Software Help Needed

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c0rdat0111

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I am completely new to the music software arena. My wife has a great voice and I want to to the following:

Record her singing.
Add drums and instruments.
Mix, edit and everything else.

Is there one software product that will allow me to create a track of my wife's voice. Create another track of drums (or whatever) and more tracks of instruments? Then burn to cd? Will Reason allow me to do this? Does Reason have all of the cool sounding instruments built in?

Basically, to sum it all up, what is ONE SOFTWARE PRODUCT I should fully learn that can meet the needs of a complete studio?

I have a PC with:

XP, 1.6GhZ Proc., 512 MB Ram, 80 GB HD.
Audiophile 2496 Sound card

Any help would be appreciated.

c0rdat0111
 
theres a huge list of multitrack recording programs you can use. Cool Edit is pretty simple, has a CD burning plugin too. No clue what "Reason" is. I guess I am confused, are you looking for a program that plays the instruments or records what you add?
 
Follow-up

I am looking for a program that will do both:

Capture my wife's voice and allow me to use synthetic instruments to make the whole song complete. Does cool edit allow a person to record a voice input and does cool edit have built in instruments? How does that work?

Is there a piece of software that does it all (studio in one application)?
 
how realistic do you want the instruments to sound and how much do you want to spend?

The quality you desire will obviously dictate what to buy so let us know. If you don't play anything, I would look into doing karaoke recording.

stone
 
I want it to be as close to professional as possible. I have about a $400.00 budget but I do not know which application I should invest my time and money into. We spent about $5000 on her first CD!

What do you think? Thanks for the quick feedback.
 
cool edit is a pretty user friendly multitrack recorder and editor. So yer you can record her voice over and over. But no it does not have instruments in it. However fruity loops may be a dandy little program for that. Theres all sorts of "sounds" and instruments you can toss in there.
 
Can you use FruityLoops with CoolEdit? Can you get instruments from other sourceses as well that can be used in both FruityLoops and Cool edit?
 
I use fruity loops to lay down drum tracks but I also play guitar/bass and piano and have for twelve years. It's a useful software and, if you export wav files from FL, you can import to cep and mix with vocals. It's a fifty dollar software and doesn't have too steep a learning curve. It's very dance music heavy, though. I use it only for drums and bass sometimes. If you plan on sequencing virtual instruments, you would most likely use the piano roll option so I would ask for a demo on that version.

I have to warn you though. $400 is a long way from close to professional for a computer based recording studio, generally referred to as a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Also, if you're new to the recording techniques employed in this scenario, it can take a while to get it all under control. You can get fun-type recordings with Cool Edit and a Shure SM57 within a week but nothing most people would consider pro.

Just making sure you know....

stone (btw, ff to ask any more questions.)
 
Stone,

What is a good solution for a DAW? Is there one product? Is this what "Reason", "Sonar" and others like it are for? What is the best "one product" for me to learn and really dig into?
 
These guys got the product right. It is Cool Edit. or N-Track. I personally recommend Cool Edit though because I started on it liked it. Eventually, I "Graduated" to Sonar XL. You have to remember though, the great amount of cost comes from buying the necessary hardware. It's the cost of these microphones, soundcards, preamps, monitors that keeps most of the trackers here pulling their hair out.

Case study:me.

I've spent $500 on software and
$4300 on guitars, amps, bass guitar, mixer, mics, soundcard and headphones. Keep in mind I don't have professional monitors or an acoustically treated room.

bottom line though is, I don't have anywhere near a professional sound and doubt I will for years. If you're ready to embark on a long, arduous but ultimately rewarding journey, join us and go get Cool Edit.

stone

Speaking of which, what kind of hardware (mics, soundcards, do you have currently?)
 
I have a cheap microphone (I need to buy one).
I have a strong PC with plenty of RAM.
I have an Audiophile 2496 Sound Card.

I have no other hardware.

I am guessing I need a pre-amp and mixer? Is there one piece of hardware with good quality that I can use to started?

What exacly do I need to buy if the only real instrument I want to start out with is a microphone?

I really appreciate your help. Some of this is very confusing to me right now.
 
I think an initial purchase of Sonar 2.0, then adding to it as you can afford to (or getting, errrrrrrrrr, "borrowed" plugin's from who ever....) is the way to go.

Sonar is VERY easy to learn, and offer capatibilty to a lot of useful tools for exactly what you want to do.

It has excellent midi functions and editing. Support dxi . The editing is easy and effective. It interfaces with controller interfaces. Will support OMF. I can think of a lot of other reasons it is the best choice, but probably one of the bigger ones is that Cakewalk has been around a LONG time in this game, and they are not going anywhere in this game, and they will continue to offer a great bang for the buck in this game.

Go with a winner. Sonar 2.0 is a winner.

The other app's mentioned are certainly worthy in their own ways. But I can assure you that dxi and midi is what you are going to be using a lot of, and something like CEP is not going to support that as well.

You will need a mic preamp. Get it over with and buy a ART MP. Blah blah blah to other that claim it is crap. I can link to song after song that I have used the ART on that kicks some major booty. It is a nice sounding, affordable mic preamp.

For your wifes voice, of course, not hearing it, if I had to make a mic decision just based upon the fact that the subject is a female, get a Audio Technica 4033. It is just a great sounding mic on female voice.

