Recommend me what to buy to aspiring composer, dont recommend without reading though please :P

[qgpr]

Hello, my brother wants to compose music, he lives in another country (USA). He only knows piano, and he's very slow with computers, he doesn't have unlimited funds either, he can pay his piano teacher, but I don't see him buying every instrument ever and learning them, or going to college to learn audio engineering, so I suggested to try the digital route.

I am a programmer, as such I'm very good with computers but I have no musical knowledge, so while I can install a program I'd have no idea what the buttons on the "music software" do or the audio engineering related terms are.

Some friends told me Pro Tools was better to learn, but it was extremely complicated. The free alternative I found only runs on mac, my brother wont be able to get that, and I wouldn't risk buying pro tools to find out he doesn't get it at all. Since my brother is slow and fruity loops is advertised as a newbie friendly I managed to find "LMMS" which is the "free" alternative. My brother got to make a basic song with it on his own.

So now I'm considering gifting him fruity loops, I saw its on holiday sale as well, with everything with big discounts. I can afford to gift it all (which is about $1900) but then I realized maybe those samples aren't good and there are better, and you people should know better than me.

I'm basically leaning towards fruity loops, the $299 version, with a 35% off code making it even cheaper. It will have free upgrades for both the software and a couple plugins.

Is it a good idea to also buy the "All Plugins" bundle, the "All Samples" and the "All Loops" ones? are there better than those out there? perhaps those that are better are way more expensive?

I'm guessing Plugins are required because they'll allow to do things that can't be done without, samples are required too because those must be the instruments, just not sure if that bundle is the one set of instruments I should get, maybe another store has something better, and loops I have no idea what they are, they sound like program demos you'd get for free on a programming software, and as such I'm not too confident they are worth the price.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Hello, my brother wants to compose music, he lives in another country (USA). He only knows piano, and he's very slow with computers, he doesn't have unlimited funds either, he can pay his piano teacher, but I don't see him buying every instrument ever and learning them, or going to college to learn audio engineering, so I suggested to try the digital route.

I am a programmer, as such I'm very good with computers but I have no musical knowledge, so while I can install a program I'd have no idea what the buttons on the "music software" do or the audio engineering related terms are.

Some friends told me Pro Tools was better to learn, but it was extremely complicated. The free alternative I found only runs on mac, my brother wont be able to get that, and I wouldn't risk buying pro tools to find out he doesn't get it at all. Since my brother is slow and fruity loops is advertised as a newbie friendly I managed to find "LMMS" which is the "free" alternative. My brother got to make a basic song with it on his own.

So now I'm considering gifting him fruity loops, I saw its on holiday sale as well, with everything with big discounts. I can afford to gift it all (which is about $1900) but then I realized maybe those samples aren't good and there are better, and you people should know better than me.

I'm basically leaning towards fruity loops, the $299 version, with a 35% off code making it even cheaper. It will have free upgrades for both the software and a couple plugins.

Is it a good idea to also buy the "All Plugins" bundle, the "All Samples" and the "All Loops" ones? are there better than those out there? perhaps those that are better are way more expensive?

I'm guessing Plugins are required because they'll allow to do things that can't be done without, samples are required too because those must be the instruments, just not sure if that bundle is the one set of instruments I should get, maybe another store has something better, and loops I have no idea what they are, they sound like program demos you'd get for free on a programming software, and as such I'm not too confident they are worth the price.

Well, what level is he wanting to climb too?

I would just go with FL Studio, MIDI Keyboard and some free soundfonts and samples to start.

[Jamphibious]

For someone who is just starting out, getting any of those ALL bundles would be pretty daunting and probably completely unnecessary. If you get the Signature Bundle of FL Studio, it comes with several good synth plugins like Sytrus that are pretty versatile. There are also loads of free synths, samples, and loops online that would be better off for someone who is just starting to learn FL Studio. FL Studio also comes with a small set of samples right away which is a good start.

[Rozovian]

You seem to lack a decent grasp of what music software does, so lemme give you a little summary so you know what you're dealing with.

