Is Protools good for dance music productions?

[1945MF]

Hi All,
Is Protools good for dance music productions?
Any input?

[backplay]

Why not?

We have a love - hate relationship for years now.
Had a short affair with sonar, but that didn't last long, not stable enough with the Digi hardware.

It has it's limitations, but nothing beats the workflow in PT... Well, maybe Logic, but i'm on XP.

Midi is a little less deep as in other DAW's, but that doesn't bother me. Maybe the inability of using midi plugins, but that's not a big deal.

For audio editing it still is the greatest imho.

[chrisso]

Anything can be good for anything - but I don't think it's as good for dance as a midi based DAW.
It depends how you work.

[1945MF]

I We all know PT is very good for the work flow.. but..
What about the sounds?
Some people say is for band and live instrument..and the low frequency sometimes is not capture by PT..

[Fredrik]

What about the sounds? It sound like whatever you put inside it, or am I missing something?

[1945MF]

They said its mean... if with logic.. for electronics..low ends is more clear... and its dedicated to midi instrument...
In Protools is dedicated to recordings band... so its more tranparent for capture from AD...

almost all producer at dance music is all use logic...

Please advice..

[Fredrik]

Choose the one which get the job done for you, thats it. The idea that there are sonic differences is BS.

Neither of these DAW´s are dedicated to anything, but the fact that logic started out with only midi and no audio at all means that the program has evolved around its midi/sequencer features: On the other hand PT started out without any midi at all so the focus has been more on the editing and recording side of things, more of a taperecorder analogy if you will. This is still evident even today IMO, eventhough both programs handle both midi and audio without problems today. I have done pure tracking in logic many times, no problem.

[crufty]

Junxie XL in one of those mix mags said he used Logic -> PT HD

Seems ideal to me. Pick what your budget will allow. For me, that was Logic.

There's no reason why you couldn't use garage band or any number of daws that support midi out + input in.

[kikumotoallstars]

Originally Posted by 1945MF

Hi All,
Is Protools good for dance music productions?
Any input?

I been producing dance music with protools for some time, however I'm not sure for how much longer. Protools is the kinda industry standard as it's great for editing audio. The problem is digidesign produce terrible hardware AD & DA convertors for there base stuff (LE) which means you have to buy separate AD & DA convertors. So add another 2k on top of the price of your unless Mbox or 003. This hardware has been correctly described here as just an expensive dongle...(you have to use the hardware to use the software.)

My advice is to continue with logic and forget protools forever. After I finish my currect projects I might even join you....

[Fredrik]

Yes thats something to consider as well. Logic is awsome, pick any interface you want.

[Strobian]

I use Logic, but I know Richie Hawtin used or uses pro tools, so its not the DAW as much as how you want to work. I know people who use Cubase, Logic, Nuendo, and all there music sounds good.

[jbuehler]

Originally Posted by 1945MF

I We all know PT is very good for the work flow.. but..
What about the sounds?
Some people say is for band and live instrument..and the low frequency sometimes is not capture by PT..

HAh!

No way is that true.

The most expensive studios use Pro Tools to record albums that sell millions.

Why would they use Pro Tools if it didn't sound right?

[Dubreak]

I used to use Cubase/Reason/Ableton/Hardware for years. I've used ProTools/Ableton/Hardware for the last year.

I would prefer to be using Cubase/Ableton/Hardware. Cubase is a lot more of an audio editor than ProTools. It's like it has SoundForge built into it. It's very detailed and quick, plus the range of native offline processing you can do with right-clicking audio in Cubase is fabulous. ProTools is very limited in this regard.

Someone who has never used Cubase for an extended period of time, and thinks ProTools is on par with the Audio editing capabilities of Cubase could be forgiven imo, but for me Cubase is the 'Bedroom standard'.

[1945MF]

before i use cubase... now i use mostly protools but i have as well logic..
For me protools to edit audio is heaven on computer... but for midi sometimes we have to use to it a bit...

https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/.../20822/dj_romy

[zebastian21]

Protools is very good indeed, but most dance music producers choose Logic over Protools, its more powerful midi wise and also if you are using a mac then its a non brainier, I would use protools for mixing and post production cause the audio editing in Protools is more straight forward.

[kikumotoallstars]

Originally Posted by Dubreak

Someone who has never used Cubase for an extended period of time, and thinks ProTools is on par with the Audio editing capabilities of Cubase could be forgiven imo, but for me Cubase is the 'Bedroom standard'.

I used Cubase before I entered the 'professional' world of protools. I must say the sound it produced with a Yamaha DSP card far exceeded protools. It was warm with an excellent round bottom end. Wish I could still use that card but it is no longer supported...

I believe both logic and protools do have a sound irrespective to the soundcard used. In my experience I think protools sounds clean & clinical. That's not a great thing.

[Dubreak]

If I wasn't learning ProTools in College and using it at home, I'd like to get a Yamaha N12 mixer and Cubase 4. Being limited to using only ProTools specific audio interfaces is a bit of a pain.

