Got several instruments, but need some software help?

[keithpurtell]

I've been trying for more than 30 years to find a way to create music. First, the "normal" route: lessons in guitar, voice, keyboard and bass. None of them took (I never got good enough to perform publicly), although each was useful in understanding how musicians put a song together. Recently I've been experimenting with recording software like Audacity. My idea is to record each part of a song and use the software to edit out the flubs, then mix the tracks, then take the "outline" to qualified musicians interested in my ideas and see if they want to help me create professional versions. Sounds crazy, but it's one of the only ideas I have left on how to make this work. The problem is which software to move up to. I need to edit my riffs into measures without looking at a raw waveform and not knowing where the 1 and-a-2 are located. Understanding rhythm is my bugaboo. Is there software out there that will show me how to put this together in proper time as well as add simple effects like reverb and then mix down?

 

[DD83]

Hi. Not too sure if there is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) out there that will show you where to put track data because it wants to be flexible and allow you to make that decision. However DAWs like Ableton live do allow for easy time-strecting to allow you to fit audio/midi into any tempo and working in "blocks" or "sections" as opposed to linear recording. This could be just what your looking for. It's worth looking into at least.

I need to edit my riffs into measures without looking at a raw waveform and not knowing where the 1 and-a-2 are located

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

 

[mjbphotos]

You can try Reaper for free REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits but I don't think it matters what DAW you use, you will always be looking at waveforms (or MIDI data in piano roll form) when editing. Reaper has a built-in metronome, so you can set your measures by beat or time, set your grid by note/fraction of note length, and 'snap to' the grid to keep everything lined up.

 

[keithpurtell]

Thanks for the tips. I pictured some "dream software" that would let me toggle between waveforms and measures like sheet music; some visual way to easily see that I've got four beats per measure or whatever. I'll check out both suggestions!

 

[kcearl]

Thanks for the tips. I pictured some "dream software" that would let me toggle between waveforms and measures like sheet music; some visual way to easily see that I've got four beats per measure or whatever. I'll check out both suggestions!

many of the larger DAW programmes will let you toggle between waveforms and notation, Im not sure how detailed or useful it is though..

Note: Ableton doesnt have notation

 

[TimOBrien]

Reaper is the biggest bang-for-the-buck you'll find. Easily compares to program 10x the price.

Reaper does not have notation built-in, but it DOES allow you to have a notation program as an external editor (you click on a midi item and it pops up in the notation program for editing/printing/etc.)

Musescore.org is a free notation editor I use in Reaper all the time.

The combo is killer, especially for the price.