4k along side DAWs

Lately I have been focusing on using my 4k as a tool and most of my main work sculpting and molding inside my DAW. Most of what I needed and hoped to have is within my DAWs Logic and Pro Tools.

For me it seems the better and more skilled I become at using my DAW of choice the more I can do with my music. I no longer expect to do everything on the 4k like I did before as my mixing and engineer abilities improve.


What DAWs are most used on the 4k board using and how proficent are you at using their features?

logic is my tool of choice. i've tried a number of them and personally i dont think any of them compare to logic as an overall package...i'd pay a grand just for logic's software instruments, not to mention the rest of the program.

for me hardware is just a strange way to work, not because there is anything wrong with it but more that I came up on FL studio and the software side of things, and i believe it is much much harder to make the switch from software to hardware than vice versa. i love being able to oversee my whole arrangement in logic and do really in depth midi editing, and despite what a lot of people say I find that logic has really great Midi timing (a lot of people might not know this but roger lynn himself uses logic as his sequencer these days). but i definitely agree with you, daw's can open up a whole new world of capability once you learn them. and for all the people who say they don't like clicking around and whatever, well, you really don't have to. you can use just as few clicks and midi edits as you do when sequencing on the mpc, its all in how you make the programs work for you.

All true. Where people can lost and all twisted up it lack of understanding when you go to a pro studio and track everything out it will go into a SSL board into a DAW or a straight through converters into a DAW controlled by a control surface. Afterwards the mix under a pro will be like night and day. Just straight out the box or just mixing all within the 4k isn`t enough.

Once it is into the DAW a whole different world opened up for me and watching the mixer do his thing takes it to another level in sonics.

Why even have some of the best DAWs if we don`t dive into them they are more than just digital tape I see when I watched a pro at work dammn I didn`t know that and Mr. Hashimoto work so quickly too.


A small clip on tips


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnCAn0mS ... ed&search=

Using a DAW to add more to a kick drum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrx67N1m ... ed&search=


Even though dude made the beat in grid mode it is the same if you track in your beat from the 4k and added more to your kicks with a hell of alot more and better processing than with the 4k.

this is exactly why i need to hurry up and get protools

At least I think that a DAW is a great addition unless you are working with tape. But it may come down to preference and once you select the one for you the audio interface and pre-amps will be just as important. That would better be answered by fader pro or rickrock and others in the Studio threads.

Just dive deep into the DAW of choose to get the sounds and mix that you are looking for. The 4k is just a tool not a all in one that is what a DAW is for to edit, mix, and arrange to as much as possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiz_qti0 ... ed&search=

double post

These are great also too.

http://www.courseptr.com/ptr_catalog.cf ... Production

I've never actually tried to work in the MPC without a daw or tape machine....The first pro setup I used with an MPC was an Emulator, phrophet 5 (with MIDI mod), DX 7 and Oberheim 8.....I still use the DX7 to this day. The MPC was sync'd to two 16 track 2" Studer tape machines. (each about the size of a Mini Cooper) with SMPTE time code recorded on a tape track and played back int the SMPTE In on the MPC...Nothing really's changed much except with DAWS you don't have to sacrifice a channel for SYNC......I built my first digital studio the year they came out with ADAT. (those suckers were 5k per back then - now $100 on e-bay)
These days I run ADAT HD, pro tools, cubase, Logic or Vegas for audio tracks, and use the MPC to trigger various MIDI modules, keys etc. in the MPC. The MPC only holds drum samples and sequence data
.....Everything "recorded" lives in the DAW.
Everything sequenced stays MIDI until it hits the 2 track master.
DAW's
ADAT HD mostly because I record with limited edits other than basic punches; and it's transports remind me of a tape machine.
Pro tools sometimes cause everybody has it and precise edits are a snap.
Vegas when I'm using video...
Logic and Cubase only because I needed to learn the basics at one time or another for a collaboration....

