Recommendations for free and cheap software

rum02

New member
Hello looking for assistance;

I have a pre sonus 26 pre amp; condensor mic and a decent laptop (i5 processore, 8 gig ram, solid state hdd).
The software that comes with my pre sonus 26 pre amp is complex (studio one artist v4) and once I get it going the recording cuts out after 40 seconds or so. I've emailed their support so hopefully they can help.

In the mean time I'd love to pick all your brains on some great free or cheap (50 bucks or less) audio recording software that is simple.
All I really want to do is record and export my songs into mp3s. Once I have my setup correct (mic positions, mic levels etc) I can get a great sound I'm happy with.

Down the line I'd love to be able to muck around with multiple tracks, including drums, vocals and guitar and I imagine that will need a lot of learning about mastering and stuff but that's the future. If the programs you recommend have the ability to do this in a relatively simple and straight forward way that would be sick. I am under no allusions there will be a steep learning curve with this side of things.

Also any advice on optimising my laptop for recording; it may be the bottleneck causing the recording issues, idk. My laptop is:

HP Pavilion x360 - 14-ba111tu


Anyway peace out looking forward to hearing from you about software recommendations

James :)
 
Hi James and welcome. I am fairly sure you are on Win 10? In that case my help will be limited since I have avoided that so far but here are my suggestions..
Download Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks run it and try to understand what it is telling you. The most likely causes of audio problems are, wireless network systems grabbing resources and generally other programs running that you are not aware of. Have you downloaded and installed the latest drivers from Presonus?

There are NO simple DAWs but Reaper is free to try forever and not expensive to buy. Reaper is not nearly as hard to learn as many but still demands effort. You might find other DAWs suite your mindset? All the major ones have 30 day free trials, I am a Samplitude man myself.

Two quick checks. Have you disabled Windows Sounds? Those annoying bleeps, bloops and bongs, if not do so. You might find it better to disable (in Device Manger) the internal soundcard, be called "Realtek" or "High Definition Sound" or some such ***t.

Lastly, glad you've come, please stay but also enquire over at Sound On Sound | The World's Premier Music Recording Technology Magazine (iirc there was a guy just got a Presonus sorted with W10?)

BTW. I am typing on a ~6yr old HP i3 g6, 5,400 HDD and 8G ram. It is W7 but easily runs 20 odd tracks of Cubase or Samplitude Pro X 3 and has in the past recorded over 2 hours at a stretch without a glitch. You don't need Deep Thought to run a handful of audio tracks you see.

Dave.
 
Like Dave, I'd go for Reaper. It is cheap. and in my view, easy to get going with.

It is a bit different to other DAWS in that it is scalable upwards, in other words, you don't have to know much to get going, but as you become more familiar with it, you can open up more and more of its capabilities.

For example, to record a track: Load Reaper, insert a new track, arm the track, hit record, sing hit stop, done.
 
In the mean time I'd love to pick all your brains on some great free or cheap (50 bucks or less) audio recording software that is simple.
All I really want to do is record and export my songs into mp3s. Once I have my setup correct (mic positions, mic levels etc) I can get a great sound I'm happy with.
I recommend Cakewalk by Bandlab. Its free and an awesome DAW
Also any advice on optimising my laptop for recording; it may be the bottleneck causing the recording issues, idk. My laptop is:

HP Pavilion x360 - 14-ba111tu
1.) Load it up with as much ram as possible
2.) Get an external hard drive that spins at 7200RPM or faster and us it for all your audio destinations, like storing DAW projects and samples and saving to it.
3.) Set up your power options to always on (USB hubs)
 
Thanks Dave and gecko zzed; I'm using reaper and it seems to be working great no issues at all!!!! Much appreciate the advice you saved me a lot of hassle :)
 
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