Recording Software Advice

[fidgetyfeet]

Hi,I guess everyone has their dru, oops I mean daw of choice. I'm hooked on Cubase. Mike

[goulash]

I use ACID Pro 6 for everything from loop based tracks to live recording. Easyish to use, comes with a manual (fat one in pdf) but like most manuals, don't bother reading it unless you're stuck. If you try to read it from end to end it won't make much sense. It's PC based and in all the years i've been using it, it's never let me down

[robbylane]

Since you are a newbie, You may want to consider Adobe Audition. It started out being named Cool Edit Pro and then Adobe purchased it, hence the name change. If you use any software download sites, you can find Cool Edit and Adobe 2.0, which is the older but still useable version (and I am not advocating illegal download sites. Paying or NOT paying is a personal choice among all people). There are some awesome inexpensive video tutorials that can be purchased on eBay which will teach you how to use Adobe, or probably any of the other programs that have been mentioned in this thread by others. Bear in mind, you will have to devote tine and focus to learning everything you can about your DAW of choice, but the more you know abotu it, the best you can make of it. Knowledge IS power! Just take time to Google-search verious DAWS so that you can make what you feel is your smartest choice, for you do not want to devote your valuable time to anything inferior. Also, if you would to "get your feet wet" by messing aropund with a very simple but effective recording software, you can download and use Audacity for free. And I want to remind you, as was mentioned by another member here, you need to have an interface (A/D converter), which is simply a small electronic device that ou can plug your mic or instrument into...and the interface will have a USB cable that attaches to your computer. Because in order for you to record anything into your computer, you have to be able to "plug into" your computer and an A/d Converter (meaning Analog to Digital) is the only way to make that happen. If you already knew this, I apologize for being too detailed.

[taketwo]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am going to look into some of these other software suggestions. My soundcard is a Sound Blaster Audigy X2 with the front pass through for microphone, rca inputs, midi, ect. and a firewire input. Will I still need an analog to digital input? I'm new to this home recording thing but I'm anxious to start recording my music. I play guitar so naturally that is analog, but my keyboard/piano has a usb connection to sync up with my computer. My other computer specs are 2.6 GHZ P4 processor w/ 2 GB memory & 250 GB IDE harddrive running Win XP Pro. The sound card has jumpers for use of condenser/ non-condenser microphones.

[t4mh]

TaketwoYou can use the soundcard if you want to try it but I'd bet that you won't really be happy with the results as you progress. I haven't really followed soundcard development for some time but I know there used to be a number of these specifically made for audio recording. I would guess that sooner or later you will want to purchase some sort of A/D converter that you can plug your guitar or keyboards into. Whatever software package you buy will recognize the device and use it for audio input and output. I personally use a USB converter and that is really easy to set up and sounds great. That is my personal criteria. A lot of these will do 24bit depth at 96KHz ( DVD quality )very well. For just audio you'll probably do 16bit, 44.1KHz ( CD quality ) and so this is well within the ability of the device. Many of these come with a variety of inputs and outputs. Only you can decide what you need in that area. Once you decide you need this you'll find there are about a Bazillion different models on the market and everyone will have an opinion on which is best...This is OK and I'm sure everyone here will try to help you with the price vs quality issue. Good Luck!Keith

[derekmcfarland]

I started off with Cakewalk Home Studio then switched over to ProTools 7.3 when I needed compatibility with studios I was sharing files with. I've since upgraded to 8.0. I found that they operated in a similar manner (Home Studio and PT, that is). I've heard lots of good things about all the programs mentioned on this thread. The main issue for me was compatibility with the "industry" format.