What sequencing package do you use? Rsn, FL, Cbs, Renoise?

[Amok]

1. Soundmonitor - C64 (without any result )
2. Noise/ Sound/ Star/ ProTracker - Amiga (some modules, nothing really good)
3. Break of 17 (!) years making music (errr...)
4. MadTracker (December 2007)

No keyboard, synthi or other equipment... just the oldskool style... all handmade...

[Slaygon]

1. Soundmonitor
2. Futurecomposer (c64)
3. Soedesoft's editor
4. Groovy Music (Karl XII's music editor)
5. CensorED (My own editor, http://www.censor.net/censored/)
7. Futurecomposer (Amiga)
8. Pro/NoiseTracker (YEY Pex!)
9. FastTracker II
10. Renoise
11. Cubase

That's pretty much all of them. The one I used most is my own (#5 there). I think all of my tunes in HVSC (http://www.c64.org/sidfind/?s=slaygon) are made in #4 or #5.
Getting used to Cubase now, but it's taking time. As you can see, it's the first sequencer type program I've ever used. All the others are of the tracker type.

[7thpixel]

I use Reason almost exclusively now, and supplement it with SoundForge. I can give you a definite "buyers beware" on the Edirol PCR 30 for a USB Midi Controller. NONE OF MY C KEYS WORK. It's failing with only moderate usage in less than 2 years. So I find myself laying down a track without any C notes, then programming them in later lol.

In the past I tried to use Acid DJ with Reason as a slave but it was clunky.

[Tonka]

@ 7thpixel. Best...avatar...EVER!

Interestingly enough (mainly because of hearing what others here like 'LMan' and 'Tron' can do with it), I have decided to move over to Reason now. I tried Sonar, Live and Cubase etc, but found Reason to be the most 'fun' when it came to actually making music.

The whole interface just takes me back to my early hardware days of plugging things in and tripping over leads, etc which I find quite inspiring! The minimal CPU load is also quite astonishing, and it doesn't appear to crash. Ever.

[edit] Hmm. Dreamstation 2 has just had an update, is also extremely stable and very quick to use with the tracker interface...

It's between DS2 and Reason... GAH! Ah well, at least Fruity Loops is well and truly out of my life!

[PhunkyData]

What do i use. Well...

1. played around with some of the proggies on the C64.
2. Still using Noisetracker on the Amiga, as well as bars & pipes later on when my first hardware synths joined the setup
3. On the PC i got stuck to the Buzz Tracker. It has a very unique characteristic and a really clean and well put workflow within the programm.
4. On the PC i still play around with Fruity Loops 7
5. As well as Cubase SX and Logic 5.2 (that is sad enough not carried on for the PC since Apple bought emagic)

6. But for my personal favourite, i cleaned the dust off my good old Atari about 3 years ago and set it up to do sequencing work again with Creator/Notator
I`d wish there would be a Sequencer-proggi that would pick up the neat workflow and pattern/arrangement principle that Creator has. Still i think Creator is one of best sequencing proggis and very close to tracking. Maybe thats what got me stuck to it.

I am moving back to gear-music again. i have been a synth-nerd for 20 yeras now and really i got fed up with the mouse shoving. I need knobs (not to misread this with nipples you horny, freaky bastards )
Got back to use my good ol hardware again.

[Dafunk]

heh, nice to read other people's weapon of choice. here's mine:

1. c64 => VoiceTracker ; DMC 4/5.0/5.1x/7.x ; JCH Newplayer (the Morbid/Onslaught modified one!)
2. PC => Fasttracker2 (up until 2000)
3. PC => Rebirth + Fasttracker2(up until 2003)
4. PC => FruityLoops (from 2003)
5. PC => FruityLoops + Reason (from 2006 up 'till today)
*6. PC => Nuendo

*recently started experimenting...

cheerz!

[Andersson]

I'm using FL and i suck, period.

[Scyphe]

I've moved to a new audio/sequencer package. It's a 3.2mb installable .exe, it's got most of the stuff that Cubase have, it supports asio etc., VST's, VSTi's, DX effects and DXi's, multicore CPU's, over 3GB of RAM, XP, WINE, Vista, 32/64-bit and soon OSX. It's fast, easy to use (easier than Cubase) and there's no draconian copy protection. They constantly improve and release new versions while keeping your settings. Includes a huge bunch of effects and stuff that comes with it. All this in a 3.2mb .exe file.

It's free to use 30 days (then you get a nag-screen every time you start it after the 30-day period is over), a non-commercial license is $50, a commercial license is $225 (compare that to any Cubase version).

It's name? Reaper.

And I love Reaper.

http://www.reaper.fm/

Tech specs for interested:
http://www.reaper.fm/feat-techspecs.php

[Mordi]

Always used FL Studio. Been making music for three months and I reckon I'll get bored with it within a few months, so I'm happy with FL7.

[PsychNerD]

Scyphe : MANY thanks to you for making me discover reaper... a lot more stable and soooo better than cubase or acid pro for me, so many details I wanted in the other ones are present in reaper... I'm completing my evaluation period and will buy this for sure. 50$ is a joke for this level of quality.

Thanks again!, Long live Reaper.

[Tonka]

Yeah, thanks for that Scyphe - I'll take a look at this at some point, too.

