Whether you’re an absolute beginner – or just want to help turn on a friend or bandmate to computer music production – starting at the very beginning is indeed a very good place to start. So, it’s nice to see Ableton’s official channel this month covering the very first steps of working with their flagship Ableton Live.

In fact, even if you don’t own Live, you can make use of the demo version and try this out. I typically find that getting audio interfaces working properly is the biggest hurdle for first-time music users. (Okay, sometimes it stumps us advanced folk, too, but ideally we have it working!)

There are many commercial online training services for Live, but since spending more cash may be a disincentive to getting things going, a free videos are an ideal way to get a taste. (Then, when you’re ready, schools like Dubspot and training series like MacProVideo – the latter relevant to Windows users, too – can get you going, just to name a couple.)

Huston Singletary, the clinician in this video, is one of the most knowledgeable Live experts inside or outside Ableton – and a really nice guy, to boot – so I look forward to his series.

A parallel discussion in a Live group on LinkedIn got some similar ideas going. Much to my delight, that included not just the generic stuff, but also how to work with wind controllers and “glitch up your sax.” Here are some more videos for you:

NYC-based training house Dubspot has a ridiculous, ridiculous number of training sessions — check the Dubspot channel, choose Playlists, and then Ableton Live. But since the theme here is supposed to be getting started, I’ll be choosy.

Thavius Beck, one of my other favorite Ableton clinicians, covers the basics of chopping – an ideal place to get started once you have worked out how to record:

Mike Hatsis covers keyboard shortcuts:

And as an excellent illustration of how this can all fit together, DJ Kiva shows an integrated dub performance using the APC40 controller. It’s a nice place to close here, because it shows a bit of where you can take all of your new-found skills.

Found a tutorial that’s helped you get starting with Ableton Live? Specific software for which you’d like to see a beginning tutorial – or, perhaps, that hasn’t been covered to death in the way that Ableton has? Basic techniques you’d like to learn that aren’t specific to a certain tool?

Let us know in comments, or contact us directly.

365 Days of Knowledge! Lastly, the best free resource for learning Live I’ve ever seen – more tips than anywhere else, more useful beginner knowledge than anywhere else, and the most you could hope to get free even with a manual included?

http://www.heatercore.net/livetipslist.html

Handmade Music returns August 29 to New York City – now in Manhattan at the new Culturefix space on the Lower East Side. Beginners, this is your chance to learn about electronics and sound making, with a newcomer-friendly workshop on making a photo-theremin – and yes, you’ll even learn to solder. (Like knitting, you’ll find it gets easy fast and can even be relaxing.) Entry fee includes all parts cost, and you leave with a fun creation.

If you have work you want to show or a performance to propose, be sure to see the call for works at the end of the post.

HANDMADE MUSIC
Culturefix, 9 Clinton St., New York, NY 10002
Sunday, August 29
Workshop 4-6p
Event 7-9:30p
Hosted by createdigitalmusic.com with Etsy.com, Make Magazine, and XLR8R Magazine

Equal parts science fair and music party, Handmade Music is a gathering at which musicians and the musi-curious explore new sound worlds. Assembled from the growing, global grassroots DIY scene, makers and hackers present new inventions and technology. Instead of just consuming, these are the people making the code, instruments, and noise-making contraptions that make the music. They’re building a musical future that’s open, creative, and hackable. Inventors bring their new creations for an open show-and-tell, join performances and jams, and make much noise.

4pm – 6pm
WORKSHOP: Make your own Photo-Theremin (Beginner-friendly!)
$10 (includes parts)
Never soldered before? Dozed off in Physics class when they were explaining electricity? Here’s your second chance. Create a noise-making two-transistor synthesizer of your very own, controlled by modulating light. Based on an original circuit by electronics legend Forrest M. Mims III, the man who de-mystified electronics in books for Radio Shack and others, and adapted by designer Eric Archer for Handmade Music Austin, this simple circuit is the perfect introduction to making sound with electricity. It’s quick to assemble, but lots of fun. Learn basic soldering, then make your own kit. And be sure to come back in the evening with your creation to join the world’s first known Photo-Theremin Chorus.

You must pre-register for this event.
Registrations close August 20! (Parts are being fabricated in advance!)
http://phototheremin.eventbrite.com/

7pm – 9:30 pm
HANDMADE MUSIC – Open Party
FREE

Meet and mingle with inventors, musicians, and artists. Discover chip and mobile music played live wirelessly at the bar by New York’s Pulsewave community. Hear music and sound made with free software on Android mobile phones. Check out open sound inventions in the gallery and surprise performances hosted by createdigitalmusic.com, DIY musical crafts from Etsy.com, the latest inventions and kits from Make Magazine, and a world-exclusive debut performance of a new, hackable synthesizer called the MeeBlip.

