Upgrade from Audacity suggestions

[Chelonian]

I've been using Audacity to do music recordings and it's been easy to get started and pretty good in some ways, particularly since it got the option to apply realtime effects.

However, I've looked around and, unless I'm misunderstanding, it seems there is no way to set up a bunch of realtime effects on a track and then copy those effects to other tracks. I'd like to do this because I will record a vocal track and get the effects more or less favorable but then I'll want to preserve that take and try more takes but I want the new takes to have those same effects. But it's prohibitively laborious to do that manually to each new take.

So, first, is there actually an easy way to do this in Audacity?

If not, can someone recommend software in which one can do this easily? Preferably something with a free trial version and very easy to get started with. This is on a MacBook pro laptop (though I may go back to a PC computer at some point).

 

[TalismanRich]

I know with Reaper, you can simply click on the FX button on the track and drag it to any other track and it will apply the same settings. Plus you can set up a template for your normal starting vocal track setup, and just load the template. Record the first track, then create the second track, drag the FX button to it, and you've got a duplicate.

You get a 60 day trial version (at Reaper.FM) and the trial is never crippled. It simply adds a "nag screen" at startup after the trial period to remind you that it isn't registered. It was a good enough program that I paid the $60 for mine (about 7 or 8 years ago). I'm running 5.99 and it still works fine.

I haven't upgraded to V6, but I might do that for V7. You get 2 full versions. Buy V6 and you get V7 as well.

Audacity is ok, but I mostly just use it for some quick simple edits. I never use it for recording, or for multitrack work. Reaper is a much better tool for that.

 

[Chelonian]

I know with Reaper, you can simply click on the FX button on the track and drag it to any other track and it will apply the same settings. Plus you can set up a template for your normal starting vocal track setup, and just load the template. Record the first track, then create the second track, drag the FX button to it, and you've got a duplicate.

You get a 60 day trial version (at Reaper.FM) and the trial is never crippled. It simply adds a "nag screen" at startup after the trial period to remind you that it isn't registered. It was a good enough program that I paid the $60 for mine (about 7 or 8 years ago). I'm running 5.99 and it still works fine.

I haven't upgraded to V6, but I might do that for V7. You get 2 full versions. Buy V6 and you get V7 as well.

Audacity is ok, but I mostly just use it for some quick simple edits. I never use it for recording, or for multitrack work. Reaper is a much better tool for that.

Great, thanks for that tip. I had Reaper on my previous (Windows) laptop and tried it and was immediately baffled, couldn't get it to record anything, and shut it off. Somehow Audacity "just worked." But I guess just need to hunker down with a tutorial or something for Reaper. I'm sure once I get up to speed it will be much better and offer much better effects.

 

[TalismanRich]

Gee, I found Reaper to be absolutely simple to set up. Set your audio input device, create a track, click the track record button and hit RECORD. Other than the "setting the input device" part, it was just like using a mixer.

Granted, Reaper has thousands of options, but you don't HAVE to use them.

I have a couple of copies of Cubase SE, and had used a copy of ProTool Free many years ago. I still have Cubase SE on my very old laptop.

 

[TalismanRich]

BTW, just pull up one of Kenny Gioia's Reaper Mania videos and he'll walk you through just about anything you can do.

 

[Chelonian]

Gee, I found Reaper to be absolutely simple to set up. Set your audio input device, create a track, click the track record button and hit RECORD. Other than the "setting the input device" part, it was just like using a mixer.

Hm, not in my experience. I just went to do that and it gives me a warning that I must "arm" a track before hitting RECORD or else nothing will be recorded. I don't know yet what purpose that step serves... (although I get that I didn't have a track inserted. I guess just the language of "arming" a track is unfamiliar to me.)

...so then I inserted a track and then when I hit the record button it didn't say that....but then no waveform was shown and if I play it back it's just silent. But Audacity does work, so it's not something with my equipment.

Then I started watching Kenny Gioia's video and it shows the "routing" indicator--and then I got to my version of Reaper and there is no such area shown, looking in the same exact place.

This is just what I mean--it's not as immediate, at least in my experience.

 

[jamesperrett]

Reaper tends to assume that you know a bit about recording first. Arming a track just means selecting which tracks you want to record onto. Also, if you have had Reaper on the machine before it is possible that it has picked up an old settings file with some odd settings in it. You may need to delete your Reaper.ini file in C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\REAPER

 

[TalismanRich]

Yeah, arming a track happens on any DAW or even on things like my Zoom R24 or H4n where you have multiple channels. It just means to select the track to be recorded. You would do the same on a mixing console. You might only select 3 tracks to record as the others might already have sound on them. You need to think of the Play/Stop/Record/Rewind buttons as the controls on a tape deck, not the mixing console.

