recording acoustic stuff?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alan1222
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Alan1222

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I'm looking to move up from a 4-track portastudio to digital recording, an area where I am a total novice. I DON'T want to use sequences or samples, but want to record and mix real (mainly acoustic) instruments, and vocal harmonies.

I've been recommended everything including Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro, Cubase VST, Cubasis, Magix Music Maker 7 and lots more... does anyone have a view on what is most suitable for the mainly folky/rootsy stuff I want to record, mix and eventually burn to CD? I'll be using a high-spec PC platform running Windows XP. Price isn't the main consideration.

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
Vegas from Sonic Foundry isn't very expensive and is very intuitive as far as learning its ins and outs goes. Great multi tracker.
 
CoolEditPro and Ntracks are probably the most straight forward audio only programs. Both are pretty reasonable.
 
Tex, thanks for the word. I've had a look at Cool Edit Pro, seems ideal.
 
Hey Tex,

I gave a listen to the tunes there and I kinda liked the first two but the third one sounded a bit draggy and boring. But besides my likes or dislikes, I noticed the vocals in the first and third tune were set back into the mix and sounded kind of stepped on. Dougs got a great voice and I thought it should be out in front of the mix. The second song 'When I'm Home' had the vocal sittin sweet. Good job!
 
That's not a mix. Those are just the raw tracks to let you hear the mics. But I would agree with everything you said ;)

Except for the part about his voice. His voice is actually pretty weak and he is the first to admit it has an annoying quality to it. But the MXL 2003 really made him sound great. Sometimes the right mic will complement a singer perfectly. The 2003 is supposed to more of an accurate mic as opposed the slightly colored V63 but what little character the 2003 is supposed to have it worked wonders on Doug.

But I guess you were mainly asking about software. In which case CEP 2.0 is probably a good choice for what you need.
 
my friend, the best option in your situation is keep in analog domain to recording from live instruments subject matter.
make a mix in some digital multitrack or (if you can afford one) some HD recorder.
make a two track, 24 bit material and send to your DAW and make your job using (for example) Sound Forge 5 with yamaha DSP plug in.
this was my solution to all my problems. I happy, I´m in digital domain, I can store very precious material in 24 bit range, and can make real decent demos for a small bands.
 
Take a look at Magix Samplitude Producer (formerly by Sek'd) Runs the entire gamut from tracking, editing, mixing, mastering to burning. An all-in-one package.
 
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