Vegas 2.0 vs. Pro Audio 9.0

[Brian Ferrell]

Well, after a year of considering what equipment I would need for PC recording, I actually got to the point where I bought some of the software. Pro Audio 9 finally came down to $180 at Musician's Friend after being at $300 all year, so I snatched it up. I still haven't decided on the type of soundcard I want to use and (of course) the day after I ordered the Cakewalk software, I read CyanJaguar's post informing us of the package being offered at Marsmusic; that package being the Midiman Delta 1010 bundled with Vegas 2.0 for $629. I like the features and reviews of the 1010 and have read that Vegas 2.0 is pretty good stuff. I don't want to pay for both the Cakewalk and the Vegas, so I could send the unopened Cakewalk back and go for the 1010 package. Trouble is, Cakewalk Pro 9 has Guitar Tracks features that I like (notation interfacing, etc.), and it appears that Vegas doesn't support stuff like that. I'm pretty eager to tear into that Cake right now. Anybody got any suggestions?

 

[pglewis]

Vegas 2.0 and the 1010 should be a pretty good set-up. If you absolutely need MIDI or the other stuff in Cakewalk, then you'd be better off with it... but I much prefer Vegas for pure audio multitracking. I've had a very frustrating relationship with Cakewalk-- enough that I can't justify giving 'em any more $$ to upgrade to "Sonar" regardless of how many feature bullets their marketing people put on the box.

 

[dachay2tnr]

$629.00 isn't a bad price for the Delta 1010 alone... even if you throw out Vegas. Also, you might want to check out whether Vegas is 24 bit (CW9 is).

Buy the package and keep Cakewalk. I haven't seen a much better price on the Delta 1010... even without Vegas.

 

[Brian Ferrell]

Thanks for your input, guys. I've been looking for an excuse to not have to send the PA9 back because I hate to have to do stuff like that. One option to that might be buying the Delta 66/Omni I/O package for $399. That looks like a pretty attractive solution. I like the idea of having 2 XLR mic inputs-- something the Delta 1010 doesn't have. While researching this on the Web I found that the Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 is now being bundled with PA9 for $499. This Aardvark card is also pretty attractive: it has 4 XLR inputs AND compressors- something the Delta package doesn't have. Both cards get good reviews (on this site and elsewhere), but I'm wondering if there is some advantage the Delta has that I'm overlooking. I don't think I'll need the extra headphone jack, but it looks as if the Delta still might have better possibilities for external routing than the Direct Pro. Any thoughts?