Sequencing on a Shoestring

Sep 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Dennis Miller, Brian Smithers, and Geary Yelton

A digital audio sequencer is the core of almost every computer-based recording studio. More than any other type of software, sequencers have made the personal-studio revolution possible. Musicians everywhere can record their music using the same techniques and many of the same tools as top professionals. For the first time in history, if your recordings are disappointing, you can no longer blame your equipment.

Although top-shelf (and top-dollar) programs such as Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Cubase SX, and Sonar Professional Edition can handle anything that multitrack recording software can, many less expensive products are available to anyone with more modest needs and financial resources. Today's musicians are living in an age of unprecedented democratization: if you can afford a computer, you can afford the software needed to produce professional-sounding recordings in any musical style.

EM set out to find low-cost sequencers and what makes them different from their high-price counterparts. For the purposes of this article, we decided that each sequencer must retail for less than $225 to qualify as affordable. Our research uncovered a dozen products from as many manufacturers (see the specifications table for version numbers). Most are exclusively for Windows, perhaps indicating that the majority of entry-level users own PCs. Bremmers Audio Design MultitrackStudio Pro Plus, Cakewalk Home Studio 2 XL, FASoft n-Track Studio, and Image-Line Software FL Studio Producer Edition fall into that category. Digital Sound Planet's Quartz AudioMaster Pro and PG Music's PowerTracks Pro Audio are Windows-only applications as well.

Most of the Windows programs are completely self-contained, but two provide separate applications for handling audio and MIDI chores. Midisoft Studio Ensemble 2003 XP comprises the multitrack sequencer Studio 2003 and AudioPro Wave Editor. MIDI Studio and Audio Studio make up Magix Music Maker 10 Deluxe.

We found two low-cost sequencers exclusively for Mac users: Apple GarageBand and Sagan Metro LX. GarageBand is part of a software suite that also includes nonmusical applications. Two programs — Mackie Tracktion and Steinberg Cubase SE — are available on either computer platform.

What follows is a roundup of each sequencer's main features. We'll start with an overview of all the programs and then provide summaries on some unique aspects of each. The specifications table should help you to compare the programs feature-for-feature. If you're shopping for a low-cost sequencer, this article will help you find one that will best suits your needs.

Interface-off

Some of the greatest differences among sequencers are their individual approaches to the graphical user interface (GUI). A well-designed interface lets you record, arrange, and mix your music quickly and efficiently, with maximum productivity and a minimum number of technical headaches. Because sequencers typically offer many functions and capabilities, having a clear and consistent GUI is essential, so that users can have a pleasant and productive hands-on experience.

Generally speaking, one advantage of low-cost sequencers is that they can be simpler to operate than their high-end brethren because they don't offer such a bewildering array of options. Still, any sequencer needs to provide the basics, which include the means to navigate your way around the sequencer and the project being recorded; to record, play back, and edit MIDI and audio tracks; to import data; to host effects and instrument plug-ins; and to get finished recordings out into the real world.

Other than FL Studio (formerly known as Fruityloops), MultitrackStudio, and Studio 2003, all the programs featured in this article present the traditional track view as their primary user interface. Track names are shown on the left side of the main window, with a data area to the right. Alongside the track names are usually buttons or some other means to select MIDI channels, audio inputs and outputs, and related track parameters. The track view is familiar to almost anyone who has used a sequencer. It's also an intuitive way to orient yourself within a program.

FL Studio users spend most of their time in the Step Sequencer, a gridlike interface that has horizontal rows of buttons representing 16th-note steps and vertical rows of instruments such as soft synths, sample players, and the like (see Fig. 1). Step sequencing is not a technique you'd use if you want to record your music in real time, however, so FL Studio has the most to offer users who enjoy building tracks note by note. MultitrackStudio uses a variation on the track view, but its data area is hidden by default and appears below the track header when displayed. Studio 2003 shows all tracks only in the Score view; to edit audio tracks, you must open the Wave view, which doesn't display MIDI tracks.

