DAW Advice

marco.swe

New member
Hello everyone.

I have a Presonus Studio 26 and a pair of Rode NT55 using Studio One Artist.
The purpose is to record acoustic violin solo.

I manage to perform recordings but I am not satisfied with the result and using the DAW: I do not find it intuitive as written on the web.
Do you have any opinion/experience about that?

Do you guys can advice me a Simple and intuitive DAW that will allow me to record an acoustic violin solo with my setup?
I do not need so many functionalities.: I would like to record, add some basic minor post-production effect (EQ, Ambient effect, Compressor, etc....) and export in Wav.

I work on a Windows based computer but my wife has Mac in case you think it is better.

Thanks a lot for your help!
 
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A couple things here. It's not clear what you are unhappy with about your recordings.................so it's going to be very difficult for us to make proper suggestions for improvement. The mics should be good enough to get you the result you want......so the problem can be anything from the room acoustics to mic placement....and on and on. So....tell us more about how you set up...........and if possible.......include a clip of your result.

As for your DAW........don't let it intimidate you just because it can do far more than you need it to do. You could change DAW's may times....only to find that there's at least some learning curve to all of them. The good thing is that you only need to learn some basics so check out some YouTube videos that cover introductory aspects of your DAW and spend as bit of time leaning them and you'll be ok.
 
Thanks for your reply Mickster.

Here the link to the recording:

Dropbox - Caprice24.wav

What I do not like and that I would like to improve is the interface. I do not like the way the cursors work, the fact I need to press "export stems" to produce my recordings, the fact the software takes the exclusive of the audio device so I need to restart the PC if I want to listen to the wav file after the export.....these things.

For sure I do not know well how to use it, but, in same time, I do not feel comfortable with it. I believe I should use something easier and more intuitive.
 
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That's not bad fiddling there - tough piece!

It sounds like it's primarily the DAW you are struggling with, though I'd be curious to know about your micing technique. It sounds like it could be a bit close, and is it an XY setup?

Is the recording a bounce of the two tracks with no effects? I'm a little confused by your "export stems" comment, but in quick googling I see that comes up more in Studio One topics than I expected! I'm used to "bouncing" my mix to stereo. Usually, I think most of us would record the 2 mics, even on a single instrument, as separate mono tracks, then "bounce" to the stereo output after doing whatever mixing steps we wanted to do. I confess I looked briefly at some Studio One videos and wasn't impressed with the quality, plus they have a slightly different terminology and workflow than I'm used to.

I'd say most of us also do the playback through the same interface we record through, with our monitors and headphones plugged into the interface semi-permanently, even if we use a notebook as the main computer. So, the fact that it's the system audio output device is actually how we'd like it to work. Then, e.g. (t.ex.) I can just listen to my own mix, switch over to something on YouTube or a downloaded track, and just keep listening to all of those different sources through the same output.

You could see if your wife would let you try GarageBand on the Mac - it's a free program, just to compare the workflow and decide if that's more intuitive. It's a Mac-only piece of software, though, so you'd be stuck with that device.

Lots of folks use Reaper that works on both Windows and Mac, and has an active user community. It's free to try that, so probably not a waste of time, because finding a DAW and workflow that fits does take time, and you have to spend a little time with each to understand and use it to really get a feel for which one is going to make your life easier. I don't think it's really possible to say this or that DAW is going to work better for you until you've tried a few and decided yourself.
 
Hello again.
The recording is a solo piece, one track, very little EQ and little "ambient" effect. Microphones are on A-B setup. In the past I have had quite good results with ORTF setup: violin less scratchy and sound more smooth.
The piece was recorded quite improvised: the violinist was tired after a concert and did not study the piece. Anyway was a great job :-)

The sound quality is not disturbing me much. I know I can get much better results with better mic placing and software skills. A lot to improve from my side :-)

The fact is that I do not like Studio One! I do not like to work with it and would like an easier and more intuitive alternative.
I was thinking to try Reaper.

Any other suggestion?

Thanks a lot :-)
 
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