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SICK OF MEAT AND THREE VEG FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH AND DINNER? THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO PRO TOOLS.

Pro Tools is the audio world's staple diet. But do we have to acquiesce to its pre-eminence? Many music producers have found alternatives. Peter Farnan reports.

Doug Roberts, ARIA award-winning producer and engineer, has worked with The Badloves, Mick Jagger, Diesel, Chris Wilson, Jack Jones, Nick Barker and Mick Thomas. After leaving Metropolis Audio he built his own recording facility in a rural setting near Melbourne. Clam Shoals provides a large drum room, a collection of beautiful amps and guitars, a pristine signal path and Doug's quiet, assured bedside manner.

'Til now I have been recording on Mackie HD because of its bullet proof stability.' Doug also runs a PC with Sonar 'because it is the most intuitive. It's set out like a console. I never had to look at a manual'.

The gunpowder in Doug's cannon is a pair of UAD-1 DSP cards: 'I'm absolutely in love'.

UAD cards run powerful plug-ins emulating classic gear. Previously mixing on his Mackie console through outboard gear, Doug now uses the PC which allows him to instantly flit between projects. Significantly, he can massage audio the way he could with big budgets and antique gear at Metropolis Audio,specifically EQ, compression and issues of punch and fidelity. He loves the emulations of the LA 2A and Pultec.

'UAD cards match the capacity of Pro Tools in all regards except latency when tracking. The dream is to be able to track on the PC. They've never been stable enough...but Sonar has been rock solid and I'm giving it some serious thought.'

Willy Zygier (songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, engineer, producer) approaches production from the compositional end. Deborah Conway's collaborator across six albums, he also composes for film and TV. He moved from Logic on a Mac to Nuendo on a PC for the latest Conway/Zygier opus, Summertown. The guitar player laments 'being thrust into the position of being an odd job man, ...having to engineer when it's not my specialty'. Summertown's engineering credit goes to 'whoever wasn't playing an instrument.'

Willy believes that all audio and sequencing packages do roughly the same things. 'Unlike Logic everything is on the main window. I can do most things from there. There is no tempo list with Nuendo, however, which I would sometimes like for matching events to pictures.'

He also uses Propellerhead's Reason, the nifty emulation of a rack of synths, loop players, drum machines and effects. 'Reason and Nuendo run seamlessly together via Rewire. It's as if they are the one program. I do all my sequencing in Nuendo using Reason's sounds.'

All-rounder Adrian Hannan has the ears and expertise of a studio engineer, and the chops and compositional skills of a trained multi-instrumentalist. His production and engineering credits include Taxiride and the Androids. Pro Tools is his mixing and recording medium of choice but his work is diverse: 'Guys who do lots of different kinds of work are forced to use different kinds of material for different kinds of jobs. You need a pretty big arsenal.' Adrian runs Logic as his sequencer into Pro Tools via the Emagic esb bridge. 'If it's dancey...I hook up with Reason' for 'a good selection of synths. I also like...Beast, which has a really gritty sound. Stylus is...another fabulous loop based tool.'

For Jacks-of-all-trades, Pro Tools' options are perhaps limited. A highly evolved non linear tape recorder, Pro Tools' strength is its audio. Logic, Cubase, Sonar, Digital Performer et al are compositional tools evolved from midi sequencers. These distinctions are gradually blurring.

As for myself, I’m a Logic Pro user, I enjoy an immensely powerful midi sequencer equipped with an array of virtual instruments. My work in theatre, film and TV calls for anything from abstract sound design to convincing representations of traditional instruments. Logic, augmented by Reason, enables me to work efficiently in all areas, although I haven't achieved the seamless integration of Willy's Nuendo/Reason setup.

I chose a high end signal path and a/d converter (Focusrite ISA 430) over Pro Tools TDM or HD hardware. I record one thing at a time, assuming that if it 'goes in' at high quality, it will 'come out' the same. Projects can be mixed by me or transferred to bigger Pro Tools rigs. I tracked Rachael Kane's album Appetite on Logic at my place, recorded drums with Kalju Tonuma on Pro Tools and then handed the files to Adrian Hannan for mixing.

I need the compositional and musical generative power of Logic. PT's midi implementation is basic, lacking the transformers, hyper editors, event lists, midi environment objects Logic provides. Adrian's Logic screenset displays the same data in the Event List, Matrix Editor and Score Editor.

However, many regard the Logic learning curve as quite steep. Logic audio now zooms in to sample level on the arrange page. To move audio around, however, I must use a gradient of ticks. This is a major limitation: sample based editing on the main arrange page is essential for comping drums or groups of instruments. Willy's Nuendo achieves this. For Adrian, 'Nothing beats Beat Detective in Pro Tools. I've watched guys comping drums in Logic and I shudder.' Logic would benefit from PT's 'tab to transient' feature.

For comping vocals, however, I prefer Logic, which allows multiple tracks to address the same output channel without requiring voice allocation fiddling or dragging out regions. I can mute/un-mute tracks and/or regions across many tracks, creating a visual patchwork of regions for auditioning.I then drag my favourites onto a comp track.

Logic has, at the time of writing, been recently dumped by local distributor Electric Factory, not auguring well for the ongoing viability of a sophisticated music program requiring informed, specific retail support.

The final word belongs to bass player Mick Girosole, former member of The Black Sorrows and a rapacious music software user who configures PCs for music production. 'In the end we all do the same

10 to 20 things: engage record ready, cut, copy, paste etc. It comes down to your own attempts at making music. When is the last time a program actually inspired a new way of making music for you?'

Peter Farnan, former member of Boom Crash Opera, is an independent composer, producer and performer.

Adrian Hannan c/o songstr@bigpond.net.au

Doug Roberts c/o Clam Shoals

Willy Zygier c/o www.deborahconway.com

Mick 'Mr Computer Man' c/o mickeeg@aanet.com.au

Peter Farnan. PlayPlay P/L c/o jcrying@vicnet.net.au