Special guest: Drone Lab creator and renowned synth designer, artist, circuit bender, and musician Pete Edwards of Casperelectronics

Full lineup will be announced, but unplanned guests tend to appear.

View Larger Map

http://handmademusic.noisepages.com/

Call for Works

We’ve already got some work coming in for this installment, but we’d love people to share more. Handmade Music is a chance to share what you’re doing with like-minded artists and creators, and to exchange knowledge and skills. Projects are welcome at all levels of completion.

If you can’t make this event but want to be considered for future events, fill out the form

Please note: this is a free, shared, community event; we’re not offering compensation at this time.

Call for Works Form [Google Docs link]

Also embedded below…

As the company turns 10, Ableton has introduced a set of discounts and giveaways, the most notable of which is a new entry-level edition of Live. Live Intro smooths out a lot of the wrinkles between different starter versions of Live, from LE to hardware bundles. At $99, “Intro” finally gets a logical feature set:

• Full ReWire support, both as host and client (or “Slave” and “Master,” if you want to be all kinky about it)
• Full MIDI support, including remote control, output, MIDI clock (though none of the nifty “external device” support for outboard gear)
• Warping and time stretching, minus the “Complex” and “Complex Pro” modes
• 4 VST/AU instruments, 4 VST/AU effects per project
• Missing Vocoder, Looper, Multiband Dynamics, Overdrive, Frequency Shifter – but you do get SImpler and Impulse
• 2 in, 2 out audio, though you can have up to 64 tracks and unlimited MIDI tracks
• No track grouping
• Full WAV, AIFF, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC support
• New extras: 7 GB of audio content in the boxed version, 1 GB in the download version

In other words, you get a more-than-capable version of Live for a hundred bucks. It’s certainly enough for anyone who just wants to inject some Live functionality into their ReWire host of choice, and allows people interested in experimenting with Live a non-crippled version they can use. Mercifully, Ableton is offering a free upgrade to Intro from Live LE users — a good thing, because Intro includes some features and content LE lacks. (Okay, it’s still probably not great news if you spent $200 on LE, but at least you don’t miss out on the features.)

Live Intro product page
Live Intro comparison

Sound Packs, Discounts

Already a Live owner? Through January 10, Ableton has a number of deals for existing Live users:

http://www.ableton.com/able10

Discounts on Live upgrades, up to 20%

Free artist packs — from some wonderful artists, too, including Apparat, Mum, Thavias Beck, and our friends at Covert Operators, among others.

The artist packs are especially nice. And Novation is shipping the Launchpad. Of course, the big news today is really Max for Live, so I’d better … keep typing. (Damn you, fingers!)

Alongside our Renoise + Indamixx netbook-optimized production competition, I’m kicking off this week a series of CDM and guest tutorials on working with Linux audio tools, Renoise, and more. First up, here’s a basic look at how to route the free-as-in-beer linuxDSP effects toolkit into the powerful, modern, open-source DAW Ardour. Correction: I implied that linuxDSP had an open source license, which is not correct. It should be considered “freeware” but not free software. Ardour, of course, is fully open source, and this is as much a tutorial on how to use JACK to route effects as it is linuxDSP per se.

http://www.linuxdsp.co.uk/

linuxDSP comes with a nice set of basic effects, including a 15-band graphic EQ, stereo reverb, valve-emulating overdrive and compressor, and parametric channel EQ, plus a much nicer graphical patchbay interface for using JACK to route audio between applications. (That last one probably deserves its own look.) linuxDSP is also bundled with upcoming builds of the Indamixx products, and it’s freely available, so if you’ve got Linux and Ardour, you can follow this tutorial  — and if you’re interested in using Linux at all, you’ll want to give linuxDSP a look. Note: The Indamixx version of LinuxDSP is optimized for Atom-based Netbooks and is an Indamixx exclusive.

For those of you used to running VST and AU plug-ins, you may find linuxDSP a bit confusing at first. Instead of opening them as you would a plug-in, you launch them as an application. Thanks to the power of JACK, though, you can freely route audio between software without a lot of the limitations normally associated with plug-in architectures. Of course, when you’re in the habit of doing things one way, that can feel a little strange. So I’m pleased to welcome Mike from the linuxDSP project, who shares with us his own tutorial for getting started with Ardour and linuxDSP.