One of PowerTracks' most powerful features lets you toggle a track between audio and MIDI at any point, and GarageBand lets you convert the MIDI data in Apple Loops to audio data. When you assign a MIDI track to a soft synth or the built-in sampler, MultitrackStudio will display notes as generic waveshapes that can be edited or as a rendered waveform view that cannot be edited, but neither option actually commits the track to an audio file. In all the other programs discussed here, tracks are fixed as either audio or MIDI. Although most sequencers let you resize individual tracks, n-Track and PowerTracks have alternate track views that display configuration information, but they don't show actual audio or MIDI data.

Home Studio, MIDI Studio, PowerTracks, and Studio 2003 have a Go To option that lets you quickly view any portion of your project — a handy navigation feature. n-Track has a feature that allows you to simultaneously change the vertical and horizontal ranges that are displayed.

All of the programs except GarageBand and MIDI Studio support markers, a useful feature for locating points in your recording — for example, the start of a verse or chorus, a voice-over's punch-in point, or the boundaries of a phrase that needs effects. In FL Studio, markers always appear at the start of a song, and you must drag them to the position that you want. Half the programs have a dedicated Markers window (AudioMaster calls them Cues) for setting and editing markers. In PowerTracks, the markers appear only in the Bars window, not the main Track view. You also can't move them around with the mouse. n-Track has a variety of marker options, including the ability to display a pop-up time-indicator window a few beats before a marker is reached as a song is playing.

A piano-roll view or its equivalent is the main area for entering and editing individual notes in Home Studio, Metro, MIDI Studio, MultitrackStudio, and n-Track. In FL Studio, the Piano Roll view is an alternative to the Step Sequencer window and is used to enter specific pitches for a synth, among other things. Most of the other programs have graphic editors that use piano-roll displays in separate windows that you open for each track.

n-Track has a great feature that allows you to define any range of notes as a pattern, and then use the mouse to draw the pattern repeatedly. Home Studio's Pattern Brush performs a similar function, and the program comes with several dozen preset patterns to use as defaults.

Eight of the 12 sequencers let you see your music as standard notation. If printed music is one of the primary reasons you use music software, you'll want to investigate those programs more closely. The printing options in PowerTracks and Studio 2003 offer the most flexibility. GarageBand and MultitrackStudio are the only ones that display notation but don't let you print musical scores.

Seven programs have editable event lists, which can make a significant difference if you like to tweak the tiniest details of MIDI performances. All except GarageBand and Multitrack Studio have a dedicated mixer display, and even those provide almost identical functionality in other windows.

The programs discussed in this article have a variety of other work areas. Home Studio's has Synth Rack, a dedicated soft-instrument display; PowerTracks has Piano-Keyboard and Guitar-Fretboard windows, both of which show notes currently being played; n-Track has Big Time screen, which can use many common video formats as the display increments; and FL Studio has a Browser screen, in which you can preview and select loops. GarageBand's Musical Typing window lets you play software instruments and enter note data with your computer keyboard, and its Loop Browser lets you search for and audition Apple Loops.

Cubase's Pool is used for organizing audio and video resources and various windows for routing and controlling VST instruments and effects. Likewise, AudioMaster offers the Navigator, which lets you browse audio and MIDI assets and display audio file metadata. It also has a unique Karaoke view. MIDI Studio's HyperDraw view gives you graphic editing of controllers within individual sequences. The Object Editor in Audio Studio allows you to assign plug-ins and other mix parameters to individual audio objects. Metro features Rhythm Explorer, an algorithmic assistant for generating percussion and other parts, as well as a Jukebox window that can play and batch convert various audio formats. Cubase, Home Studio, Metro, n-Track, and Tracktion allow you to trigger and view video clips while a song is playing.

MIDI Manipulation

Though digital audio is becoming evermore the raison d'être of music software, the 12 programs in our roundup offer a respectable range of MIDI options. Although none of them come close to what you'd find in a top-of-the-line sequencer, even the least expensive of today's sequencers runs rings around its predigital-audio ancestors in terms of MIDI capabilities. Nonetheless, GarageBand is unusual in that it can't trigger external MIDI instruments; it can trigger only Audio Units (AU) plug-ins and included software instruments.

