Overwhelmed with workstations

[David Emm]

7 hours ago, Motif88 said:

After almost 20 years of workstations (Motif 8, Motif ES8, Motif XS8, Kronos 88) I switched to Logic Pro and haven't looked back. If your goal is home/studio based composition, I'd recommend looking at the DAW route. Oddly, I bought an returned a Fantom 08 as my brain doesn't work that way anymore. If I was still playing live, I'd take the Fantom 08 and the Hydrasynth Deluxe in a heartbeat.

 

Same here, overall. Logic is what I dreamed of while I was squinting away at my beloved but stingy monochrome workstation display. I didn't feel prepared to mesh with Logic after years of working that way, but I also suspected that it was a needed leap to take. I understand not feeling as if that's the route for you, but believe me, its THE ROUTE if you want to be more linear. Its seductive to be able to sit in the middle of a Wakeman-sized ring-o-tech.

 

You'll never get a 12" or larger display in a workstation. I can't overstate what a game changer it was to have it all in front of me. Pragmatism will probably nudge you towards a DAW. Nothing else liberates your creativity to the same high degree. Just my abstract two cents. Welcome to the group, Yael770!  

 

 

[K K]

On 12/11/2022 at 8:30 PM, Yael770 said:

I'm not into working with DAWs as I can't get the hang of working in a computer and I love the idea of being able to do all of my composition with an improvisation-like flow inside of a workstation keyboard that has all the sounds I need.

 

I have a somewhat similar approach myself too. Since music for me is first of all live performance, I much prefer a keyboard instrument to record ideas. To me, writing using a computer kills inspiration. If I need to play complex sequences, I don't rely on a cold sequencer, I play/record them live using my fingers/hands. So when I have interesting ideas, I simply push the record button on my Korg Kronos and play to save them in both audio and MIDI. In case you are not sure what is MIDI exactly, you can imagine it as a piano roll for old mechanical piano players. It's just data of which notes you played, how soft/hard you played them and other things you do (pedal, etc.), but there is no sound. So by recording both MIDI and audio at the same time, you can later edit the events you did and/or just keep the audio file if all is OK.

 

I can also prefer to write down using a score. It can be on a DAW I like (here you really need to test several to find one you find not too time consuming) or using a score writing software like Finale or Sibelius. Note that you can also transform live played ideas in scores later using Finale and similar software. I personally often end up creating multitrack compositions just like I used to do decades ago on tape, which is recording everything live and in audio, using musical instruments, but now it is transferred on a DAW instead of tape. This way, everything remains more spontaneous and I can always edit a few things on the DAW later. To me, it sounds more realistic and musical than if near everything is done on a computer at perfect tempo, unless you want to write electronic music stuff or need a robotic feel in a piece, which I also seldom do.

 

So in short, it all depends what type of musician you are (mostly writing on paper, performing live, both, something else, etc.) and what type of compositions and musical goals you have. Don't worry if it feels overwhelming, as it actually is. My simple advice is test as many DAWs and music software as you need during their trial mode. At some point, you will discover that some of them will please you a lot more than others. Same with workstation keyboards. Go test them at your local musical stores to see which ones offer what you feel are the best sounds and that you will use most often. In my case, the choice was easy as the Kronos also has a complete sampler so I can create and add my own sound libraries for near limitless possibilities.

[Yael770]

I sincerely thank you all so much for your thoughtful responses. I read through each one of them and they've given me a lot of food for thought! After thinking it over, I've decided that it does make sense to go for learning a DAW and begin slowly with learning a simpler and less expensive keyboard. My plan is to get the Roland Juno-DS88, which has a feel that I really enjoy and enough variety of sounds to get me going, as well as a simple sequencer so I could at least get some ideas down. And then I'm planning to start the DAW learning with Garageband as I have a Mac and I've used it for simple things before, and then maybe try out Logic as I get more comfortable, as I like their MIDI-to-score feature. 

 

If anyone has any further suggestions or comments I would love to hear! Thanks again for your responses and friendly welcome

[KuruPrionz]

8 minutes ago, Yael770 said:

I sincerely thank you all so much for your thoughtful responses. I read through each one of them and they've given me a lot of food for thought! After thinking it over, I've decided that it does make sense to go for learning a DAW and begin slowly with learning a simpler and less expensive keyboard. My plan is to get the Roland Juno-DS88, which has a feel that I really enjoy and enough variety of sounds to get me going, as well as a simple sequencer so I could at least get some ideas down. And then I'm planning to start the DAW learning with Garageband as I have a Mac and I've used it for simple things before, and then maybe try out Logic as I get more comfortable, as I like their MIDI-to-score feature. 

 

If anyone has any further suggestions or comments I would love to hear! Thanks again for your responses and friendly welcome

It sounds like you are headed in a good direction! GarageBand is good but Logic offers much more for a very reasonable $200 investment. If, when I add another DAW it will be Logic, (I'm happy using Waveform 12 Pro but I think you should go with Logic). Cheers and welcome to MPN, this is a great place with great people!