APPLE MAINSTAGE REVIEW FULL VERSION
APPLE MAINSTAGE REVIEW PATCH
APPLE MAINSTAGE REVIEW PRO
APPLE MAINSTAGE REVIEW SOFTWARE

You map out your song and choose a drummer, who gives you a basic beat. And you get free upgrades for years, at least until Apple comes out with version 11.

APPLE MAINSTAGE REVIEW PRO

At $199, Logic Pro gives you everything you need, from plugins to drummers to instruments to tuning vocals. You could make an argument that GarageBand is good competition for Logic Pro, but not if you’re fairly serious. Still, I do find myself drawn to it… but what does Logic NOT do that I want? Nothing. But you’d have to spend a lot of money on plugins and instruments to make it as good as Logic.

Reaper is like Linux – if you’re a super nerd, you’ll love it. No other DAW comes close when it comes to hacking. Reaper is great, though, if you want to customize the hell out of your DAW. If you’re on a budget of $200 and you want the best stuff, Reaper isn’t for you. The “free” instrument VST plugins you can get are inferior to what comes with Logic Pro. Reaper doesn’t come with any instruments and there’s no virtual drummer. When it comes to home recording on a Mac, just stop looking at everything else.ĭon’t talk to me about Reaper. That’s fine for EDM but not so fine for more traditional rock, like I do.

APPLE MAINSTAGE REVIEW SOFTWARE

There’s no virtual drummer, like in Logic Pro, so you’d need to buy software to do drums or program them yourself. They’re very CPU and memory friendly, but they’re not as good as the MainStage instruments. And although this will be controversial, the instruments in it aren’t that good. To record a traditional album on it (meaning not EDM) would be painful.

Live was designed for, well, live performance.

APPLE MAINSTAGE REVIEW PATCH

If I had enough musicians, I wouldn’t need the backing tracks at all, but we would still play to a click so that we had programmed lights and guitar and keyboard patch changes. Then we’d all play to a click and I’d mute the tracks for whatever live musicians I have with me.

APPLE MAINSTAGE REVIEW FULL VERSION

If I ever decide to add band members, I could upgrade to the full version of Live, and instead of stereo backing tracks I’d use multitrack backing tracks. Technically I could use the instruments built into it, but I have MainStage 3, and that’s what I use for all of my keyboard patches. Quite simply, Live (or in my case Live Intro) was the best and only option. And I wanted something that could do all of that without choking or killing my CPU. I wanted something that could play back stereo backing tracks while also sending MIDI patch changes to my HX Stomp and also send patch changes to my keyboard and ALSO send commands to my DMXIS box, which controls my DMX lights. I do my own original music, or covers, or both. However, if you’re me, Live Intro is the steal of the century. But if you want to dive deep into EDM, you’ll want the full version of Live, not Intro. You could DJ with Live, you can do live electronic music concerts, blah blah blah. If you want to make loop-based electronic music, Live seems to be the standard for good reason – it’s got the best tools for it. And it comes with only 4 software instruments. You’re limited to 8 “scenes,” which won’t make sense to you unless you understand the unique way that Live works. You’re limited to 16 tracks, which can be audio or midi. Intro is a track and instrument limited version of Live. To match Logic or Live, you’d need to spend a ton of cash on instruments and drums and plugins. Pro Tools might be what the big studios use, but out of the box it’s designed for recording 32 tracks with mics in a pro studio. Eventually I’ll probably upgrade, but Intro is perfect for my needs right now (and budget.) So is Logic – at $199, it’s the smartest DAW purchase on the Mac. Actually, I’m running Ableton Live 10 Intro, because I don’t need the full version yet. I apparently seem to have THE stereotypical YouTuber home studio these days – a 2016 MacBook Pro, Logic Pro X, and Ableton Live. There are a lot of opinions on the web about which DAW is the best.

Apple mainstage review