In order to create music you will need some music production software. This is pretty much the first thing any aspiring music producer will look for. It is important to get a piece of software that you feel comfortable with and there are so many different programs out there on the market that choosing the right one can be a daunting task. There are a few however that stand out from the crowd, these are; Protools, Fruity Loops, Reason and Logic Pro. But which is the best? Well let’s see.

Fruity Loops:
This piece of software is great especially for beginners although it is also used by advanced music producers.  Although Fruity Loops is a standalone program it also gives you the option to add VST instruments and plug-ins. In fact there are so many different things that you can add to Fruity Loops that it is a very powerful music production programme in itself. A lot of music producers frown at this software but believe me when I tell you that hit records are produced in Fruity Loops every single day.

Reason:
This is probably one of the best pieces of software simply for the reason that every single sample that you get with the software is 100% perfect. This software is usually used by more advanced music producers and people that already have a good idea how to go about making music. The sound that can be achieved with this piece of software is absolutely astonishing and is of a high enough quality for radio play. The only problem with this software is that it doesn’t give the ability to add VST Instruments and Plug-Ins. However it is possible to add samples to NNXT and Redrum.

Logic Pro:
This piece of software was developed by Apple and is probably one of the most used pieces of recording software in the industry. The software is used in pretty much every single record studio around the world and since its release has become almost a standard in music production. This software allows you to record instruments, record vocal tracks, add VST Instruments and Plug-ins all within this one single program. This means you don’t have to open multiple programs to do different jobs and create one full track.

ProTools:
Much like Logic Pro, Protools is also an industry standard and is used by many producers that need to record live performances and live instruments. Like Logic Pro, Protools also allows you to do almost anything you need all from within the program and can support almost anything you have in mind. Although it is basically the world’s best music production software it does come at quite a hefty price and before you make your decision on which piece of music production software to purchase you should take this into consideration and check it out.

Recycle! is the tool for the serious loopist. And especially Recycle! 2.0 since it supports stereo wav and aiff files to be converted to the very popular REX format. Recycle! 2.0 has it’s own format: Rx2. But that’s not the only thing that has changed since the previous version (1.7) of Recycle! There are many interface changes and there are 3 effect processors added to the Recycle! toolbox. As if that wasn’t already enough you can now preview the loop in at a new tempo or/and pitch. And your loops will be compressed in non-lossy compression which saves up to 50% space!

For people who use Reason, Recycle! is just essential stuff. If you want to take full advantage of the Dr.Rex you need it to make Rx2 files from your own loop collection. Either home brewed or from your sample cd’s. And you don’t need to be an audio professional to start working with Recycle! It’s very user friendly and almost al the functions can be found very easy. If you own a hardware sampler you will also find Recycle! to it’s perfect companion. You chop up the loop in Recycle! and when you’r done you send the slices to the sampler and load up the midi file in your sequencer. As easy as it sounds!

Read the full Propellerheads Recycle 2.0 review here: