Ultra low budget DAW?

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kawasakiguy37

New member
Currently looking for an ultra low budget DAW - I dont need more than two inputs, prefer something with decent preamps, and it has to have midi. Currently looking at used Tascam US-144's and some Saffire Pro 6 USB (some seem to be USB 2.0)?

Ill be connecting an old yamaha keyboard and I have a set of studio monitors I'd also like to get going on my desktop. Running an i7 with windows 7 and plenty of RAM - running protools 10 now but probably going to upgrade to 11 soon
 
Hi Kawasakiguy. Welcome. So you get started correctly, that what you described is an interface. The DAW is usually the software that you record to and mix in (Protools in your case and it it not low budget). Between the two you mentioned, I would lean towards the Focusrite. At the lower end, they have a pretty good reputation. Tascam makes good product, just that particular model you mentioned doesn't seem all that great. Others on here might have a different opinion.

One item to note, you probably know this, but will say it just in case. You MIDI connection will just transmit data to the computer, no sound. So for your keyboard alone, you will need two inputs. If you do vocals as well, you will either need a mixer to manage connections (that is what I do) or you will be connecting and disconnecting a lot. Just a heads up.

Let us know how you fare.
 
No worries on the vocals - I mainly want to use the keyboard for just doing some simple scores for films.

I'm primarily an editor by trade (mainly use Avid MC and Adobe Premiere) and part of the reason I want an interface is also so that these studio monitors I bought sound a bit better (built in soundcard isnt cutting it)

Im looking at the saffire 6 because it can be had cheaply on ebay - but Im wondering if these are all the USB 1.1 versions? I think I would definitely want USB 2.0 - seems it would improve the latency, no?
 
kawasakiguy37 said:
No worries on the vocals - I mainly want to use the keyboard for just doing some simple scores for films.

I'm primarily an editor by trade (mainly use Avid MC and Adobe Premiere) and part of the reason I want an interface is also so that these studio monitors I bought sound a bit better (built in soundcard isnt cutting it)

Im looking at the saffire 6 because it can be had cheaply on ebay - but Im wondering if these are all the USB 1.1 versions? I think I would definitely want USB 2.0 - seems it would improve the latency, no?
Click to expand...

Yea, USB 2.0 would not settle for less.

I started using Adobe Premiere around middle 90's, 4.0 was the last version and a Miro video capture card. There was still a lot of tape.
 
so Im eyeing both the tacam us 144 and 122 pretty closely - theres a lot of cheap ones on craigslist

Im worried however they dont have balanced outputs - is this realistically going to affect how good of a signal I get output to my monitors? Im not worried too much about noise per se as with my current system and a simple unbalanced TRS there isnt any, but the fidelity is sorely lacking
 
kawasakiguy37 said:
so Im eyeing both the tacam us 144 and 122 pretty closely - theres a lot of cheap ones on craigslist

Im worried however they dont have balanced outputs - is this realistically going to affect how good of a signal I get output to my monitors? Im not worried too much about noise per se as with my current system and a simple unbalanced TRS there isnt any, but the fidelity is sorely lacking
Click to expand...

Balanced or not won't affect sound quality, just the chances of noise getting in. For short distance unbalanced should be fine.
 
N-Track Studio is real cheap....I got a copy of it years ago when it first came out for like $60.....and they've been sending me free version upgrades ever since. I think today the latest version is like $90 and there's a lite version for $50.

n-Track Studio Multitrack Recording Digital Audio Workstation Software

That said...I only used it when I first got it, and then shortly after that I bought Samplitude, and that's what I still use today, but Samplitude is a few hundred $$$ more.
 
Those Tascam units are fine. They'll do 16/44.1 and that's arguably good enough.

A great test of your system is to run a cd player with a favorite cd into L&R and play it back in your daw.
If it sounds good, then there you are.
 
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