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Digidesign Pro Tools 7.x Le
By soccerplayer25 on 03/27/2008 at 21:01 Music is a hobby.
By soccerplayer25 on 03/27/2008 at 21:01 Music is a hobby.
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Getting Started 
Digidesign Pro Tools 7 LE was really easy to install and set up with my Mbox. I have it installed on my PC laptop and there haven't been any compatibility issues to date. I just really followed the steps that came with Pro Tools and it should be easy to get going if you follow the manual.
Suitability/Performance I have a Hewlett Packard laptop with a 3.0 Ghz processor and 1 GB Ram and I haven't had too many problems running Pro Tools LE. However, I have a friend who runs it on a mac and it seems to run much better on there. I can record 2 tracks at once with my Mbox and I have had no problems doing that.
Overall Opinion 
I've had Pro Tools LE 7 for about a year now and I couldn't be happier. Pro Tools is the industry standard and its great to be able to bring my sessions from home to larger studios and vice versa. I've used other software in the past such as Cubase, Logic and Sonar and while to me they are all really powerful, Pro Tools has been the most user friendly and the most powerful. While you will spend more on a Digidesign interface/Pro Tools software combo than you would from another brand, having the Pro Tools software makes it all worth it for me. Being that it is the industry standard, I don't think that I could work without having a copy of Pro Tools for myself.
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Getting Started I had no problems at all getting started with the Trillium Lane Labs TL Space. You need an iLok to authorize it with, but if you have experience with that it should be no problem. I run it with Pro Tools 7.4 LE and I had no need for the manual. It is easy to install and figure out the functions.
Suitability/Performance I use this on my Macbook Pro (2.2 Ghz, 2 GB Ram) and I've had no issues at all with it. I use it on an auxiliary track with every session I do. This saves processing power; if I were to put this plug-in on every track however, I do believe it would slow down my computer quite a bit. This is to be expected with any sort of powerful plug-in such as this one though. As long as I keep it on one track or a few at most it runs great.
Overall Opinion I've had it for about a year now and it is the only reverb plug-in that I use - its that good. Not only is it really easy to get a nice sound from it, but the controls are really in depth and useful. I've used a a couple of reverb plug-ins in the past and this one trumps them all. While I haven't done this, I believe that you can download extra presets for it, a great feature that I will look into when I have a chance. Even though it is definitely a bit pricey, for me it is worth every penny. I've used an EMT 140 plate reverb and the emulation of that on this plug-in is impeccable. If you are looking for a serious reverb plug-in, spend the money and get this; you won't regret it and you will have a great sounding reverb for all of your sessions.
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Getting Started Getting set up with the Digidesign Smack LE plug-in couldn't have been easier. I bought it with an iLok, so it was already synced to that. You need to install the iLok driver to your computer and then there should be no problems. I would recommend following the steps in the manual that come with it, they are very simple.
Suitability/Performance I run this plug-in with Pro Tools 7 LE software on my Hewlett Packard computer with a 3.0 Ghz processor and 1 GB Ram. I haven't had any problems running this plug-in with my set up and it has been very stable. It runs quicker than I thought it was going to, but that could be due to my computer, among other things.
Overall Opinion I've had this plug-in for about 6 months now and it is my best compression plug-in. I use it on all of my lead vocals and bass guitar, and it also sounds great on drums and electric and acoustic guitars. I hadn't tried out any other compression plug-ins other than the ones that come with Pro Tools, and I definitely like this one better than any that come with Pro Tools. Its so rich and full sounding, and I love the presets. There are a ton adjustable settings to get specific sounds, but it is really easy to dial up a great tone with one of the presets. While it is definitely a little bit expensive, its worth it for me to have a great sounding compressor that I can use over and over again without the hassles of outboard gear.
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Getting Started Everything was pretty easy to get going for Antares Auto-Tune 5 on my system (Macbook Pro, 2.2 Ghz, 2 GB Ram). Of course you need an iLok to authorize the plug-in, but since I had previous experience with setting that up it was pretty easy. I really had no need to look at the manual.
Suitability/Performance I run my Macbook Pro with Pro Tools LE 7.4 and a Digidesign 002 rack and Auto Tune works great with it. I haven't had any problems with running it except sometimes it slows down a bit when too much information is going on, but I guess that is to be expected.