Also, trust me – this may seem like a lot of steps in the case of a simple insert, but that’s partly because we’ve broken it down to make sure you’re clear on the process. Actually doing this can be pretty fast. And keep in mind that this works for any routing with any JACK-aware application – so you could side-chain a drum track into a surround-sound SuperCollider granular effect you’ve built, for instance. It’s easily worth a little extra effort to get around the comparative rigidity of conventional plug-ins, even before considering these are all free tools.

You can also save a session with routings you want so that Ardour acts like a virtual studio, in which your favorite effects and routings are ready to run. (In fact, because of the modular nature of a JACK Linux setup, you can think of Ardour more like a traditional mixer and patch bay than just a monolithic DAW – keeping in mind that Renoise, the tracker in our competition, now has full JACK support.)

linuxDSP with a Simple Ardour Project

Mike from linuxDSP

1. Open Ardour and linuxDSP. Start up Ardour, and create or open an existing project. In this example, a simple project consisting of one stereo track will be used, as shown below:

In order to connect a linuxDSP plug-in as an insert on the track, we need to launch the plug-in and connect it via the Ardour mixer. Make sure the plug-in is running; you can do this by launching it, just like any other application. In this example, the CHEQ2 is used, since the track is stereo. Ed.: That is to say, there’s both a stereo and mono version of the EQ, so grab the stereo one!

2. Route an insert in the mixer. Next, select Ardour’s mixer window. Here, the stereo track the plug-in is to be inserted into is selected. Now make a new insert point. To do this, right click in the black area above the fader:

From the drop-down menu that appears, select New Insert. The Mixer window will now show the new insert point in the black area above the fader.

3. Select your insert. Double-click on “(insert 1)” in the Mixer window. This will open the insert dialogue.

4. Connect the linuxDSP effect to the Ardour insert point. The insert dialog allows you to connect the insert point to any external JACK application. In this case, the CHEQ2
is going to be used, so the CHEQ2 tab is selected. You will see that the CHEQ2 has two
inputs, "inL" and "inR," and two outputs, "outL" and "outR." In this example, we are going to route
the signal from the channel insert send to the inL and inR connections on the CHEQ2, and then
route the signal coming back out of the CHEQ2 "outL" and "outR" to the insert return.

Click on "inL" in the "Available connections" window. "inL" will now appear in the "out 1" box to the left. Click on "inR" in the "Available connections" window. "inR" will now appear in the "out 2" box to
the left Next do the same for "outL" and "outR" in the "Available Connections" window on the right.

The insert dialogue should now look like this:

5. Activate the setup. Finally, return to Ardour’s mixer window and ‘activate’ the insert by right clicking on it and selecting "Activate" from the drop-down menu.

6. Save and re-use! Once this is set up, if you save the session, Ardour will take care of the routing for you next time the session is loaded. All you have to do is make sure the CHEQ2 has been launched before you start Ardour and load the session.

If you play the track in Ardour, adjusting the controls on the CHEQ2 will affect the sound.

Got more requests for tutorials? Let us know. Next on my slate is using the awesome powers of the JP1 patchbay. It’s a graphical patchbay for JACK, but made a whole lot prettier. If you’re using it already and have some tips, let me know and I’ll incorporate them into the story.

Indaba Music, a community and suite of online tools for musicians, announced today they’ve revamped their online recording and production tool using Java and JavaFX. The result: a platform-agnostic, online interface that allows you to record music “directly to the Internet.” And the band Weezer is excited enough about it that they’re giving their official endorsement.

Indaba, along with some others, already had an online music production tool. The new version expands on that idea, allowing you to record audio signal directly online, and beefing up tools for mixing, editing, and looping. Just like tools like GarageBand, a pre-built set of loops is ready for people to quickly mock up songs.

With some help from Sun’s JavaFX technology, the browser/desktop barrier isn’t as noticeable. You get a graphical-looking interface that works the same anywhere, plus the ability to drag audio files to and from your desktop.

indabamusic.com

javafx.com

Interestingly, Weezer’s endorsement focuses on the fact that they don’t know how to use other music software. I have to admit some skepticism here – a lot of musicians I think are savvy enough to get to use creative new music software, and a lot of the basic functions of the Indaba software itself are straight out of tools like ACID and GarageBand. Nor do you have to worry about any JavaFX tool blowing away your REAPER, Logic, Live, Pro Tools… well, you know.

