Dreams of portable power – software

In the previous installment of what I call “Dreams of portable power” I talked about some basic hardware to use in your portable rig. With todays technology it’s actually possible to achieve a full-blown rig with just a laptop. Here’s some of the tools I’d pick for the job.

While there are virtual studios out there such as Reason and Buzz they are not my choice. If they are your choice then fine. You probably already possess kick-ass portable power so there’s no need for you reading this post.

Utterly uninteresting fact number 1: I actually used Buzz as one of my main apps for music for a while. I think it had huge potential and really wish Oskari the best of luck with his task of rebuilding it.

Utterly uninteresting fact number 2: When I’m completely naked, meaning only wearing a MacBook as my potential instrument, I often use a tracker to compose. Besides being a big step away from how I normally record with Pro Tools (which is often good for creativity!) it’s also a very good portable solution. With the help of a few samples you can make all kinds of good music. Trackers are also ergonomically very good when you’re using nothing but a keyboard computer and depending on your workflow a MIDI keyboard can actually be completely unnecessary. The two trackers I mainly use nowadays are Milky Tracker and the more advanced Renoise.

Speaking of good ways to compose with nothing but a keyboard. Something I like is apps where I can turn the computer keyboard into a piano. This is great when you have no MIDI keyboard but want to laydown the basic tracks with VI’s anyway. Logic is capable of this, so is Live, and I believe GarageBand is as well. This is a feature I really wish Digidesign will add in the future.

VI’s for portable recording

All VI’s are of course good for portable recordings, but if I would narrow it down here are some of the ones I would use. I’ve picked few highly flexible instruments over many not so flexible. The reason being that laptops often are too weak and have too small hard drives to be cluttered with all you got, so focusing on one powerhouse might be a better idea (given it can take the abuse the powerhouse induce!).

Xpand!: You’re thinking “is he on some funky ‘shrooms?”. Of course not. Xpand! is a really capable instrument in it’s own right, but for songwriting it kicks elephant hiney. It’s very CPU friendly, has most of the basic sounds and is free!

Structure, Kontakt 3: When it comes to do-it-all instruments these are the boys to beat. My personal choice is Kontakt 3 (review here), but if you like Structure better then use it. There have been entire albums made with only Moogs, and some with only Synclaviers. Both Structure and Kontakt 3 are more versaitable than both of these instruments. There’s is simply no good reason why you couldn’t make a full album with just one of these.

Transfuser, Guru: Some might say this is the hiphop choice over Structure or Kontakt 3 but that’s only half the truth. While beat makers probably will enjoy Guru (review here) and Transfuser more there’s no reason why people of [insert genre here] wouldn’t as well as long as they have an open mind towards loops and step sequencing. My pick of these two are Transfuser, but that’s if you’re working in Pro Tools, Guru can be a stand-alone mother.

Hybrid: Some cats like to use primarily synths, and as I said before, full albums and concerts have been given with only Moogs. Hybrid is probably my favorite software synth of all time. Symptohm gets an honorary mention because I’m trying it out right now and am having quite some fun with it.

What’s your pick?