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Korg i3 DAW?

basscooker

basscooker

Inactive
Commercial User
Apr 11, 2010
5,727
10,063
Northern KY
Disclosures
Cab fan, hobbyist
#1
My (just turned 16) son is getting to the point where the free apps (right now the phone version of Garage Band and the app Band Lab) are a little "kiddie" or whatever. He is doing a LOT of composing for fun. Some of his creations are well thought out and arranged. He's got a pretty good ear.

My question is regarding his moving up to something a bit more. He isn't particularly good at actually writing parts... just good at arranging parts.

Is the Korg i3 still too advanced for him?

Looking for something that is close to or just like the atforms he has now, but more involved and capable of at least standard format exporting of files...

I'm cemetery out of my league with anything but old school analog 8 track, like Tascam tape deck old school. I want to embrace his passion but don't want to waste money on something that isn't compatible for sharing and collaborating.

Help please and thank you.
 
#4
Of all totally free DAWs I've tried, the one without obvious limitations is Cakewalk, which is not cross platform. It was formerly known as Sonar, and quite costly, then Bandlab saved it. Their cloud service is not obtrusive within the DAW, which is a plus.

Ardour looks rather clumsy but I think it's quite powerful as well. Mixbus is proprietary but often discounted and based on Ardour with analogue console modelling tone and UI-wise. There's at least another one I tried which was full featured but with a rather peculiar UI by design: Tracktion Waveform. It didn't work for me, YMMV.

I did a bunch of projects in Bandlab, but in the end I settled with Reaper for $60, which is what I personally suggest.

Highlights:

Cross platform and more used around than Bandlab; it doesn't have the drawbacks of niche software, the user base is vast.

Great on CPU and resources/memory. Generally very stable.

Loads of videos, tutorials and written stuff around - i.e. Kenny Gioia's YouTube channel.

Customisable to the bone, can be seen as a double-edged sword but the function or feature you need is usually one Google search away.

You can keep several projects open at once as tabs, the way you do in your web browser. I think this is a great one.

I like their idea of "folder" tracks as bus channels, IMO it makes sense in a digital environment.

Great backwards compatibility (i.e. VST2, 32-bit stuff...)

Separate slot for monitoring plugins, which doesn't affect exports.

In the end, I actually enjoy using it regardless of its price tag, like many others.
 
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#11
I use Reaper, but it's utterly lacking in inspiration. No built in instruments or drum loops. If Logic has a lot of the virtual instruments that Garage Band does, that's what I'd go with. My buddy uses garage band and the amp emulators, synths, and drum loops are really nice. I'd love to have them all in Reaper.

I used Pro Tools for 6 or 7 years, but the last free version of pro tools I got was utter garbage. Pro Tools Intro might be good, but I don't think their price for the paid versions is worth it.

Cakewalk has a really cool virtual drummer function, but i found Cakewalk very hard to learn when I had it around 2015.
 
#12
What hardware will he run this DAW on? iPad? Laptop/Desktop? Mac or Windows?

There are different solutions for recording acoustic instruments, compared to MIDI software instruments. What's he doing mostly now?

A stand alone keyboard arranger like the Korg i3 you mentioned seems very nice to have. It can also connect to a computer via USB and work that way. Seems light, practical and affordable.

Probably a good idea to do a few repeat visits to some local music stores and try out the many options.

Everything will work, so simply pick one that he fancies the most for his needs.
 
#14
Logic is legit grown-up GarageBand, if he’s used to/familiar with GB it’ll be an easy transition. Not sure how familiar he is with piano/keys, but if he’s full-stop on some lo-fi/FlyLo/Tyler type production, he might be better served/more inspired by a micro synth with some kind of drum pad, maybe look at some of Akai’s offerings? Or separate micro synths and drum pads that you can link together that are within budget.
 
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#15
Nothing beats Reaper as per performance, by far. My 9y/o can use Reaper, and usually does create (weird) music there using samples. Been using ProTools (sucky) and Cubase (great) for many years. They were both out the window after 1 week using Reaper. No built in instrumentos tho', but nothing you can't get from the multitude of free VST download sites around the internet.
 
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#16
Logic would be the natural transition from GarageBand. Logic has a massive loop and sound library. So getting started on a composition is easy. Other things you would need are headphones, USB interface, midi keyboard. As well as an instrument, that’s all you would need for a demo composition.
 
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#17
I've used DAW's from ProTools, Cool Edit, Audacity, but ended up with Reaper. It is free to try for as long as you like and will only bug you every time you boot it up to buy it. I ended up paying the $60 like most people do because it is so good. And, there is a youtube video for just about anything you want to do with it.
 
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#18
basscooker said:
My (just turned 16) son is getting to the point where the free apps (right now the phone version of Garage Band and the app Band Lab) are a little "kiddie" or whatever. He is doing a LOT of composing for fun. Some of his creations are well thought out and arranged. He's got a pretty good ear.

My question is regarding his moving up to something a bit more. He isn't particularly good at actually writing parts... just good at arranging parts.

Is the Korg i3 still too advanced for him?

Looking for something that is close to or just like the atforms he has now, but more involved and capable of at least standard format exporting of files...

I'm cemetery out of my league with anything but old school analog 8 track, like Tascam tape deck old school. I want to embrace his passion but don't want to waste money on something that isn't compatible for sharing and collaborating.

Help please and thank you.
Click to expand...
Logic is a great next step up from Garage Band. Lots of similarities, very stable, easy to use, highly common and compatible. Mac only though.
 
#20
The i3 is pretty simple as hardware workstations go. Even Garageband has more powerful tools for composition and recording. The first "serious" Korg workstation is the Kross, which is about $800 new.

What keyboard (if any) is he using now? Is he using Garageband on a Mac or a phone? If he's on a Mac, buy Logic, it's only $200 and will last him a lifetime. For composition, it even supports notation.
 

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