Does anybody here use Audacity. It works for me at this point anyway. I've been using it for a long time so I understand it well enough. I have a new Tascam US1800 interface and I believe it said the 1800 works with any DAW. the 'any' was highlighted to imply any meant any. Haven't tried it yet.
Using Audacity
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jimmys69
MOODerator
Armi is correct. Audacity is not a DAW. You have purchased an interface that is capable of recording multiple tracks at once. Audacity is not going to do that for you.
The 1800 came with Cubase LE5 or 6. Start reading and learning.
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
Armi is correct. Audacity is not a DAW. You have purchased an interface that is capable of recording multiple tracks at once. Audacity is not going to do that for you.
The 1800 came with Cubase LE5 or 6. Start reading and learning.
Wait, I'm pretty Audacity can record multiple tracks at once.
It's pretty barebones, though, and it's a good place to start if you want to seriously get into audio. The purchase of the interface shows that interest.
jimmys69
MOODerator
I wasn't aware that it could. I thought it just had 2 input choices. L/R. I could be wrong...
Either way, not going to get the full potential of a multi channel interface by limiting yourself to something like Audacity.
CrowsofFritz
Flamingo!
I think it highly depends on the drivers as well. And even with a good driver, it seems to be more complicated (than major DAWs) for a simple set up.
TAE
All you have is now
Audacity is a DAW in that it is a digital audio worksation and it CAN record multi tracks simultaneously as per the Audacity wiki..pasted below..
That said in the free range, basically Reaper is the dream come true to home recorders and if you feel like you want to contribute to the maker you can pay the $60 and support the Reaper machine and community therein..
Or you can use it for free forever if you so choose..fully uncrippled other than a nag screen that pops up when you open it asking you to purchase it after x amount of days..
Reaper has sooooo much more to offer and is becoming an industry standard...Audacity is easy to use if you are just recording one or two tracks at a time...but is far less supported and when you want to use ASIO drivers you have to get techy as described below...
Anyway hope this helps in your quest to choose a daw...
Recording With Audacity
As distributed, Audacity comes with support for Windows MME and WDM drivers. MME drivers work fine for simple stereo recording and playback, and are available on all versions of Windows where Audacity will run. However, neither these nor most WDM drivers will provide multi-channel recording; if you try to send multiple inputs to Audacity with these, you will only be presented with a series of separate two-channel "recording devices" from which one can be chosen, instead of the number of input channels there actually are.
Suggested devices
Occasionally, sound card or device manufacturers provides full EWDM support in their drivers, and then multi-channel recording in Audacity should work. The following cards/devices are reported to provide multi-channel recording in "out-of-the box" Audacity:
Alesis Multimix 8-, 12- or 16-channel USB or Firewire mixers - supported on Windows XP (but not Windows 7 or Windows 8) for the first eight channels only. May require USB2.0 ports on the computer.
Echo Digital Audio: AudioFire8, AudioFire12 and AudioFirePre8 and Layla3G (Unconfirmed)
Edirol UA 101 USB interface
ESI sound cards and interfaces
M-Audio Delta 66 - With old drivers 5.10.00.5057v3, can record four channels at once using the "Multi" device. Later drivers 6.0.2.5.10.0.5074 reported not to allow more than two-channel recording with Audacity. A disadvantage of the older drivers is that it is not possible to adjust the input level in Audacity or the M-Audio patchbay - levels have to be adjusted externally before the sound card.
M-Audio Delta 1010
M-Audio Delta 1010LT - With drivers from August 2007 or earlier (5.10.00.5057), can record up to eight channels at once using the "Multi" device. Later drivers reported not to allow more than two-channel recording with Audacity.
Mackie Onyx 1640i with PC Universal WDM driver from the Mackie site
Presonus FP10 Firewire interface (formerly called "Firepod")
RME Multiface II + PCI
Tascam US-1641 (requires USB2.0 ports on the computer) - Reported that only 2 channels available in Audacity with 2.xx drivers under Windows 7 but 16 channels available using older drivers under XP.
Note that as Windows drivers pass sound through the system kernel, these solutions will all have latency issues if you record overdubs (the playback of the audio you are recording against and the monitoring of the audio you are recording will be audibly desynchronised).
Unfortunately, most manufacturers of sound cards/devices for the semi-professional or studio market see Windows drivers as only for the low level consumer market. Therefore they provide only a choice of a basic stereo MME driver (or no Windows driver at all), and ASIO drivers for multi-channel, low latency work. The problem is Audacity cannot support ASIO in released builds because ASIO is a proprietary technology. However it is now possible to compile Audacity yourself with ASIO support, as long as you do not distribute that build to others. For details, see our ASIO Audio Interface page. As noted there, you may also compile Audacity with DirectSound support (and distribute those builds to others), which might let some surround sound cards record multiple channels into Audacity.