Since I've just built a new machine recently, I've been digg'n into the softsynths a little more these days. I track both audio & midi in Nuendo and using all aspects of the DAW makes my ideas come to reality. I'll sequence the 4k from the DAW when I want to record a dope drum sequence I might have just laid down and then record it as an audio track in Nuendo. I also run a rack of synth modules from my DAW using a MOTU MTP A/V. Like I stated earlier I've been using the Arturia Minimoog V & the Native Instruments B4-II on some new projects and I'm loving the sh!t out of it. I'll also load some of the keyboard sounds from the 4k (elec guitar especially) and lay a midi track of this and sync everything together to complete what I invisioned in the first place. I'm just loving the **** out of it. I don't know what I'd do without my DAW...except go insane.

At this time I just cant imagine to build the entire track on a computer because they have terrible latency and other timing issues. No matter which soundcard, audio application or operating system.
If Im in a computer mood, I barely play the sounds. I rather program and fiddle with ma keyboard and mouse. I get bored of that rather quickly so there I am with my Cubase project. So I chop it up and go further in the MPC.
I use the computer mostly to make and edit sounds.

no so much right now, but i'm in the process of turning on of my pc into a module for vst's, eventually I may start using reaper to record everything, that or Live are the two i'm looking at

for now it's just the pc for vst's, later who knows, recording to pc is soo much cheaper and offers so many more options for tracking out a beat and adding effects and such, I just haven't found a DAW that is right for me yet, though reaper looks promising

JazznFunkPack wrote:At this time I just cant imagine to build the entire track on a computer because they have terrible latency and other timing issues. No matter which soundcard, audio application or operating system.

You know, I was a believer of that theory at one time but since I've gone to a more extreme level of DAW performance, I have to say that's untrue (at least in my case). While I'm just at the pit stop on doing my recent upgrade, the dual core processor I'm using at the moment seems to be doing a decent job of holding me over until I get my hands on one of the new Intel 1333 FSB quads that have just come out. IMO, a very capable & up to par DAW will bring fun and excitement rather than misery and discontent.

right now, i'm daw-less. i have sonar, but i uninstalled it.

for me, the hardware -> software transition didn't work out. i can definalty appreciate what a daw can do, and what it can bring... but i hated trying to write music with it. for the mpc is perfect. more than enough sequencing power, with out being overwhelming. the mpc is super simple for me. -it should be, it's the only thing i know how use... and i've been using them since 1997. i can definately see my self rocking an mpc for another 10 years.

unless i totally mis-understood what i read, but i'm under the impression that UAD will work on my computer will running x64. my comp is an amd x2. if so, then i can see myself reinstalling sonar, and using it as a multi track recorder so i can use the UAD plug ins.

until that day, it's all about the mpc 4k and emulator x.

I started this thread not to say abandon the 4k no way!!! I started the thread to show a process of working.


Create>Mold>4k
+
Mix>Arrange>Polish>DAW

Most of us home studio users have to be the Producer, Engineer, and Master Engineer all in one.

I have learned that it is a myth to think that I could do the whole process inside the 4k.

Step into a pro studio and everything is tracked into the DAW and finished there. Just as in the old days track to tape and then send through the board again to be mixed and arranged with the master stereo tape send off to the mastering room.


I didn`t realized these facts until working and watching a pro at work. But to each his own.

All our heros Premo, Rock, Blaze, Toomp, Shocklee, Muhammad, RZA, Trackboyz, and others track their beats out in the pro studio. These days that means a DAW.

Remember at home it is called Pre-Production not Production as it isn`t finished until it has been mixed, processed, and mastered.

Blue Haze wrote:I

Most of us home studio users have to be the Producer, Engineer, and Master Engineer all in one.

I have learned that it is a myth to think that I could do the whole process inside the 4k.

Step into a pro studio and everything is tracked into the DAW and finished there. Just as in the old days track to tape and then send through the board again to be mixed and arranged with the master stereo tape send off to the mastering room.
:

As soon as you need to track vocals and / or acoustic instruments (like a strummed guitar through the whole track), DAW or TAPE become necessary. Also the processing and EQ options provided in DAW's, Mixers, and hardware signal processors are needed to turn out finished product....

the MPC handles all my sequencing and is my #1 sampler, so it's the heart of my studio. Even when it's not used as a sampler, I record anything with a MIDI input as sequence data in it. At the very least, it provides the click track for songs played with non-midi (conventional) instruments. That leave me the option to go back in and add pads, keyboards, timed effects etc.....