My weapon of choice for 'proper' music is currently Dreamstation 2 (http://www.dreamstation2.com) which is a combined tracker and piano roll editor - I've now binned Fruity for good!

I have to say though that I'm spending most of my music making time thesedays using P64 (http://www.prophet64.com/) and LSDJ (http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/). I cannot honestly say that I've missed VST's, PC's and their regular crashes in the slightest!

[Razmo]

Yeah, thanks for that Scyphe - I'll take a look at this at some point, too.

My weapon of choice for 'proper' music is currently Dreamstation 2 (http://www.dreamstation2.com) which is a combined tracker and piano roll editor - I've now binned Fruity for good!

I have to say though that I'm spending most of my music making time thesedays using P64 (http://www.prophet64.com/) and LSDJ (http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/). I cannot honestly say that I've missed VST's, PC's and their regular crashes in the slightest!

Ahh yes... those crashes... that is why I've gone hardware. MIDI only. MIDI hardly ever crashes.

Actually I've been toying with the idear of doing some small projects with a hardware sequencer as well, but I cannot seem to find any hardware sequencers that I like.

What I want to be doing is to take just ONE hardware synth, one sequencer and a single MIDI keyboard, and then see what I can come up with. It will impart limitations on me, but that is what I find amusing really... detail, and squeezing the most out of the least... guess it's a left over from my optimization days on AMIGA

But as stated earlier, I cannot find any good hardware MIDI trackers... this is where I'd like an AMIGA tracker-style sequencer...

[LMan]

I have to say that Reason virtually never crashes (perhaps once a year, and only if you mess with a lot of other apps in the background). This, and the precise timing is a HUGE advantage over everything VST/MIDI related.

I often hear people say about Reason users "Whoa he did that with Reason?"... Well it's not a toy but a fully fledged synth/sampler production studio software, why shouldn't it sound great?

Also, some people don't like that Reason puts all the synth and virtual gear "in your face", which is the impression you get if someone posts a multi-page long screenshot of his virtual rack. What those screenshots don't show is that you can group and fold all the devices, so in this way you can flatten the whole rack so it can comfortably fit on one screen.

What I also like about Reason is the way you can combine and re-wire all the devices in most unexpected ways, similar to a hardware studio. Such a combination can be saved, and by this way you can for example create a whole new multi layered instrument consisting of several synths, samplers and effects, or a new effects device combining reverbs with compressors, delays, distortion etc... The creative freedom is immense.

There. That's why I still love Reason.

[Razmo]

I have to say that Reason virtually never crashes (perhaps once a year, and only if you mess with a lot of other apps in the background). This, and the precise timing is a HUGE advantage over everything VST/MIDI related.

I often hear people say about Reason users "Whoa he did that with Reason?"... Well it's not a toy but a fully fledged synth/sampler production studio software, why shouldn't it sound great?

Also, some people don't like that Reason puts all the synth and virtual gear "in your face", which is the impression you get if someone posts a multi-page long screenshot of his virtual rack. What those screenshots don't show is that you can group and fold all the devices, so in this way you can flatten the whole rack so it can comfortably fit on one screen.

What I also like about Reason is the way you can combine and re-wire all the devices in most unexpected ways, similar to a hardware studio. Such a combination can be saved, and by this way you can for example create a whole new multi layered instrument consisting of several synths, samplers and effects, or a new effects device combining reverbs with compressors, delays, distortion etc... The creative freedom is immense.

There. That's why I still love Reason.

Yes... one of the "reasons" that computer based recording is good is the timing issues. MIDI is quite old and not really that fast.

But MIDI is still worth using, even in big setups of hardware gear and with much gear it's the only way to use it. You can always record your finished composition one track at a time getting better timing, and it even allows one to correct timing issues by audio editing afterwards. Of course you'd have to accept the timing issues while actualy composing, but to me that is not really a great problem.

The most time critical parts of music is usualy the percussion, and in Tonka-rocksteady-tunes (sorry Tonka, could not resist ) also other tracks. Most hardware drummachines have a solid build in sequencer that can trigger patterns on a MIDI note, so this can be used to great effect when using MIDI hardware drummachines.

Also, if you know how to arrange the MIDI data, and avoid too much MIDI trafic, you really do not hear the difference anyways... all my compositions was done in SONAR via MIDI, and I did not even use my drummachines build in sequencers...

Another way to set up MIDI for better timing is to use a seperate MIDI out for each instrument, and if you have a single MIDI out on your audio card in adition to those 8in/8out midi interfaces, this could be reserved for the drumparts alone since they will adressable from the PC simultaneously... data going to an 8/8 MIDI interface must either be sending faster than MIDI, or it will have timing issues as well... this is because MIDI interfaces are usually serial interfaces... a few old ones from MOTU was though parallel interfaces...

So my conclusion is, that I really don't feel that MIDI gives that great a problem timing wise... but different people, different needs

But admittedly, Reason would probably be my choice if I had to do software music... it would depend a LOT on it's ability to record live MIDI events, and it's capability to edit these in a creative way... I'm REALLY picky when it comes to that.

[Max Levin]

Is there a good sequencer/tracker-homebrew for Nintendo DS you people use? The flashcart-possibilyteis should be endless, I presume.