Whats a good mixing program, and how would I import a song w/ multi tracks?

danielheeger

New member
Well, I have been doing some recording with Garageband with some really good results. However, maybe I just don't know what I'm doing, but mixing with Garageband seems to be a bit difficult. I was doing some reading online, and a lot of people are saying that Audacity is better for mixing songs.

First part of the question:
1: Is Audacity really good for mixing?

2: If not, is there another program that is good for mixing, with decent effects and such, that is either free or very cheap (spent all my money on recording equipment...hahaha)

3: And lastly, the song I'm working on right now has about 11 different tracks. How would I be able to import all those tracks into the mixing program so I can adjust the eq/volume/effects per track? I'm really very very new to this. Any and all help will be very appreciated.
 
Not having experience with Garage Band, I cant give an opinion as to which is better. Audacity is a very basic audio editor, so if someone with good knowledge says that that is better, then Garage Band is severely limited. Audacity is a free, and very limited DAW.

Download Reaper. It will be way more complex, but will allow you to do anything you would need as far as editing and basic effects.

Any DAW will accept wav files, so yes, you export the files from your current DAW (wav format), and put them in your new software.
 
File / Import Media usually, or something similar.. select what you want. Done.

+1 on avoiding Audacity... Who are these "lot of people" are who are advising you? Unless they're exceptionally hawt and may sleep with you then I wouldn't listen too much to them. You should use a proper digital audio workstation program for this, not Audacity, which is an editor. Has its uses, but this isn't one of them. Reaper is good and free to download and trial if you want to see how it all works. There are others.
 
+3 (or is it +4?).

Audacity is a fine bit of freeware for simple editing but it's limited and clunky for mixing multitracks. With limited funds, Reaper is probably your best bet--free to try with a non-expiring trial and only $65 to buy if you decide you like it.

One thing about your first post worries me a bit though. When you get into multitrack mixing, there's really no such thing as "simple". Whatever you choose, you're going to have to spend some time reading the manual, practicing and learning. Make the effort. The results will be worth it.
 
+....5? whatever number we're on now :)

Although not free, if you're comfortable with Garageband and want to easily swap between Garageband and a DAW for mixing and more advanced editing, Logic 9 is pretty much meant for this. Last time i checked you can open Garageband projects straight up on Logic. However, Logic is £140 whereas Reaper is free to try for as long as you want and then dirt cheap to buy if you decide it's the DAW for you and, although i've not played enough with Reaper to be 100% sure of this statement, when i have used it Reaper seemed to do everything Logic can for less than half the price
 
Thanks for all the help guys! I downloaded Reaper. Still trying to figure it out, as it is a WHOLE LOT more in-depth. However, I think everyone is right. This seems to be much better suited for what I want. Again, thanks!
 
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