Can someone help me find the best DAW program for my specific needs???

  • Thread starter Thread starter Maridlidi
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Maridlidi

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Hello!
I'm hopping maybe someone here can help me to find the best program to record my music at home. I've already tried CUBASE (recomended by a friend of mind) but it was finally a bit to complicated for me... I would like something more handy... And I'm not the kind of person who can or want to learn a complicated program by myself.
So... My needs are:

- to record many different tracks with my instruments and voice
- to plug directly my electronic piano in my computer and potentially transform that sound into multiples instruments (like violon, trompets, etc)

I have a pc.
I have already and extern sound card (tascam)
I have a mic and different wires ready to use!

Thank you so much for helping! I'm a bit desperated and lost in that audio world!!

Marie-Eve
 
To help the group help you, a couple of questions:

You want to record "many different tracks", do you want to be able to do them all at once? Or one or two at a time?
Is your electronic piano capable of MIDI output? It needs to be if you want to transform the sounds to different instruments.

Answer these and the suggestions will be easier.

You are going to need a AI, or audio interface. your answers to the above will also help with the suggestions.

And yes, Cubase is not a user friendly DAW, IMHO.
 
More explanations

Hi! I'm so glad someone answer me! :-)
Ok so I will try to be more precise... :
- Many tracks for me means one or 2 at a time.
- I can tell that I have already succeed to plug my piano into my computer and use the CUBASE program to transform the sound of my piano into other instruments... It was not easy... Haha...
And, finally, what is a AI?
Thank you!
 
mdainsd said:
You are going to need a AI, or audio interface.
Click to expand...

^^^ AI - I think you indicated you have a Tascam interface?

Most DAWs are going to have a layer of complexity to them. I'm not sure how easy any of them are for the uninitiated.

Presonus Studio One is supposed to be one of the easier ones to work with, but I say that based on other posts not personal experience. Their Prime product is free:

https://shop.presonus.com/products/...io-One-3-Digital-Downloads/Studio-One-3-Prime


There's a more basic version of Cakewalk Sonar that will, perhaps, give you the tools you need as well as make things straight forward enough for you. Cakewalk offers free trials of their Sonar products:

https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Try-SONAR#start


Most beginners find Reaper to be complicated, so while that is free it may need to be taken off the table right away based on your Cubase experience.
 
What is your experience? Have you had hands on in a studio? Have you done live sound or live performance? What kind of interface would you be comfortable with?

Possibly your best bet is to look for the free demos for several and give each a decent trial. Many have free trials that limit something. Reason (that I use) has one, but the limit is you can't save...but at least you can see and get used to the interface. If you have lots of real estate (multi-monitors) it's quite easy to use and intuitive assuming you've done hands on with a mixer/desk and actual outboard gear. The interface is very straight forward. Make a track, arm the track, tell the track where to look for it's signal, hit record.
There's a 30 day free trial for Ableton 9.
People around here probably know a few more.
I've been told that Rosegarden is excellent (if you use Linux) and it's free.
 
BTW, I agree with Pinky. Cakewalk was my first love, so Sonar is well worth a free trial. I only gravitated towards Reason for it's VERY graphical user interface. :)
 
"- I can tell that I have already succeed to plug my piano into my computer and use the CUBASE program to transform the sound of my piano into other instruments... It was not easy... Haha..."

If you have done that, you are half way there. I really don't see the point of starting from the bottom again to get to where you are now! Cubase IS the best DAW for YOUR purpose for several reasons.

1) It is perhaps THE most MIDI oriented of the DAWs it started out as a "sequencer" and had audio recording bolted on. Most DAWs went the other way AFAIK. They INVENTED "VST" after all!
2) Using ASIO drivers Cubase will likely give you the lowest possible Latency.
3)There are probably more tutorials, books and videos about Cubase than any other recording software.

Do I use it? No, I "grew up" with Samplitude but I HAVE used it and agree, it is a bit of a trial but I did get a few simple things done. My son, who is a FAR better musician than technician became quite proficient with Cubase (El 6) by dint of hours of work. And "work" is the key word here. No DAW worth the name is easy to learn. Most of us here can write a decent letter in Word but how many of us know ALL its tricks and capabilities? Very few because we don't need to. We struggled at the start until we found out just the bits we needed to get the job done.