DAW - digital audio workstation, it's a program that contains everything (at varying quality levels), in essence it loads virtual instruments, sends notes to them and gets sound back from them, which it then plays or saves as an audio file.

(Virtual) instrument/synth/sampler - the DAW loads one of these, and it makes sound when it gets notes. Think of it as a real-world piano - press key, make sound. Most DAWs have some already, of varying quality.

Effects - ways of altering the sound, like making it sound like it's played in a big hall, or through a small radio. Most DAWs have the basic ones.

Loops - usually means it's an audio file that can be repeated (like a drum beat), it can also mean it's just the notes.

If you really don't know what you're buying, it's best to stick with a package of things that'll work together, so a version of FL (it's a DAW, it has instruments and effects) should do fine. I tend to recommend getting the biggest available package, but in this case it'd be best to get the basics and see if your brother can handle that. I don't know how his computer skills are (you only describe him as very slow with computers, we have no idea about his age, personality, computer habits, other tech knowhow), so I would suggest you start by downloading a demo of FL YOURSELF and evaluating how well you think he could handle it. Once you've recreated Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or something with it you should have some idea of how difficult it is (or isn't). FL users can comment on the things you need to use FL specifically.

[qgpr]

Hi thanks, yes me = zero knowledge of music, hence this thread Also I didnt reply earlier because of the festivities sorry.

He's going at it from a hobby perspective but I'd rather push him to try to profit from it some eventually. Maybe even convince him to save for college. Assuming he's any good I can get him work to do, even if temporary ones.

Well among the reasons to get the bundles would be to take advantage of the price discount, and also because going to hunt for free stuff can be more daunting than just buying the things from the store. Unless you are going to give me the links lol.

Also, I rather get him "final" stuff than temporary placeholders too, because he will have to learn to use whatever it is he is given. If the free alternatives are better quality however, then sure, let's get them.

He did manage to make a simple song on LMMS, on his own, he said it was easy, so that's a start. He also commented to me about looking at FL on youtube and that he wants it now because it looks like it can do more things (I haven't told him yet I want to gift him that one program ).

If I understand correctly, the only main stuff is the samples (instruments) then, the plugins (effects) and loops are only extras. He showed interest on starting a "classical" music composition, does the signature bundle include all the classical music instruments? Could he make a symphony (that's the word right?) with it?

Personally I rather have him try different styles, so as many instruments as possible, and decent quality ones specially if they will cost money. Do the instruments work on any DAW? What is the "best" instrument package?

[Frederic Petitpas]

You could also check out REASON 6.

http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/

What is it? Features Sounds The mixer What's new?

There's no fucking with VSTs, they don't use them in Reason (so the system can stay super stable)

There are soundbanks included, all ready to compose any style, but if you need more it's an easy download.

When you save your project, you don't have 56 audio files stored in folders, you have a single *.reason

You don't need to know how a DAW works to use it, it's straightfoward for the simple musician, but you can go very very deep in details, tricks and production as you learn more.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Hi thanks, yes me = zero knowledge of music, hence this thread Also I didnt reply earlier because of the festivities sorry.

He's going at it from a hobby perspective but I'd rather push him to try to profit from it some eventually. Maybe even convince him to save for college. Assuming he's any good I can get him work to do, even if temporary ones.

Well among the reasons to get the bundles would be to take advantage of the price discount, and also because going to hunt for free stuff can be more daunting than just buying the things from the store. Unless you are going to give me the links lol.

Also, I rather get him "final" stuff than temporary placeholders too, because he will have to learn to use whatever it is he is given. If the free alternatives are better quality however, then sure, let's get them.

He did manage to make a simple song on LMMS, on his own, he said it was easy, so that's a start. He also commented to me about looking at FL on youtube and that he wants it now because it looks like it can do more things (I haven't told him yet I want to gift him that one program ).

If I understand correctly, the only main stuff is the samples (instruments) then, the plugins (effects) and loops are only extras. He showed interest on starting a "classical" music composition, does the signature bundle include all the classical music instruments? Could he make a symphony (that's the word right?) with it?

