I've been recording now for a little over 2 years with a BR1180-CD (Boss). A close friend of mine has a version (older I'm sure) of Cakewalk, I think its "Guitar Tracks 1 or 2". I believe he has the better system, but my reservation is in his sound quality. The CD's I've recorded have absolutely no background noise, His have a noticeable hiss. What I want to find out is, is it his software, soundcard, or both? I would like to sell my BR and move to the PC side of recording, not only because from what it sounds, its a simpler platform, but pulling my portable recorder in and out of its box is getting real old and the drum machine, though great sounding, is very limited. Any suggestions would GREATLY be appreciated (before I start recording again!)
His background hiss could be a multitude of things. Probably his mixer, if he's using one. Next would be the card itself. A lot of cheaper cards (sblive) will default to having the MIDI channel turned up and on, and I have heard tons of noise from this.
First and foremost, regardless of what DAW software you choose, get a GOOD soundcard. I don't know what kind of budget you have, but the Delta 1010 series sounds great (just don't use it at 44.1...48 works best). If you have some more money, I'd recommend going with an RME card. Great quality, if not the best. If you need 8 balanced I/O with mic pres, go for the Presonis firewire audio units. There all pretty good, and hands down, all of them beat tape by long shot! Once I got away from tape, I wondered how I ever put up with it.
Also, get a good sample playback program (Battery or Kontakt2), and a M-Audio Trigger Finger, and the world will be your oyster.
Yeah, the BR1180 that I have isn't a "tape" 10-track, its all digital So really assuming I sell my BR-1180 and all the stuff with it, That would pretty much be my budget, which is why I'm debating this route so much. It seems to me that I can have so much more flexibility and more time to actually "record" for less money than what I've spent for this portable 10-track. So providing I have a "good" soundcard, which actual recording software does one recommend? I've looked at three. Cakewalk GTPro3, Cakewalk project 5, Ableton Live 5. All I know is what I've read through musicians friend. Not sure I'm even looking at the right software.
