Jumping In - First Questions

Late Gates

New member
Hello and thank you to everyone here for sharing such great information. With the Covid Lockdown - Ive decided to finally buckle down and learn some of my own skills. I play wind instruments, and most recently, the Native American flute. My pieces have always been mixed by someone else.

I have very basic experience on Garageband - very basic. As in, I get it recorded. And I get it sent to the professional to mix. Its time for me to start learning some of my own skills.

My first question is - would you recommend me putting in the time to fully learn Garageband, or to start on an entirely different DAW?

And Secondly, are there are any free DAWs available that have a sample size larger than 44.1 (my professional help always said he didn't like that about Garageband's limitation sample size) - I have no idea what it means yet, but I hope to learn.

Thanks and I look forward to learning.

Stay safe.
 
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Get a better DAW. Pretty much all of them support nearly any sample rate, so it's only limited by what your hardware will do.

Reaper is kind of the universal step up suggestion. There are a few other free options for Mac that I don't keep track of.
 
What he said ^^^

Improving your skills = good move
Improving your skills on a DAW with limited functionality = not so good a move.
Improving your skills on a fully functional DAW like Reaper = win
 
I'm partial to Reaper, but if you REALLY want to go free, you can look at Cakewalk. Its totally free. Ardour is another free program, its Open Source software for Linux, Windows and MacOS.

Reaper has really good support on this forum and others, with lots of online tutorials on Youtube. Cakewalk has a smaller community, but the Bandlab website has both a forum and tutorials. Ardour has a much smaller support community, but there is a forum on the Ardour website. Its primarily aimed at the Linux community.
 
Another vote for Reaper from me Late Gates (any relation cos' Im a bit short at the moment?).

I have bought Reaper but really only use it to check out and (very rarely) help folks with problems, I am by no means slick with it having been a Samplitude fan for over 10 years. I would not however recommend Sam as starter because there is SO much more support around for Reaper.

WRT "sample rate". This is often a cause of heated debate but the fact is that 44.1kHz is good enough for almost any recording purpose* in the HUMAN audio bandwidth of 20Hz to 20kHz and after all, any higher rate will have to be converted down to 44.1kHz for CD burning and worse if posted on YT!

If you want the best quality I strongly suggest you look at the new MOTU M2 and M4 interfaces (but go M4!) There are many others of course and the vast majority are very much better than your, WTGR, 'newb' skills will produce. You will also need a microphone and here your 'pro' cna help because it would be best to buy the same as he uses. That said, it could be a vintage £5000 Neumann so maybe some compromise will be needed. Wind instruments can I understand be tricky to record? You need to avoid air 'blast' and the signal tends to be spiky. The latter can be relived by recording at a low level.

Lots to learn but many top peeps here (I am not one, just an old amp tech) to help.

*There IS a place for higher sample rates in very specific circumstances. Very high level percussion is one I understand but for the home bod, you will never have a problem.

Yes, clever other chaps, I know YT has common sampling rates but there is still no benefit in starting at 96kHz.

Dave.
 
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply - I appreciate the tip to record at perhaps a lower level. My professional help told me to 'watch my gain' -im trying to figure out what that means other than lower my volume?

---------- Update ----------

Thanks - I've downloaded Reaper

---------- Update ----------

Thanks - went with Reaper and tried it out last night -
 
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply - I appreciate the tip to record at perhaps a lower level. My professional help told me to 'watch my gain' -im trying to figure out what that means other than lower my volume?

Yes. Gain means a change in level. Microphones put out very low level and need a fair bit of positive gain (usually just called gain, while negative gain is usually called attenuation), so mic preamplifiers have a lot of gain available. It's entirely possible to apply too much gain.

In the digital world the signal level is measured in dBFS (decibels, full scale). The 0 is at the very top of the scale. You should avoid letting your signal even approach that level. Always keep your distance. A common target is to have an average level of about -18dBFS. That means an ongoing signal should spend about as much time above -18 as it does below it, with peaks preferably not more than -6dBFS. Percussive instruments don't really have a continuous sound level so set them by peak, generally never more than -6dB.

If you have gear with analog meters, there's a good chance that -18dBFS will line up with 0dBVU (decibels, volume units). The 0 on analog meters generally shows optimum level whereas the digital 0 shows the absolute maximum level.
 
Just a point about recording levels. Yes, keep to an average of -20dBfs and a peak of -6dBfs but those numbers assume you are running at 24 bit 'word length' and just to be clear. Sample rate defines the upper frequency response since a digital system can only have an upper limit just under half the sample rate.