All of the sequencers allow you to load a Standard MIDI File (SMF) and to record from an external MIDI controller. You can step record in eight programs, and several of them have a range of punch options. MIDI timing resolution determines how accurately a sequencer captures a MIDI performance; the more parts per quarter note (ppqn), the better the resolution. In the sequencers covered here, MIDI timing extends from a low of 96 ppqn in AudioMaster to a high of 3,840 ppqn in PowerTracks. If you're working with sound for picture, synchronization features are essential. More than half can generate or slave to MTC or SMPTE, and they can display time code in a variety of formats. GarageBand, Home Studio, Cubase SE, Metro LX, and FL Studio don't support time-code synchronization.

All of the programs include basic editing functions such as cut, copy, and paste, and all provide one or more types of quantization. n-Track has a flexible quantize option that allows you to snap to common note durations as well as to a value of any arbitrary number of ticks. Several sequencers allow you to transpose, slide, or change the length of MIDI events. Cubase and PowerTracks include the option to eliminate overlapping notes.

Most of the programs let you get creative with MIDI data by performing some nifty tricks. Cubase, Home Studio, FL Studio, and Metro each have an arpeggiator with adjustable parameters. To loosen up stiff rhythm tracks, Metro and MultitrackStudio have Humanize processes in their gig bags. FL Studio adds flam and strum effects, which come in handy when you're creating drum and guitar parts.

Some programs give you tools for generating random MIDI events, for creating new MIDI events based on existing data, or for changing one form of MIDI data to another. For example, FL Studio's Randomizer lets you determine whether it generates many hundreds of new notes or just a few. MIDI Studio has a sophisticated Transform window that enables logical processing, allowing you to alter the pitch, length, Velocity, order, speed, and other properties of selected data.

Sound Investments

All of the programs in our roundup allow you to record, cut, copy, paste, and play back multiple tracks of audio. Beyond those functions, the range of features varies widely. If you want high-quality recordings and don't mind consuming hard-disk space, all but two support 24-bit audio resolution and 96 kHz sampling rates. Although it's somewhat unlikely that low-budget sequencer users own big-budget audio rigs, a few even support 192 kHz (hardware permitting). All except GarageBand and Studio Ensemble can handle sampling-rate conversion. All the Windows programs support MME (except FL Studio), WDM, and ASIO drivers, and all the Mac programs support Core Audio.

All but Studio 2003 can import or export audio files in formats other than WAV, which is great if you want to use audio from sources such as your MP3 collection or custom-format sample libraries. Studio 2003's audio capabilities are limited — it can import and export only WAV files and does not feature any of the routing, automation, looping, and output capabilities of the other programs.

It's easy to adjust an audio clip's length in most of these sequencers: just click on and drag its beginning or end to the desired length. You can also click on and drag a clip to a new location in every audio program except AudioPro. All of the programs except for AudioMaster and MultitrackStudio allow you to loop entire audio tracks or defined regions.

Most of the programs let you bounce multiple tracks to a new track directly from the main track interface, and most can automatically create a new audio file containing the bounced tracks. PowerTracks also has a nifty feature that lets you automatically create a new disk file from the output of a DXi, and FL Studio can automatically insert any recording you make of its output directly back into its Playlist.

Busing and routing options give you the most flexibility for getting your signals from here to there — from a group of channels to a single stereo reverb plug-in, for example. Such features are standard in most of the programs, though they're implemented in many different ways. n-Track supports the most aux channels (32), and PowerTracks supports the fewest (2). GarageBand doesn't have any auxes at all, though it does have a master bus that can serve the same purpose. If you've never used aux channels, though, you probably won't miss them. Not surprisingly, none of the low-cost sequencers offer explicit surround support — a surround mixer, for example — but if you have a multichannel audio interface and use ASIO drivers or Core Audio, you can send a signal to as many channels as your hardware allows. The next version of n-Track, which we've seen in beta, will include a surround (5.1, 7.1, and above) mixer.