Please give the model of the keyboard and AI and persevere with Cubase!

Dave.
 
I've already tried CUBASE (recomended by a friend of mind) but it was finally a bit to complicated for me... I would like something more handy... And I'm not the kind of person who can or want to learn a complicated program by myself.
So... My needs are:
Click to expand...

If you need help there's likely plenty to be found in online tutorials and forums specific to Cubase or most other programs as well. Most all good recording software will have a learning curve. Don't try to grasp the entirety of the program in the beginning, but just take small steps in your in what you want to accomplish. If you get stuck use Google to find out what you need or ask in a forum such as here. Set some small goals in what you want to do in a session, such as basic recording of MIDI data in the the software. Eventually it will all tie together.

A small sampling of examples of where to look for help.....
https://www.lynda.com/Cubase-training-tutorials/1625-0.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYV2Hi6uAnU
https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=202
https://homerecording.com/bbs/user-forums-by-brand/steinberg-cubase-user-forum/
Audio Terminology (basic)
http://www.mediacollege.com/glossary/a/ (expanded)
 
At first I found full-featured DAWs too complicated and I could not find any of the tools I needed. This was until I bought Cakewalk Music Creator. It is basically a reduced version of Sonar. Having limited capabilities and features allowed my to get used to it quickly, finding the right tools I needed and gathering some general DAW skills. I was able to produce decent recordings using Music Creator, a small audio interface and SM57. It is not very expensive and came with a restricted version of amplitube.
 
Ask 20 people and you'll get 20 diff DAW recommendations ;) Personally I started with the highly-touted Reaper and found it rather unfriendly.....I suggest trying Mixcraft or even Audacity, which is much more basic but even easier to use and it sounds like your needs may be basic enough for that to work.
 
joey2000 said:
I suggest trying Mixcraft or even Audacity, which is much more basic but even easier to use and it sounds like your needs may be basic enough for that to work.
Click to expand...

Audacity is so basic it doesn't even qualify as a DAW. It's an audio editor, a freeware alternative to Sound Forge. I would strongly recommend not using Audacity when you need a DAW.
 
Sadly, all the good bits of software that are worth having also mean a bit of effort to learn. Let's be honest, if it's going to do a good job, then it will have many options and bells and whistles - not even ones you will never need, but many that you do. In fact, most of these are very logical, but a bit complex to a beginner. I get frustrated with the beginners ones when you need to do just the one last bit and it has run out of possibilities. The cut down versions of Cubase are ideal to start on. It really is like saying a car is too complicated, so you reject it and go back to a cycle. That's never really going to work.
 
joey2000 said:
Ask 20 people and you'll get 20 diff DAW recommendations ;)
Click to expand...

One reason is that once you become familiar with the DAW you are using, it seems easy and others seem hard.

Another reason is that different DAWs do things slightly differently. Sometimes those differences will suit you, how you like to think about things, while sometimes they will be baffling.

A third reason is that some DAWs try to replicate a typical tape-based analog system, while others depart from it. The former may more likely suit people who are coming from tape.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Audacity is so basic it doesn't even qualify as a DAW. It's an audio editor, a freeware alternative to Sound Forge. I would strongly recommend not using Audacity when you need a DAW.
Click to expand...

In any case, the OP seems to have had some success with MIDI in Cubase? Audacity does not do MIDI.

Dave.
 
I'm a massive recording Luddite and I use Reaper. I just worked out the basics myself and its very simple. Sure there is massive complexity available with it but you don't need to know any of it - I barely scratch the surface of its capabilities.

Its also free to try and test so there's no reason not to try it!
Here you go:
REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits
Give it a try.
 
I'd recommend studio one. Easy to use, everything seems logical.

I tried cubase, couldn't get it to do what i wanted.
I tried reaper, same as cubase.
Then I tried studio one, and I was recording in no time.

B.T.W. Groove 3 has excellent video tutorials on studio one for the basics and for the more advanced stuff.
 
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