Need a little advice

D

dee397

New member
I had two questions and would appreciate any input you guys would have. The first is about recording software, I was wondering your preferences and why. The three main programs that most people seem to be using on the home recording level are Cakewalk, Cubase, and Logic Audio. I was wondering what you personally are going with. The second question is related to my master plan to set up my own home studio on the PC so I can get my digital recording on too. :) In all likeliness I'm probably going to be cutting solo tracks but trying to mic up live drums and record a full band isn't out of the picture. I was wondering if you were in my situation, what you would do. Go with something with a more efficient price tag (i.e. 4-track into an 8 i/o soundcard) or go with the full-blown system (i.e. MOTU 24i with a 24 channel Alesis/Mackie/Spirit mixer)? Money isn't really an issue either since I'm young and have time to save up. I noticed a lot of you have your own studio with a little side business going, which is cool. That's what made me think of using the most versatile equipment possible plus I could still do the solo stuff too. Don't get the wrong idea though, I'm more or less getting into recording to learn about it and have fun not to try to go and ca$h in right away. Thanks for any responses.

-dee-
 
I vote for Cakewalk, and have spent lots o time with
all three. Its the easiest to learn, its cheaper,
it is very dependable (ver. 9 ).

Cubase comes with a dongle, a device that connects
to the serial port that prevents copying the software.
I dont buy products from companies who assume I am
a thief. Cubase has (for me) a very ackward interface,
is not nearly as flexible as Cake, and is more expensive.

Emagic Logic Stuff is cool, but for me requires a
steep learning curve for any advantages it might
have over Cakewalk. I have heard it crashes more, I have
no Idea if thats true. My point is I would rather
make music than read manuals.

Download the Demos for Cubase and Cakewalk. With the
Cakewalk demo, you will have a general idea of how it
works in hours, without looking at a manual. This
wont be true with Cubase. Cheers, David
 
I also vote for cakewalk. i have used all three of them, and my opinion is the exact same as DavidK. Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0 is very easy to learn and control, and its very stable. I dont know what to recommend for effects and stuff, directx plugins have always worked fine for my recordings for i wouldnt be surprised if outboard gear is better. i wouldnt go all out as far as getting a motu 24i system. in most cases you probably wont use most of the the stuff it offers. i recommend 8 channels input, and 8 out. really, it almost doesnt even matter how many inputs and outputs you have when your using cakewalk, unless you are doing huge live productions, because just the 2 outputs with cakewalk with be 128 tracks of audio. if you were doing live recordings, input 1=drums, input=guitar, input 3=bass, input 4=vocals, input 5=overhead, input 6=horns, input 7=backup vocals, input 8=kazoo, etc. so basically you should be able to recording everything on seperate tracks. as far as a mixer goes, i recommend a mackie 1604-VLZ Pro. does about everything you would need. of course, everything depends on what you want to do. these are just my opinions.
 
Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 for sale. New and unopened. CD & manual, $140. I have two but obviously only need one.
 
I haven't tried Cakewalk 9, which may change my mind, but i think Cubase is rock solid. It is hard to learn and navigate. But once you learn it, there isn't anything you can't do with it. I like it better because of the way the mixer is set up, you can route anything anywhere, you have an effects rack, just pull it up and all of your send/returns are right there, you can use VST and directX plugins, it's ASIO, latency really isn't a problem if you have a good system. The only wierd thing is it's audio editor, that's the trickist part to learn.

Look into Nuendo from steinberg. I suspect that it is a lot like Cubase with a better interface.

-jhe
 
I use Digi001 with ProTools LE. It's great for audio, but the MIDI side is so-so. I use the free Logic Fun for that, but hopefully the MIDI side of it will be sorted with the 5.1 update. The card has 8 analogue I/O and two of them has mic pres and one has phantom power, There is ADAT and S/PDIF in/out and a one in, one out MIDI interface. It even has a punch-in recording pedal input. The software has 24 tracks audio with a very extensive mixer, and some very useful plug-ins. Only 128 MIDI tracks, but who would use that many MIDI tracks in one song anyway...?
 
yeah i'm using cake9 also

i agree with all of the above,,,,i use cake fer it's easy user interface (plus it is always getting better capabilities),,i have heard that cubase is harder to get down but that it is worth it cause yes it does give u the room and ability to do what most want,,,,,ahhhhhh the pro tools, god it would be nice to have that lol peace and good luck........
 