Personally I rather have him try different styles, so as many instruments as possible, and decent quality ones specially if they will cost money. Do the instruments work on any DAW? What is the "best" instrument package?

I believe FL studio comes with some pretty sub-par orchestral samples. Just some basic strings and stuff.

There are some free soundfonts and samples for orchestral stuff, so he should probably start with those.

After that comes the "high end" vsts like East West Symphonic Orchestra (I like that one), Miroslav Philharmonik, Vienna Symphonic Library and Morphestra. However, that shit will COST you. I also believe them to be sort of a waste of money in some ways, but highly useful in others.

None of them have shit on a real orchestra of course, but I doubt your brother has one handy.

[dannthr]

You could also check out REASON 6.

http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/

What is it? Features Sounds The mixer What's new?

There's no fucking with VSTs, they don't use them in Reason (so the system can stay super stable)

There are soundbanks included, all ready to compose any style, but if you need more it's an easy download.

When you save your project, you don't have 56 audio files stored in folders, you have a single *.reason

You don't need to know how a DAW works to use it, it's straightfoward for the simple musician, but you can go very very deep in details, tricks and production as you learn more.

Don't get Reason, there's very little point if the goal is to do anything classical or if your friend wants to grow and mature and eventually move on to bigger things.

Reason will be a waste of time in this respect.

Not supporting VSTs is not a benefit to Reason, it is a draw-back, a limitation.

Moreover, Reason doesn't support any other format (VST, RTAS, AU, DirectX, etc).

Sample developers are not generally interested in developing virtual instruments for Reason for two, well, reasons: There are so few people using it, that it's literally a waste of development resources, and the Refill scripting native to Reason is way behind the times.

Now on to other programs:

ProTools is a necessary evil. It's an excellent multi-track audio editor, it has unparallelled internal audio routing, and it's solid for tracking. But for MIDI composition, it's going to be a PAIN IN YOUR BUTTS.

It's necessary because it's default DAW in the recording studio (in the US).

FLStudio, I have no opinion on its current incarnation. I don't use it. As a professional and a teacher I have absolutely no reason to explore even the possibility of using it. It's not going to do anything I am already doing with other programs better than I am now.

Cubase is made by Steinberg. They invented VST. That's kind of like, if we're talking to a programmer, it's like saying they invented the *.x or *.dll files (they didn't, obviously, it's an analogy).

Most DAWs support VST for a reason, it's spectacular, but if you're concerned with VST stability, then Cubase is your answer (not Reason).

Almost every virtual instrument or effect plugin has been developed for VST along with the other standard formats or is developed for VST primarily and is ported to other formats.

For many people, this discussion is kind of like asking PC or Mac--but most people who defend their DAW with a passion haven't actually tried out other DAWs.

Most DAWs will all do the same thing, but in different ways, so it's hard to switch to a new one after getting used to a workflow.

Other DAWs might be SawStudio, Reaper, SONAR, MixCraft (ugh), etc, etc, etc. In the end, it's going to take an investment of time and energy from your friend to learn how to use the software.

Suffice to say, you can spend A LOT of money on setting up a whole computer based music creation workstation.

[qgpr]

I don't even know what VST is virtual sample t... no idea, oh virtual studio technology, sounds too generic.

I'm more interested on the instruments I need to get than the DAW anyway. Since apparently instruments come in VSTi (format?) and those are used by any DAW buying good instruments seems to be a good investment.

I sent the reason demo to my brother so he can test it and tel me if he prefers that to fruity loops.

[dannthr]

I don't even know what VST is virtual sample t... no idea, oh virtual studio technology, sounds too generic.

I'm more interested on the instruments I need to get than the DAW anyway. Since apparently instruments come in VSTi (format?) and those are used by any DAW buying good instruments seems to be a good investment.

I sent the reason demo to my brother so he can test it and tel me if he prefers that to fruity loops.

Reason does not support VST technology.

Reason only supports Reason native instruments and plug-ins.