On the other hand, while this is basically just an ACID-style audio production station in the browser, I’m curious about what new applications might take advantage of in-browser collaboration that don’t look like existing audio tools. Maybe we’ll have specialized tools for working out specific ideas or sharing snippets in-progress. And there’s no question that building some tools in the browser makes sharing more immediate.

I’ll be talking to the Indaba folks and the JavaFX team a little bit about the technology, and with Sun in particular I’ll be sure to ask about some of the future potential here for other tools. If you have questions, let me know.

Cakewalk today did something quite unorthodox for the company: it launched a product on Facebook.

The results are what clearly aim to be a GarageBand killer for Windows users. Music Creator had always, quietly, been a big hit for Cakewalk: it’s cheap, entry-level software for the PC, which has the potential to reach a big audience of computer users. But the software itself was nothing to brag about, with a dated-looking interface.

Music Creator 5 looks stunningly different. The arrangement window has the familiar, GarageBand and ACID-style loop arrangement window. But there are additions you might expect in a bigger DAW: quick in-line access to track parameters, video preview frames at the top, elaborate time displays and editing tools. There’s also a sophisticated-looking mixing mode with graphical EQs and other options.

Cakewalk MusicCreator

There’s also quite a lot of instrumental and effects content for a $35 app. You get preset playback features – a bit like what you get in Kore Player, down to the pre-mapped 4-8 knobs and 4 trigger buttons – with 150 instruments. There’s the rather sophisticated Studio Instruments Drums for some acoustic and electronic drum parts, making it easier to actually program your own patterns rather than rely on loops.

Cakewalk also includes easy Flash-based music player creators, so you can share your finished tracks easily on the Web, and notation publishing features with tablature and guitar chord support.

In other words, you get the power of what might once have been a flagship Cakewalk DAW, for 35 bucks. (Windows-only) Some of the power options may actually be a bit intimidating to beginners – recently, I’ve heard that complaint even applied to the comparatively minimal GarageBand.

As far as value, though, there’s a whole lot in this box, and a nice balance between looping features and the sort of acoustic drums and notation and sharing features that could appeal to bands just starting to add a computer. I actually think the integrated interface in Steinberg’s rival Sequel is a bit more efficient and runs on the Mac, too, but there’s quite a lot of added-in functionality in Music Creator that makes it broader in scope, and some of that added power may be a deal-maker depending on your needs.

The toughest competition for this, I think, is the elegant and flexible REAPER, which also costs just 40 bucks for a non-commercial license. Cakewalk gives you a lot more in the box, but the host itself in REAPER is objectively more powerful and can actually stand up against high-end DAWs.

http://www.reaper.fm/

It’s too bad that there isn’t an entry level app out there that doesn’t fit in the ACID/GarageBand mold, but I can’t really argue with the price.

But I want to hear from you – beginners out there, what do you think? (Not a beginner yourself? Go grab some of your Facebook friends and ask them.)

In a surprise announcement (well, surprising me, at least), the experimental MySong shown by Microsoft Research earlier this year will be available for sale. US$29.95 will buy you a downloadable auto-accompaniment tool. Windows-only, but it sounds as though a Mac release is in store (seriously). It’s a bit like Band-in-a-Box for singers: sing in a line, and the software will generate accompaniment to your singing with styles of your own choosing. There are thirty styles included, and apparently Microsoft focused on the content end in bringing this product to market: there’s a 1 GB space requirement and partnerships announced with PG Music and sample house Garritan.

I’m guessing PG Music, the makers of aforementioned Band in a Box, have helped smooth out the slightly unmusical arrangements generated by the first version. Now, okay, admittedly I was skeptical of the output I heard of the first version. Maybe I’m scarred because I had a high school jazz teacher who player trumpet, not piano, and therefore insisted on running Band-in-a-Box over top of me while I tried to comp on keys. But there are reasons this is cool:

• Garritan’s sample content sounds great.
• PG Music has made its auto-accompaniment a lot more musical over the years.
• The thing could be a decent sketchpad for people who find this helps them imagine musical ideas – realizing there’s no substitute for the real thing.
• Most importantly, bringing research to market is a great thing.

And let me emphasize that last point. I love that Microsoft has made this available. Too often, R&D achievements get one demo, a patent filing, and then languish in some dark closet, never to be seen again. Sure, some of them probably were never meant for the light of day, but very often people love the demo and want to give the thing a chance – and why not let you decide?

