Best Recording/Software Technology for a Newbie

S

starblossom24

New member
Hi Everyone,

I'm very new to recording/composing software, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice of the best programs for me. Here's a little info about myself if that would help. I started piano lessons at thirteen and continued with private and ensemble lessons for six years. I wasn't able to keep up with lessons once I entered college, but I still play and I bought my own upright Everett (1953) piano my sophomore year. I progressed very quickly with my lessons, but I still have trouble reading music. I'm not terrible at it, but I have issues playing more complicated time signatures, and really got by playing by ear. During my junior year of high school my instructor encouraged me to pursue composition, and I really took off. But because of my limited knowledge of reading music, I simply played by ear and recorded my songs with a cheap recorder.

I'd classify my songs as somewhat new age, with strong impressionistic tendencies/chords, with a little bit of early 20th century modernist piano (think Satie). I write poems that I'd like to set to music. I'm interested in software that allows me to record my piano songs with the ability to add strings, drums, and possibly acoustic guitar. I'd like to use something that allows me to explore both techno and acoustic instruments. At some point, I'd also like to do some overdubbed vocals. It seems like I might be best served by a sampler or synthesizer, something that I could simply with a keyboard and add instrumentation later that doesn't rely on strict notation.

As far as budget goes, I'm a poor college student, but I can wait a few years until I can afford something better. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
 
starblossom24 said:
As far as budget goes, I'm a poor college student, but I can wait a few years until I can afford something better. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
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Try giving a shot at: REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits

It's got a trial version that almost never expires - but if you do like it, please support the developers, do buy it.

Its price is way lower than other famous software out there, but its quality is really great, especially for someone who's starting out.

Their forums rock too, they help always: Cockos Confederated Forums - Powered by vBulletin
 
Reaper is probably the way to go.

As for an interface: if you want to record drums, you should probably look at an 8-input interface. I think that Tascam makes some industry standard devices for this class.
If you don't want to record drums, a two input like the Focusrite 2i4 would suffice perfectly.

You can DI a keyboard into any interface or you can hook up microphones and record a real piano in stereo.
 
"
As far as budget goes, I'm a poor college student, but I can wait a few years until I can afford something better. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! "

Do not wait Starblossom! This technology moves very fast (going all "iSilly" atmo!) and in few years time things could be harder to learn (or Adobe will buy Reaper and only rent you it at $1000 a year!)

Best starter AI IMHO is the Steinberg UR22. Yes, Reaper IS great but I think Cubase will be greater for your particular purposes and it comes free with the UR22. An even better AI is the NI KA6, also has Cubase (and much more besides) but is nearly twice the price. N.B. You are not limited to Cubase OR Reaper, you can play with both.

Keyboards? You need one with at least MIDI out. You can buy "dumb" USB keyboards from $50 but they are limited to 49keys tops unless you pay a lot more. But, DO look in charity.S/H shops. Cash Converter type places. You could pick up an old Roland or Yammy "Portasound" for a song (k'boom-tsk!) Just make sure it has MIDI ports.

Dave.
 
Ableton Live is a good midi production software. They have a limited Intro version for about $100. You can get the Lite version - limited to 8 tracks - that comes bundled with several interfaces like some of the Focusrite Scarlette bundles. I personally use Reaper, but I play around with Live Lite because it is tailored to songwriting. The full versions - Standard and Suite, get very pricey but the software instruments are top notch. I will purchase the Suite version upgrade when I have the funds available mainly for the software instruments. To me they are as good as any hardware sound module or synth out there and I own a Yamaha Motif ES rack and have had a Roland XV 5080.
 
Hi Starblossom,

As being mentioned by the rest, REAPER is probably the best choice for you right now. As for the other instruments that you are looking to use (synth, strings, etc) you can probably Google "Free VST plugins" (there are tons at KVR Audio) and be surprised at the options available. After you get comfortable with producing your own music, then you may go on to consider investing in the right plugins (or virtual instruments) to suit your creative directions.

Also, I recommend getting a basic midi controller like the Korg Microkey, as it will enable you to play and record the virtual instruments.

Good luck!
 
Not sure why people are saying Reaper is a "right now" option. It is not stop-gap. It is a full function DAW that many many on this board are making professional sounding mixes with. It is not my weapon of choice, but I have heard what it can do. I have played with it, and although it's probably not the easiest DAW to learn, it IS pretty simple to get going with (I use it for certain sub functions (drums/mastering mostly). Lots of people here to ask questions from. If I were just starting in this game (and didn't have 10 years experience with Reason), I wouldn't "right now" Reaper, I'd go ahead and jump in with both feet...
 
I'm on my 6th week of working with Reaper. It can do so many things that it's difficult to know where to start.
I've stopped playing my guitar for almost the entire time period because I'm wrestling with Reaper to get to a state of functionality. (some days I make progress, some days I want to chuck the computer out the window)

I have yet to understand anything about drums in Reaper except to play the example that came with Home Recording for Beginners. Trying to do anything inside the tracks is exploring alien technology.

The Cockos forums for Reaper are not as helpful as everyone said. It might be better once I have 10 years experience speaking Reaper.

But for doing the stuff the OP says she wants to do - you have to start somewhere. It will be like learning a whole new instrument.
 