ProTools only supports AudioSuite, RTAS, and AAX (which is new)

SONAR supports DirectX and VST

Cubase supports DirectX and VST (and VST 3.5)

Garageband and Logic support only AU

[liquid wind]

Can't make any recommendations on orchestral libraries myself as I've also yet to plunk down any serious money on it either, but if you do get FL don't even consider their Varazdin library, it's awful, significantly worse than free soundfonts even. Also don't bother with bundles unless he expresses an interest in electronic music, pretty much everything IL makes is geared towards it so it would be of little use if he's just trying to make classical music.

[Nabeel Ansari]

FL is the best around for creating your entire composition on the computer with your mouse and a keyboard.

It is not, however, the best around for audio or MIDI recording.

The reason nobody is giving you a definitive answer for what he should start with is because they all take a load of time to learn. If he wants to record using his piano (inputting MIDI data into the computer), he should look at a more linear DAW. Studio One is pretty good, I favor it over Cubase. If he's not interesting in recording anything (doing it by mouse), then FL Studio would be fine. A benefit to FL Studio is the modular workflow, which you can't really take advantage of if you're going to record-straight the MIDI. FL Studio is fine and functional for recording, but if that's how he works then there are better options.

[EC2151]

And if he's more the type to want to score out things completely, like an orchestra, and work with "proper" musical notation, Sibelius is a fantastic program for that (and what many famous composers, like

and Steve Reich use*).

But for wanting to do electronic music or incidental music it's probably not what he'd be looking for.

I can only really speak for REAPER, FL Studio, and Sibelius, having tried them all (and sticking with FL Studio). FL is good for the creation of laptop music, so to speak. Zircon uses it, so look him up if you want to see the potential of the program pushed to its limits. Zircon (an OCR member) is doing some of the music for Soul Caliber V if that means something to ya.

REAPER is more or less free (it's like 40-60 dollars, and it has an endlessly renewable free trial), but user-unfriendly. If your brother is not prepared to sink a lot of time looking up a bunch of stuff to just get a single instrument loaded in, it's a safe bet to say that Reaper is not for you. It's a poor man's Fruity Loops Studio, in my opinion, but some of its features (like its tracklist, it's way of handling patterns) are actually pretty intuitive.

Fruity Loops Studio - you don't need to buy the bundles. You would more or less, if someone is starting out, just need to get the Producer edition. At best. After that, you can start scouring the internet for free instruments (VSTs, soundfonts, etc.) because trust me there are loads of them out there and they are more or less comparable if not better than any of the instrument bundles FL Studio has.

FL is pretty user friendly, and can be used to make more or less any genre you prefer (though its strength is in electronic music). FL Studio has the stigma of being not a "serious" tool (because of its ease of use, a lot of hacks gravitate towards it; eg, Solja Boi), compared to something like Pro Tools (which everyone tells me is a great program, and I guess I more or less take their word for it), but it has its uses and its low cost works to its favor.

I'm not the most knowledgeable in Digital Audio Workstations like some members here, and I remember when I too wanted to get into music but knew next to nothing about making it on the laptop. The important thing is to do your homework, try out demos, and see what fits the type of workflow you want to have.

*They don't use it by itself, though. They use it for their scoring and of course have a live orchestra perform it. An important distinction!

[Nabeel Ansari]

About the FL bundles, you'd basically be burning 1500 dollars if you bought the all bundle.

Really.

Bad.

Decision.

There are only about 2 or 3 plugins I'd recommend outside of the ones that come in sig bundle. Buying the rest would be like buying 40 $50 CASIO keyboards to stick in your room. They're not very good and all of that money could've been spent on something that could've actually helped.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

If your brother is well versed with sheet music and tablature, I would recommend a notation editing software as well. Guitar Pro 5 (they're up to six now) is fucking amazing. Because you can create sheet music, tab and MIDI all at the same time. Then you can transfer all of that MIDI into your DAW if you like.

You can also export MIDI data from your DAW, open it with Guitar Pro and you'll have instant sheet music and tab!

[dannthr]

I write and produce orchestral music for games (and have worked with Zircon on a LucasArts project) and other interactive media including work for THQ, Eidos, and most recently AMD.

