Best Cakewalk Program?

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Robdirt

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Hi everyone.

I'm thinking about getting into home recording. I did some very limited recording with my PC a few years back with Cakewalk 9.0. By limited, I mean, a 16 bit sound card, very shotty mixing, and our resulting CDs sounded like crap :)

I'm a singer/songwriter and am looking for a way to put down some decent recordings of my stuff. I will be playing most of the instruments on the recordings, so recording multiple instruments at once isn't a neccessity, but it would definately be nice to have. I will be using electronic drums for the most part. (Don't want to mess with micing drums :p )

I know I need a new soundcard. I'm probably going to get the 24bit E-MU 1212 or something of that caliber. I know I need 24bit and the new ASIO 2.0 drivers for good digital sound.

I also know I need a good recording prog. I looked at Sonar3 and Guitar Tracks 3. Anyone know the advantages of the two and which you think would be the best for my scenario?

Is that it? Do I need any hardware mixers or anything like that? Can it all be done on the PC if I have a good sound card?


I know it's a lot of questions, but I don't wanna waste my cash :eek:
 
Robdirt said:
I'm thinking about getting into home recording. I did some very limited recording with my PC a few years back with Cakewalk 9.0. By limited, I mean, a 16 bit sound card, very shotty mixing, and our resulting CDs sounded like crap :)
Click to expand...

That's probably more attributed to the user's skills than the software itself. There are pleanty of professional musicians STILL using PA9 doing stuff that sounds just as good as the stuff someone else records in Pro Tools...

If you have no use for MIDI or softsynths, it would be silly to waste money on Sonar. GT Pro 3 would be more than enough.
 
It's strange that brzilian didn't say it, so I will: I recommend Home Studio 2004. It seems like shelling out for Sonar 3 would be a little waste for you, and Guitar Tracks 3 doesen't have any MIDI and therefore no softsynths.
 
wow, thanks for the replies guys. I don't forsee much use for MIDI, but who knows. I may toy with it down the road.

When using a Cakewalk program, should I use some sort of mixer/preamp prior to sending the signal into my sound card?

Sorry for the dumb questions, but I'm trying to learn :)
 
I would second moskus' recommendation of HS2004, unless "money is no object" for you, then go for Sonar (and while you're at it, I could use a nice set of monitors :D). While you don't think you have much use for MIDI now, having it available as an option is definitely a good idea, because it can come in very handy.

Also, regarding your mixer/preamp question... Chances are you will need preamps at some step of the way if you will be micing any instruments (acoustic guit, an amplifier for an electric guit, voice). Preamps are needed to get the mic signal up to line level so you can bring it in through your soundcard's LINE IN.

A mixer can come in very handy because most models have their own preamps in at least a few channels, so you can plug your mic in (or your electric guitar directly in if you want to mix in a clean signal) to the mixer and use its preamp to bring the gain up in level. Granted, if you got lotsa bucks, you're gonna probably want to get separate preamp units at some point, as they are more specialized and are generally going to sound "better" (maybe you'll prefer the mixer sound - it's all what you like) than a mixer's built-in preamp. Also, a mixer can be helpful if you want to... well... mix signals going in. It can also serve as a place where you can insert processors or add effects to a signal more easily. It is also useful to bring the sounds from your MIDI modules into your mix and to monitor the mix from your computer. So, you might consider looking into an inexpensive mixer to help out a bit.

Enjoy! :)
-Jeff
 
guttadaj said:
I would second moskus' recommendation of HS2004, unless "money is no object" for you, then go for Sonar
Click to expand...
All
Cool
Kids
Use
Sonar

:D :D :D :D
 
I purposely did not recommend HS2004 because GT Pro 3 is based off of the new Sonar 3 audio engine and UI. HS2004 is still using Sonar 2.2 code.

I'm waiting for HS2006 or whatever is gonna be called which will most likely make use of Sonar 3's code.
 
brzilian said:
I purposely did not recommend HS2004 because GT Pro 3 is based off of the new Sonar 3 audio engine and UI. HS2004 is still using Sonar 2.2 code.
Click to expand...
I see your point, but to me the loss of MIDI is way greater than using the 2.2 engine. But hey, that's me! :D
 
hrm,

I was all convinced that GTP3 was for me, but now I'm curious about the MIDI applications.

Hrm, Hrm, Hrm.....
 