Songsmith at Microsoft Store, via istartedsomething

So a big congrats to the Microsoft R&D team. And here’s to more research seeing that light of day, whether through open source availability or commercial release (or, where appropriate, both).

So Songsmith will accompany your vocals, Apple will get Sting to teach you to play and explain how he wrote Roxanne – okay, as if this week, you really have no excuse not to graduate from Rock Band, ye casual musicians!

Updated: Oh, wait. (*&(*&$#&*. The promo video is … ?

(*&(*&$#&*. Can Microsoft just let Sparrow do all the promotion from now on, please?

Even with the success of beginner-targeted software like GarageBand, computer music production is still something a lot of musicians have only started to explore. And while there are computer-savvy players of every instrument, there’s no question guitars are underrepresented for the size of the market versus, say, keyboards.

Sonoma’s RiffWorks has been one software entry trying to change that, by combining guitar-centric features (amps and effects) with loops, multi-track recording, and collaboration features. As with GarageBand and Steinberg’s Sequel, loops, machines, and effects assist in quick song creation. But unlike those products, Sonoma also emphasizes collaboration, and is targeted directly at guitarists.

Now, they’ve introduced a free version of the software called RiffWorks T4. While it’s free, it does quite a lot – presumably to try to get hooked on online collaboration on song making.

• 4-layer song production
• Basic effects (Wah, Multi-band Compression & Distortion, Modulation, Delay, Reverb, Compression, and British Style EQ), plus IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube LE guitar amp/effects and Gallo Engineering’s Studio Devil BVC amp model
• An “InstantDrummer” drum machine/accompaniment tool with intensity, variation
• Online collaboration and online song sharing community

Online collaboration has always been a challenge because the physical size of the planet Earth actually means that true real-time collaboration is basically impossible with music. The solution is simply to provide music that’s synced, if not in real-time. Sonoma describes their solution: “As a track is recorded, it streams to other players and is perfectly in sync.” (In other words, it’s better to be a bar behind but in sync than a fraction of a second off.)  [Update] To clarify: unlike many online music collaboration services, you can work simultaneously on a song recording – see reader discussion in comments. This is a step behind eSession-style near-real-time collaboration, in that you hear full riffs at once. (eSession is synced to a metronome, though it can’t do “true” real-time, either, in the sense that you can on a local computer.) It is a number of steps ahead of most other online tools, however – and the real draw is the software editing and effects anyway, as combined with these community features.

That said, I think online collaboration could be fun, if Sonoma can get a healthy community going. Many musicians still prefer in-person collaboration for other (non-technical) reasons. But then, the two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, especially in our online-connected world. Sonoma tells CDM that over 1,000 people per day are signing up; now it just remains – as with other communities – to see how many get really involved.

Even if the online side doesn’t take off, perhaps the production tools will. Guitarists, if you do give this a try – or if you’re already a user of RiffWorks – we’d love to hear from you.

RiffWorks T4 [Free software, Mac, Windows]

The Digidesign Digi 003 is a strong value if you need this much mixing and I/O facility. But is it overkill for our reader Lynn?

Gear isn’t everything — but getting geared up is the one hurdle that can hold up beginners. In the Ask CDM series, we’ll be answering at random some of the questions we regularly get in our inbox. First up, Lynn Morgan, who’s ready to make the jump to digital. Lynn writes:

My questions will quickly [make it] apparent that I’m from the old “tape” school of recording. But nonetheless, I do understand sound recording to some degree, having recorded 5 long-play projects in “Guitar City”.

I want to set up a home studio where I can record my own tunes. I’ll use guitar, guitar synth, bass and some keyboards and, of course, my vocals. I want the sound to be totally professional and I want the ability to interface with other users of Pro Tools, for possibly background vocals or drums, etc.

My question is this, What do I really need for equipment? The 003 Digidesign looks impressive but what would I need beyond that?

It turns out Lynn isn’t currently a Pro Tools user, but she added this when pressed:

I want to set up a recording system that will not be outdated in 6 months and sound quality to equal the best out there. The transition from “tape” to digital they say has its advantages and disadvantages. I’m just not sure what I need in the “digital” world to make it all happen.

Good questions — and ones I expect will spur some reader comment, too. But let’s divide this up into some smaller questions and look at it that way. I did intend to answer just this sort of question with my book Real World Digital Audio, but there are some specifics I didn’t get into there, so we’ll look at the specific questions.