Here's what I use:

Sibelius 6 (For score preparation only when working with live instrumentalists)

Cubase 6 (full version) (To compose, record, and produce my music)

SoundForge Pro 10 (To edit waves and master my music)

VST Effect Plugin mainstays:

- QL Spaces (Killer reverb)

- Altiverb

- R2

- iZotope Plugins

Kontakt 4 (For sampling and sample library playback)

Omnisphere 1.5

Zebra 2

And several other VST instruments.

And the following sample libraries for Kontakt and VSL:

Woodwinds:

- Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition Woodwinds

- Westgate Studios Woodwinds

- EW Symphonic Orchestra Gold WWs

Brass:

- CineBrass Core

- CineBrass Pro

- SAM Orchestral Brass Classic

- SampleModeling The Trumpet

- SampleModeling The Trombone

- EW Symphonic Orchestra Gold Brass

- Custom Brass Samples

Percussion:

- *So many freaking libraries--dozens of libraries--some I've collected for free, some I've won, some I bought, some are custom* Highlights include:

- Cinesamples Pro Session Drums

- 9Volt TAIKO

- Andy and Will's Groove Bias

- EW Symphonic Orchestra Gold Percussion

- QL RA

- QL StormDrum

- I have a 15 GB Custom Orchestra Percussion Library as well and will soon be getting Flying Hand Percussion!

Choir/Voice:

- EW Symphonic Choirs

- SoundIron Requiem Light

- 8Dio Francesca

String:

- Audiobro's LA Scoring Strings (Full)

- EW Symphonic Orchestra Gold Strings

- Custom String Ensemble FX

Misc Highlights:

- Galaxy Vintage D (great Steinway Piano library)

- Scarbee Black Bass (Now called Mm-Bass)

- Wavelore Glide: Resonator Guitar

- Prominy LPC

- CoreBass Pear

- QL Ministry of Rock

- etc, etc, etc

Oh, and the ManyTone Upright Bass, which is probably the best upright bass library I've ever bought for 15 bucks!

None of this I would be able to have if I used Reason.

There are orchestral essentials in my collection, libraries I can't do without, but this also reflects years of collecting (there's a reason it's called a collection) and if your friend is serious about this work, he has to get software that is going to grow with him and that will allow him to expand his sound.

Unfortunately, the investment is a lot of time and whole lot of money.

[mickomoo]

I know this is probably overwhelming for you so I'll try and keep this simple. If your brother plays piano I assume he's versed in reading music. If he favors composing (especially sheet music), you can get a notation software like printmusic or silibus. You cannot really create "sounds" with these software but you can create scores. There is a playback functionality but you cannot control the quality of the sound, it's usually standard midi so to get the full breadth of your music you'd need players or someone who can digitally compose.

If your brother is into making "sounds" this is, quite literally actually making songs of whatever genre the the DAW will appeal to him. It's a lot of work making music digitally though and mastering one DAW does not give you the skills you need to work in another. Ask your brother this question, does he wanna actually make music, or just compose scores. There are DAWs that probably allow you to do both, but the best of each are usually kept separate. If he wants DAWs though he might need better computer hardware, unless he's going to use garageband or mixcraft or something. I know Reason is self-contained so it's easy on the memory, and FL allows you to maximize memory usage.

At the very least though he will definitely need a keyboard that supports midi. That is either a keyboard that you can hook up to your computer. Or even better a keyboard midi controller, which is essentially a keyboard that on its own has no playback functionality of its own but on its surface has modules that control midi data. This is usually what most digital composers use to make music. You basically hook it to a computer and when you enter a program it plays the sounds based off of what you have loaded in that program.

[ShrackAttack]

REAPER is more or less free (it's like 40-60 dollars, and it has an endlessly renewable free trial), but user-unfriendly. If your brother is not prepared to sink a lot of time looking up a bunch of stuff to just get a single instrument loaded in, it's a safe bet to say that Reaper is not for you. It's a poor man's Fruity Loops Studio, in my opinion, but some of its features (like its tracklist, it's way of handling patterns) are actually pretty intuitive.