You could always go with FL Pro, it's a decent program, and fairly easy to use. It swings both Wave/Mp3 and midi format, but I don't suggest making midi through there. Plugging midi into a project is fine though. Personally I think PA 9 is just fine, produce your midi then, then leap it over to FL Pro. But that's just my style.
 
you said you were going to use electric drums? Well you may find midi useful in the sense of using it/softsynths to make drum beats on your own. I have never used GT3 but am pretty sure it doesn't have MIDI capabilites. Sonar 3 producer is the shit but if you don't have the cash, then HS2004 is pretty kewl as well.
you may want to see if you can pick up an old copy of cool edit pro 2.o (it is prolly pretty cheap now). It is very good for cleaning up your waves before you mix them in a cakewalk program.
 
Robdirt-

As with all software questions, before you can make any kind of informed decision, you have to work backwards from what you are trying to accomplish.

If you aren't going to use live drums, then you should definitely be looking for a program that has MIDI capabilities. There are other options, but MIDI is certainly worth considering.

If you're exclusively working alone, then you can probably be satisfied with a sound card with stereo inputs. However, you should also think about where you want to go in the future and keep that in mind as you make purchases. Will you want to record with others? Will you start/join a band?

What is your primary instrument? If you're a keyboard player, then, again, I would look hard at MIDI. You can do things with it that you simply can't with audio. (Of course, you can do things with audio you can't with MIDI as well!)

Of course, in all of this that ugly thing called a BUDGET demands its say. How much can you afford to spend? You'll have to look long and hard at how you want to allocate your money and there's no one right answer. Hardware and software are both important pieces of the puzzle.

The E-mu cards are getting a lot of play right now and, so far, from what I've seen, people are impressed, so they're worth considering. If the budget allows, you could look at the Emulator X Studio ($599.00) which has everything- sampler, mic pres, 18 ins and 20 outs, MIDI and Firewire.

Right now, there are a slew of good sound cards and a wide range of prices.

One other thing- You didn't mention anything about your computer. In order to make this work well, you will need a relatively powerful computer.

Last thing, and this might be blasphemy in a Cakewalk forum, but you may want to look at a hardware based multitrack digital recorder. There are quite a number now at all price points and this might be a good alternative for you since they include a mixer, mic pres and, often, CR-RW for completing projects. Usually, there is less of a learning curve here since the paradigm is more familiar to most people.

Now that you're totally confused...In answer to your original question...

I vote for SONAR 3 PE (if you can afford it, that is)- it's ALL you need and likely will be all you need for quite sometime.

Good luck!

Ted
 
EMU Emulator X Studio ?

Ted,
Thats an incredibly well thought out response.
One question: the EMU Emulator X Studio you mentioned, does it REALLY have 18 ins and 20 outs? I looked around online and it appears to only have 8 ins/outs. Am I misunderstanding something? This sounds like a good package otherwise. But is it primarily of use to people interested in Sampling, as a priority?

Thanks,
Pat
 
thesilencekit said:
Ted,
Thats an incredibly well thought out response.
One question: the EMU Emulator X Studio you mentioned, does it REALLY have 18 ins and 20 outs? I looked around online and it appears to only have 8 ins/outs. Am I misunderstanding something? This sounds like a good package otherwise. But is it primarily of use to people interested in Sampling, as a priority?

Thanks,
Pat
Click to expand...

Pat,

Total, it has 18 ins and 20 outs-
Inputs:
2 mic pres
6 x 1/4" balanced inputs
ADAT In (that's 8 digital inputs on lightpipe)
SPDIF Input (digital stereo)

Outputs:
8 x 1/4" balanced outputs
ADAT Out
SPDIF Out x2

I haven't used this card or tested it or heard it so I can't speak from any kind of actual knowledge, but I've read good things about it so it's worth looking at considering the price. If you don't need the sampling, look at the 1820M. It's the same thing without the sampling for $100.00 less.

Personally, I use the Soundscape Mixtreme cards and I've been very happy with these. But they're a much different animal than what most are using. I like them because they're extremely reliable, quiet powerful and simple to use. Unfortunately, the company went through some hard times, Mackie bought them and then didn't do squat and their products languished for several years. Now they're back with a bunch of new products and they appear to be stronger than ever. The Mixtreme is the bottom of their line, but a powerful card as it has on-board processing and, now, VST support in their mixer as well.

Ted
 
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