looking at cakewalk

B

BillyKid

New member
Hi, been using a Roland VS840 for my recordings. I have hit the wall, so to speak, in terms of the quality I can achieve. At best (musicianship aside) I can make a passable demo, but barely passable by todays standards (seems a demo has to be as well recorded as a platinum record of 15 years ago to be worth bothering with). Have decided to go to a PC based system and Cakewalk (in all it's many versions) seems most promising. Now, I have to confess, I am a recording/computor idiot.

I am not looking all sorts of fabulous options and effect - wouldn't even know what to do with them - all I want to be able to do is to make truly professional studio quality recording - you know, rich, hi fi vocals with depth and presence, acoustic and electric guitars that don't sound compressed beyond recognition, keyboards that don't sound like something from Casio. Am I correct in thinking, talent aside, that I will be able to do this using Cakewalk without going to engineering school?

Since this is the Cakewalk forum, I am assuming you are all Cakewalk devotees. Is it fair to assume that cakewalk offers the best package? I notice that some cakewalk packages cost almost nothing while others cost a pretty penny. Do some come with the appropriate soundboard? With the appropriate inputs for plugging stuff in? Some, it appears, come able to create a whole variety of sound formats and the ability to burn CDs. I must say, I find the whole business very confusing.

The way I figure it, I need a fairly potent, stripped down PC with 2 harddrives and a really good soundboard and some decent monitors and cakewalk and I am ready to kickass, ie. make recordings as good as anyone can in any studio (withing the limits of my engineering abilities). Is this true? I don't mind being limited by my abilities as a musician and a recordist, but I hate being limited by my equipment.

Please share any thoughts you may have. thanks, BK
 
Wow.... there are so many things to say to that, I'm not even sure where to start (...probably why nobody's responded yet -they're all still typing). There are pros and cons, and you'll find people on both sides that feel strongly. However, here are a few facts that might help:

FACT: You can do much more with your recording in Cakewalk than you can in your standalone DAW.

FACT: Your recordings will not sound any better (possibly worse) unless you know what you're doing and you use your ears instead of the bells & whistles.

FACT: You get what you pay for with the different Cakewalk packages. Don't buy Home Studio or Guitar Studio if you want mucho flexibility.

I don't know of a Cakewalk package that comes with a sound card. I'd recommend using Cakewalk WITH your VS 840. There are different ways you can set it up, but if it were me, I'd do the recordings on your VS 840, then transfer it to Cakewalk using a soundcard with a digital input (99 bucks for an Audiowerk2 at Guitar Center). Other than that, you'll be spending big bucks for a multi-input sound card.

Bottom line is, yes ...recording with Cakewalk will give you options and flexibility you just can't get with your VS, but your recordings will only sound better if you bring them to life with technique. There are no magical buttons, plugins, or presets that will instantly make your recording sparkle (trust me, I've looked for them). But if you take the time & effort to learn & master your techniques on a PC platform, then yes... you can end up with a much better product.
 
I've got to back Sean up on this one...cakewalk has the capabilities to do what you want it to do, but the sound itself is really in your hands. I've used Cakewalk in all of its incarnations going back to the 80s, when it was just a midi sequencing program. I've recorded two CDs and countless demos using it.
The main thing I've learned in that time is that knowing how to use your equipment is as important as having good equipment.
Make sure the soundcard you get is a good one, and designed for digital recording. (I use the card D plus) I think you can probably get a decent one for $200-300. The speed of your computer and RAM is really important for running cakewalk well.
Believe me- I learned the hard way.
Hope that helps
jim
 
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