You will not be able to get Sonar, the ART, and the AT 4033 for $400! You will pay $400 just for Sonar. The ART is around $90. The AT 4033 around $300. That is about as cheap of a good sounding solution you are going to find for your uses. Yes, you could get cheaper software and a much cheaper mic, but you start suffering capabilities and sound quality in a hurry.

Ed
 
I don't quite understand what you meant about the plugins. Does Sonar 2.0 have instruments in the application when you purchase it or do you have to buy them all? Does Sonar "do it all" (i.e. complete studio mixing, editing, whatever..)?

nectar_set@yahoo.com
 
c0rdat0111 said:
I have a cheap microphone (I need to buy one).
I have a strong PC with plenty of RAM.
I have an Audiophile 2496 Sound Card.

I have no other hardware.

I am guessing I need a pre-amp and mixer? Is there one piece of hardware with good quality that I can use to started?

What exacly do I need to buy if the only real instrument I want to start out with is a microphone?

I really appreciate your help. Some of this is very confusing to me right now.
Click to expand...

Nice to hear you have a strong machine. It's a big advantage to have already wiped out those costs.

Ed's suggestion of Sonar is good as Midi will be a big part if you'll be generating much of the music without acoustically recording but I know I wouldn't have known diddly about squat with Sonar if I hadn't played around with Cool Edit for at least a few months earlier. Good news is your sound card is good enough for what you want to do.

So, with your hardware in mind, here are my ideas.

A preamp. Maybe a Studio Projects VTB1 ($180) because it will interface with your soundcard well. Clean, one channel. all you need for the vocalist project. Check here
http://www.studioprojectsusa.com/pdf/vtb1_wiring_hookup.pdf
for diagrams on how it interfaces with your type of sound card.

If you want to go cheaper than that (and by cheaper, I of course denote both price and quality) there are also the ART pres. I can't recommend them but they are available for under a hundred to get the job done.

a female voice friendly large condenser mic. Marshall U67 (~$100) is getting absolutely great reviews here. Not the bottom line suggestion, but a starting point at a nice price. will also need shock mount/ pop filter and mic stand. won't include the prices because mic probably comes with a shock mount, pop filter can be made and you probably already own a mic stand if your wife's a vocalist. :D

For the software, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you to look at Sonar ($399) at an in store demonstration. If the concepts make sense to you after an hour, I'd get it.

whoa! all that thinking and I gotta get back to work. absorb that and I'll check back later to fill in the gaps.

stone.
 
Stone, Ed, Even:

Thanks for your time which can be more valuable than anything sometimes. I will get Sonar 2.0 to begin with. I am a bit of an obsessive compulsive person so I should not have any trouble learning the product.
 
c0rdat0111 said:
I don't quite understand what you meant about the plugins. Does Sonar 2.0 have instruments in the application when you purchase it or do you have to buy them all? Does Sonar "do it all" (i.e. complete studio mixing, editing, whatever..)?
Click to expand...

plug-ins are effects you can buy separately from Sonar, or CEP for that matter, to supplement your wav editing capability. There are simple plug-ins that add effects like reverb and chorus to truly extravagant mastering plug-ins like those made by Waves, ltd. What Ed is saying is that Sonar supports these continuously developing effects so you will not outgrow Sonar. He's got a good point.

stone
 
Maybe I am still confused, wont be the first time. But I am getting the impression that this dude wants a software program that is pretty much "the band". And I cant help but think that he's reading the phrase "plug-in" as being instrument sounds.

Cordat: a plugin is generally an outside effect that modifies the sound that you have recorded. For example you record the wife's voice all pretty and sweet. Then, use a plugin for adding effect like chorus or reverb to sorf of fatten it up.

I get the impression that other than the wives god given singing voice, you folks have no outside recordable instruments (guitar or piano) and are wishing for a program that pretty much "creates" the orchestration and duplicates instruments. Am I way off here?
 
Even,

You are correct I am looking for "the band" as well. Does Sonar come with instruments as well? Is this what DXi is? Instruments? Can instruments be downloaded? How does this work in SONAR 2.0? Can I use FruityLoop instruments in SONAR? HELP>>>>>....Just when I thought I understood.
 
In Sonar, you have DXI instruments, so that you can compose your midi track in Sonar, then use the DXI plugin on that track and pick a nice sound for it. DXI instruments are cool for what this guy would like to do.

Supporting outside plugin's is important. DirectX support is mandatory. VST support isn't as important because you can get a VST rapper to use them like DirextX in applications that only support DirectX.

Anyway, Sonar is VERY feature rich, and you can count on Sonar to be right at the head of the game for new developing technologies and concepts in PC recording. It records/edits midi, records/edits audio, supports OMF now, has a pretty simple mixing interface. Editing is VERY easy to do directly to the wav form on screen. What more can you want? It will be well supported from day one, and you can bet that if there are any big problems, Cakewalk is usually on the ball fixing them.

Sonar is just a good investment.

Many engineers locally after hearing my work and then hearing that I used the ART to track most of it end up giving that preamp another try, and REALLY start using it. Without fail, at the end of a project, they really like how the tracks recorded though it sounded. The ART is a very good value mic preamp.

I would stay away from the Marshall product line if bang for the buck is what you are after. Again, my recommendation is the AT 4033 as a vocal mic. It is a great vocal mic with a long a top40 hits backing track record!

Ed
 
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