what's the best beginning software

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JCHCxXx

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the studio where i work started out using cakewalk, and we were getting too much digital distortion, so now i'm working on learning cubase (it's supposed to use the processor more effieciently) but i don't really know anything about this kinda stuff, so if there's any really good software that i should be aware of, please let me know.
thanx
 
0dB in the digital world is the absolute ceiling. If your signal gets louder than that, there aren't enough bits to represent the signal. If you do "peak", the software will just use the biggest number it can to represent those parts of the wave. This results in "chopping off" the top of the waves that went over-- digital distortion.

I know this seems ridiculously obvious, but: the more sound you make, the louder things are. Even if none of your source tracks are distorted, you can end up distorting the overall mix when you start adding more tracks together. If this is what's happening in your case, no choice of software will fix it... just drop the levels on all your source tracks until you get back within acceptable levels.
 
Ya...digital is digital so it wasn't the Cakewalk. Even pglewis knows that. *slap*
 
Thanks for that clarification, old far... I mean, Monty. Stamp collecting...
 
Although it's not as established and technical as Cubase or Cakewalk, CoolEdit Pro is an excellent starting software. It has enough features to make you get an idea about the whole thing yet it is not as complex as most pro audio programs can be. It has basic features like compression/eq/reverb etc. but it does lack the sampling abilities of Cubase or the the midi abilities of Cakewalk.

But I find it sufficient enough for what I do..
 
I would recomend you get them to try Logic Audio. If your not an idiot its easy to use and is by far a dominant software. You can pickup Logic Gold (32 tracks) for like $299.99 And trust me its well worth it. Most people will tell you that its hard to learn but thats just because they are not very bright, if you just use Logic (no pun intended) it all makes sense and has a great manual.
 
well pglewis, thanx for the help, but it was the processor, not the sound levels. we fixed it. but cakewalk still crackles here and there, and it's not very flexible, so it looks like either cubase or logic...thanx guys
 
i haven't used logic audio, but i have no doubts about what it can do.....what kind of processor are you using? ram? using many plug ins? just curious.
 
P-III 800
384 Ram
4 Gig fujitsu data drive
30 Gig Maxtor 7200rpm drive

I have recorded like 11 at once, and played back 32.

Now for a real situation I'll use my latest project as a example. Almost all the plugins I use are serious directX cpu hoggin plugins.

17 Tracks(full tracks)

4 ren compressors(CPU HOG!)
3 Magneto plugins(CPU HOG!)
3 TC Native verbs(HOG!)
2 Antares Autotune
4 EQ's
2 Phasers
and I think that was about it..
Anyway my audio performance was like 40% of the way up. without the plugins it is like nadda. But even so that is a lot of plugins and I could do double that and I would be somewhere around 80%. If I took of those Ren compressors and used the Logic compressor(which is pretty damn sweet) I would drop down to about 20%.. Anyway It is more than enough for most people. Hope this helps...
 
i was thinkin about downloading a demo of the ren compressor, but i heard it was a hog.....actually, i did dowload, but haven't installed it or unzipped it, whichever.......i'm using a pII 300....those are all cool plug ins you are using...
 
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