Martín Sequeros
This is a simple music software program, a hybrid between Steinberg's best tools (Cubase, Nuendo, etc.) and others from the competition, such as those used in Ableton "LIVE" or Magix Music Maker, but at a more than affordable price.
Is it complicated to use a computer to record our music?
A friend of mine, a professional musician with a great deal of knowledge of computer-based music tools, recently told me:
"Look, Ignacio, every day I realize more and more that we spend a good few years learning music theory at the Conservatory, and I've come to the conclusion that what never fails is good old 'staff paper.' That one 'never leaves me stranded'..."
Of course, he uses much more sophisticated and expensive programs than the ones we are dealing with here, which also require much more precise and well-equipped machines, with powerful processors, large amounts of RAM, etc. These kinds of programs need to handle an enormous amount of information, their components are extremely expensive and, even so, at some very inconvenient moment they cause problems ("crashes," "latency," etc.) that get in the way of computer-based music work.
But being prepared to handle that "staff paper" (five-line staves printed on paper) fluently is beyond the reach of most of us who want to do interesting things musically without a lot of formal Conservatory "training."
Since the late '70s, Steinberg has been developing and improving programs such as CUBASE (now in its brand-new Version 6), as well as others such as NUENDO, WAVELAB, HALION, etc. They are so powerful that they turn your home computer into a superb recording studio of the highest professional quality that lacks almost nothing: unlimited tracks, an enormous number of sounds of every kind (from real instruments and a huge number of impressive virtual ones), as well as formidable effects for processing each of these sounds (recorded via MIDI or as audio from a mic, guitar, keyboard, etc.), and not only reverbs or vibratos, but much more surprising ones too. About 15 years ago, the most expensive professional recording studios recorded with much less than all that, and they had extremely high installation costs, while also using analog equipment that has long since become obsolete. The development of these new programs is one of the reasons why those "so phenomenal and expensive studios" have disappeared, with only a few remaining that have managed to adapt to this other, digital way of working. Some "went bust" with the changes... The costs of getting similar or even better results dropped so dramatically that those still paying off the installments on that equipment couldn't hold out.
With one of these new programs, even though their prices seem "so ridiculously low," you can get final recordings from a computer without great professional resources that are ready to be edited and distributed commercially, with impeccable results in terms of music production. I wrote an extensive description of CUBASE Version 6 in ISP issue 131 (March 2011); its most complete edition costs about €600.
They also released a somewhat more limited version of this program (over €200), although it keeps its main and most popular tools.
Why SEQUEL now?
Steinberg has clearly decided to keep "hitting the competition hard," not only with its launch price, but also with its features and ease of use.
They are now releasing the third version of SEQUEL for about €80 (much less if you are upgrading from its two previous versions), containing many of the main tools from its other well-known products such as CUBASE, plus more than 500 sounds from the acclaimed HALion (another important Steinberg "star").
It can be installed on both Windows computers and Macintosh (Mac) computers.
Something very important about this program is how easy it is to use and how simple it is to work with.
It comes with an enormous number of built-in patterns (more than 5,000 loops and sounds). For example, a "drum" track, easily. You can "place" (and keep "placing") entire pre-programmed bars one after another, or copy "chunks" of sound and "paste" them as many times as you like.
After practicing this procedure a few times, we will be able to build a rhythm track for one of our new music projects in less time than it would take us to think about how to hold a pair of drumsticks (which we may never have held in our hands...) and how to set up the drums the way we like. With the procedure described, and quickly, the result will sound much like the playing of a "professional drummer"...
Other tracks, such as bass, guitar, etc., can be put together in a similar way, so in a short time you can assemble a surprising and very "professional backing track." Afterward you can add another track with one or more vocals or other instruments you want "played for real," and many more effects (included in SEQUEL) that will make it stand out much more.
For example, if you record an electric guitar "directly into the computer" on a track, you can select different styles of effects (among more than 120 presets) that simulate it as if it "had really been recorded" through various very well-known types of amps, as well as with a wide variety of electronic effects or "effects pedals" built into SEQUEL, all of which can even be modified later, at other stages of post-production, until we are satisfied.
What's more, we can keep trying out a huge number of combinations and modifying sounds after they have been recorded on their respective tracks, both vocals recorded with microphones and any other musical content we have previously performed, via MIDI or line input, so we can create various mixes until we find the one we consider most suitable for our taste. We should also bear in mind that we can always "go back in our experiments," since SEQUEL lets us return to previous states as many times as we think necessary without destroying all the preliminary work. We can also save different files on our computer containing "various experimental versions of our transformations of a song."
This program can be controlled by any other MIDI controller.
It incorporates the new CUBASE tools for "stretching or compressing tracks," as well as the use of "pitch" on them. This program has access to the MediaBay page, which lets you locate audio loops, instrument presets and other useful tools. It also includes a "preview" option to better find exactly what we want to fit, in fine detail, into our music project. Once they are added, we can touch up each acoustic block individually and to our liking.
SEQUEL makes transposition (changes in pitch) easy.
It also has quantization tools, as well as the option of activating "triplets," which in some songs give a better sense of a "human performance." When quantizing, the program moves the notes on the staff to the correct, nearest beat, so as to obtain correctly notated (printable) scores.
If we decide to burn our projects to CD, a special menu with different options appears to make these tasks easier.
Where is SEQUEL sold?
Of course, in stores that sell musical instruments, but it can also be downloaded directly from Steinberg's website, which even offers a "full free trial of the program" (it expires after 30 days).
SEQUEL can perform various different mixes "live"
It has a curious tool that other programs of this kind do not include: you can "slice up" a song you have already recorded into as many as "24 pads" (with a computer, of course), so that "live" we can "fire" them off in different orders, however it occurs to us at each moment of that public session, surprising listeners with a song rearranged this way "at our whim." We can also add various effects (reverb, pitch, decay, etc.) to each of those pads individually, multiplying the surprises for listeners incredibly.
It is also easy to change its "tempo," or rhythm, in beats per second at any time.
We can also program rhythms other than those already stored in the program, giving our music projects greater originality.
Minimum requirements for installing SEQUEL
On any computer, it would not work properly with less than 2 GB of RAM installed. The upper limit is irrelevant, but the more RAM and the better the processor, the more smoothly SEQUEL will run and the lower the latency.
As for processors, dual-core or better is preferable.
The monitor screen should preferably be large (at least 21") with a resolution of 1,280 x 800, ideally. As for hard drive space, it will need at least 9 GB.
It is desirable to have a DVD reader/writer installed in the computer and an internet connection, especially for activating the license.
On Windows it works best from version 7 onward, with an ASIO-compatible sound card installed, which improves latency performance.
On Mac, with OS X version 10.6 or 10.7 and a CoreAudio-compatible audio card.
To see the spec sheet and rating table, download the magazine in PDF