This wound up being a huge answer, but I know it’s a very Frequently Asked Question.

What do you need?

I think the best way to begin is to think through what you need to do and work backwards from there. With audio hardware, you’ll want to think literally to inputs and outputs and how much you’ll be recording at a time.

So, for Lynn, that’s:

• Guitar, bass: you’ll be either recording directly into the interface via a guitar input on the computer audio hardware, or using a mic like a Shure SM57 to mic the amp
• Guitar synth, keyboards: these all require line-level inputs. If they’re newer models, they may have USB connections so they can be plugged into a computer directly. If they’re older, they may require a MIDI interface
• Vocals: you’ll need a mic. I’m really pleased with my Beta 87C for vocals (pictured), but there are plenty of options here — you’ll want to try singing into mics you’re considering

That translates as wanting the following gear, at the very least:

• Computer audio interface with ample ins and outs and MIDI for these recording situations
• Computer software
• A control surface for providing some physical control (knobs, faders, transport buttons) over the recording
• Good studio-quality monitors (known to the rest of the world as “speakers”), plus headphones
• A vocal mic, and maybe a second mic for recording an amp
• You might also consider software effects, and particularly a guitar effects / amp simulator package

As it happens, the Digidesign 003 does cover the first three of these: it’s an audio interface, it includes computer software (Pro Tools LE), and it’s a control surface. But it’s just one option, and you want to make sure to budget for the other items if you don’t own them, which brings us to the next questions.

Don’t forget the mic! I really love my Beta 87C from Shure — it’s warm but precise, and has a pickup pattern that works well for a typical home studio setup. You can also take it on the road and use it live if you like. There are some cheaper alternatives to the Beta 87C; the easy advice is to try vocalizing into the mics and see which you like.

Should you use Pro Tools?

First, let’s clear up the myth: you don’t have to use Pro Tools — do it because you want to. Plenty of “professional” music is made on other systems, such as Apple Logic Pro (Mac), MOTU Digital Performer (Mac), Ableton Live (Mac/PC), Steinberg Cubase (Mac/PC), and Cakewalk SONAR (PC). There’s even free/open source software with similar capabilities (Ardour for Mac and Linux). I spent most of my time this year in SONAR, Live, and Logic Studio — but that’s a personal choice.

In this case, you’ll choose either Pro Tools or one of these alternatives based on several factors.

First, do you need Pro Tools to exchange files? It’s not strictly necessary for collaborators to use the same host as you — and you’ll still need to account for whether your collaborator has the same plug-ins you do. (If not, they’ll “bounce” the audio with the plug-ins they’re using so you’ll just get sound files on your machine.) That said, collaborating with other people who use the tool you do can be more convenient.

Second, what do you like using? It’s worth spending a few minutes giving the thing a test if you can, especially since you’re new. That should be first-hand testing with a friend nearby, not just a demo. I will say, I know a lot of people new to recording have been really happy with Pro Tools. I also know people who have been really happy with some of the alternatives.

Third, is Pro Tools the best value for you? I’ll talk a bit about that in the next section, but some people find that the choice of hardware that other software offers is a better deal. Others are perfectly happy with Pro Tools’ value proposition. So this comes back to some personal choice.

It’s also worth mentioning that other choices beyond Pro Tools open up greater hardware choice, and greater plug-in choice. The latter is really an objective difference, too, as Digidesign makes its plug-in developer tools harder to get at. That should mean that plug-ins for Pro Tools will have more quality control — weird free plug-ins for other systems can in fact cause your system to be unstable. But you have control over which plug-ins you install, so I think the main thing to consider here is that preference for usage style ultimately overrides everything else. Pro Tools users give up a little choice partly because they like the system so much.

The one thing not to do is to assume you need Pro Tools because other tools won’t “sound” as good, or are harder to use (that’s entirely dependent on taste), or aren’t “professional”, or that “no one uses them.” Truth is, any one of these tools will do the job, so this comes down to taste.

As far as the criteria of having the solution be future-proof and make good-quality sound, most of that is really a matter of tailoring your purchase to your musical needs and investing enough money and (more importantly) time working with the tools after you’ve got them.

It’s a big decision, so spend the time to make the right choice. At the same time, go ahead and make a choice — all of these tools work, and you’ll want to spend more of your time actually using them than just worrying about which one to use.

Apple Logic Studio — and many other tools — can do all the same basic tasks Pro Tools software can. The choice comes down to preference for working styles, what platform (Mac/PC) you’re using, and whether it’s important to you to be able to choose your own hardware and have greater plug-in choices.