Not trying to diminish or mock what anyone said above, but for the life of me, I can't see how anyone can find REAPER difficult to use. I went from a TASCAM 2488 to REAPER, and the transition was beyond simple. It's basically a tape recorder on your computer if that's all you want it to be. Create a track, arm it and hit record. How can it be any simpler? There are probably still 100 things it can do that I haven't explored yet, but they don't get in the way of me doing what I want to do. Every couple of weeks I discover a new, simpler way to accomplish something that I've been doing differently.

Also, like Broken said, REAPPER isn't only good "for now", it's a completely functional and professional DAW that's as good as Pro-tools or anything else for recording.
 
I was using Reaper before I got my hands on a copy of Studio One Producer (through an upgrade offer that came with my Audiobox interface) and I loved it. One of the things I love the most, though it has no bearing on the actual recording, is being able to skin it to look differently. I found an awesome skin that made it look like an old recording desk which was so cool.

Aside from that it's an amazingly deep and functional piece of software. I often think about going back to it from S1 Producer because I'm not sure I'm going to want to spend the money to upgrade S1 when the next version comes out. That being said I really love S1 too and I've learned how to use it well which is the most important thing with a DAW, IMO.
 
Xcaliber said:
Aside from that it's an amazingly deep and functional piece of software. I often think about going back to it from S1 Producer because I'm not sure I'm going to want to spend the money to upgrade S1 when the next version comes out.
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^^^^^This is Reaper's #1 selling point to me. $60 for a pro license and upgrades are free for life. I've probably spent over a grand upgrading Reason from 3.0 to 8.1 over the years. But I wouldn't trade the workflow. I wouldn't trade the flexibility. I wouldn't trade the simplicity. If only they'd allow 3rd party add-ins...
 
RAMI said:
Not trying to diminish or mock what anyone said above, but for the life of me, I can't see how anyone can find REAPER difficult to use. I went from a TASCAM 2488 to REAPER, and the transition was beyond simple.
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You've not seen me use software have you? (It's not pretty.)
Transition from something is different from a cold start.

I don't know how Reaper is as a recorder. I'm not using that function. I'm mixing and rendering recorded tracks.
The OP suggested synthesizers and stuff--- I've been repeatedly defeated by drums so there will be bumps ahead for the OP.
 
Ronbert said:
You've not seen me use software have you? (It's not pretty.)
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:D
Transition from something is different from a cold start.
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Depends what you're transitioning from. From a 2488 to PC recording with REAPER, it's pretty much a cold start. But that's not the issue. I'm not trying to argue little meaningless details with you. My point was that, believe me, when I started with REAPER it was like learning Chinese for me, too.

I'm mixing and rendering recorded tracks.
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That's exactly what I was using it for, before I took the complete plunge and started also recording with it.
I've been repeatedly defeated by drums so there will be bumps ahead for the OP.
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No sure what you mean by that.
 
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Ronbert said:
I've been stumped on my attempts at generating drum tracks.
Since they aren't very different from generating synthesizer tracks -- it's a caution to the OP.
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What sort of drum tracks were you attempting?

I think that virtual instrument support in Reaper is easy peasy. Create a new track, insert the VSTi of your choice as an FX, set your MIDI input, and play. Keyboards, drums, virtual bass and percussion...it all works the same. I'm just curious what the stumbling block was in your case.
 
Tadpui said:
What sort of drum tracks were you attempting?
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Any.

It's all those other words you used that I don't understand. I've been working on reading the User Manual for 5 weeks now and have used Home Recording for Beginners (which only gives a see-how-cool-stuff-can-be example). Closest I've been able to get was to make some marks on a track using the virtual keyboard. No sounds. Just marks.

(this forum isn't the place to solve my issues, I have some other places helping me. This is just a caution that not everyone finds it instantly easypeasy. You've probably forgotten how you learned what you know. )
 
Ronbert said:
Any.

It's all those other words you used that I don't understand. I've been working on reading the User Manual for 5 weeks now and have used Home Recording for Beginners (which only gives a see-how-cool-stuff-can-be example). Closest I've been able to get was to make some marks on a track using the virtual keyboard. No sounds. Just marks.

(this forum isn't the place to solve my issues, I have some other places helping me. This is just a caution that not everyone finds it instantly easypeasy. You've probably forgotten how you learned what you know. )
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Right. But that's got nothing to do with REAPER. If the words he's using are alien to you, then you'd have trouble creating drum tacks on any program. He's using very basic language. I record real drums, but I still create virtual drums as a guide. It's really as simple as what Tadpui described above (and what he described above IS simple). Create a track, insert a drum machine/generator/whatever, and start programming and/or playing. The problems you're having aren't REAPER problems.
 
BroKen_H said:
^^^^^This is Reaper's #1 selling point to me. $60 for a pro license and upgrades are free for life. I've probably spent over a grand upgrading Reason from 3.0 to 8.1 over the years. But I wouldn't trade the workflow. I wouldn't trade the flexibility. I wouldn't trade the simplicity. If only they'd allow 3rd party add-ins...
Click to expand...

Reaper doesn't allow 3rd party add-ins? Do you mean plug-ins?
 
Ronbert said:
I've been stumped on my attempts at generating drum tracks.
Since they aren't very different from generating synthesizer tracks -- it's a caution to the OP.
Click to expand...

Something I've found very helpful since I've started doing this home recording thing is looking for how-to videos on YouTube. There are a ton of videos on how to set things up and how things work. That being said there can be some frustrating things that "just don't seem to work like they should". I would suggest a new post on these forums with some screenshots (if possible). Maybe the community can help?
 
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