Sequencing on a Shoestring

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

Part of the fun of mixing with a sequencer is using automation to control changes — fade up here, add reverb there, and so on. You can record mixer automation in all of the programs except GarageBand and MultitrackStudio, and most (including GarageBand) let you draw volume and pan curves onscreen. MultitrackStudio offers graphic volume editing using its Automated Fader plug-in.

Effects Collections

Most entry-level programs differ from top-of-the-line software in the number and types of included effects. Although some of these programs come up quite a bit short, a few are downright bountiful. Fortunately, all of them except Studio 2003 support either AU, DirectX, or VST effects, and half support two plug-in formats. (In theory, plug-in support makes your audio-processing arsenal unlimited.) Several also have native real-time or destructive audio effects. Studio 2003 has no audio effects other than those built into your sound card.

FL Studio stands out for its large number of audio effects. Among its many unique offerings are the Fruity Waveshaper, Fruity Scratcher, and Time Stretcher, the last of which offers five distinct methods for time stretching and pitch shifting. Cubase SE comes with a bundle of 22 VST effects, such as QuadraFuzz, StepFilter, and Tranceformer. It has so many, in fact, that you could go a long time without needing any additional plug-ins. PowerTracks Pro also rates highly in this area with nearly 20 of its own bundled effects. Its Generate Audio Harmonies option is worth a special mention: it can create a single new harmony part and use notes from a MIDI track as the starting pitches for multiple new harmony parts.

GarageBand has a respectable stable of effects, including some nice guitar-amp simulations, the gender-bending Vocal Transformer, Enhance Tuning (for correcting pitch), and Enhance Timing (for quantizing audio). Tracktion has an extensive bundle of freeware VST effects from Maxim Digital Audio (MDA), as well as IK Multimedia's AmpliTube LE modeled guitar amp. Tracktion also comes with Final Mix, a rather sophisticated stereo mastering processor that works only with that program (see Fig. 2). For taking projects all the way to completion, Final Mix gives Tracktion tangible advantages that might cost considerably more using similar plug-ins. Mackie promises to deliver several additional Tracktion-exclusive plug-ins soon.

MultitrackStudio's Convolutor is one of the least-expensive tools that uses impulse responses, and its Band Effect splits a signal path into three frequency ranges for multiband processing. AudioMaster's 20 effects include a pseudo-surround process that can create some interesting results. MIDI Studio includes Digital Factory, a sophisticated suite of offline processes such as pitch shifting, time compression and expansion, and more. Audio Studio offers noise reduction, time stretching, and even a vocoder. Only three of the sequencers don't have time-stretching capabilities: Metro LX, MultitrackStudio, and Studio Ensemble 2003.

All of the programs have some form of EQ, and all but Home Studio and Studio 2003 include dynamics processors. Most give you at least a handful of effects presets, and all but Studio 2003 let you save your own custom settings. Several let you draw effects automation curves, and a few support effects-send automation either by using graphic envelopes or by recording changes made on the mixer (turning aux send knobs, for example). Some programs offer a Freeze option: the program creates temporary files on disk containing rendered audio that has been processed by effects, conserving CPU resources. If you need to make additional changes later, you can return a frozen track to its normal state. ReWire support, which lets you sync your sequencer with other programs and route audio from compatible software instruments, is available in most of the sequencers covered in this article.

Instruments and Content

Most of the software in our roundup has instrument plug-ins, sample loops, and other content in addition to the main application; Metro LX is the only exception. Any musician would be happy to use the software-based synthesizers, samplers, or drum machines that ship with several programs. Home Studio, for example, includes the DXi synths Virtual Sound Canvas and DreamStation. Tracktion includes IK Multimedia's versatile sample-playback synth SampleTank SE and LinPlug's virtual drum machine RM IV. Both plug-ins also supply a substantial amount of content. Oddly, Tracktion has a built-in sampler that doesn't have any content, as well as a handful of synth plug-ins from Big Tick, reFX, and LinPlug. Cubase SE comes with the VB-1 bass synth, LM-7 drum machine, and Universal Sound Module. MIDI Studio's arsenal of soft synths includes the 16-voice FMX1 FM synthesizer and Robota virtual analog drum machine. MultitrackStudio comes with a built-in sampler (with only one patch) that can import SF2 and GIG files.

You'll get numerous audio loops and MIDI tracks with PowerTracks Pro, and FL Studio includes a large number of sample files, loops (registered users can download nearly 2 GB's worth), and soft instruments (in its own proprietary format). Among FL Studio's instruments are a text-to-speech synthesizer with 20 different personalities and a variety of analog-modeled synths. Because GarageBand 2 doesn't play external instruments, it has a good variety of software instruments, along with an impressive collection of presets. GarageBand's collection of audio loops (more than 1 GB's worth) is also nothing to sneeze at, and you can expand it with optional Jam Packs and third-party Apple Loops. Studio 2003 ships with 54 MB of short audio clips.

Read All About It

No matter how easy it is to use a software program, good documentation will often determine how efficiently you explore its features. Printed manuals are useful, but you can more easily search manuals that are displayed on your computer screen. Cubase and Tracktion supply manuals in printed and PDF formats, and Metro has a PDF startup guide. Most of Metro's documentation consists of searchable HTML files and detailed online reference. Although GarageBand furnishes only help files (which are also searchable), Apple's Web site offers plenty of GarageBand support pages in 14 languages, and you can download several brief PDF manuals. Music Studio (MIDI Studio and Audio Studio) has a 95-page printed manual, a 626-page PDF manual, and searchable HTML files.

Home Studio and FL Studio include a getting-started guide and searchable online help, and PowerTracks includes a complete user's guide and searchable online help. AudioMaster, MultitrackStudio, n-Track, and Studio 2003 have only searchable online help. (You can download a PDF manual for n-Track from the company's Web site.) There are video tutorials at the FL Studio and PowerTracks Pro Web sites and on Music Studio's install disc, and the manufacturers of all the programs except for Studio 2003 run online user forums. Though you won't base your buying decision on which sequencer has the best documentation, what's the advantage of having a program that's easy to use if the manufacturer doesn't make it easy for you to learn how to use it?

Apple Computer GarageBand 2.0.2 (Mac, $79)
GarageBand is just one of five applications bundled together in Apple's creativity suite iLife '05, which also includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD. Designed to appeal to musicians and nonmusicians alike, GarageBand combines MIDI sequencing, multitrack audio recording, loop arranging, detailed track editing, soft synths and samplers, and effects processing. It can display standard music notation in real time. Considering its status as a low-cost, beginner-level program, GarageBand is surprisingly deep. Although it's the only sequencer in our roundup that can't play hardware-based MIDI instruments (without third-party software, anyway), its loop-sequencing capabilities and its collection of software instruments are thoroughly professional.

GarageBand presents most of its user interface in a single window, with controls for each track on the left, a timeline that displays track data on the right, a control strip across the center, and when you reveal it, an area for editing tracks or browsing loops at the bottom (see Fig. 3). Adding a track opens a dialog box in which you select either a Real Instrument or a Software Instrument from a long list of each. A Real Instrument is an audio track with preset effects that are optimized for a particular instrument or instruments such as acoustic piano, modern rock bass, string ensemble, or modern female vocals. You can also select an audio track with no effects. If you select a guitar track, you can chose from a list of amp-simulation presets borrowed from Apple Logic 7. In fact, most of GarageBand's technology was originally developed either for Logic or for Apple Soundtrack.

Choosing a Software Instrument creates a MIDI track that's preconfigured with a soft synth or sampled instrument. GarageBand's list of available instruments is extensive, and the multisamples are top-notch, with samples for every note and as many as ten Velocity layers. The soft synths use modeling techniques to emulate a nice variety of classic and modern electronic timbres.

For either type of track — audio or MIDI — you can open an information panel that gives you access to effects-processing parameters. GarageBand's host of effects is much more comprehensive than you might expect in a low-price sequencer. It also handles AU instruments and effects extremely well. To place an AU instrument on a track, you must first create a Software Instrument track and then replace the GarageBand instrument with an instrument plug-in.

You have complete control over each track's level and panning, and you can automate them by manipulating a graphic line with breakpoints. In addition to controlling master volume the same way, GarageBand 2.0.2 lets you transpose any portion or an entire song by using breakpoints to vary the master pitch.

What's in Your Garage?

In addition to audio and MIDI recording, GarageBand is adept at loop sequencing. It has done more than any other program to establish Apple Loops as a bona fide standard. Apple Loops are beat-sliced MIDI and AIFF files imprinted with metadata that contains keywords and information about tempo and key signature, making it possible to search for loops in GarageBand's Browser and to pitch-shift and time-stretch music to make it fit your composition.

