sight... I'm back here again... audio software

  • Thread starter Thread starter Elyst
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Elyst

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Hi everyone... I've been playing and recording music for God knows how long, and still I feel like this is the place for me to leave this post, since this is a rather "newb" question. Point is, despite playing music for a long time I feel like I've progressed very little.

Anyway, the question is: What is the *simplest* audio editing software

I'd like to say I've gotten used to Cubase. I had my first contact with Cubase Sx a waaaaaay long time ago (like over 10 years) and a couple of years ago I changed to Cubase Le and then 5. (I think it's called LE, it's a sort of "light" version of cubase that came with some audio interfaces).

My point is, after all this time using Cubase I still have no idea what half of those things do, and I have a hard time messing around with the snap commands, so my recordings always end up off-tempo.

I have an Alesis IO2 express. I was thinking something like Audacity... it's light, free and (I think) as a gentle learning curve. I also heard about Reaper, don't know if it's any good or not.

What are your recomendations?

PS: Something that could all audio files would be great. I discovered today Cubase can't read Mpeg's.... no idea why.
 
Reaper all the way. At least download it and try it. I was a big Sonar user for years but from the day I tried Reaper, I've never looked back. It's pretty damn good. :thumbs up:
 
Reaper is indeed awesome but he did ask for the simplest. I don't know if you can get simpler than Audacity.
 
Elyst said:
My point is, after all this time using Cubase I still have no idea what half of those things do, and I have a hard time messing around with the snap commands, so my recordings always end up off-tempo.

What are your recomendations?

PS: Something that could all audio files would be great. I discovered today Cubase can't read Mpeg's.... no idea why.
Click to expand...
As a Cubase guy I don't find it very complicated. :)
Turn off the snap if it bothers you, there should be button that looks like this: >I< in the upper area. Recording to click track makes editing also a lot easier.

Also mpeg is a audio and video container, maybe the LE doesn't know how to read the video part. Try converting it to wav first.
 
I've tried audacity before. I have to say I can't complain but I never really used it for more than mere cutting and boosting audio... I should download it, I think it's something you should always keep around just in case (maybe they even have an app for that... yeah ... looks like there ins't... anyway).

Reaper... I was heavily recommended to try it by the dude that sold me the interface methinks... I donwloaded it and used it once... but I've forgotten why I went back to cubase. I'll give it a try too!

As for the snap on cubase. Not using it feels very imprecise and using it snaps over parts you don't want to.

Here's what happened to me yesterday, I was a bit sleepy and tired but now that I slept over it I have a clearer idea of what hailed me.
A friend of mine sent me a drum beat and wanted me to record something over it. He is a Mac user (probably relevant) and sent me an mpeg with the drums. I realized that Cubase couldn't open mpeg's for some reason (no error message or anything, you just clicked it and nothing happened) so I used some cheap converter I found somewhere on the Internet (AnyVideoConverter I think was the name... the fact the name says VIDEO might have been a clue), the program could however convert the mpeg to wav and I used the wav to record something over it.
What I think that happened when my friend saw the files: he synced his mpeg drums with my wav guitar (without drums) and both were off tempo. Not just because I screwed a little bit in the ending but I think the converter didn't help at all there.

I let go of that lame guitar line and I sat on my keyboard to think of something else to add to a guitar line he made himself.
At first I sat with headphones on my keyboard listening from the left to the PC playing his mpeg with drums+guitar and on the right just my keyboard. I came up with something that sounded remotely good in D.
Later when I converted those drums + guitar to wav and pasted them on cubase I replayed my piano line and it was so excruciating I felt like reaping my ears off. I started trying other stuff but everything I did just sounded hawful with the guitar.
That's when I realized that the converter was slightly altering my files.

So, on a sidenote, anyone knows any good trustworthy converters?
Thanks a lot for the help!
Cheers!
 
I believe all you needed to do was add a video track in Cubase (Project>Add Track>Video). Importing the video there, should give you both the video, as well as a separate audio track.
 
Adobe Audition (formerly Cooledit) was what I started with. It's a good way to get going...
Over the years I've tried Sonic Foundry, Waves, Cakewalk & Sonar, Cubase, Samplitude and maybe a dozen others.

I liked Traktion (from Mackie) - It has an unusual user interface, but is very intuitive and easy to learn.
Currently I use Reaper, just because it does everything I need and I got tired of wandering through 'upgrade hell'.

Keep in mind that 'easy' doesn't always jibe well with 'effective' or 'useful'. No matter which one you decide on, expect to spend some time learning and being frustrated trying to figure out how to do stuff.
 
I already downloaded Audacity and Reaper. All I need is to try them out. But I've been so tired lately...
I know my way around audacity moderately well. As for Reaper... only time will tell.
 
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