 

[Chelonian]

Yeah, arming a track happens on any DAW or even on things like my Zoom R24 or H4n where you have multiple channels. It just means to select the track to be recorded.

Thanks for that helpful image! That got it working, though then when I recorded my voice saying "check," I saw some waveform briefly but now it is gone. I then went to record more and I didn't even see the waveform (and yes, the track was armed). Really confusing.

Whereas the first time I started Audacity, I added a track and hit record and there was a big, chunky, obvious waveform shown. So it really seems to me that there is just no contest between the intuitiveness of use of this for a newcomer and Audacity. I have no doubt this is a far superior tool, but I'm going to need a full tutorial to even get to be able to do the most basic stuff. Which is fine, I just need to sit down with a decaf and learn.

 

[TalismanRich]

Looking back at your posts, are you using the Moto M2, and going into a Mac? Did you set up Reaper to record from that device? It's under Options- Preferences. Make sure you have the Moto selected as your input device.

DId you see the meter of the channel jumping up and down? That's the indication that you have signal coming in. That's when you adjust the input levels for the microphone.

When you're recording you should see something like this. I just used the internal mic for this since I'm not downstairs with the interface. but you can see that the track is armed, the meter is reading signal, and it's recording the waveform.

 

[ecc83]

Thanks for that helpful image! That got it working, though then when I recorded my voice saying "check," I saw some waveform briefly but now it is gone. I then went to record more and I didn't even see the waveform (and yes, the track was armed). Really confusing.

Whereas the first time I started Audacity, I added a track and hit record and there was a big, chunky, obvious waveform shown. So it really seems to me that there is just no contest between the intuitiveness of use of this for a newcomer and Audacity. I have no doubt this is a far superior tool, but I'm going to need a full tutorial to even get to be able to do the most basic stuff. Which is fine, I just need to sit down with a decaf and learn.

Yes, stick with it! You do actually have to "arm" Audacity in that you need to select a track to record on and click on the meters to get them to indicate.
Yes, Reaper will take some effort...all DAWs do but it is really a no-brainer at the price and can do almost everything that you would pay $400+ for in any other software. I have it but rarely use it, long time Samplitude person but it would definitely be my second choice after Sam.

Dave.

 

[Chelonian]

Looking back at your posts, are you using the Moto M2, and going into a Mac? Did you set up Reaper to record from that device? It's under Options- Preferences. Make sure you have the Moto selected as your input device.

Yes, that was the first thing I did. I was able to record my voice but:

1. The waveform went by very quickly and looked very stretched out.
2. I wasn't able to see the waveform after stopping recording.
3. When I tried it a second time, I didn't see a waveform at all.

The image you show is what I was hoping to see, yes. I don't know why it's not just showing me that with the waveform. I'll fool around with it more and see what happens. Thanks again for your help.

Btw, I'm finding that on this MacBook, Audacity has a lot of trouble continuing working. I was using it earlier, then went for a walk, came back, tried to play a track and it gives me an error. If I close Audacity and restart, same error. Only thing that works is entirely restarting the MacBook and then starting Audacity.

I didn't have these problems on Windows 10 (and am finding the Mac OS to be weird and worse, though maybe that's just my not being unfamiliar with it...well, other than Fitts's Law violations for windows controls, which are amazingly small on the Mac!).

 

[TalismanRich]

IF the waveform looks stretched out, you can easily adjust that. Just put your pointer over the area with the waveform, and roll the scroll wheel on the mouse. It will change the width of the view. Alternately, you should have a + and - in the lower right corner of the track wave window. Clicking + zooms in, - zooms out.

You can zoom in to the point that you can see each sample point for the wave, or zoom out so that you see a whole song in a small part of the window.

 

[ecc83]

I have used Audacity for over ten years in Windows, starting I think with XP. I have never had a bother with it in 7 and now 10. Even Blista worked as well as could be expected! I seem to recall Audacity was written for Windows and mac came later?
Yesterday I had a long Skype session with son in France re using Reaper in place of Samplitude Pro X3 for MIDI and notation work. I was little help but we eventually managed to get Reaper to do what he wanted it to do. He has used a Samplitude instance for over 10 years starting with a magazine freebie of SE8 (still very useful!) and eventually bought Pro X3 suite but I think he might be a convert!

Dave.