MakeMusic Forum

Home | Log In | Register | Search | Help

MakeMusic Forum > Public Forums > Finale - Macintosh - FORUM HAS MOVED! > Sequencer recommendations

Forum Quick Jump

[ << Previous Thread | Next Thread >> | Show Newest Post First ]

Jim Mol
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 56

Posted 11/13/2004 12:37 PM (GMT -5)

Sequencer recommendations

What are some of the sequencers people are using to enhance the output of their music?

History: I started working in the music field about 11 months ago. Beginning with SmartScore, for scanning and some editing, I am moving to finale for producing arrangements for our small band and singing group. Needing to produce accompaniment tracks for times when the band is not available I just purchased Garritan Personal Orchestra so to have more realistic instrument sounds. In reading the posts I see some of you use a sequencer to tweek your work. I don’t know anything about sequencers – closest I have gotten is putting GarageBand on my computer and I know that is not a real sequencer – I see my self as sequencer challenged.

Jim

Finale 2005r1, PowerMac Dual 1.42, 2 Gig RAM, OS 10.3.5

Treble
Registered Member

Date Joined May 2002
Total Posts : 29

Posted 11/13/2004 1:58 PM (GMT -5)

Sequencers run the gamut. They can be a major financial investment. It depends on what you really want to do with it. Since you've Invested in GPO you may want to look at Logic, Cubase, or MOTU, but beware because you must also invest a great amount of time learning these programs. They all have stripped down versions which may suit your purpose, but you still have to spend a lot of time learning them. Check out their particular forums and ask retailers about these products.

Post Edited (Treble) : 11/13/2004 6:01:17 PM GMT

Jim Mol
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 56

Posted 11/13/2004 2:33 PM (GMT -5)

I guess part of the problem is that I do not know how much I will have to do. From reading the posts, those using GPO and Finale take the tune, I think in midi and work on it to get better sounding. I know logic has an express version, and I will be reading up on that.
I came across a page which listed MIDI sequencers and it listed SmartScore Pro. I have much to learn.
I am just trying to get some information, preliminary research so to speak.

Thanks for your input.

Jim

Finale 2005r1, PowerMac Dual 1.42, 2 Gig RAM, OS 10.3.5

Slandrom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 1999
Total Posts : 1792

Posted 11/14/2004 3:42 AM (GMT -5)

I have just bought a sequencer called Tracktion, it´s only $ 80. Was very easy to use. Bought it just to mix audiofiles from GPO.

Björn

2002b, (owner of 2005) MacOSX 10.3 and classic, sometimes Win98, TgTools (always the latest) QuicKeys X2, 2.0.2 GPO, Twin G4 1ghz. 2 Gb ram, Apple Cinema Display 23"

michelp
Registered Member

Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 2232

Posted 11/14/2004 10:28 AM (GMT -5)

Some of the most used sequencers on the Mac are : Digital Performer 4.5 (Motu), Cubase SX 3 (Steinberg), Logic 6.3.1 (Apple)
All of them are very powerful midi sequencers which now have the possibility to record audio tracks combined to the midi tracks.
A more detailed list (and their features) on this site :
www.macmusic.org/softs/softcat.php/lang/EN/id/7014/

Michel
Finale 2003a, MacOs 9.2.2. Owner of 2004, 2005 waiting for a G5/2x2,5... 21' CRT. Midi interface MOTU Midi Express XT. Roland Sound Canvas SC88.

Jim Mol
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 56

Posted 11/14/2004 4:44 PM (GMT -5)

Thanks Michel - if I want to go with the big names, spend big bucks. I have read threads on several of these. Some work better than others on the Mac OS. I took a moment and looked up the summary of them. Thanks for the link. At this point I do not know if I will need all the features they offer - I need to decide what exactly I need to do.

Björn, if you are one who uses a sequencer to tweek you finale work, could you give brief explaination of what you use the seqencer to do?

Thanks

Jim

Finale 2005r1, PowerMac Dual 1.42, 2 Gig RAM, OS 10.3.5

habibbijan
Registered Member

Date Joined Nov 2003
Total Posts : 218

Posted 11/15/2004 2:17 AM (GMT -5)

Do you think you will ever use Windows for your work in addition to your Mac? If this is even the slightest possibility, I recommend investing in Cubase because it is currently the *only* cross-platform sequencer available (excluding Pro Tools because it requires its own hardware to run). This is nice for people (like me) who work with both platforms. The SX version is the most robust, but there are "lite" versions available as well, such as Cubase SE.

www.steinberg.net/

Brian Bondari
www.habibbijan.com
"Writing music with theory in mind is like wearing underwear that's too tight. It's restricting!"
Constantly campaigning for Finale on Linux....

Slandrom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 1999
Total Posts : 1792

Posted 11/15/2004 2:31 AM (GMT -5)

Jim Mol said...
Björn, if you are one who uses a sequencer to tweek you finale work, could you give brief explaination of what you use the seqencer to do?