World length defines the dynamic range. This is approximately 6dB 'per bit' so 16 bits as CD is gives us 96dB and that is more than enough to reproduce even the biggest orchestra. 24 bits gives a massive (and unattainable) of 144dB and so a 24bit recording path's dynamic range is wholly defined by the quaity of the ANALOGUE components. The very best A/D D/A converters achieve a smell over 120dB.

Now, since 0dBfs is the defined maximum it follows that 24 bit operation just extends the noise floor (Anny permitting!) and so instead of increased headroom gives increased 'legroom'. Suffice it to say that the art has now progressed to the point that you could set a rough level for a band in a pub at about -30dBfs and then leave the kit and sit getting *****d with your mates and come back at the end of an evening to a perfectly usable recording!

All the above is the distillation of facts learned by an old valve amp tech. Much learned debate swirls around matters digital that I do not pretend to understand but stuff seems to work for me.


Dave.
 
Yes, whatever sample rate you use, definitely go with 24 bit rather than 16 bit. A 16 bit file is perfectly fine for a finished track for delivery, but when you're in production you really want the extra room to maneuver that 24 bit gives you.
 
Thank you very much.

Since I am a total beginner (Im at the unconscious incompetent stage) I dont have gear. I have a Samson C01UPRO Microphone I plug into my MAC. I open Garageband (I today downloaded Reaper) I press 'record'. I play. I have some flutes. And I have wind I blow into my flutes. :) Thats the extent of my gear.

my first step will be to figure out how to even see what the dBFS are of the tracks im recording in either Garageband or Reaper I guess.
 
(Im at the unconscious incompetent stage)
I'm impressed that you used that phrase.


I have a Samson C01UPRO Microphone I plug into my MAC.
This is the start down the path of conscious incompetent, conscious competent and finally to unconscious competence.

I open Garageband (I today downloaded Reaper) I press 'record'. I play. I have some flutes. And I have wind I blow into my flutes. :).
Doing this is not much different in Reaper: load up Reaper, create and arm a track, hit record and go.

my first step will be to figure out how to even see what the dBFS are of the tracks im recording in either Garageband or Reaper I guess.
No, I don't think it's your first step. Your first step is to get a recording that shows a visible waveform that hasn't gone into the red. The second step is to get a recording that sounds nice.
 
Your first step is to get a recording that shows a visible waveform that hasn't gone into the red. The second step is to get a recording that sounds nice.
Heed the wisdom on display there. Think of the red as the dark side. Avoid the dark side at all costs.Think of the visible waveform that avoids the red and nets you a nice sound as the force.
May the force be with you.
 
thanks

from a VERY conscious incompetent :)

I realize you guys are like artists and you can get whatever sound, feel, groove you want out of your stuff. I feel like a 3 year old trying to draw a Picasso - I know how I want my recordings to sound - but I have no idea how to use the tools to get there. Its painstakingly slow. I have to google or search forums for every single thing I want to do, and then go through tutorials till I find what it is im looking for. Its like learning a language where you have to stop and look up every single word you hear or read. But its the only way to learn and there is no fast track. Much respect to you guys.
 
Something I forgot to mention in my comments on recording levels. They will be quite a bit lower than what you're used to on a finished song. During tracking and mixing you want to keep things more or less around that -18dBFS mark, but once mixing is done you'll need to master your song. Typically that's done as a separate step. Export the song from the project at full resolution (if your project is 48kHz and 24 bit, export a 48/24 file), then import that file to a new project and use a mastering limiter to bring the volume up to something comparable with other finished songs. Most streaming services have a standard of something like -14dB LUFS (yes, another kind of dB: loudness units, full scale).

My bare minimum mastering chain is: mastering limiter* -> LUFS meter. Sometimes I'll have more on there, such as: EQ -> compressor -> mastering limiter -> LUFS meter.

*A mastering limiter is a specialized tool optimized for this job. I wouldn't suggest using a generic limiter as it can be rather inconvenient to get desirable results.

Here's the LUFS meter I've been using: Youlean Loudness Meter - Free VST, AU and AAX plugin

Once the song sounds the way you want it to and has the desired level, export it to a file appropriate for the target release platform. When I post on Soundcloud or Bandcamp I upload a full resolution file, generally 48/24, and let them convert it to a compressed format for streaming. If you live in the Dark Ages and want to put it on a CD you'll need to export a final file at 44.1kHz and 16 bit. If you want to upload it directly on this forum to share it with us you'll need to export an MP3 file.

If you want to post it here for help with the mix I would suggest an MP3 exported before any mastering.
 
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