YellowJacket said:
I find that odd that guitarists find this sort of price point expensive: https://www.toontrack.com/product/superior-drummer-2/
Costs as much as a boutique stomp box!
$180 on Sweetwater. It was still $350 when I was looking, and this was 4 or 5 years ago. Part of my issue is paying that much for software when I don't know how much value I'm going to get out of it and for the most part I can't demo it.
With a stomp box I at least have hardware to show for it, I won't need to pay for upgrades, and if I don't dig it I can sell it and recoup the majority of my expense.
For recording drums, it is useful to have a midi controller. I don't care about clicking in every midi event because I write a lot of music 'by hand' in finale. It's the same thing and it forces me to think about what I am doing. But, with a midi controller, at least you can hit 'record' and play on the keys in real time. You can get ideas down way faster this way.
You're talking one of those controllers that looks like a piano keyboard?
You'll spend $2,000+ on a guitar, so get the Torpedo Live or better yet, Torpedo Studio. It runs as much as a good guitar but it's a load box, cab sim, and mic sim so you're still working with an analog signal from a guitar amp. The other alternative is Axe FX 2. I think either is good, and both are better than a VST. I have Guitar Rig since it came with NI Komplete. I tried working with it and quickly became frustrated. Having to record electric guitar without feedback from an amp was terrible and the tones are really middling, like a Line 6. good for a hobbyist but nowhere near a professional result. I was completely unimpressed. Better to record my amps with the volume almost off!
I have the Bias demo version. Sounds good through computer speakers, but through my monitors it has a terrible phasy/digital sound, which I think is it struggling to produce harmonics. Which, now that I've typed that out, I wonder if that's why digital models typically sound so flat and lifeless? They can manage to create the fundamental sound, but can't replicate the harmonic complexity?
I've heard good things about Torpedo Live, but it'll be awhile before I can afford something like that. What makes the Studio version worth double the price? What's appealing is that it eliminates the need to buy mics, interfaces, etc. Do you know if it's capable of simulating multiple mics simultaneously? Or, can I record a DI and feed it back through the Torpedo for processing? The one effect I'd like to achieve is having two mics on the speaker and a room mic.
Of course, this kind of hits on part of my problem. Money. What I was hoping to do was to find a way to get satisfactory results fairly cheaply, then upgrade over time as I got more confident in my abilities. But, so far all the cheap options have been frustrating enough that I've walked away from the idea. The reason I'm willing to pay a lot for a guitar is because I will use it almost every day for years on end. When you average out the cost over time that works out to relatively cheap entertainment. My R9 is currently at $5/day, but I didn't just run out and buy and R9... I played an Epiphone first, bought a used Gibson USA... worked up over time.
I'd be willing to spend on recording software/hardware if I felt I could achieve similar value, but I haven't been able to get the ball rolling enough to sustain it. I think you hit the nail on the head though... In hindsight I've been focusing too much on the guitar aspect (mics, interface, silent recording, etc), but it's actually the ability to create drum scores that's my biggest bottleneck at the moment.
Supply and demand. Or something. As a guitar player I could probably get work if I tried but it wouldn't be good work and it would pay poorly. If I had to gig, I'd rather play bass. Classic rock / drinking music is way more fun to play on Bass anyhow. Beyond that, I think it is normal to have one or two things that are done at a professional level. Everything else suffers as a result of the time demands from the pro endeavours.
I'd rather play bass too. It's a fundamentally under-appreciated instrument, yet it drives the music and creates half the tone that guitarists who don't know any better are trying to achieve on their own.
But... (IMO) it's really boring to play by yourself.