[Alien Tech]

For dance music, I would go with Logic Studio. Right out of the box you get a good variety of decent sounding instruments. If your looking to go all software, just grab a couple of dedicated synth plugs and you're golden. I myself use NI Absynth 4 and Arturia Moog Modular V a LOT. In fact, my latest track was made with nothing but tweaked logic samples and the two plugins I mentioned.

But thats just me. I haven't had much experience with pro tools, so I won't try to compare the two.

Edit: I just looked your gear list and will shut up now.

I want your andromeda

[MYAMS]

Originally Posted by Alien Tech

For dance music, I would go with Logic Studio. Right out of the box you get a good variety of decent sounding instruments. If your looking to go all software, just grab a couple of dedicated synth plugs and you're golden. I myself use NI Absynth 4 and Arturia Moog Modular V a LOT. In fact, my latest track was made with nothing but tweaked logic samples and the two plugins I mentioned.

But thats just me. I haven't had much experience with pro tools, so I won't try to compare the two.

Edit: I just looked your gear list and will shut up now.

I want your andromeda

right on... Logic is the most "production friendly" software and the most popular among dance genres. If your a true slut you would get some hardware synths for your rig but thats really up to you.

[Tapwatr]

You could Re-Wire Ableton Live into Pro Tools and use the midi and virtual instrument aspects of Live and the editing/mixing of Pro Tools. Get the best of both worlds.

[Alien Tech]

Originally Posted by MYAMS

If your a true slut you would get some hardware synths for your rig but thats really up to you.

+1

The only hardware synth I have is an ARP 2600 that I'm borrowing indefinitely from the college I go to. I've been told that's an extremely slutty synth in its own right, and I would have to agree.

[Brian!]

Try out a few DAWs and pick the one you like the best. No one knows how you work and if you cannot work with a DAW then it's useless.

[Dirty Halo]

Originally Posted by zebastian21

Protools is very good indeed, but most dance music producers choose Logic over Protools, its more powerful midi wise and also if you are using a mac then its a non brainier, I would use protools for mixing and post production cause the audio editing in Protools is more straight forward.

Most dance music producers "choose" Logic over ProTools?

Do you have any facts to back that up?

Is it really "choice" or more of an economic/nature of the genre (meaning usually not produced in professional studios) factor?

It seems to me (and I'm NOT trying to pass this off as fact), that most dance music is started in personal studios, which means most can't afford ProTools HD, etc.

THEN, when artists make it to a certain level of economic success, they seem to go to ProTools... and there I do have plenty of factual examples (just a few are mentioned in posts above).

Dunno, just a few thoughts.

Your post seemed sort of definitive, but I think ultimately misleading.

-andrews

[djmhiratzka]

Logic is great as a writing medium, it has cool built-in synths and effects that work well for dance music production. Also, if you're working native then AU is much more efficient than RTAS, so you can use a lot more plugins at once. From personal experience, most people I know in the industry use Logic, but a lot of them also stem their stuff down and mix in ProTools. I do this is as well, it's a few extra hours per track but I find the sonic results are a bit bigger sounding with more open high end. I know lots of guys who use PT exclusively, but I don't like the MIDI implementation and miss all my cool AU plugs when I try to work in PT.

I've also used Cubase (loved it but love Logic more), Nuendo (one of the best sounding audio engines of them all), DP (similar architecture to PT but never really caught on with me), Cakewalk (rookie crap), and Notator on an old Atari. Try some stuff out, see what program promotes the creative experience for you...

[Upavas]

Pro Tools is really nice for mixing, I use FL8 for production and Pro Tools for mixing, compensating where FL8 lacks. You can also rewire FL8 into PT, I generally export split mixer tracks into a PT session.

[robmix]

I'm all Pro Tools. I was into Studio Vision back in the day, switched to Logic, and had lot's of experience with DP. In the end, even though I resisted, PT won out for the workflow, and dealing with audio. I always hear about how bad the MIDI in PT, yet there's nothing that I personally miss.

[sctt_stone]

I have been using Logic for a little over a year and love it until I start cutting and slicing audio.
It really is destructive in this manner.
It sucks when you change something permanently on accident.
If anyone knows any work around to this please let me know.

[jbuehler]

The reason Pro Tools gets flak about MIDI is because it didn't have any like 8 years ago.

Since version 7, the looping and MIDI feature have come along in huge leaps and bounds.

The best thing for dance and beat production that they added is called Dynamic Transport.

That made looping and other quick, in the moment, type song writing stuff come out really quick.

I used to do MIDI in Reason and Ableton but am slowly just using Pro Tools because it really isn't limited at all these days.

One thing is for sure, the differences between all the DAWs is going away and they all are becoming just about the same, and yet, this is the reason I still like Pro Tools, because it is STABLE. This is the single advantage to getting stuck inside Digidesign's closed system but it is a really good one.

[Fredrik]

Originally Posted by sctt_stone

I have been using Logic for a little over a year and love it until I start cutting and slicing audio.
It really is destructive in this manner.
It sucks when you change something permanently on accident.
If anyone knows any work around to this please let me know.

Could you be more specific? Audio editing in logic is non-destructive and has always been. Are you using the sample editor?

[Red_venom]

Write in Cubase/Logic. Mix in Pro Tools. Thats the way many people do it