Is the 003 overkill?

Now, to the core of this question: the 003 looks great in the ads and glossies, but what does Lynn really need?

Hardware + software: First, we have to back up into what “Pro Tools” means. Pro Tools is a different animal from its competitors in that it’s a combined hardware/software solution. Digidesign makes three classes of Pro Tools software, and it runs only in combination with hardware made by Digidesign to work with it:

• Pro Tools M-Powered: supported M-Audio audio interfaces (and the most choices available) — the “M” stands for M-Audio
• Pro Tools LE: 003, Mbox
• Pro Tools HD: Pro Tools HD hardware

With M-Powered, you buy hardware and software separately. With LE and HD, you can’t buy the hardware without getting the software, and you can’t buy the software without getting the hardware. That tends to make your first purchase more economical, but future purchases a little pricier if you need to switch audio interfaces. (You can buy software upgrades separate from hardware; that’s the one exception.)

Pro Tools M-Powered is Pro Tools software sold separately, for use with any M-Audio hardware you want. It’s not quite as much choice as you get with other music software, which will work with any  pro-grade hardware, not just one brand. But it could be the best tradeoff if you want to use Pro Tools but maintain some hardware flexibility.

LE vs. M-Powered vs. HD: LE and M-Powered are almost identical in their feature sets. You’ll sometimes get a slightly different mix of plug-ins with LE, but the only really significant difference is that LE versus M-Powered adds some desktop post production features for people working with video, which in this case probably doesn’t apply.

HD is much, much more expensive (thousands of dollars), but in case you’re interested, here’s what the difference is. On the HD line, Digidesign uses hardware to assist in processing audio, rather than using your computer’s CPU. This used to be a very big deal, because older computers weren’t powerful enough to do all the audio processing you might like. That’s no longer such an issue, so the differentiation in HD now is higher-end audio gear, more inputs and outputs, and, to some extent, a platform for higher-end software audio processing. The software has features similar to LE and M-Powered, but with more advanced capabilities for multiple tracks and routing, surround sound, sync and automation, and other features. (In fact, while they don’t support the same specs as the HD systems, even the LE and M-Powered systems are capable of recording audio that would theoretically be considered High Definition — just to make things really confusing.)

Fortunately, you don’t need to worry about HD — this is a battle between LE, M-Powered, and, well, things that aren’t Pro Tools.

Picking your tools: If you’re committed to going with Pro Tools, the 003 isn’t a bad option. It has loads of ins and outs, includes the software you’ll need in the box, and doubles as a motorized control surface.

But it is probably overkill. I’d suggest going instead with Pro Tools M-Powered and then mixing and matching the hardware you need. The $450 Fast Track Ultra plugs in via USB and gives you all the inputs and outputs you need. If you’re just recording your stuff solo, the $250 Fast Track Pro would be enough, because you don’t need to record simultaneously. Both of these have onboard MIDI connections for connecting older hardware. Yeah, you may be tempted to get Digidesign’s Mbox, which has Pro Tools LE already included. But I think spending a little extra to buy M-Powered and an audio interface separately will be worth it in flexibility.

We’re now at a fraction of the price of the 003, and unlike with the 003, you’ll be able to work on the road without lugging a giant piece of gear. (Pro Tools LE will refuse to run if it doesn’t spot approved Digidesign gear plugged into your audio interface — and in the case of the 003, that’s no small matter.) M-Powered will work with just a small USB key plugged in and an M-Audio interface. You have the choice of which M-Audio interface you buy, so while you still have to carry that to use Pro Tools, you have more options than you would even with an Mbox. (Of course, this is some of the appeal of other software systems, which let you use just an internal headphone jack on a laptop if you so desire.)

If you don’t care about being locked into one piece of hardware — that is, if you have a system that stays stationary or you don’t mind carrying around an Mbox — you might also consider the newly-introduced Pro Tools Music Creation Studio. It actually includes a good mic, decent monitors, a keyboard, and a big software bundle for the ridiculous price of US$895. But that’s only a good deal if you need that bundle, of course, so weigh that against what works best for you.

The Fast Track Ultra pairs well with Pro Tools M-Powered. The first two jacks double as mic or instrument (read: guitar/bass in this case) inputs. And you’ll have a lot of I/O flexibility for a pretty low price. If you’re not using Pro Tools, of course, more hardware options come into play.