Overall Opinion I've owned Auto Tune 5 for about 10 months now but I had been using an earlier version for about a year and half before that. I love the interface of the software, both in graphical mode and in automatic it is easy to configure and to tune things up with. The sound is pretty smooth, along it really depends on the singer. If a vocal is relatively close this thing works great for just making it that much better. However, it can definitely sound computerish if you try to stretch its limitations on a poor singer. Although I have yet to use Melodyne, it seems some of their new products (Direct Note Access) may have Auto Tune beat at this point and when Melodyne releases their new software I may have to switch over to that simply because it has more features, although I'm sure Antares will have a response to it. Auto Tune is a bit pricey, but for me it is essential to have when working with clients. I will probably stick with this unless I try out Melodyne and decide to start using that.
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Getting Started 
IZotope Ozone 3 couldn't have been easier to install, I had no issues setting it up and have continued to have no problems with it. I didn't look at the manual at all because it was easy enough for me to set up.
Suitability/Performance I am running it with Pro Tools LE 7.4 and a Macbook Pro (2.2 Ghz, 2 GB Ram) along with a Digidesign 002R and iZotope Ozone works great with it. It runs so smooth and I feel I can use it on multiple tracks with no issues.
Overall Opinion I've only had iZotope Ozone 3 for about 2 months now but in that time I feel I have been able to make my recordings sound significantly better using this plug-in. No longer do I worry that my mixes won't be loud enough as I just throw this on my master fader and I can use it's compression, EQ, and reverb along with its other features. I haven't used any other mastering programs, I was referred to this by someone and I haven't looked back. The best part about this plug-in is the price. Its really amazing that such a great sounding plug-in can be so cheap these days.
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Getting Started Yes,there are no problem with the installation
Suitability/Performance Asus pv5vdcx,intel dual core,vgen,seagate,soundmax
Overall Opinion As long i can
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Getting Started No problem whatsoever, the instructions are clear enough.
Suitability/Performance Whatever your setup, if you don't have a good, ASIO-compatible soundcard with stable drivers you will NEED this if you want to work properly on anything computer-music related. No stability problem , the result is really satisfying provided you take the time to set the ASIO buffer & latency compensation values correctly.
Overall Opinion I've never yet owned a good sound card but thanks to ASIO4ALL I've always managed to work properly on computer music programs (over the years: Magix Music Studio, Tracktion, Kristal, Audacity, Cubase Studio 4) with basic, AC97 sound cards. I don't use the inputs though, so in this kind of use there may be a little more lag problems, but for arranging/mixing VST instruments and audio tracks recorded externally this proves very efficient.
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Getting Started No problem to install, you'll need an internet connection to authorize it. You can install it on two different computers at once but the number of swaps you are entitled to is limited.
The manual is a .pdf file which provides all the informations you may need.
The manual is a .pdf file which provides all the informations you may need.
Suitability/Performance I have a Intel Dual Core processor with 2Gb RAM. I don't yet have a proper sound card but using Asio4All makes up for that (yes it DOES work with a basic, default multimedia soundcard). I use it with Cubase Studio 4 and Toontrack's new tool "Toontrack solo" which allows to use either of Toontrack's compatible drums samplers (EZ drummer or Drumkit from Hell Superior) in standalone mode, with no incompatibility yet.
Depending on the available resources on your system you can choose to have the drumset come out either as a single stereo mix or 8 tracks (corresponding to the virtual microphones on your virtual drums room), which allows you to apply your effects seperately on each item from the kit (e.g. compression on the snare, distortion on the kick, flange on the toms etc) and to adjust the volume of each element (as in a real-life studio you can't isolate each cymbal but you can turn off the recording of the rest of the kit by the overhead). The most common kits eat up approximately 250Mb of RAM, but you can easily alleviate the burden to your system by unloading the individual elements which you don't intend to use.
Depending on the available resources on your system you can choose to have the drumset come out either as a single stereo mix or 8 tracks (corresponding to the virtual microphones on your virtual drums room), which allows you to apply your effects seperately on each item from the kit (e.g. compression on the snare, distortion on the kick, flange on the toms etc) and to adjust the volume of each element (as in a real-life studio you can't isolate each cymbal but you can turn off the recording of the rest of the kit by the overhead). The most common kits eat up approximately 250Mb of RAM, but you can easily alleviate the burden to your system by unloading the individual elements which you don't intend to use.
Overall Opinion I started using it a few days ago, I really like the way it sounds (both the basic pop/rock kit and the DFH extension pack are awesome) and the fact that its use is intuitive. I used to work with free drum samplers or drum machines such as Blue Noise's MyDrumsets, Loopazoid (a great tool but you have to find your own samples elsewhere) or Cubase's default drum machine (which name I can't remember), but EZ drummer is definitely way ahead with the number of different combinations it offers.
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