’s made for creating great music notation and that it does in spades. It has a huge learning curve and tends to get a little buggy sometimes with huge scores, but for the most part, it’s solid. I love it. I’ve created a whole symphony in Finale. That was some project.
And that’s pretty much it software wise. Not much hardware outside of the PC and my studio monitors. I do have a Steinberg UR28M external sound card that is really great. I’d be lost without that too.
Surprisingly, for the most part, all of this stuff is solid. Technology and software have come a long way.
What more can I say?
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim