Rookie Questions , Which DAW for Windows ?

Biggfoot44

New member
I am confused about choices within my parameters , so I'll ask here .

What with overwhelming well meaning advice , I initially aquired a Mac Book Pro . Alas, I proved too computer stupid to use a Mac . Taking less of a finiancial hit than I feared, I now have a regular laptop with Win 10 .

I will be recording live humans, playing real instruments, mostly accoustic , not artificial computer instruments .

I need somthing that will work self contained in the computer , as I will record in locations without reliable internet , hence the free version of Pro Tools is off the table .

I am learning the sound related concepts, but I don't want want to get overwhelmed with " computer stuff " ( I am self admitted old fart Luddite . I accept that, and am comfortable with it .)

And needs to be economical , lets say free up to $50-ish prefered , unless you overwhelmingly convince me for up to $100 .

What should i look at ?
 
I am confused about choices within my parameters , so I'll ask here .

What with overwhelming well meaning advice , I initially aquired a Mac Book Pro . Alas, I proved too computer stupid to use a Mac . Taking less of a finiancial hit than I feared, I now have a regular laptop with Win 10 .

I will be recording live humans, playing real instruments, mostly accoustic , not artificial computer instruments .

I need somthing that will work self contained in the computer , as I will record in locations without reliable internet , hence the free version of Pro Tools is off the table .

I am learning the sound related concepts, but I don't want want to get overwhelmed with " computer stuff " ( I am self admitted old fart Luddite . I accept that, and am comfortable with it .)

And needs to be economical , lets say free up to $50-ish prefered , unless you overwhelmingly convince me for up to $100 .

What should i look at ?

sonar is free
audacity is free and easier to use but less powerful than sonar
 
Go with Reaper. Nice demo version. Great price when you're ready to pay. (And if you choose to use it, be sure to pay for the license. Honor system.)
You don't need an ilock or other hardware license device. It does everything the other daw's do. Great support.
 
How many tracks do yo expect to record at once?

Reaper is good software, but you will also need the hardware to get yo into the computer.
 
Apple needs computer brains? Really? I find windows needs much more knowledge to make work while Apple sort of just do it??

Treat DAW software like buying a car. What do you actually need, vs what would you ideally like? Most work very similarly now, but some are more nice to record end to end on, while others are greta for looping and dance style music, most do somethings better than others, and of course, some are free and some very, very expensive. Best = what is 'best' for you. What will you be doing with it? It really is like buying a car. If you have always had Fords, you probably will buy another. Other people pick what's the best deal, others don't care about price and go for the most sporty or luxurious. Very few are bad.
 
Rob brings up a very good point. What do you need to do the job?

You mention that you have a "regular laptop". Can you give some specifics? If its a basic laptop with a lower end processor, you're going to be limited. My experience has been that you need at least a decent I5 based system with at least 8-16 GB of ram. How many channels will you be recording at one time? If you are talking a live performance with just two microphones without overdubs your requirements will be less than if you need 16 channels with multiple overdubs. Do you have an interface already?

I went the Reaper path after playing with the lower versions of Cubase and early Protools. Its inexpensive ($60) and pretty powerful, plus i found the workflow to be more comfortable. I don't use it for live remote recording, though. I've got a Zoom R24 and an H4N for remote recording. The files can then be dumped into Reaper for mixing as needed.
 
I checked the sheet :

HP EliteBook 8470p Core i5-3230M 2.60 GHz
8GB Ram, 256GB SSD, Windows 10 Pro


At the moment, I'm limited by my number of mics ( 3 Chinese knockoffs of SM58 .

Experements with Tascam RD 5x show that two are too few . Individual mic'ing of variable sized largish groups are too many . So maybe 4-6 as an interim target ?

No , looping or artificial tracks are not a concern .
 
I checked the sheet :

HP EliteBook 8470p Core i5-3230M 2.60 GHz
8GB Ram, 256GB SSD, Windows 10 Pro


At the moment, I'm limited by my number of mics ( 3 Chinese knockoffs of SM58 .

Experements with Tascam RD 5x show that two are too few . Individual mic'ing of variable sized largish groups are too many . So maybe 4-6 as an interim target ?

No , looping or artificial tracks are not a concern .

That HP will probably be fine for straight tracking. This old HP i3 will run the Samplitude m'track demo no sweat. 6 mics is a buggeration number, you won't find such an interface. 4 yes but not 6 IMHO. The Tascam 16-08 looks favorite (stop coughing at the price! IF you are going to do this and do it half way right, eat beans on T for a month)

Tascam used to Bundle a decent "lite" Cubase but I am not sure they still do with their bigger interfaces now. Reaper is probably easier to start with anyway.

Dave.
 
Yes, they jump from 4 to 8 .

I'm close to my self justifing as incidental pocket money, instead of postponing for 2yrs to pay other debts, and hoping nothing bites me on the butt in the meantime .
 

This is indirectly the one I got from you. I bought that US-1600 from you. Used it for school recordings for a while. Then Rami (remember him?) wanted more inputs, so I traded my 1600 for his US-800. That was around the same time I stopped recording the school bands, so it really hasn't been used in a long time.
 
Reaper is great for the price (still works 100% the same for free, in fact).

Cakewalk is free, but I don’t know what it’s like.
 
Reaper is great for the price (still works 100% the same for free, in fact).

Cakewalk is free, but I don’t know what it’s like.

Son said it had some good MIDI sounds in it but the Modus Op was dreadful. (but then most DAWs are after Samplitude!)

Dave.
 
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