I really disagree. It takes the same amount of time to load an instrument on reaper as it does any other DAW. And Reaper is also one of the best DAWs for editing audio quickly, if not the best. I will say Reaper has its fair share of MIDI problems, but its certainly not going to hurt a guy who is just starting out. Those problems are mostly related to the tempo map and CC controls (though the CC isnt that horrible). Saying Reaper is user-unfriendly just because you don't know what you're doing is like me saying FL studio is unfriendly just because the few times I tried to use it I closed it out of frustration (because I had no idea what I was doing in it). Certain DAWs will just work better for certain people.

If you want my honest opinion on what you should buy your brother here it is: Skip buying expensive samples and help him pay a professional composer to teach him how to write music and how to approach music. The composition is what is really going to matter, not what samples he is using. He can deal with samples later and upgrade them slowly over time. For now I would stick to something like Reaper (super cheap and still high quality) and free orchestral soundfonts so he can learn the digital side of things first. Or if you really want to get him something a little better sounding get him an older version of Komplete off of Ebay (he will need this anyways) and let him learn how to make those orchestral samples sound nice. He'll also get a lot of extra high quality stuff he can screw around with.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Native-Instruments-KOMPLETE-6-Bundle-KOMPLETE6-/380377197326?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58903f6b0e#ht_2602wt_1396 - 300$ and comes with so many things he couldn't begin to even get through them all in years. The base orchestral sounds it comes with CAN sound very nice.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I really disagree. It takes the same amount of time to load an instrument on reaper as it does any other DAW. And Reaper is also one of the best DAWs for editing audio quickly, if not the best. I will say Reaper has its fair share of MIDI problems, but its certainly not going to hurt a guy who is just starting out. Those problems are mostly related to the tempo map and CC controls (though the CC isnt that horrible). Saying Reaper is user-unfriendly just because you don't know what you're doing is like me saying FL studio is unfriendly just because the few times I tried to use it I closed it out of frustration (because I had no idea what I was doing in it). Certain DAWs will just work better for certain people.

If you want my honest opinion on what you should buy your brother here it is: Skip buying expensive samples and help him pay a professional composer to teach him how to write music and how to approach music. The composition is what is really going to matter, not what samples he is using. He can deal with samples later and upgrade them slowly over time. For now I would stick to something like Reaper (super cheap and still high quality) and free orchestral soundfonts so he can learn the digital side of things first. Or if you really want to get him something a little better sounding get him an older version of Komplete off of Ebay (he will need this anyways) and let him learn how to make those orchestral samples sound nice. He'll also get a lot of extra high quality stuff he can screw around with.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Native-Instruments-KOMPLETE-6-Bundle-KOMPLETE6-/380377197326?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58903f6b0e#ht_2602wt_1396 - 300$ and comes with so many things he couldn't begin to even get through them all in years. The base orchestral sounds it comes with CAN sound very nice.

See that bold text up there?

Words can not describe how much I agree with that.

[dannthr]

Samples only don't matter if you're not working.

With that said, 50-90% of the work involved in producing music professionally is using and programming samples.

Which is why you can spend so damned much on those suckers.

Komplete is a great buy.

Students should consider Komplete (it won't take years to get through all the sounds there, but maybe a week or so to get the idea of what it offers and its scope of limitation). Students interested in Orchestra production should consider East West's Symphonic Orchestra Gold, which can be had at an Educational discount of about 250 bucks--it's a GREAT starter set of samples for students interested in diving into more realistic production.

I have no opinion on Reaper, but I will say that if you're interested in composing or producing music, you should make sure that your DAW is GREAT for MIDI and CC editing.

Especially if you want to make the ancient VSL Orchestra set in Komplete sound good.

[Aster]

Hello, my brother wants to compose music, he lives in another country (USA). He only knows piano, and he's very slow with computers, he doesn't have unlimited funds either, he can pay his piano teacher, but I don't see him buying every instrument ever and learning them, or going to college to learn audio engineering, so I suggested to try the digital route.

