Which Program?

C

Capokid

New member
What programs are good for PC audio recording?

I have recorded on a Tascam porta7 & a Roland VS-840.

I am planning on building a barebones PC dedicated to just recording music tracks. I have been looking at N-track & Cool Edit Pro. N-track seems like it may be better for me to start with (inexpensive) into the world of PC recording.

If anyone has any suggestions as to what I need to get started (what kind of sound card, Mixers, Pentium vs. AMD etc.), I would greatly appreciate it.

P.S. Of course Pro-Tools is one of the best, but seeing as I am just starting into PC recording, I thought I would get my feet wet with something a little less expensive.
 
Well if you want to keep things cheap, N-Track is great, also look into Cakewalks's Sonar (Loving that program right now). Cubase is awesome, but you just have to have a good Soundcard with good ASIO support, and it is not all that great for someone that just wants to jump in and go. Soundcard wise there is a bunch of options, best for the price? I would say a TB SantaCruz, its like a SBLive but has 20bit D/A and 18-Bit A/D, just make sure you get the latest drivers off turtle beach's website. I had a noise problem untill I did that. Or you could go with a Omni Studio, if you only plan on recording 1-2tracks at a time, then that would be perfect, runs about $400.00 and has a 24bit soundcard, with a breakout box that has really nice preamps, so no need for a mixer unless you want to recrod more tracks at one time. Also look into a RNC (Really nice compressor) or the Presonus BlueMax Comp (That is what i have, havent really used it to much, just got it). Just kind of make sure you have a decint mic. You could just get a SM57 but I would recomend, somthing like a ShureKSM32, a Octava (Cant remember how to spell it), a Rode NT1, I would still pick up a SM57 almost with what ever else you buy, there is always need for that great mic, and it is cheap:) Also you should get some monitors, not a "requirement" you could use your home speaker setup, but Monitors are just that much better. Look into Yorkville, cheap and good.
 
The TB SantaCruz looks pretty good. I will be recording live drums so I will have to get a mixer. Does the mixer just connect to the soundcard via an 1/8" line in miniplug?

I already have 6 SM57's, 1 Beta52, 1 Beta56 & 1 CAD M-39. So I think I am all set with Mic's for a while.

Is the Compressor weak in N-track, or is it just a good idea to have an external compressor around?
 
capo, stick with that omni studio if you can. only way to use most of those mic's on your drums. 8 i/o with two pre's. bundled software includes mixer as does ntracks. use money you would have spent on mixer for pre's like ART or joe meek units. reducing to 1/8" into that santa cruz is not a quality compromise.
good luck.
 
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