Software purchase, opinions wanted

[Ludicrous Speed]

Hello all,

I am soon to invest in some software and i think i know what is the best stuff to get for me but i am still not certain on a couple of things.

Heres what ive decided on;
* BFD-the standard pack and possibly the XFL later

Heres what i have NOT yet decided on;
*AutoTune VS Melodyne
*REASON VS Sample tank2XL

Heres a brief rundown on what i know which is keeping me from deciding...

*AutoTune Vs Melodyne

AutoTune is cheaper ($750AU) and runs as both an RTAS and an Audiosuite plugin. Ive used it before and it does the job (or so i thought before i saw the melodyne video) But compared to melodyne its WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY limited.

Melodyne, the CHEAPER edition is $950AU but does a lot more than Autotune ie. TIME control(up to 1000%) as well as Pitch plus the way it works looks so easy and inspiring. But the cheaper version does not run as an RTAS plugin and requires the use of REwire and ive been told by the Celemony sales rep that it chews a lot of CPU. plus the $949 version does not enable editing of stereo files and a maximum of eight mono tracks. but the studio edtion of melodyne cost something like $1799 which is well over double Autotune and i doent know if melodyne has the abiility to print things quickly like autotune in AS mode but then again, im not sure if autotune locks onto notes in the graphical editing mode but i do know that autotune has a very robotic sound, which can sometimes sound cool but not always. Melodyne (both Cre8 and the studio edtion) works as a standalone app but im not sure how quick and convenient it would be to be bouncing down all my files.

As you can see there are a lot of pros and cons to consider i havent listed all of the points i could, i mainly just wanted to show that i have done my homework(and avoid haviing some *^$#@ head leave me an unhelpful comment and a link to the celemony or antares site) and i am hoping to hear from some people who have used both or either.

I am annoyed with Celemony, because although they have what seems to be a far superior product over Auto Tune it is way more expensive and even though Melodyne does a lot more like multiple tracks and is in another ballpark, they should really drop their price or simply release the Cre8 package with RTAS capabilities.

*REASON 2.5 Vs SAMPLETANK2XL

This one is not such a big dilema as im leaning pretty horizontally towards REASON i have adapted which is pretty cool and there is a deal on at the moment where you upgrade from adapted to 2.5, im paying $500AU. plus REASON just seems to be the SHIZNEE way over SAPLETANK i hear sample tank cheews a lot more CPU which is important to someone like me with a mere G4Dual867. But im still open to suggestion before i make my purchase.

Thanks for any and all comments and suggestions.

LUD

[JonasMarlowe]

Thats a tuff call my friend. AT is cheaper but MD does mind blowing stuff. I personally have never used MD in PT. Only standalone. It was a bit of a hassle to bounce out but well worth the results. I would be in heaven to have MD in PT. But for nuts and bolts kind of stuff AT does work well.

[Ludicrous Speed]

Yeah, its tuff alright. thats why im asking for some last minute opinions. Ive been burned by bad software decisions before(Cubase) and i dont want to regret this decision. do you think its worth the extra $750+ for the studio version of MD?

Anyone else's $.02 would be good too,

LUD

[Hazy Hill]

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.p...v=1#Post658662

Re: Sampletank or Reason - What's the better deal? [Re: staggerlee]
#658662 - 07/06/04 02:45 PM Edit Reply Quote

CPU-wise Reason is great! Load tons of samplers, synths etc and still no big deal for the CPU. It's not that way with SampleTank.

Yes, you can convert Akai samples into Reason's NNXT format absolutely with no problems at all. Having a easy-to-use sampler at hand is great!

Yes, you can use Reason for any kind of music, not just electronic, hip hop etc.

It is true that there are hundreds of Refills, most of them free, for Reason but most of them are just crap

Maybe it's just me but whenever I use Reason it seems like whatever I use, samples, synths, it needs a lot of tweaking

SampleTank's libraries are great but apart from that, SampleTank sounds better than Reason. It should be a software-engine related thing or so. Don't booo me! Check for yourself.

Yep, they're both great, save money and get them both!

--------------------
Ufuk Onen
www.UfukOnen.com

[booinec]

I had not heard of Melodyne before reading your post, so thanks. It looks very cool. On the Celemony web site, it indicates that the Cre8 version 2.5 does support RTAS. I'm very new to this and have not yet invested in my interface, but I thought that RTAS plug-ins will work fine with PTLE. If I'm wrong please tell me because I think I will get the Melodyne too.
Thanks.

[booinec]

Here is what the Melodyne support folks has to say:

If you handle mainly mono tracks, cre8 is the right thing for you. Melodyne cre8 supports MelodyneBridge RTAS! If you like to edit files that have been recorded in stereo, drums, strings, etc. Melodyne Studio Edition is your choice.

With best regards


Michael Rilling
Product Specialist
Celemony Software GmbH
Fon: +49 711 / 1200 69 07
Fax: +49 711 / 1200 69 08
[email protected]
www.celemony.com

[Ludicrous Speed]

OK,

What im thinking is, if you get Cre8 why couldnt you just do the exact same treatments to both left and right files in a cut and paste sort of way with the settings?

If this was possible then it would be very cool(save$$)

Its funny that the Melodyne support folk say that cre8 supports the RTAS Bridge becausae they told me that it doesnt???!!!

Ill have to double check that.

Ill get back.

LUD

[TheLP]

You should get reason definitley over sampletank, reason gives you alot of tools to manipulate yours samples/songs. Autotune is very good, melodyne IMO is not worth it just for only 8 mono tracks.

[Ludicrous Speed]

Thanks for the opinions anyone else care to share their $0.02

LUD

[tgfoyl]

Hi Ludicrous Speed

Did you get BFD yet? How do you like it so far? I want to get it too, so any opinions will be greatly appreciated.