Immediately what comes to mind is track automation and soft synths. Track automation is dead easy compared to assigning MIDI to a soft synth, and the resolution is higher.Guitar Gaz wrote: I cannot understand why anyone would want to record on one long linear sequence unless they have completely composed and arranged all sections of a song or piece beforehand - I ain't no Mozart so I need to break things down - into Chunks if you like.
So Vision was superb at sequences and subsequences, DP has Chunks which are a bit clunkier (you have to select a chunk to work on it with a few seconds delay, in Vision you kept them all open and just clicked onto the one you wanted for instant editing). However DP can be used this way - and interestingly the one feature Reason brought in a few years ago was Blocks - which gives you the ability to have lots of - gulp! - separate sequences you can work on and eventually join in a larger Song type sequence.
I am now hearing that Logic X which I was looking at trying (the price is so cheap really) doesn't do separate sequences, chunks, or blocks - one of the reasons I abandoned Garageband as even a basic scratchpad for quick ideas was this single project prison. Why would anyone want to record that way unless they were just used to it? To me it makes recording and composing just more difficult - might as well go back to multi-track tape like the studio I used to work in during the 1970's.
I don't care what anyone says - its natural to work in separate sequences or chunks - songwriters come up with a verse maybe or a chorus first, and then put a song together bit by bit. You can do that in a linear fashion but its much easier breaking it down. I suppose classical pieces would prefer a linear approach in developing - although I would still have separate chunks for 1st Movement etc. To me, and my father who was an old school type of musical arranger with the Bee Gees and others, the technological breakthrough of sequencers freed up composition and recording. I am looking now at his original Roland MSQ-700 sequencer, the Linn Drum, and his DX7 with which he embraced the new way of doing things. And me too having worked in a 1970's studio with 16 track tape.
Don't think I'll bother then with Logic......
If you use Chunks to write with you're going to want to use V-Racks, and V-Racks do not do track automation. If you use a sampler like Kontakt then it's not a big deal but plenty of soft synths out there do not do MIDI automation that well, and they all work beautifully with track automation. The reason for this is simple, every other sequencer out there besides DP is essentially a linear track sequencer.
It's not at all that bad in DP though, If I want to work with track automation during the writing process I just write in a single "Chunk" and use a sequence, scratch sequence workflow in Chunks. Though for this writing style the other DAWs concepts of MIDI to a single VI makes much more sense, especially if it's not a multi tumbrel instrument, less clutter in the arrangement. Other things make sense as well like the object oriented MIDI approach.