I've been looking into buying a recording software to do a few recordings for a solo project. I've looked into protools, sony sound forge, and a few others. I'd like something about 8 tracks and under $200.
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best cheap multi-track recording software for PC
- Thread starter solutionbassist
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I'm a long time user of Audacity (I used to post dozens of times a day on their forums several years ago under the name 'alatham'), and I've been using Reaper for about a year now.
By all means, use Audacity and learn the basics of it, but do not use it to record tunes. Audacity is great for getting ideas down while they're still in your head, but you will quickly back yourself into a corner trying to mix an entire piece of music due to the lack of real-time EQ and other effects.
Reaper, on the other hand, is a fantastic piece of software. Certainly more complicated to use than Audacity, but once you get past the first hump in the learning curve you will not look back. It's only $60 to register it and you can try it out for free with no restrictions. If you really wanted to be a bastard you could just use it and never pay for it, but people will stop coming to your parties if you do that.
By all means, use Audacity and learn the basics of it, but do not use it to record tunes. Audacity is great for getting ideas down while they're still in your head, but you will quickly back yourself into a corner trying to mix an entire piece of music due to the lack of real-time EQ and other effects.
Reaper, on the other hand, is a fantastic piece of software. Certainly more complicated to use than Audacity, but once you get past the first hump in the learning curve you will not look back. It's only $60 to register it and you can try it out for free with no restrictions. If you really wanted to be a bastard you could just use it and never pay for it, but people will stop coming to your parties if you do that.
Alatham..
It's possible you may not have exported the tracks then imported to a mixdown software...
You're right about Reaper.. I find it on par with software I've spent tons more on.... ... it's just not the place to learn technique.
It's possible you may not have exported the tracks then imported to a mixdown software...
You're right about Reaper.. I find it on par with software I've spent tons more on.... ... it's just not the place to learn technique.
MNAirHead,
I'm aware of all of Audacity's capabilities, and you're right, that is the best way to use it. But if you're using Audacity to record all your basic tracks and then moving them to a new piece of software, what is the point of using Audacity at all? Audacity isn't any better at capturing audio than any other multi-track recording program. Might as well just get software that can record as well as do realtime mixing and effects. Like Reaper.
Fair warning though, I have no experience at all with other sequencers (except Sony ACID). So I can't say if Reaper is better than others. But I wouldn't put it down for beginners either. Their forums are frequented by people who know what they're doing, their PDF manual is pretty useful, and I've found it to be a relatively intuitive program to use. Although, I learned to do things the hard way with Audacity, so maybe that gave me an advantage in an easier environment like Reaper.
I'm aware of all of Audacity's capabilities, and you're right, that is the best way to use it. But if you're using Audacity to record all your basic tracks and then moving them to a new piece of software, what is the point of using Audacity at all? Audacity isn't any better at capturing audio than any other multi-track recording program. Might as well just get software that can record as well as do realtime mixing and effects. Like Reaper.
Fair warning though, I have no experience at all with other sequencers (except Sony ACID). So I can't say if Reaper is better than others. But I wouldn't put it down for beginners either. Their forums are frequented by people who know what they're doing, their PDF manual is pretty useful, and I've found it to be a relatively intuitive program to use. Although, I learned to do things the hard way with Audacity, so maybe that gave me an advantage in an easier environment like Reaper.
I have used Audacity. Found it a highly frustrating software. Everytime we opened our saved files up, they had all this reverb we couldn't get rid of.
