Cakewalk for recording band??

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Podz

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Hi

I'm thinking about purchasing cakewalk to record my band (drums, bass, guitar, and vocals), and was wondering if anyone had any experience of this and whether or not you would recommend it.

Currently I have a Pentium PIII 500MHz, 128MB ram, 20Gb ide H/D, and S/BLive soundcard.

We will need to record at least 8 tracks simultaneously (for the drums), so I think i'll probably need a new soundcard with multiple inputs (any recommendations?)

Also, I hear having an external mixer is a good idea for monitoring and getting the input levels right (can't this be done directly though the software?)
Does latency cause a problem when recording live, and any way of getting around it?

We're looking to end up with a professional sounding CD at the end of the day -- is cakewalk good enough or is cubase better?

Any comments anyone with a bit of experience can provide will be gratefully received.

Many thanks

Podz
 
I would also budget for FX - either outboard or DX-VST-plugins.
Recording a band is fine but you will definitely need to reverberate, EQ, compress and master your recordings - otherwise it just won't sound professional.

I've recorded my band for the last 2 albums with just a 6-track mixer, an AWE32 and Cakewalk. The results are very good - but then I do spend, on average, 5 hours a night producing it!
 
Hey,

I purchased a Delta 1010 from M Audio. This allows me to record 8 audio tracks at once unto my computer. I just finished recording a demo of my band using this Delta 1010 with Pro Audio 9. I must say, I am very impressed. Honestly, our demo sounds just as good as if we would have went into a $100/hr studio (of course, if the recording is done properly and with decent mics). Cakewalk Pro Audio Suite comes with all the effects you should need to do some great recording. As for Cubase, I have never tried it.

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Sound Cards?

You all have mentioned that you used cakewalk to record full bands. I am planning on buying cakewalk and would like to know what kind of sound cards work well with it, prices and catalogs that i can get them. also, what kind of preamps or boards do you use to input to the soundcard.
 
If you are interested in serious PC based recording while still not paying super amounts of cash, I recommend the Delta 1010 from M Audio. I bought mine at a music store for about $700. I read reviews saying that this system tops most anything out there. I use mine with CWPA 9. It took a little while to get all of the settings right (check out my previous post), but my studio now screams! My computer is a Pentium II 400, 196MB, 18GB Ultra2 SCSI and its power is more than enough to record and mix down my band.
 
Cakewalk

I am using Cakewalk P/A 9.0 with gadgetlabs wave824 with fantastic results. Gadgetlabs has a summer special going on the 824/9.0 bundle for $648. You get the software, the
A/D interface and soundcard. Capable of recording/playback 8 tracks. You must use a preamp or a good mixing board.
A good exciter will add to the results too.


Good luck !
 
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