Mac OS X Production Software?

Chris Chapman

Active Member
What are you using for Production and editing on the Mac OS X platform? I was recently using ProTools Free on an old OS 9 machine that just went belly up. So I'm starting to look for current software on OS X. ANyone have opions on Apple's Logic Software? I know it integrates nicely with FinalCut but I'm looking for a package for building cues, etc. I'm not worried about a Playback or Cueing engine, specifically production.

Thanks,

-Chris
 
Parallels or bootcamp and adobe audition tends to be what I have seen people do. Any reason you don't want to stay with pro-tools, that tends to be the defacto standard on the mac platform.
 
It's cost more than anything else. To get an OSX version of Tools, you need to pick up a Control Interface as well. Hardware alone startup costs start north of $1200 without a computer. Public School funding is the issue and trying not to sink my tech budget on a major computer investment this year. Paid for my VectorWorks upgrade last year and have the money for software only.

-Chris
 
Never mind. DigiDesign has changed their pricing structure on ProTools (again.) An LE software only Full Install is only $75.00.

To quote Emily Letella,

"Never Mind.":)
 
I use Digital Performer. It's easy to use and it works with your internal audio card and non-MOTU interfaces. It's pretty expensive but the school owns a number of licenses.

AudioDesk could also be useful but it requires MOTU hardware to be attached to operate, like ProTools.
 
There's an open source platform called Reaper that is currently in beta on Mac OS. I have been using the PC version for over a year and love it. It was designed to be as robust as Pro-Tools, without being as complicated, and the fact that it's open source means that there are revisions and new plugins every week.
 
I found a website for Reaper, but it says it's commercial software - $250 for a license for commercial use. Is this the one you were referring to, or is it another version?

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/

This does look VERY promising though!
 
Parallels or bootcamp and adobe audition tends to be what I have seen people do.

That's what I do. I really wish Adobe would stop throwing a hissy fit about Apple releasing Final Cut. Final Cut completely pushed Adobe Premier out of the way and now Adobe won't release Audition on a MAC platform because of it from what I have heard.
 
There are plenty of options out there for Mac, you have Protools, Cubase, Logic, and other on the high end side. If you just need simple two track stuff there is Sound Studio and of course the free and friendly Audacity. Then you can go and dump your cues into QLab and life is good! No Windoze on your Mac!
 
I found a website for Reaper, but it says it's commercial software - $250 for a license for commercial use. Is this the one you were referring to, or is it another version?

That's the one. There is a licencing fee, but the software remains fully operational after the 30 day period. I registered mine after a while, but if you're budget is tight and you can afford to spend six extra seconds opening the program, it's not bad.
 
I'd been a PC user using the Sonic Foundry/Sony line for years (Vegas for multitrack and Sound Forge for fine stereo editing), and switched to Mac about a year ago. For my first show on Mac, I stuck with the Sony stuff via Boot Camp, but since then, I decided it was time to leap in, and tried a few options.

Logic 8, IMHO, rocks. It's very powerful, and easy to learn if you sit with it a little; I actually learned it while designing a show on a short timeframe, talk about trial by fire. I did some stereo, as well as multi-track (7-8 ch) WAV files with it, and it was all pretty easy, although occasionally I had to dig into the help files for guidance on rendering the multi-tracks and other obscure stuff like that.

I played with Peak a bit for stereo editing, but wasn't in love with it. I may need to revisit the new version, but honestly, Logic does everything I've needed so far. I find myself needing a dedicated 2-track editor less and less as I get more used to working non-destructively in a multi-track.


Also, I should add that the plug-ins that come with Logic are great. I recently pieced together a bunch of water droplets for the opening sequence of a production of "The Winter's Tale", and while I found perfect drops and plops, they were quite noisy recordings. A bit of playing with Logic's built in noise removal plug-in and they sounded perfect. The verb plugins also sound pretty decent.

And with all the media and extras that come with it, it's a bargain, and I'm pretty sure there's student pricing for it, too.

I tried Wave Editor, but it kept crashing on me. Which was a bummer, because I was really excited by some of it's advertised features, but it wasn't stable enough for me to play with them. I had a show to get up, so back to Logic it was.

--Andy, who will have to try Reaper as it gets closer to release on Mac, it looks intriguing.
 
I own and use logic and it is an absolute pain. It's great when you know how to do something , but terrible when you don't. I would not recommend this software whatsoever for pro theater, let alone high school and community theater. The learning curve is just to darn steep. I use it for recording and composing, but I have enough trouble.

What I think what is really effective for theater is Ableton Live. It's extremely performance oriented. It seems like 95% of the time you look at DJ/electronic artist's laptop, they're running Live. Live is probably the most powerful program and user friendly program. It's great for cuing stuff. It's got powerful MIDI synchronization. Many shows sync video and lights through it (even if it's some musicians cheap laptop...it works that well).

Protools is obviously great, but unpractical pricewise for almost every situation.

Digital Performer is great and has very powerful midi. It used to be my favorite, but it just doesn't cue as cool and comfortably as Ableton Live can. Don't get me wrong, Digital Performer can kill ableton in a studio when it comes to audio processing and all that, but the learning curve and extreme abilities of Live make it hard to beat.
 
I'll second the recommendation for Audacity. It's your basic run-of-the-mill two-track editor with a basic arsenal of eq/delay/echo/pitch shift/etc. processing. And best of all, it's open source. Download it here.
 
Have you found Audacity to be stable? I've always found it to really crap out or work poorly when you ask more of it than you would to a free program. I'm not insulting it because it's free, but I've always found it to be glitchy with processing (no matter what you run on it).

I wish mac made a version of garage band for the PC. It's a nice stripped down version of logic that is effective for most people. Unfortunately, he is not much of mastering/processing machine which is a very common task in the theater world.

I remembered everyone used to rave about cool edit pro (Adobe Audition's ancestor). I guess it no longer runs on any of the modern operating systems well. Are there any other nice free or inexpensive editors out there?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back