Control surface: The one thing you miss out on is the control surface, but for solo recording, you’re just going to want something that makes starting and stopping recordings and monitoring levels easy. I really like the Frontier Design AlphaTrack. It works perfectly with Pro Tools — and a lot of other software, as well.

For solo recording, I like something that’s compact — it’s rare in a mix session that you’re adjusting multiple mix faders simultaneously, anyway. The Frontier Design AlphaTrack is an easy impulse buy at the moment with a street around US$200, and it wins out by being compatible with just about everything. (The PreSonus FaderPort is another good option, but it’s not as compatible and lacks some of Frontier’s extras.)

Play the field: If you don’t entirely have your heart set on Pro Tools, though, I’d check out the options — for me, that’d be SONAR for Windows or Logic Studio for Mac, depending on which platform you’re on. For around $500 you get just as much software power as M-Powered, and you can use any audio interface you like.

But really, either way, we’re talking about $1500 (instead of $2000) in hardware and software. If you’ve got some money to spare, you can add a guitar amp simulation package like IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube or Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig and really have some fun with your guitar and bass.

Shopping List

Here’s what we’ve come up with, for the record:

• Pro Tools M-Powered
• M-Audio Fast Track Ultra

Or, if you choose the non-Pro Tools route, for Mac users, something like:

• Apple Logic Studio
• Apogee Duet FireWire Interface (for audio interfacing, nicely integrated with Logic and the Mac, among various other options)

..and for PC users, something like:

• Cakewalk SONAR Power Studio 660, probably the best bargain here — under US$500, and you get both a high-quality FireWire audio interface and your software, plus a healthy selection of plug-ins; with the money you save, you could upgrade to additional software tools or budget for extra accessories down the road — see the Recording review

Total spent: about US$800-1000 for the first couple of options (less if you choose a simpler audio interface), under US$500 for the SONAR choice. And that leaves more money for the rest of your setup.

And the extras:

• Frontier Design AlphaTrack
• IK Multimedia AmpliTube 2 or Native Instruments Guitar Rig

… which, total, runs you around another US$400-700. (Guitar Rig has the advantage of bundling a foot controller fairly cheaply, but AmpliTube is available as cheaply as US$80 for some basic presets in AmpliTube Live). Digidesign has their own guitar product, Eleven, but I haven’t gotten to spend much time with it yet and I have spent some quality time with the IK and NI offerings. And there are Waves and TC Electronic and Line6 offerings, as well. Long story short: software guitar users are spoiled for choice.

Feel free to disagree

This being an open forum, I’m sure our readers will have some opinions of their own. So fire away.

Keep those “ask CDM” questions coming; we’ll pick the most pertinent questions and let our editors and readers weigh in.

Updated: The fact that the 003 is able to bundle in good audio I/O, control surface, and software led Lynn — and a few others — to opt for the 003 after all:

But what about serious music making? There are still reasons to keep the latest GarageBand around. A streamlined interface makes applying effects much easier than before. Multi-take recording could make this version ideal as a sketchpad for recording ideas, even if you do the rest of your work in another tool. And finally, you can print notation.

Here’s a visual tour of the new software (click the thumbnails to open an interactive gallery):

So, what about serious “pro” users? (I never liked the term “pro” in that I think it vastly oversimplifies the market, but you get the idea.) A Wikipedia article has been compiling examples of celebrity users, at least, which tend to fit in basic categories:

• Loop users: This is probably the worst possible way to be recognized using GarageBand — having someone hear a loop they know comes with the program. Examples: the movie Constantine, and the fifth season of 24.
• GarageBand for demos: Here’s a better way to use GarageBand — as a quick and dirty demo / sketch maker. Artists in this category: Courtney Love, Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit, Panic! At The Disco.
• GarageBand for fan remixes: Erasure and Nine Inch Nails have both let fans remix tunes with GarageBand. Interestingly, there have been more “fan remix” projects in Acid and Pro Tools, among others. Ableton Live would still be my choice for fan remixing, personally, but mostly we’ll have to see how this trend pans out.

I expect there are many more — I see Mac hardware almost every time I’m hanging around big-name musicians — though I also know many use other tools, like Live and Reason. GarageBand has perhaps gotten extra hype because it comes from Apple and it’s free. But it does have its uses: there are some nice instruments and effects there, and it works well as a linear sketchpad along other tools (including Logic, via Logic export).

Do you use GarageBand? Or did you dump the multi-gig GarageBand install to save hard drive space and leave you to focus on other tools?