I've had so many annoying problems with Cakewalk that I couldn't reccomend it to anyone. Some folks are fine with it, but I'm defecting to Vegas Audio soon. There will be much rejoicing when I leave Cakewalk behind for good.
 
Nobody has mentioned n-track yet, which is by far the cheapest on the market, and features wise isn't too shabby. At $35, it really is good value.

The one big diference with n-track over every other audio app is that it is written by one guy, and if you have a decent idea that could be incorporated into it, more than liely, he'll put it in, so you get a say in what it does and how it works. I like that.

n-track probably can't compete directly with Cake and Logic etc. but it will do most things quite happily. Work a look, and you can get a demo version fro mthe site (www.fasoft.com).

Have a look.

- gaffa
 
Hi,
Pg, what problems did you have with cakewalk?
The main problem, or fault, I have with cakewalk:

In console view (looks like a mixer), there are no
led/vu meters in playback mode. That bugs me to
no end, and I am baffled as to why they left this out.
I work with many tracks at a time, and I need to see
flashing lights to see what is going on.

I also would like the ability to resize the console
to fit on one screen without panning, no matter
how small it looks ( although I have a big monitor.)

If anyone out there is going to buy Cakewalk Pro
9 deluxe, heed my warning; DONT. The extra 79
bucks for deluxe gets you a CD with stupid old
videos, crappy rap sounds, etc. Take the 79 clams
and give it to your church, a homeless shelter,
a school, etc. Its the biggest waste of money I have ever seen, so spend it wisely and maybe some poor folks
will eat a meal instead of you looking dumbfoundedly
at a 1930s video of some guy with 9 pool balls in his
mouth. ( I kid you not, it is that bad).

I am waiting for Cakewalk 10, but if they dont add the
playback meters, I am going over to emagic, or,
If I can swallow the cost, Pro Tools. David
 
i'm interrested at buying your cakewalk,
if oyu can answer one simple question: why have you bought(?) two versions of the program?

guhlenn
 
C7sus,cakewalk has no playback meters on individual
tracks. I have a darla 24, and sure, there are 8
meters at the end of the console. But I need a meter
on each track, above the fader, like a real mixer. Also,
Midi doesnt show up on the playback meters, and I do
a lot so I would love that.

Thanx a lot for trying to help though, any other ideas would
be warmly embraced. David
 
David: Before I commence bashing, keep in mind that I don't really do anything with MIDI. Cakewalk started as a MIDI app, and I assume it's still pretty good for MIDI stuff. But a good audio mutitracker it ain't. It works fairly well up to about 6 or 8 tracks with only a few effects, but it becomes much less stable with more complex mixes in my experience. Quite a few intermittent, oddball bugs have shown up over time. One example is muting tracks and they don't actually mute (even though the mute indicator comes on-- very confusing with doubled tracks and all)... only resolved by re-starting the software or in some cases, rebooting. While each particular bug might be somewhat rare in itself, there are enough bugs that I usually can't get through a 4 to 6 hour stint without something in the software acting up.

Bugs aside, Cakewalk is frustrating at best with more complex projects. Zooming is awful even when it does work. The multiple window layout is inefficient and clunky. The "console" seems to have been designed by someone who has never been behind a console in their life. Volume and pan envelopes were a great addition to 9, but the envelope drawing functionality is worse than the zooming. It's only tolerable with a few simple envelopes. The list goes on.

Cakewalk works fine for small projects, but I imagine N-Track does too... for a lot less cash. I've demo-ed several other things, and Vegas Audio 2.0 seems like the best fit for me at this point (I've just been waiting for the extra cash to upgrade from Vegas Pro). As always, YMMV.

(P.S. this is continuing therapy for me. I initially spent a lot of time in denial... trying to convince myself that I like Cakewalk. I'm in a dependent and abusive relationship, and it's nice of y'all to let me get it all out of my system)
 
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