General comment/question about computer software

[Ricklh]

First of all, I'm a guitarist with an acoustic and an acoustic/electric guitar, a Behringer 2000S microphone, and an old Yamaha keyboard. I've been using a Fostex MR-8 multitracker for the past few years due to it's simplicity of use, and "hands-on-real-knobs" feel. However, I've been recently dabbling with Audacity to lay down a few basic tracks (two guitar tracks, a vocal & harmony vocal) and am impressed by the sound quality - I get better-sounding recordings from my computer than from the MR-8. I've looked at other, more feature-laden programs including Reaper, Steinberg Sequel, Ableton Live 7 LE, Mackie Tracktion, Fruityloops, Acid and find them all quite a bit more intimidating and with a learning curve that I'm sure would impede the creative process. Audacity is the only one I've seen that is easy & intuitive enough to not get in the way of inspiration. So, my question is - with my very minimalist track requirements as laid out above, is there any program that is as easy to learn (or close to it) as Audacity that has a few more features - in other words, a step or two up from Audacity but without the complexity and learning curve characteristic of the other programs above? All I'd like to do is lay down and mix tracks typical of your average guitar band using only 8-16 tracks: lead, rhythm, drums, bass, keyboards, 2 or 3 vocals. Or, is Audacity good enough for this task, without moving up to something else? Has anyone here that uses Audacity made a quality-sounding demo with about 8 tracks? Thanks in advance.

 

[Aly]

I use Audition

Go for adobe audition.. (The old Cool Edit Pro, but nowadays that company is overtaken by Adobe)

Stupid simple (of course you do need to read some stuff about recording with Audition), and very powerfull.. You can go all directions with this baby. Wheather you make rock, fool, heavy metal, or jingles for radio/supermarkets.. It's even used by radio reporters to record their inerviews.

Oh, and by the way, this baby has got some nice effcts allready included, just enough to fiddle around with and keep you happy.. If you get more into recording, you may want to get some additional effects software, like Waves Renaissance packages, Amplitube, presonus stuff etc... depending on what you need or like. But I can assure you that the basic Audition pack has got enought to keep you going for a while.

Much easier than Cubase and many others.. Of course, once you get your way around in Cubase or any other, you will disagree with me.. I can only tell you this : Choose a nice sequencing/recording software and stick with it.. Learn every function, dig deep into it and you will be rewarded...

Aly

 

[Ricklh]

Thanks, Aly - I appreciate the input. I'll check out Audition.

 

[pipelineaudio]

If you can run audacity you can pretty much run anything, that's a tricky app

 

[RD423]

Yeah go with adobe audition. It's simple and easy to use. I used it back when it was cool edit pro, and not much of a change to the "ease of use"

 

[Ricklh]

Yeah go with adobe audition. It's simple and easy to use. I used it back when it was cool edit pro, and not much of a change to the "ease of use"

I was pretty impressed with the Cool Edit Pro program when I got Roger McGuinn's DVD on Home Recording on Computer and he uses the program on that video, which actually is what sparked my interest in computer recording. Unfortunately, it's out of my budget at the moment. I downloaded the demo version of N-Tracks (V.5) last night and it didn't take me long to get some tracks down with it so I may end up buying it - it seems to be the next logical step up from Audacity and the price is nice.

Maybe Audition will be a future purchase when I learn the ins and outs of PC music production.

Thanks for the responses!

 

[michaelst]

Rich...

N-Tracks is a very, very good application. Like any piece of software, it was designed to work with as many hardware configuations as possible. If you have a standard hardware set-up, it will work very well indeed.

Version 6 was just released, much more CPU efficient, clean intuitive interface and some pretty slick included plug-ins. Software with similar capabilities costs hundreds more.

 

[Ricklh]

Rich...

N-Tracks is a very, very good application. Like any piece of software, it was designed to work with as many hardware configuations as possible. If you have a standard hardware set-up, it will work very well indeed.

Version 6 was just released, much more CPU efficient, clean intuitive interface and some pretty slick included plug-ins. Software with similar capabilities costs hundreds more.

Thanks for the info. After I get the hang of V.5, I'll likely try out V.6. I like the "much more CPU efficient, clean intuitive interface" parts you described in particular. I was also impressed with the well-written user instructions with V.5.

 

[RD423]

Yeah, I have never personally used N Tracks but been on this board for years now, even though I have been away for a while and I heard good stuff about it years ago from this board and people still are talking good about it. So if it works for you go with it.