>>Basically if you watch the quick tour of Soundtrack (which you gotta see, this app is a brilliant idea), you see that it's aimed at film makers not musicians. The interface is similar to FCP not logic/pro tools, et al. It's a quick way to create a "soundtrack" to your movies<<
The above is what I thought when I ordered my FCP4 upgrade... and when I finally received it I didn't really look at Soundtrack ... until I saw Apple release it as standalone. I've now spent a few days with it and my first 2 efforts were OK, my third is rather good and I got my results with far less effort than Reason that I also have. Why - because you use a huge selection of samples and it is just so easy to drag them into tracks, Reason has more flexibility but u spend a lot of time dealing with the nuances each of your rack instruments has that you sometimes lose track of the music you're trying to create. In my mind Soundtrack is the perfect Prosumer product that is an ideal allrounder for music production (and u could always create additional samples e.g. in Reason or elsewhere and use them in Soundtrack - or vice versa). And yes you can import a QT movie and score a track (hence inclusion in FCP4) but this is underselling Soundtrack's true capability and there is enough in there for Soundtrack to hold its own ....
I like Soundtrack but it's still going to be limited in various ways.
It's a sub $300 product, which means it's competing with Live and Acid Pro (in the PC realm). Reason does not compete with Soundtrack or Live at all, because you simply cannot import into Reason. That means no vocals and no samples, and no effects beyond what Reason provides. Reason is a great synthesizer, but that's really all it is...it's an incredibly good synthesizer.
I didn't see anything that mentioned whether Soundtrack supports ReWire though. Live 2.0 does, but Live 2.0 is very opaque, as far as user-friendliness goes, compared to Acid Pro (and assumedly Soundtrack). Working with loops is somewhat limiting (it directs the music to the more techno/pop sort of shape), but if you like making electronic music, it's much easier to use a loop-based sequencer. You can also create whole sections of less repetitive music in Reason and export the whole thing as a loop or 'one shot' into Soundtrack (I'm assuming Soundtrack allows you to 'unsync' samples..how else can you do vocals or samples?). This is how I've always added pads and synth washes to my Acid Pro songs (back when I was a Windows Heathen).
Looks great, will definetly use this app for creating web animation audio. Ahhh, brings me back to long hours spent infront of Octamed on the Amiga. Always wanted Apple to make a tracker/ easy to use music app. But I bet the interface is still slower than my 13 year old 14mhz A1200! \
I've been reading the posts in this forum trying to get information on Final Cut Pro and it's compatibility to audio/midi-editing software. I have seen several programs mantioned but not Digital Performer4. I am not as impressed with Reason as I am with DP4, so am wondering if anyone has had experience or "issues" with FCP and DP4.
Thank you for any insight - the costs of these applications are high-end so I want to make sure they all work together, smoothly.
Comments
The above is what I thought when I ordered my FCP4 upgrade... and when I finally received it I didn't really look at Soundtrack ... until I saw Apple release it as standalone. I've now spent a few days with it and my first 2 efforts were OK, my third is rather good and I got my results with far less effort than Reason that I also have. Why - because you use a huge selection of samples and it is just so easy to drag them into tracks, Reason has more flexibility but u spend a lot of time dealing with the nuances each of your rack instruments has that you sometimes lose track of the music you're trying to create. In my mind Soundtrack is the perfect Prosumer product that is an ideal allrounder for music production (and u could always create additional samples e.g. in Reason or elsewhere and use them in Soundtrack - or vice versa). And yes you can import a QT movie and score a track (hence inclusion in FCP4) but this is underselling Soundtrack's true capability and there is enough in there for Soundtrack to hold its own ....
I like Soundtrack but it's still going to be limited in various ways.
It's a sub $300 product, which means it's competing with Live and Acid Pro (in the PC realm). Reason does not compete with Soundtrack or Live at all, because you simply cannot import into Reason. That means no vocals and no samples, and no effects beyond what Reason provides. Reason is a great synthesizer, but that's really all it is...it's an incredibly good synthesizer.
I didn't see anything that mentioned whether Soundtrack supports ReWire though. Live 2.0 does, but Live 2.0 is very opaque, as far as user-friendliness goes, compared to Acid Pro (and assumedly Soundtrack). Working with loops is somewhat limiting (it directs the music to the more techno/pop sort of shape), but if you like making electronic music, it's much easier to use a loop-based sequencer. You can also create whole sections of less repetitive music in Reason and export the whole thing as a loop or 'one shot' into Soundtrack (I'm assuming Soundtrack allows you to 'unsync' samples..how else can you do vocals or samples?). This is how I've always added pads and synth washes to my Acid Pro songs (back when I was a Windows Heathen).
Thank you for any insight - the costs of these applications are high-end so I want to make sure they all work together, smoothly.