Best Recording Software For A Noob

billy3000

billy3000

New member
well, I'm certainly not a newbie. I'm an oldbie.
but if I manage to record and mix a CD with
a decent PC and some fairly idiot proof software,
it will be a new experience. so, the term noob
applies after all, yes.

to give an idea, I really liked the OLD Cool Edit
Pro. the first one, by syntrillium way before adobe
bought all the rights and patents etc..

I have been reading about this Reaper. it sounds neat
but still has mixed reviews. I don't care for cubase or
sonar. not sure why. I just don't.

can you guys recommend the easiest stuff to use?
at this point, bells and whistles and mega features
are not my bag. I just want to record a bunch of tracks
as easily as possible and not crash my computer every
13 seconds.

any thoughts much appreciated. thanks :)
 
Much thanks to altitude, buckkillr,TimOBrien,valem and kremitmusic.
I bookmarked all links and will check them out. thanks guys!
 
Once you get the hang of recording software definitely make the switch to Reaper if you don't start out on it.
 
REAPER is great. It is probably not the easiest DAW out there but it is every bit as good as Pro Tools, Logic, SONAR etc.

If you are a guitar guy, Riffworks is easy and awesome. N-Track is probably the easiest DAW I've used.
 
sonnylarsen said:
REAPER is great. It is probably not the easiest DAW out there but it is every bit as good as Pro Tools, Logic, SONAR etc.

If you are a guitar guy, Riffworks is easy and awesome. N-Track is probably the easiest DAW I've used.
Click to expand...


I am a guitar guy sonny. never heard of Riffworks but will check it out.
can you tell me what it is about Rifftracks that makes it cool for
guitar players? I guess I can check into it myself. anyway, in spite of being
a guitar player, I want to do music that is beat oriented. actually, the
drum parts have given me the most agony of all in every DAW I have tried
or played around with. I thought about buying a seperate drum machine
just to do drums. but....I figure, I am just not getting something.
it cannot be that difficult. can it? it seems so to me. but anyway,
thanks for the tip.

I spent a bunch of time reading about tracktion 3 today. it was suggested
by altitude909 as a possibility. it looks pretty cool!
 
It sounds like Riffworks may be right for you. Follow the link and you can download the T4 version which will give you essentially a 4-track version that doesn't expire. It has a module within it caled instant drummer which is designed to give you access to easy to use yet human sounding drum tracks. You can buy additional drummer for 10 bucks each and the full version (Riffworks standard) comes with like 10 drummers and can also play rex loops and use rewire too.

What is great is that it is designed for guitar players and works alot like a tape machine. Download T4. I did and within a month I bought Riffworks standard.

Tracktion 3 is great as well, although it is more complicated (than Riffworks) and will offer you no comfort on the drum front. I haven't used version 3 but I have used version 1 and 2 enough to know it is a great app.

I am of the opinion that the overall quality of most DAW apps is near identical. What you need to find is the one that has a workflow (UI arrangement, shortcuts, etc.) that suits YOU the best. The only way to find that out is to download demos and try them out.
 
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sounds like a plan!

sonnylarsen said:
It sounds like Riffworks may be right for you. Follow the link and you can download the T4 version which will give you essentially a 4-track version that doesn't expire. It has a module within it caled instant drummer which is designed to give you access to easy to use yet human sounding drum tracks. You can buy additional drummer for 10 bucks each and the full version (Riffworks standard) comes with like 10 drummers and can also play rex loops and use rewire too.

What is great is that it is designed for guitar players and works alot like a tape machine. Download T4. I did and within a month I bought Riffworks standard.

Tracktion 3 is great as well, although it is more complicated (than Riffworks) and will offer you no comfort on the drum front. I haven't used version 3 but I have used version 1 and 2 enough to know it is a great app
Click to expand...

all good info. thanks!

sonnylarsen said:
I am of the opinion that the overall quality of most DAW apps is near identical. What you need to find is the one that has a workflow (UI arrangement, shortcuts, etc.) that suits YOU the best. The only way to find that out is to download demos and try them out.
Click to expand...

also good info. yeah, they are all up to snuff in terms of sound quality.
riffworks T4 sounds good. I'll do it. it's free for that version if I read it right.
for a good while, 4 tracks may just suffice. do you play your own bass
tracks or use synth bass? I need to go back and look at all your posts
for links. a lot of guys on this thread alone are doing some cool music.

there's a guy on an older thread about tracktion3 that gets great sound.
his son plays drums for him and he plays the guitar parts. I always
am curious who does the bass lines.
 
sonny, I'm back!...more dumb questions

sonnylarsen said:
It sounds like Riffworks may be right for you. Follow the link and you can download the T4 version which will give you essentially a 4-track version that doesn't expire. It has a module within it caled instant drummer which is designed to give you access to easy to use yet human sounding drum tracks. You can buy additional drummer for 10 bucks each and the full version (Riffworks standard) comes with like 10 drummers and can also play rex loops and use rewire too.

