Best Hiphop/RnB/Dance Software

antodeco

Hi Folks,

Just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction. Im looking to get software to produce beats and general tracks. I havent used any stuff in the past 5 years. Used to to Fruity loops, acid pro and rebirth. Looking for something similar to all these. Fruity loops more so, cause acid pro is a little "pre-manufactured" i personally think. Budget isint really an issue

Also, anyone any ideas where Id get a cheaper sidstation. There was one floating around on ebay a while ago, but its gone

Any help much appreciated.

Edit: Im looking at Reason 3 at the minute. Any feedback on that at all?

Anima

Reason is very popular alright but it doesn't leave much room for expansion. You can't use 3rd party plugins or record stuff into it which is a bit of a hindrance. It is great to learn with though and does have pretty much all you need. Reason 4 is coming out soon also and it looks pretty good. I'd go with Reason if you are just trying to make a few songs that sound pretty good but don't want to spend too much money.

Ideally if you were fully committed to getting high quality productions then get a proper DAW like Pro-tools or Cubase. From there you can keep adding plugins/hardware/recordings/etc. Basically you can do whatever you want. It'll cost a lot more though.

11811

Ableton is quite good too,know quite a few producers using it at the mo with great results

Neurojazz

Reason is fine and can be 'Rewired' into cubase at a later date... its great for laptops or low powered PC and the recent update to reason gives you even more tools... - be wary about 2nd hand copies though as the license is an online account thing

If u need links to a host of tracks written using just reason PM me

cornbb

If you used and liked Fruityloops there no reason you shouldn't consider continuing to use it - its currently known as FL Studio. A friend of mine mainly composes downtempo HipHop and FL is his tool of choice. Ableton Live would be another good choice. Just download demos of whatever you can and give them a try.

squibs

Another shout out for FL Studio. It's quirky and has a big learning curve, but comes with incredible tools out of the box for a great price. Recommend the producer edition - otherwise you miss out on great tools.

Really, any of the modern audio/midi sequencers can do hip-hop. It's all about how you like to work. Try demos of Cubase and Sonar and Rapture is cheap as chips. Also - IIRC Reason doesn't do audio recording which makes it a pain if you want to record vocals.

antodeco

Thanks for all the replies! Im not too worried about the vocals, as I have a seperate tascam us428 which ill just use if i need to put vocals.

Thanks for letting me know about the 2nd hand copies

I used cubase before but found it difficult. Now being honest, I didnt have the time, at the time, so I might look into it again!

Had an oul gander of FL studio. I might try a demo and see what I make of it. Im used to general properllerheads setup, so thats why I was looking at reason.

cornbb

Definitely don't discount Cubase - it has a very steep learning curve but it is extremely powerful and lets you get closer to the nuts and bolts of the music than most packages mentioned here.

indough

You're looking for a sidstation eh? Funny i've only just decided to start building one myself. You'll either have to shell out €950 or do a DIY job i'm afraid. There is a PC card called HardSID which incorporates a SID chip, don't know how much it costs though, but i'm sure it's worth a look. Means you'd be woring with more sftware though...

jtsuited

+1 for ableton

condra

Ableton for everything