leschirons Posted June 24, 2019 Share Posted June 24, 2019 I have a want to start home recording as I think I'm probably coming to the end of my gigging years. I've had a thorough look at Skoll's beginners thread (Brilliant) However, I mistakenly ventured into page 2 and being a newbie non techie, it's starting to sound complicated. Okay, this is where I'm at. I've got all the instruments I'll ever need. Someone is lending me a Rode vocal mic to get started. I have a P.C with 8 things of RAM and an external 1Tb hard drive. For the moment, I'll use a NAD amp and Mission speakers as monitors. I intend to buy a Focusrite audio interface. Now, the DAW. I'll need something REALLY intuitive and easy and a local guy here has suggested Korg Gadget which is now available for P.C. Any opinions on this would be highly appreciated as it seems to have no mentions here that I can find. I've no intention of becoming Mark Ronson and purely want to record my own stuff with me playing it all for fun. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder652003 Posted June 24, 2019 Share Posted June 24, 2019 Reaper...someone will be along to agree or not. It's cheap and you can demo it for completely free until you decide you want to pay for it. It can be as simple or complicated as you want but I've used loads of DAW's and this one was the most stable, If you had a mac I'd have said GarageBand, that's even better but Reaper for a PC is ace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leschirons Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 Thanks for that skidder, I'll check it out now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurksalot Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 First thing is that I found none of them to be intuitive however , reaper has so many tutorials on you tube that it shouldn’t take long to get started , you will have plenty of head scratching as things go awry , but it will all come together before too long 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder652003 Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 23 hours ago, leschirons said: Thanks for that skidder, I'll check it out now. you're welcome, btw I'm loving the jazz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 On 24/06/2019 at 20:27, skidder652003 said: Reaper...someone will be along to agree or not. It's cheap and you can demo it for completely free until you decide you want to pay for it. It can be as simple or complicated as you want but I've used loads of DAW's and this one was the most stable, If you had a mac I'd have said GarageBand, that's even better but Reaper for a PC is ace. It's very difficult to recommend a DAW as they all have their individual strengths and weaknesses, and what suits one person won't always suit another. I would make two points: 1. Reaper is nice and cheap but AFAICS it doesn't come with as many bundled effect and instrument plug-ins as most of the commercial offerings, so depending on what you need one of the more expensive DAWs might end up being better value. 2. If you are going to collaborate with anyone else, get whatever they are using. While OMF and AAF can do a great job transferring sessions between different DAWs my experience is that the conversion will let you down in a spectacularly bad way just when you need it most, so the easiest way to avoid disappointment is for all the people working on a particular project to be using the same DAW. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder652003 Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 If it's just for fun and recording at home (as it says in the OP) then reaper will be fine, with regard to bundled effects and instrument plugins, there are 1000's of decent quality free ones available as VST's should you need them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leschirons Posted June 26, 2019 Author Share Posted June 26, 2019 Most appreciative of all comments. Thank you. Having checked out stuff as much as I'm able with no knowledge or experience, it's come down to two options. Reaper. Cheap, sufficient for my needs and apparently, fairly easy to make a start. Cubase. Lot more expensive, seemingly more complicated but the one big advantage is that a friend with a semi commercial studio has offered to get me started with some free one to one tuition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcgiver69 Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 (edited) Ok I think I can give you my 2 pence. I started 2 years ago (after dealing with the boredom of recovering from a heart issue) and I can say you have everything you need hardware wise. As for DAW my recommendation would be Tracktion T7 and here's the reason, even though I normally use Reaper and to me it's the best DAW specially for the price, it can be a bit daunting because it has a lot of options (maybe too many for a beginner). Tracktion works pretty much like a tape machine as it has a flat screen and it's simple to get yourself started. It's totally free and fully featured and you can use all the VST plugins you want. Here's a video series of how to setup and record and you'll see how easy it is. There's another person in the forum who took my advice and he's already recording with good results in no time. In all honesty Tracktion is not as fully featured as Reaper (and in your case it is a good thing) and I find myself using it more when I want to lay down my ideas and then using Reaper for mixing my projects (and other people's projects). Another choice would be Cakewalk by Bandlab, it is Windows 64 bits only, totally free, fully featured and comes with lots of free good plugins (guitar amps, piano, drum kit, etc...). It would take you a bit longer to get your head around it but not as much as Reaper. Here another video series on how to setup and record. Drop me a direct msg and I can help you in any way I can. Edited June 26, 2019 by Mcgiver69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigman Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 I have used Cakewalk Sonar since release 4 These days it's available for free. https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skol303 Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 4 hours ago, leschirons said: Having checked out stuff as much as I'm able with no knowledge or experience, it's come down to two options. Reaper. Cheap, sufficient for my needs and apparently, fairly easy to make a start. Cubase. Lot more expensive, seemingly more complicated but the one big advantage is that a friend with a semi commercial studio has offered to get me started with some free one to one tuition. Considering the above, I'd personally opt for Cubase and the offer of your friend in getting started with it. Having a mate on-hand to walk you through the first (and steepest) slopes of the learning curve will be invaluable. