What program should I use for what i wanna do?????

[forkofchaos]

Hi, Im a complete newb in all of this.

The overwhelming amount of forums, products and options and my scarce knowledge makes it very confusing to find what i need.
Somebody help me!!!

i have been recording guitars in Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, a very old program. I record my guitar, program drums, bass and some keyboards to it and mix it to mp3.
The sound quality is not very good and i want to change to a userfriendly program thats up to date and has greatsounding midisamples . It needs to have the same functions (programming drums beat by beat in a piano-roll is very important.!).

WHAT PROGRAM SHOULD I GET?????

ive looked at ProTools, Cubase and Cakewalk Sonar, but I have NO CLUE what the differences are and how the interfaces differ (userfriendly!)

Can somebody PLEASE comment on this???
Anyone who helps me can count on awesome karma for the rest of the year

thanx

 

[TetraFish]

Take a look at Reaper. It's very cheap and from what I hear it's a full featured DAW. Best of all there's a free trial and if your willing to put up with a nag screen you never have to pay (but you should if you like it).

Now user friendly and DAW are an oxymoron. No mater what you get there will be a learning curve.

 

[Armistice]

I'd say that if you want professional sounding midi samples and a recording program, then you should separate the two and get yourself a good piece of recording software, and Reaper is often recommended around here as TetraFish has done.

Others can steer you in the correct direction for sound libraries etc. but perhaps you should look at this as two separate tasks... samples given away free with DAW software perhaps won't ever be the best.

Disclaimer - I use none of these things.

 

[Seidy]

well, one good way to find out little bit of the program is to watch tutorials in youtube.
some DAW's have also demo versions you could check out.

also. bad sound quality is usually not fault of the program, but of the user.

I personally prefer Cubase for recording, but I hate the piano roll, so for beat making I use FL Studio.
and +1 to Reaper.

 

[chris in indy]

Here is another one of those posts where everybody has their own favorite.

Well although I have always been a Cakewalk\Sonar fan, from ProAudio to Sonar 8.5, I still use a program that is now officially "out of print", but still available at some outlets and online.

Project 5 v2, is by far the most intuitive program I have ever used. It has a great piano roll feature, and it loads fast and efficiently.
I use it every day as my "plincker pad". When I get an idea an get it scratched out, I move the project into Sonar for the heavy work.

PS: I just made up that word (plincker) Do you like it?

 

[forkofchaos]

Well, I took the advise and downloaded reaper from their site.

Since im a incredible newb;
Does it come with midi samples/ drums sounds, And if so where do i find them??? Or do i have to import those from somewhere else??

BTW ;Thanx for the super quick responses peole. You guys rule!

 

[chris in indy]

If you Google "midi drum samples" you will get hundreds of links to look through.

Some samples are free, some cost money. The best ones are the ones you make yourself, or get in an exchange with a friend.

I have bought many samples over the years, but find it more to my purpose to make my own.

Now audio drum loops are another story, because you can purchase and download some great licks, and sometimes by great artists.

Looks like you'll be wearing out your search engine for the next couple of hours.

 

[forkofchaos]

to chris in indy:

I see you are a sonar lover.
I happen to have sonar 8.5 on my pc, but havent managed to get even one sound out of it.
In case i have questions (i most probably will), are you on this forum often?

 

[Armistice]

to chris in indy:

I see you are a sonar lover.
I happen to have sonar 8.5 on my pc, but havent managed to get even one sound out of it.
In case i have questions (i most probably will), are you on this forum often?

IF he's not.... the Sonar forum is here...

 

[chris in indy]

I will be ............. I joined quite some time ago, but never had a chance to mee4t the people until just a couple of days ago.

I used to spend a lot of my time on the Cakewalk P5 forum, but it has pretty much evaporated.

By the way ............. it's nice to meet all of you, and I hope those of you in the US are having a great Thanksgiving Holiday.

 

[bdenton]

In reality, there is very little difference in recording software as far as the quality of sound goes. So changing software is probably not going to improve your sound quality.

So, we have to look elsewhere to find out why "The sound quality is not very good ...".

One of the first places to look, and one which you did not mentionj, is your interface.

If you are using your computer's sound card, you are probably not going to get high quality recordings no matter what software you use.

May I suggest you post what interface you are using so we can better evaluate the situation?

 

[ido1957]

Menu - Insert/ Midi Track
Paste your midi or use View / Staff to edit
Menu - Insert Soft Synth/TTS
Select Track and then select Tracks/Property/Outputs/TTS1