ShawnParsonz ( ShawnParsons was already taken)

Sonar X3 Producer is at the heart of everything I do with music.  It is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that allows me to use my piano keyboard to record all the different instruments and parts that are then put together.  

We record the separate instruments and parts on separate 'Tracks'.  You can see the tracks in the large window in the upper right part of the screen above.  Each track has it own 'Channel' that allows us to manipulate that track independently of the others.  You can see the channels in the large panel at the bottom in the screen above.

Then we control the entire mix with the 'Master Control Strip' that you can see on the left hand side of the screen above.  

The Yamaha MOX8 is my main keyboard.  The primary reason I purchased it is because Yamaha has the best weighted key action of all the keyboards on the market today.  That means that it feels and plays like a real piano.  It also has a full 88 keys and some very nice voices: a great Ballad Piano Stack, a sweet Flute, and an awe inspiring Layered Orchestra.  It also has full parameter editing of all of the voices.

A lot of the rest of what it does can also be done in Sonar X3.  So I don't utilize that part of the keyboard software, and I do most of the editing and arranging in Sonar.  The MOX8 is a great keyboard just to sit down at, pick your instrument, and loose yourself for an hour or two in musical nirvana.  Don't have a 'honey-do list' when you sit down to this baby!  And I can't forget a great pair of Studio Headphones.  I am using an older set of Sony MDR-V900's that are great - gotta have my 'ear-candy'.
 

The music videos are just something I do for fun.  It is my way of 'scrapbooking' events and life in general.  For this I use Sony Vegas Pro.  I have tried lots of other free and inexpensive software but always run into a wall over something.  

So....  I spent the bucks.  There is no substitute for quality software.  It just makes life so much easier.  Again, there is a lot of stuff I don't know how to use in it, but what I do know and use works great.  And if I do need to broaden the horizons, I know that the functionality is there.