I'm a current ProTools 8 user, but was wondering if any of the other DAW's (Cubase, Sonar, etc.) were a little friendlier to my needs... any advice would be greatly appreciated. I write proggy stuff with odd time signatures and tempo changes. An example of what I'd like to do is record a verse with multiple tracks (guitars, drums, vox) flowing right into a chorus. Now, say I'd like to go back and write a part that goes between the verse and chorus, but I don't want to slide all of the chorus tracks to create a gap... I want to record this new part later in the project (after the verse/chorus.) Then, upon playback, we start with the verse, jump out to the new part and then jump back and continue with the chorus. So basically, playback would be non-linear with the ability to jump to different points in the project. Is this possible in any DAW?
Cubase seems to have something like that according to this SOS article: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar07/articles/cubasetech_0307.htm I've never seen it or used it myself in any hosts I can think of though, sorry! It's a weird thing to try and search for
The problem with what you're describing is the inability to use crossfades and effects trails to help the parts blend together seamlessly - it's cool in theory, but in practice the transition between each part would sound abrupt and "edited.
That is exactly what I'm looking for... thanks! I was more worried that PT had this functionality and I didn't know it... hah!
Cory, I'd only be using it to write demos... for the final cut everything would be recorded in the usual manner.
Perhaps something like Matrix View in Sonar - it's a non-linear Audio/MIDI arrangement tool. It's not perfect in that you have to do all your recording in Track view, but then you can drag tracks into the Matrix cells for arrangement purposes. It can also use loops, MIDI, clips, one shots, whatever - you can layer cells and trigger in live performance mode. It's a feature they pulled over from the old P5 product. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzuQW5abPGQ&[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vxtL8CNsB4&[/ame] Just other possibilities. Could work for you - could not. As always your mileage may vary.
