Best software for dance music/pop?

J

Jeylan

New member
Hey everyone,

I'm new to the forum, I've joined as I'm basically wanting to learn more about how to create my own tracks. I'm a vocalist but I've also composed a few tracks of my own using reason 4 in the past and I want to begin creating my own music again.
So my question to you guys is which do you find is the best program for creating professional sounding music? I am focused on making mainly dance/pop.
I know there will probably be lots of varied opinions, but I'm considering getting new software to replace reason.
I've been told a bit about pro tools and pro logic.
But also had a couple of people discouraging me from using those too as their unnecessarily complex? Do any of you guys use those programs and if so, how difficult are they to learn how to use? Is it possible to teach yourself with manuals and research etc?
As you can probably tell I am quite inexperienced lol But the projects I made were quite decent!
Thanks for reading, any replies would be much appreciated.
 
I would personally go with Abelton or FL Studio. Abeltons work flow is great but that also comes with a price. FL Studio is hard to deal with at times but you really cant go wrong with free life time updates. Really you should download the demos and just check them out for yourself.
 
tomkillsjerry said:
I would personally go with Abelton or FL Studio. Abeltons work flow is great but that also comes with a price. FL Studio is hard to deal with at times but you really cant go wrong with free life time updates. Really you should download the demos and just check them out for yourself.
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Great, thanks I'll definately get FL. :)
 
you're not gonna get a lot of pro tools votes on this forum but I love pro tools. Everyone swears by ableton, but personally I hate working in it and other daw for that matter (I've use reason and FL too). Pro Tools is a little trickier to learn but once you understand it; every other daw just feels like you're being held back.. Im not saying Pro Tools is better, I'm saying thats how I FEEL every time i have to use a different daw.

Another thing worth noting is i was forced to learn Pro Tools because of school, I didnt even want to. I was completely biased going in, I wanted to learn Logic. It wasn't everyone talking about "industry standard daws" and all that marketing stuff that got me into Pro Tools. I got into Pro Tools strictly because of how nice it was to work in ONCE YOU LEARNED IT. I genuinely without biased can say I have no intention of EVER going to another daw, and I do know ableton pretty good to as well as reason, so its not because I don't know them; its because Pro Tools is a power house.
 
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Ableton is practically made for EDM. Very easy to use once you get the hang of it. Nice effects for EDM. You can even change the color of the screen as well if that's a drawback.

A nice synth for dance pop would be something like Sylenth1 VST or Element by Waves.com. OR even synthmaster which is cumbersome to make your own presets.
 
I would suggest that you weigh up your options with the demos and then make a decision based on which one best fits the way you like to think about/work with musical ideas
 
bandcoach said:
I would suggest that you weigh up your options with the demos and then make a decision based on which one best fits the way you like to think about/work with musical ideas
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I agree... and today

Cakewalk synths are on sale at PLUGINBOUTIQUE.com real cheap real quality.
 
I would strongly advise against buying a big, expensive synth vst for dancey pop music.
You just won't need the extra features that come with say, massive or zeta ( you could get zeta anyway, it's pretty cheap, but it's not necessary at all)

I am certain combining your stock synths with a little reverb, distortion and compression will get you all the sounds you could possibly want for this kind of music. It might not feel like it at first, but once you've learned what all the buttons do you can do pretty much every common dancey sound.

You could get sylenth, it's a nice simple little synth, but personally I don't think it goes much beyond what stock synths do.


As for DAWs, I've no idea... sorry :D
 
When you say software, obviously you mean DAW. Well you're gonna need vsts as well. Ableton is a DAW first and foremost, its vsts aren't its strong suit, in fact they suck. Nexus2 is the closest thing to the dance music of today, especially the new EDM expansion. Synthmaster2 has these sounds as well (better quality) along with VPS Phalanx. There's also new Massive Patches at Synthmob called "Nexus based Presets" that has these 'new' sounds. If I were you Id get a cheap but good DAW like Reaper and then buy Massive and all the above. Forget about Ableton, its overpriced and its Vsts are weak. Vsts are what makes this music, the DAW is just a container. All Daws are good.
 
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Kinh said:
When you say software, obviously you mean DAW. Well you're gonna need vsts as well. Ableton is a DAW first and foremost, its vsts aren't its strong suit, in fact they suck. Nexus2 is the closest thing to the dance music of today, especially the new EDM expansion. Synthmaster2 has these sounds as well (better quality) along with VPS Phalanx. There's also new Massive Patches at Synthmob called "Nexus based Presets" that has these 'new' sounds. If I were you Id get a cheap but good DAW like Reaper and then buy Massive and all the above. Forget about Ableton, its overpriced and its Vsts are weak. Vsts are what makes this music, the DAW is just a container. All Daws are good.
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This is true, but only if you use presets instead of designing your own sounds. Stock synths in any DAW won't come with much in the way of presets, but as I have said in another thread, you can chain stock synths with FX to make sounds as good as presets, if you know a bit of sound design.
 
bandcoach said:
I would suggest that you weigh up your options with the demos and then make a decision based on which one best fits the way you like to think about/work with musical ideas
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Couldn't have said it better myself. IMO Logic and Pro Tools have a steep learning curve. Ableton and Music Maker are more accessible IMO, with Music Maker a solid entry level DAW for making music. Remember it isn't the software that is magical, it is the knowledge of the person using it!
 
I think it depends on what you're comfortable with. Reason works well too and is quite affordable.
Might be worth checking out. Other than that, FL and Ableton work well too.

Just try something and see if it works for you. You could always download software trials to make your choices easier to make.
 
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