More than 1,000 Apple Loops are included with GarageBand, and you can add thousands more with optional Apple GarageBand Jam Packs (which also include additional instruments and effects presets) and with third-party libraries. GarageBand can convert its audio and MIDI tracks to Apple Loops, and it can import SMFs and audio files from other formats and convert them to Apple Loops.

You'll need a fairly powerful, up-to-date Mac to run GarageBand, especially if you want to make the most of Apple Loops. Even then, its instability has been known to cause inexplicable crashes. While its lack of MIDI outputs will be a deal-breaker for some musicians, it is ideal for anyone who wants to explore the world of virtual instruments and sampled loops, and the price is right.

Bremmers Audio Design MultitrackStudio Pro Plus 3.1.1.0 (Win, $119 download or $139 boxed)
It took me a while to wrap my brain around MultitrackStudio's interface, but once I did I found some nicely implemented features. If your habits run toward recording and mixing without a lot of detailed editing, you'll feel right at home. MultitrackStudio supports high-resolution audio, has unlimited audio and MIDI tracks, and accepts VST and DirectX plug-ins.

The lack of a mixer view is deceptive: MultitrackStudio is one big mixer, and all of its routing options are available from its main screen (see Fig. 4). Routing is straightforward and powerful, allowing you to send any track to any number of effects returns and assign it to one of any number of groups. Every audio track, effects return, and group has three effects slots. For more processing possibilities, you can assign any or all of the effects slots to the Multi Effect plug-in, which in turn gives you six effects slots. That's a total of 18 insert effects per track, each of which could conceivably hold another Multi Effect. Presets can recall plug-in parameters and entire plug-in chains.

The Stereo Effect gives you separate signal paths for a track's left and right channels, letting you process them independently. A convolution effect is included, and you can download a free set of Classic Reverb impulse responses that include examples from a Hammond spring reverb and the EMT 140 and 250.

It's common for sequencers to integrate audio and MIDI tracks for a smooth workflow, but at times MultitrackStudio blurs the line even further than usual. By default, MIDI tracks have a single effects slot, and you use that to assign the track to a physical MIDI port. If you use the slot to assign the track to a VSTi or DXi virtual instrument, however, you automatically get two additional effects slots, allowing you to process the soft synth's output with additional plug-ins; thus a MIDI track becomes an audio track as well. The included sampler supports both SoundFont and GIG formats, opening the door to oodles of sample libraries that range from cute and cheap to powerful and steep.

I was somewhat less taken with MultitrackStudio's editing features. You can open any audio or MIDI track to reveal its edit view, from which you can do basic cut, copy, and paste operations. Audio crossfades are automatic but not editable, and you must click on a button to undo an operation because pressing Control + z doesn't do anything. Basic logical MIDI functions include such standards as Quantize, Transpose, and Humanize. One interesting edit feature is the Multi Track Editor, which applies all edits to every track that has an open Edit view. You can use it to chop out or repeat entire sections across multiple tracks.

I don't know why each MIDI track is stored as a separate SMF, but it doesn't impede your work. Nice touches include one-click setup of an alternate record take in a new track and the ability to split incoming MIDI notes into two keyboard zones and rechannel and transpose them. For recording and mixing without a lot of editing, MultitrackStudio delivers the goods.

Cakewalk Home Studio 2.2 (Win, $149)
Although it may not have a modern interface, Home Studio is a solid and stable performer that would be suitable for many common music projects. Its simple and intuitive organization belies a host of powerful production tools, and its long PC heritage (it's built on Cakewalk Sonar 2 technology) ensures that it will integrate well into your workflow.

Home Studio is the model of a classic sequencer. Its Track Properties view appears along the left of the screen, and the area for managing data (audio, MIDI, and controllers, for example) appears to the right (see Fig. 5). There's also an Explorer-style window at the bottom of the screen for locating the files that you need in a project. Numerous aspects of the program can be customized, from picking the location to store audio files and choosing interface color schemes to performing various tweaks to your audio hardware. You can also configure key commands for controlling the program from a computer keyboard or a MIDI controller.

Most of the MIDI activity occurs in the Piano Roll view, where you'll find a keyboard display along the left edge of the screen (unless you're working with a drum track, which shows drum names) and a pane at the bottom for entering and editing controller data. Surprisingly, program changes cannot be entered in this window. Right-clicking on an existing note gives you access to numerous details about the note — Velocity, duration, start time, and so on — and it's easy to fine-tune events to your liking. Just as easily, you can highlight a large number of notes and drag, copy, or delete them as needed. In fact, editing is just about as simple as it gets.