Thanks

I use it together with GPO. Since my Mac crackles using GPO I save individual instruments as audio and open them in Tracktion to get it to play allright. I may perhaps use it to add more instruments via midid also. I also use it to edit audio files.

Björn

2002b, (owner of 2005) MacOSX 10.3 and classic, sometimes Win98, TgTools (always the latest) QuicKeys X2, 2.0.2 GPO, Twin G4 1ghz. 2 Gb ram, Apple Cinema Display 23"

Peter West
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2002
Total Posts : 4272

Posted 11/15/2004 8:44 AM (GMT -5)

If your needs are modest, try Apples Garage Band. It costs next to nothing and produces some amazing results. If you then need to move up a notch, Apples new version of Logic Express is good. I use that now for all compositional work, with the Garritan orchestra. Logic Express and Logic Pro will both open Garage Band files with all your sounds and modifications in tact, so if you choose to upgrade, nothing is lost.

Peter
Music Publishing Services

*********************
Mac 1.2GHz Dual G4/OSX.3.4/20 inch Cinema display and 20 inch CRT
Finale 2004c/2005
Yamaha P-150 Electric Piano
MIDIMAN 2x2 interface

Jim Mol
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 56

Posted 11/15/2004 11:02 PM (GMT -5)

habibbijan said...
Do you think you will ever use Windows for your work in addition to your Mac? If this is even the slightest possibility, I recommend investing in Cubase because it is currently the *only* cross-platform sequencer available (excluding Pro Tools because it requires its own hardware to run). This is nice for people (like me) who work with both platforms. The SX version is the most robust, but there are "lite" versions available as well, such as Cubase SE.

www.steinberg.net/

Thanks for the tip, but I really try to stay away from windows machines. If I ever do....

Jim

Finale 2005r1, PowerMac Dual 1.42, 2 Gig RAM, OS 10.3.5

Jim Mol
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 56

Posted 11/15/2004 11:36 PM (GMT -5)

Peter West said...
If your needs are modest, try Apples Garage Band. It costs next to nothing and produces some amazing results. If you then need to move up a notch, Apples new version of Logic Express is good. I use that now for all compositional work, with the Garritan orchestra. Logic Express and Logic Pro will both open Garage Band files with all your sounds and modifications in tact, so if you choose to upgrade, nothing is lost.

I have Garage Band, just starting to use it, but it cannot import midi files - at least I cannot find a way to import a midi file from finale. If I could then I could export it to iTunes using Garritan instruments (I think).

As for Logic Express - if import a midi file from Finale, I will be able to play it and hear the Garritan instruments, corrrect?
Would I also be able to export or save as a mp3 or aiff?

Jim

Finale 2005r1, PowerMac Dual 1.42, 2 Gig RAM, OS 10.3.5

Matthew Hindson
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 1999
Total Posts : 406

Posted 11/16/2004 7:18 AM (GMT -5)

Jim Mol said...

I have Garage Band, just starting to use it, but it cannot import midi files - at least I cannot find a way to import a midi file from finale. If I could then I could export it to iTunes using Garritan instruments (I think).

As for Logic Express - if import a midi file from Finale, I will be able to play it and hear the Garritan instruments, corrrect?
Would I also be able to export or save as a mp3 or aiff?

There is an application that lets you import MIDI files into GarageBand. Check on http://www.macmusic.org. Personally I would find GarageBand very restrictive as you can't change the metre or tempo, and it's a total resource hog, so you won't get that many tracks going at once I wouldn't have thought. It's also a pain in the backside to alter things like note velocity and so forth in GarageBand.

The Logic family are great sequencers, but be aware they're like Finale - they can take a little while to learn, but they're both really powerful programmes. If the Garritan PO instruments are in the Audio Unit format, then you should be able to bounce down to AIFF or mp3 tracks.

One think to consider is that editing Pitch Bend and Modulation in Logic Express is stupidly awkward (at least it was in Logic Express version 6). In previous incarnations of the application such as Logic Gold 5.5, you could draw in the changes very easily. Now they've removed that facility - the easiest way to do it is to use what's called Hyper-Draw - a counter-intuitive, clumsy way of working.

Also bear in mind that there used to be a limit of 8 AudioInstruments in the lesser versions of Logic - it may do you well to check this out with the latest versions of Logic Express to see if this restriction has been removed.

Post Edited (Matthew Hindson) : 11/16/2004 11:21:59 AM GMT

Jim Mol
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 56

Posted 11/16/2004 3:03 PM (GMT -5)

Thanks for the info on express, esp the limits. I guess if apple made it too easy, you would not feel you have to upgrade.

Jim

Finale 2005r1, PowerMac Dual 1.42, 2 Gig RAM, OS 10.3.5

Forum Information

Currently it is Saturday, September 23, 2023 2:11 PM (GMT -5)
There are a total of 403,820 posts in 58,165 threads.
In the last 3 days there were 0 new threads and 0 reply posts. View Active Threads

Need Support? | Forum Help Manual