Thoughts on which Cake Walk I Should Buy?

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Nate74

Nate74

HR4FREBR
Hi all,

I currently use a cheapy version of Cake Walk Music Creator 2002. I got it for next to nothing as I recall. I don't do much with it except I'll use it to edit (copy/cut/paste) tracks that I've recorded on my Alesis HD24, and write MIDI stuff that I then put back on the HD24. I'm much more comfortable mixing on my board and don't even have monitors hooked up on my PC, just the cheapy computer speakers.

But I do want to move into something a little better and explore some new options like mixing on the PC, better MIDI capabilities, etc. I'm familiar with the Cake Walk GUI so I think I want to stick with one of their products.

I was fairly happy with Music Creator but since it's all I've ever used, I really don't know what I don't know... ya know?

Also, my Music Creator craps everytime I try to save to mp3, which I do often for posting to the web... maybe it's not the application but it has me looking around.

So any thoughts on what might be a good next step for my PC music software? Thanks!
 
what kind of computer are you running?

I would suggest checking out home studio by cakewalk. it is basically the same as sonar minus a few features. for a very competative price you get recording and midi capabilities, as well as plug in support.
 
minofifa,
My PC is basically a "white box" that I'm always tinkering with. I think it's currently got 3Gb of mem, and a few hundred Gigs of storage. Just would need a decent sound card with the correct outputs.

The Home Studio 2 seems almost too good to be true at $99. Is the 'XL' version worth the extra $60?

Thanks for the input.

Nate
 
i can't remember what the XL gets you so i can't comment. home studio is the real deal at 99 bucks though. it's on par with programs like n-track and traction, in my opinion, but i'm a cakewalk man so i stick with cakewalk products. the best part of homestudio is that if you ever feel like you need to upgrade, you can get sonar 4 at a discount upgrade price. sonar is the shit, it's awsome. ihave sonar 3 and love it. it is a few bucks to drop though.
 
XL does give you some cool extras. I have HS2004XL myself (basically same thing as HS2 minus the VST wrapper)

I hope Cakewalk releases HS3 soon since HS is officially 2 generations behind Sonar now. I would expect HS to be released sometime this year and finally get the newer Sonar 3 interface like GT Pro has.

The best part is that taking the HS route acutally proves to be cheaper if/when you decide to move to Sonar than if you bought Sonar outright.
 
The best part is that taking the HS route acutally proves to be cheaper if/when you decide to move to Sonar than if you bought Sonar outright.
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ya i wish i would've known that when i bought sonar.... meh.

hey brazilian, how come you have never upgraded to sonar? never had a need to?
 
One other question: I currently use Fruity Loops to do some drum tracks now and then. I got the Beta Monkey sample CD and I can get some really good sounding drum beats. I can break out each instrument (bass, snare, toms, hihat, etc) to individual tracks, then import them to CW.

Is there a loop feature in Home Studio that would allow me to bypass the use of Fruity Loops?

Thanks.
 
well if homestudio works the same as sonar (which i'm sure it probably does)... yes, there is groove clips. they are very easy to use and efficient. to be honest i have never tried acid or anything loopng software so i can't really compare but i found learning groove clips was easy. what i like about it is how integrated it is within the tracking / mixing window.
 
Well I picked up the Home Studio 2 XL and have been playing around with it for a few hours now. Really similar to what I already know, but am just now starting to explore the new features.

One question: I will tracking an album in a few weeks at a "real" studio. I've contacted the engineer and asked if I could have the raw tracks for experimentation on my home studio. He said no problem, they'll be 96/24 Broadcast wavs. He sent me a 1 second sample which I can import and hear in the new Cakewalk. But here's my question.

If I want to convert them to 44.1kHz or 48kHz for use on my Alesis HD24, how do I go about doing that? Heck, is that all that is required?

Thanks again for all your help!!!
 
oh man... just goes to show how long its been since i have recorded something... dam school.

anyways, yes it is actuallly pretty easy to convert sample/bitrate properties. i believe the function is under edit or tools or something and it's called convert audio. maybe somebody can clarify or check out the help file. it is easy.
 
I found a few ways to convert from 16 bit to 24 bit, but nothing yet on sample rate. I did find a freeware app that seems to do the job.

http://www.voxengo.com/r8brain/

It's been mentioned here quite a bit. I may post a similar question in the Alesis area too.
 
hmm that plug in looks pretty simple to use.

before you go installing unnecessary plugins, wait untill tomorrow when something who's not an idiot like me can chime in and tell you how to do it. i'm sure i've done it in sonar and it was simple. i don't have sonar on my computer right now so i can't rmember how i did it.
 
No takers on the sample rate conversion question...?

The other thing I'm realizing is that if I want to try my hand at online mixing, I'll need to upgrade my PC. What are the specs I'm gonna need?

3 Gb of Ram?, 80Gb HD? and soundcard with a pair of TRS outs? or...?

I'll be buying a new PC in a few months when my wife and I buy a new home and we both get seperatre "play" rooms but figuring out what I'll need is another story all together.

Thanks.
 
by online mixing do you mean like mixing in real time?

if so you don't need nearly that much ram, 512 RAM is good for 10-15 tracks with plugins, 1 GB of RAM is enough for most purposes. 2 GB is probably overkill unless you have some specific demanding task.
More important, in your system, you need a good processor and a soundcard with good drivers. An AMD athlon 64 3200+ or higher would do you well. with the soundcard, you need it to be able to use WDM or ASIO drivers and NOT MME!!! MME are old drivers and are exteremely slow, you will find they cause a lot of latency.
 
Yeah, I guess real time. I've been using an analog board so long, I'd be looking at just taking the place of the board with the PC. Of course being able to do fades, volume corrections, etc. automatically sure is appealing.

I'm currently using Cakewalk to edit individual tracks and then sending them back to my HD24 and it seems to work well, but doing it all on the PC may have some advantages I haven't even discovered yet.

So is the AMD athlon 64 3200+ the kind of thing you can get from Dell or do I have to get it from a music place?
 
basically there are two big boys in the computer processor market: AMD and intel, and their cpu's: athlon and pentium respectivly (yes i know there are many other modesl but for the purpose of this conversation those are the big two). A new pentium IV (that you would get from dell) OR an athlon 64 would work fine for you. every member here will tell you which one is better but there it is hard to say. I like AMD better because they are cheaper for the performance IMO.

If that was confusing then, dell's come with Intel pentium chips, computer stores will put whatever chip in your computer that you want, maybe ask in the computer forum for suggestions on which chip is best for you.

As for automating pans, volume etc... this is probably my favoirte feature of somputer recording. have you had a chance to learn how to draw envelopes in your software yet? When i learned to use envelopes, my projects were 100% better, they are awsome. they will automate tons of perameters in your project.
 
minofifa said:
A new pentium IV (that you would get from dell) OR an athlon 64 would work fine for you.
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I'll have to say: GET THE ATHLON64! I just love mine!

My computer have never been more stable and I have (for the time ;)) tons of CPU-power!
 
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