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leschirons Posted June 26, 2019 Author Share Posted June 26, 2019 4 hours ago, Mcgiver69 said: Ok I think I can give you my 2 pence. I started 2 years ago (after dealing with the boredom of recovering from a heart issue) and I can say you have everything you need hardware wise. As for DAW my recommendation would be Tracktion T7 and here's the reason, even though I normally use Reaper and to me it's the best DAW specially for the price, it can be a bit daunting because it has a lot of options (maybe too many for a beginner). Tracktion works pretty much like a tape machine as it has a flat screen and it's simple to get yourself started. It's totally free and fully featured and you can use all the VST plugins you want. Here's a video series of how to setup and record and you'll see how easy it is. There's another person in the forum who took my advice and he's already recording with good results in no time. In all honesty Tracktion is not as fully featured as Reaper (and in your case it is a good thing) and I find myself using it more when I want to lay down my ideas and then using Reaper for mixing my projects (and other people's projects). Another choice would be Cakewalk by Bandlab, it is Windows 64 bits only, totally free, fully featured and comes with lots of free good plugins (guitar amps, piano, drum kit, etc...). It would take you a bit longer to get your head around it but not as much as Reaper. Here another video series on how to setup and record. Drop me a direct msg and I can help you in any way I can. Much appreciated, thank you. I'll investigate all options. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammybee Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 5 hours ago, Skol303 said: Considering the above, I'd personally opt for Cubase and the offer of your friend in getting started with it. Having a mate on-hand to walk you through the first (and steepest) slopes of the learning curve will be invaluable. This is the best advice on this thread! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SH73 Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 Ableton live Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leschirons Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 Think I'm heading towards Cubase Elements. As mentioned before, probably best to take advantage of the one to one tuition and helpline from my friend. Thanks everyone for your time, advice and input. Most appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickD Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, leschirons said: Think I'm heading towards Cubase Elements. As mentioned before, probably best to take advantage of the one to one tuition and helpline from my friend. Thanks everyone for your time, advice and input. Most appreciated. I went with Cubase, simply because it's what I used many years ago on the Atari ST, and it's a doddle. If that's the way it's going to be, it might be worth looking at one of the Steinberg interfaces. I've had both the UR12 and now have the UR22 so we can put tracks down together. The Yamaha pre that they use is great, and I've never had a moment's trouble with either, just plug in and play. The reason I'm suggesting this is because they come bundled with Cubase AI, which I ran for about 2 years without feeling unneccesarily restricted. I did eventually upgrade to Elements, but only because they kept sending me better and better offers to do so (it cost me 25 quid in the end, as an upgrade from the bundled version, so I saved a fair bit compared to buying it). There are a few more VSTs, but from a day to day use point of view it strikes me as barely different, based on the features I commonly use. Edited June 28, 2019 by NickD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leschirons Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 42 minutes ago, NickD said: I went with Cubase, simply because it's what I used many years ago on the Atari ST, and it's a doddle. If that's the way it's going to be, it might be worth looking at one of the Steinberg interfaces. I've had both the UR12 and now have the UR22 so we can put tracks down together. The Yamaha pre that they use is great, and I've never had a moment's trouble with either, just plug in and play. The reason I'm suggesting this is because they come bundled with Cubase AI, which I ran for about 2 years without feeling unneccesarily restricted. I did eventually upgrade to Elements, but only because they kept sending me better and better offers to do so (it cost me 25 quid in the end, as an upgrade from the bundled version, so I saved a fair bit compared to buying it). There are a few more VSTs, but from a day to day use point of view it strikes me as barely different, based on the features I commonly use. Thank you. That sounds really interesting. Hadn't even thought of it. Will check it out now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Denby Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 Leschirons I was exactly where you are now about 3 months ago in terms of recording knowledge etc. Mcgiver69 gave me some great advice, in particular to use Tracktion 7. His advice was spot on for what I (and you) will need to get results quickly and simply. I beleive Tracktion 7 has been taken over very recently, so I'm guessing it won't be available free for too long 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcgiver69 Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 I think they want to keep that version free to lure Peuple into buying the latest versions. Still has everything you needed to record 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 (edited) I've been using Cubase since before it was invented... If you do decide to go down the Cubase route, I would consider NickD's advice above. The UR 22 (and the mk11) are excellent. Also drivers for the device are updated regularly, quite often after a big windows update as well. For the DAW software, the upgrade path is pretty decent as well. It's a shame really, because Steinberg had a big 50% sale on all software recently (70% for Nuendo 8). It only ended a couple of weeks ago. Edited June 29, 2019 by lowdown 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazzbass Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 On 26/06/2019 at 17:30, leschirons said: Reaper. Cheap, sufficient for my needs and apparently, fairly easy to make a start. Cubase. Lot more expensive, seemingly more complicated but the one big advantage is that a friend with a semi commercial studio has offered to get me started with some free one to one tuition. I have Reaper, it is great, but it is NOT intuitive. You basically have to know what you want, and find that option by right clicking. Not straightforward for beginners Cant beat one on one tuition. Go thst route first. He will show you how to get started,and any specific things you want to do. Gotta be worth a thousand bucks to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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