The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    I suspect this is already here somewhere, but my basic PT, began as LE and then moved up, is on my Win 7 which is getting clunky + no longer supported. Perhaps it's nbd, but i'm not sure i'll move it to Win 10 since i already have one for work. A pro buddy told me years ago he was doing all of his recording on his mac. I've never used one, but wonder if...
    1. Do the nicer ipads or Macs come with native recording software sufficient for great quality solo guitar +/or quartet with singers recordings? (I'm not mic'ing drums nor recording live)
    2. I've done fine with PT for what i want. It's a long story, but i need to use the sw offline, + I suspect my version is old enough that I need to upgrade---would it be simpler to switch to Mac?

    tnx in advance for any of you who have met these crossroads and glad with what you decided?

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by stringmann
    I suspect this is already here somewhere, but my basic PT, began as LE and then moved up, is on my Win 7 which is getting clunky + no longer supported. Perhaps it's nbd, but i'm not sure i'll move it to Win 10 since i already have one for work. A pro buddy told me years ago he was doing all of his recording on his mac. I've never used one, but wonder if...
    1. Do the nicer ipads or Macs come with native recording software sufficient for great quality solo guitar +/or quartet with singers recordings? (I'm not mic'ing drums nor recording live)
    2. I've done fine with PT for what i want. It's a long story, but i need to use the sw offline, + I suspect my version is old enough that I need to upgrade---would it be simpler to switch to Mac?

    tnx in advance for any of you who have met these crossroads and glad with what you decided?
    Macs all come with GarageBand, which is a simple (relative to PT or Logic) DAW. It's definitely good for solo guitar. It's based on the same core platform as Logic and supports Audio Units plug-ins. So the basic sound and recording quality of it is fine for anything (provided you have a good interface), and it has a lot of built-in effects. It does a few things less well than Logic or PT. the biggies that I've bumped up against are:

    - it doesn't have an aux bus, so you can't really use any outboard effects with it (unless they're inline with a source, e.g., using a pedals between a guitar and the interface)
    - Comping multiple takes of a part is clunky -- it has no real concept of auto punch-in/out points (or locate points). So to comp takes, you pretty much have do each take on its own track and then drag and drop sections. And in the process you have scroll manually a lot.
    - The mixer is limited, e.g., it only supports 1 stereo monitor output and doesn't have any concept of mix groups/busses. So you can't do things like give different musicians different headphone mixes or control multiple tracks with one fader strip.

    If you're doing something really complicated with tons of punches and edits, and outboard effects, etc., and multiple musicians playing at the same time, it might not work well. But for something like recording instruments one at a time and overdubbing a vocal, it's fine.

    John

  4. #3

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    If you buy a new Mac of some kind, it would be worthwhile to add Apple's DAW s/w, Logic Pro X, powerful and easy to use, not much money, watch a couple of overview vids to see what it can do. iOS devices can supplement your recording efforts in Logic Pro but you still need the Mac.

  5. #4

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    A lot depends on your audio interface (see below). Also, your experience and comfort with going touch screen exclusively will inform your decision.

    iPad
    comes with GarageBand which is great for small projects and may be all you need. Auria is a full blown DAW that runs on iOS devices and is currently $25 for the base version. A few years ago on RME's forum RME showed the BabyFace Pro recording a lot of tracks (possibly 16?) in Auria (may have been around 2015 with a 2015 iPad, iPads are much faster now).

    Check out forums for your audio interface for opinions on how an iPad with Garage Band would handle your situation.

    Mac LogicPro X is well worth $200. Logic is a full featured DAW which comes with a complete suite of top-notch plugins. You could spend $100's if not $1,000's on plugins and likely wouldn't beat those in Logic. Logic and your audio interface is all you need.

    Reaper is another great DAW that runs on Mac and Windows and comes with a suite of basic, but good, plugins. A personal license is $60 and includes Mac, Windows and Linux versions (Linux is experimental).

    There are a lot of online tutorials, have a look at them and see if one looks more like the workflow you're used to.

    Consider your current audio interface: Is it compatible with Mac and/or iPad? For iPad you will need a 'Class Compliant' device. Mac will probably require drivers - make sure your audio interface supports macOS 'Catalina'. Catalina is the latest version and audio processing (Core Audio) changed requiring new drivers; older interfaces may not be supported.

  6. #5

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    On the iPad I prefer Cubasis to Auria but I really use a software mixer called AUM. It has very flexible routing, supports AUv3 and IAP plugins and has built in recording. With the myriad of cheap cheap apps available it is possible to forego a traditional DAW and just roll your own as needed.

  7. #6

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    I won't get into the Mac VS PC - suffice to say, use as much processing as you envision using in the future.

    If you go with a Mac Logic is definitely worth the price and it's a professional tool.

    If you stay with a PC you can get a free copy of Cubase (I think it's called SE, and you can get it for Mac too) which would be enough to do guitar and singer work. If you like the software the upgrade paths are convenient and the new Dorico scoring program from the same company (Steinberg) interfaces nicely with it. You can get a free copy of that too from Steinberg. It's limited but more than enough for doing lead sheets, etc...