What is great is that it is designed for guitar players and works alot like a tape machine. Download T4. I did and within a month I bought Riffworks standard.

Tracktion 3 is great as well, although it is more complicated (than Riffworks) and will offer you no comfort on the drum front. I haven't used version 3 but I have used version 1 and 2 enough to know it is a great app.

I am of the opinion that the overall quality of most DAW apps is near identical. What you need to find is the one that has a workflow (UI arrangement, shortcuts, etc.) that suits YOU the best. The only way to find that out is to download demos and try them out.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: what's a good budget priced usb audio interface for riffworks?
I just now downloaded it after all this time. am procrastinating my life away.
man, I need to get a grip. anyway, riffworks looks very cool. I need an audio
interface and there are no pci slots in this computer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883109030

it's a funny little bugger, but it works, has XP which I like and a GIG of ram
big HD etc..just no pci slots. and here's me with an audiophile2496
from another computer that didn't work out as a DAW. too old, too slow,
but it has a great sound card. if I buy something like this.........
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--EMU0202 and tell them to keep the Cubase LE, ya reckon they'll knock 5 bucks off the price of the interface?
 
If you weren't on PC I would say Garageband. It's really easy to get going. For PC I have only used Cubase and Reaper, both very briefly. I disliked Cubase a lot at first, but once I got it set up I started to warm up to it. Everyone here has made some good suggestions. Best thing to do now is try a few and see which one you like the most.
 
thanks 2Kickdrums and obsidian3d!

obsidian3d said:
If you weren't on PC I would say Garageband. It's really easy to get going. For PC I have only used Cubase and Reaper, both very briefly. I disliked Cubase a lot at first, but once I got it set up I started to warm up to it. Everyone here has made some good suggestions. Best thing to do now is try a few and see which one you like the most.
Click to expand...

I never liked cubase either. mostly because I don't 'get it'
but I have friends who do all kinds of cool stuff with it.

I downloaded T4Riffworks and need an audio interface for it.
like a USB soundcard basically. something with ASIO drivers.

am looking for USB audio interface and gonna try riffworks.
 
haven't read through all the other replies, but from my standpoint, i used to use the old school Cool Edit also, and I found a fairly easy crossover to Sonar, I know you said you didn't like that, but let me continue, I recently wanted to switch from sonar because i was going to Mac and found Reaper as suggested by others, I can say that if I actually spent the time to record I would have been up and running in minutes, I had NOO problems, it was VERY simple to understand and if you liked Cool Edit...from what I remember you should be able to figure out Reaper pretty quick, oh and it's cheap and you don't have all the extra bells and whistles, as you say
 
Thanks Much Kerose!

Kerose said:
haven't read through all the other replies, but from my standpoint, i used to use the old school Cool Edit also, and I found a fairly easy crossover to Sonar, I know you said you didn't like that, but let me continue, I recently wanted to switch from sonar because i was going to Mac and found Reaper as suggested by others, I can say that if I actually spent the time to record I would have been up and running in minutes, I had NOO problems, it was VERY simple to understand and if you liked Cool Edit...from what I remember you should be able to figure out Reaper pretty quick, oh and it's cheap and you don't have all the extra bells and whistles, as you say
Click to expand...

I have been bouncing around with this stuff for what seems like
eternity. I think I'm ready to go ahead and download Reaper. your
recommendation is the most recent I have seen, and it also "speaks
to me" in a personal sort of way. I do like simple. simple is good!

I actually have 3 PCs. one is this little compaq net top. eh, it' ok,
but it's very limited. have a late model Dell XPS 200, which needs
a power supply AND after taking off the cover and poking about,
I found out theres no expansion slots.

the best one I have is an old PIII with 128Meg of old style 168 pin ram.
oh well, what's the hurry. so it'll be a little slow.

it has 3 pci slots open and 1 memory slot open. I can bump it up
to 512k, put in a cheap pci video card and gain some Ram that way.
and best of all, I can use my pci audiophile 2496. no need for USB
interfaces, which don't sound all that neat to me anyway.

so, I shall give that a shot :)

money IS an object unfortuneately, at present. so, $15.00 for a stick
of ram, and $25.00 for a video card sounds a lot better than 200
minimum for a USB interface which I probably wouldn't like anyway.

thanks for the encouraging post man! cheers ;)
 
billy3000 said:
the best one I have is an old PIII with 128Meg of old style 168 pin ram.
oh well, what's the hurry. so it'll be a little slow.
Click to expand...

No, it will be unusable. If you want run something on that relic, find something that was made at the same time
 
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