Off Topic Music Software

[ThatsAgood1jay]

I am in the market for some music software for creating backing tracks and loops to jam to. I honestly have no idea what's out there so I figured I would ask here.


Anyone have experience with this type of software?

 

[luv]

I've got friends that suggest Frooty Loops if you are looking for something relatively basic (by todays standards) and sometimes free. I have an older version of it, but haven't had the patience to completely figure it out. It isn't the most intuitive program. I've heard recordings that they have made that have been of excellent quality and sound great on cd.

There's a pantload of music software out there, so do some research. Good luck.

 

[fbecir]

I use Ableton Live and I am very happy with it.
Easy to use and really powerful.

 

[Slingy]

Head over to Line6 and download their free smoking backing tracks in a large variety of styles, these are complete songs recorded with real musicians, not midi or computer stuff. You wont find tracks like those for free anywhere. Those are MP3 so you can just play them.

Community: Space: Free Loops, Tools and More

They also have some free loops in a variety of formats. To use the loops for jamming you'll need a sequencer that allows you to loop the playback over a small section. There are a few free programs like Audacity, but eventually you'll want a more full feautured program.

 

[ScoobySteve]

I use Toontracks EZ Drummer virtual instrument among the other synth and virtual instruments in Pro Tools. Works gtreat!

 

[Adam_D]

Hi guys! I'm a new member here. I'm a pretty avid (pardon the PT pun) music tech enthusiast, I'm doing a degree in music technology at Queens University Belfast.

Intro over,

If cash isn't too much of an object I'd whole heartedly recommend Logic or Pro Tools. They'll give you the widest range of options for what you want to do, and enough scope for upgrade! There are definitely cheaper options out there. If you're wanting a free solution, you could always check out Audacity. All these won't be much use to you though without some form of recording interface/input if you're wanting to record your own guitar parts! Any specific questions you have I'll try my best to help out

 

[beej]

My personal fave is Reaper (www.reaper.fm). Full featured DAW software, it's free to run and licensing is cheap if you want to pay for it. It's lightweight, easy to use, and very powerful, even compared to Pro Tools, etc. There's pretty much nothing you can't do with it. The included plug-ins (compression, delay, filters, etc.) are very powerful, but you can use any popular plugins with it.

That said, there's a learning curve, so it's not simple to just get in there and build some loops. But use something like EZ drummer paired with it, and you'll be recording with it in no time.