There's no getting around learning the basics of software editing and effects if you use a computer and software.

Try getting him a hardware multitrack recorder and a midi rack device. I'm no keyboard player but there's bound to be a rack effects that accepts midi and has instrument patches.

[Frederic Petitpas]

Don't get Reason, there's very little point if the goal is to do anything classical or if your friend wants to grow and mature and eventually move on to bigger things.

Reason will be a waste of time in this respect.

Not supporting VSTs is not a benefit to Reason, it is a draw-back, a limitation.

Moreover, Reason doesn't support any other format (VST, RTAS, AU, DirectX, etc).

Sample developers are not generally interested in developing virtual instruments for Reason for two, well, reasons: There are so few people using it, that it's literally a waste of development resources, and the Refill scripting native to Reason is way behind the times.

If he uses Reason and then end up on real hardware, he will know how to operate it since R6 is just like a real rack.

For the lack of VST, well you can ReWire into Reaper and have any VST.

Why would you need VSTs ? The sound of Reason are very good for classical (if you get the Miroslav Gold Bundle). There's no limitation there and Reaper is free to use and equals Cubase.

Reason is hyper stable and light on the CPU.

But really, have you seen the mixer ?

[dannthr]

Oh, that's cute, they modeled it after an SSL.

The cheapest SSL you'll put your hands on is going to be about $80,000-$100,000.

The most you'll get from this mixer interface is learning how to use an SSL channel strip and hopefully be able to abstract that to work with other channel strips.

But, if you can look at that channel strip and work it, and abstract the principles to work on any other channel strip, then there is no reason to specifically use Reason.

Miroslav is a great sample library for samples that came out 10 years ago.

But I would hardly call them current--there are some really golden string sounds--but you don't have to have Reason to get them:

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/philharmonik/features/

Here is Miroslav in RTAS, AU, and look at that, VST.

Moreover, there are any number--COUNTLESS--of new sample libraries that surpass and ridiculously outclass anything you can get for Reason.

There is nothing worth getting for Reason that isn't made for something else first. Period.

PS EDIT:

You may learn how to use a channel strip, as you should learn how to use a channel strip with ANY DAW, but that doesn't mean you'll know what to do if you get sit down in front of this:

Don't kid yourself, eh?

[Nabeel Ansari]

Reason is not what you get if your initial goal right from the start is orchestral music.

If he's MIDI Recording, he'll want a good DAW like Cubase that can take in VST's like EWQLSO or Kontakt.

If he's NOT MIDI recording, he'll need something with a good piano roll and can take in VST's. FL Studio has the most golden and straightforward piano roll as far as I've tried, at least. Don't have to hold anything down to draw, don't have to press a key for delete. Edit events is a spectacular feature for editing CC data and the like. Even if he was MIDI recording, I would still recommend FL for the amount of ease and precision it has for editing MIDI (notes or CC). It's like this DAW was built for MIDI composition (though it was a drum machine at first, MIDI composing/editing in it is one of the focal points many years later in FL10 IMO)

[Frederic Petitpas]

doesn't mean you'll know what to do if you get sit down in front of this:

Don't kid yourself, eh?

Oh I wouldn't kill myself, I would learn the middle section, but I would know what to do of every knobs on the strips Nothing to be afraid of.

Know seriously, you probably have insane librairies in you collection, but how much did that cost you approximatly ?

Also, have you even tried R6 ?

he'll want a good DAW like Cubase that can take in VST's like EWQLSO or Kontakt.

Can Reaper do the job for those ?

edit:

Oh, that's cute, they modeled it after an SSL.

The cheapest SSL you'll put your hands on is going to be about $80,000-$100,000.

The most you'll get from this mixer interface is learning how to use an SSL channel strip and hopefully be able to abstract that to work with other channel strips.

Well according to professionals who used the real SSL, it's just like using the real thing. They don't think that it's just a font but the real sound.

So the most we get from that mixer is... the sound of a faithfully modelled Solid State Logic console..

REASON 6 is an easy, intuitive and beautiful workshop for composing music.