That said in the free range, basically Reaper is the dream come true to home recorders and if you feel like you want to contribute to the maker you can pay the $60 and support the Reaper machine and community therein..
Or you can use it for free forever if you so choose..fully uncrippled other than a nag screen that pops up when you open it asking you to purchase it after x amount of days..
Reaper has sooooo much more to offer and is becoming an industry standard...Audacity is easy to use if you are just recording one or two tracks at a time...but is far less supported and when you want to use ASIO drivers you have to get techy as described below...
Anyway hope this helps in your quest to choose a daw...
Recording With Audacity
As distributed, Audacity comes with support for Windows MME and WDM drivers. MME drivers work fine for simple stereo recording and playback, and are available on all versions of Windows where Audacity will run. However, neither these nor most WDM drivers will provide multi-channel recording; if you try to send multiple inputs to Audacity with these, you will only be presented with a series of separate two-channel "recording devices" from which one can be chosen, instead of the number of input channels there actually are.
Suggested devices
Occasionally, sound card or device manufacturers provides full EWDM support in their drivers, and then multi-channel recording in Audacity should work. The following cards/devices are reported to provide multi-channel recording in "out-of-the box" Audacity:
Alesis Multimix 8-, 12- or 16-channel USB or Firewire mixers - supported on Windows XP (but not Windows 7 or Windows 8) for the first eight channels only. May require USB2.0 ports on the computer.
Echo Digital Audio: AudioFire8, AudioFire12 and AudioFirePre8 and Layla3G (Unconfirmed)
Edirol UA 101 USB interface
ESI sound cards and interfaces
M-Audio Delta 66 - With old drivers 5.10.00.5057v3, can record four channels at once using the "Multi" device. Later drivers 6.0.2.5.10.0.5074 reported not to allow more than two-channel recording with Audacity. A disadvantage of the older drivers is that it is not possible to adjust the input level in Audacity or the M-Audio patchbay - levels have to be adjusted externally before the sound card.
M-Audio Delta 1010
M-Audio Delta 1010LT - With drivers from August 2007 or earlier (5.10.00.5057), can record up to eight channels at once using the "Multi" device. Later drivers reported not to allow more than two-channel recording with Audacity.
Mackie Onyx 1640i with PC Universal WDM driver from the Mackie site
Presonus FP10 Firewire interface (formerly called "Firepod")
RME Multiface II + PCI
Tascam US-1641 (requires USB2.0 ports on the computer) - Reported that only 2 channels available in Audacity with 2.xx drivers under Windows 7 but 16 channels available using older drivers under XP.
Note that as Windows drivers pass sound through the system kernel, these solutions will all have latency issues if you record overdubs (the playback of the audio you are recording against and the monitoring of the audio you are recording will be audibly desynchronised).
Unfortunately, most manufacturers of sound cards/devices for the semi-professional or studio market see Windows drivers as only for the low level consumer market. Therefore they provide only a choice of a basic stereo MME driver (or no Windows driver at all), and ASIO drivers for multi-channel, low latency work. The problem is Audacity cannot support ASIO in released builds because ASIO is a proprietary technology. However it is now possible to compile Audacity yourself with ASIO support, as long as you do not distribute that build to others. For details, see our ASIO Audio Interface page. As noted there, you may also compile Audacity with DirectSound support (and distribute those builds to others), which might let some surround sound cards record multiple channels into Audacity.
XploZiveToyz
All American Un-American
allegro1650
New member
Audacity doesn't support ASIO because it's a proprietary (Steinberg) format, and it would cost major licensing money to code into the program. You can sneak in with Asio4All, which is an ASIO driver in a VST plugin wrapper.
However, Audacity doesn't allow for real-time monitoring of effects (just an awkward audition button), and it doesn't have multi-track channel controls (volume/EQ). It's better if you go with a DAW that's specifically made for the purpose.
Having used it for more than 5 years, I can say that Audacity is an excellent sound editor. I use it for editing and mastering all the time. You can zoom in to individual sample levels on a waveform, for edits and crossfades that sound invisible to the naked ear.
However, Audacity doesn't allow for real-time monitoring of effects (just an awkward audition button), and it doesn't have multi-track channel controls (volume/EQ). It's better if you go with a DAW that's specifically made for the purpose.
Having used it for more than 5 years, I can say that Audacity is an excellent sound editor. I use it for editing and mastering all the time. You can zoom in to individual sample levels on a waveform, for edits and crossfades that sound invisible to the naked ear.