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DAW for stupid people

Chicory Blue

Chicory Blue

Secretly Queen of the Moon
Oct 9, 2016
1,264
6,209
Tralfamadore, Nubecula Minor
#1
Lately I'm getting to a place where I'm feeling more confident about the work I'm doing, and I'm ready to put some things to tape.

I picked up a USB audio interface some time ago, and it came packaged with Studio 1, which... jesus.

Look... I handle my own percussion, and I handle my own effects. I have no idea what the exact tempo or length of my song is until I start and finish playing, respectively, and being interrogated about it prematurely stresses me out. Technical questions about bits and bytes and boats are robogibberish to me.

Just give me a few tracks to record on, volume control, and export functionality in simple English. If we're really getting crazy, give me the ability to add a fadeout. That will suffice. As for the rest, remove it from my workspace, as I am a simple creature and it literally scares me.

So, short of Garage Band (I'm a PC), what can I use that will give me the minimalistic experience I'm looking for?

--^@
 
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#2
Audacity? Traction? Studio One 3 Prime?

Seems like you jumped head on into a full fledged audio workstation- I think just about anybody is going to be overwhelmed and intimidated by this. You just need to sneak up on it.

Give Audacity a try. Surf the forums if you have trouble and/or find somebody locally who can slide over for a beer or two and get you going. The learning curves are steep-I get that-but not impossible. Especially with a little assistance.

Here's three youtube videos to help you get started...







I can't vouch for any of them, but there should be some useful information there. And you get the idea.

I've spent thousands of hours learning FinalCut Pro, Logic, Photoshop, Illustrator, QuickTime, Ableton Live, Sorenson Squeeze, Motion, Pages, Powerpointless, and others. You'll get it. Hang in there...
 
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#4
Good luck. Studio One is one of the simplest and best DAWs out there. I've used several and ended up there.

You might start on YouTube. Lots of "how to" videos for Studio One. Tracking and mixing and mastering are not simple tasks "done with an app." There is tons of background knowledge you will need to pick up to produce great recordings - including eq settings, effects, mic positions, etc.

Oh, BTW, you're not laying anything down "on tape." Been ones and zeros for many years! :cool:
 
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#6
N. Kentucky Bass said:
Good luck. Studio One is one of the simplest and best DAWs out there. I've used several and ended up there.

You might start on YouTube. Lots of "how to" videos for Studio One. Tracking and mixing and mastering are not simple tasks "done with an app." There is tons of background knowledge you will need to pick up to produce great recordings - including eq settings, effects, mic positions, etc.

Oh, BTW, you're not laying anything down "on tape." Been ones and zeros for many years!
Click to expand...

I've heard praises sung for Studio One, but I'm not so much looking for perfection as... documentation, I suppose? My primary audience is still myself, for my own enjoyment, and at the moment Studio One's bells and whistles are just kinda harshing my mellow, y'know?

I'm sure I'll be glad they're there when I'm ready for them.

--^@
 
#7
That's bizarre about setting the song length at the start. Yeah, how would you know? But I suspect it's a lot like Cubase (I use LE 4.0 which came with my Presonus Audiobox USB) where you set the length of the song after recording so that the software knows where to cut it off when exporting to a WAV or whatever. Check the user manual or find some "how to" YouTube vids. I imagine there's a bunch.
 
#9
filmtex said:
Seems like you jumped head on into a full fledged audio workstation- I think just about anybody is going to be overwhelmed and intimidated by this. You just need to sneak up on it
Click to expand...

Such is my dilemma exactly. I do my work on a loop station, so everything is basically as arranged and synced and mixed as I want it before it even hits the DAW. To that end, I'm essentially looking for a record button- the rest is mostly clutter.

--^@
 
#10
Any DAW is simple to use once you've figured a couple of things:

1. How create and arm a track and set your levels.
2. How to manage your levels post-tracking, and how to pan - i.c. very basic mixing.
3. How to mixdown/export your tune once you're done recording.

All the editing/plug-ins/mastering power in the world is unimportant if all you want to do is record some tracks, mix, and export. Some basic tutorials should get you going in no time.

For the record, this is basically all I do, for the most part. I was a Cubase user and now use Sonar.
 
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#13
I'm aware that you don't have a PC, but if you did consider getting a Mac for GarageBand (or Logic, which is GarageBand's big brother), your local Apple Store offers lots of free workshops for GarageBand (and occasionally for Logic) so you'd be able to literally get free training by experienced users. Just a thought.
 
#14
As has been previously mentioned, Audacity is as simple as it gets - and it's free. It can be used as a simple one or two track recorder just like an old cassette or tape deck. Or you can push it to do a whole lot more if you put the time into it. And the results are completely professional.

One major plus of Audacity is it's multi-platform with native versions for MacOS, Windows, or Linux. So no matter what hardware or OS somebody is running, the files are interchangeable.
 
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#15
Ha, I was actually going to recommend Studio 1. It is really easy to use after you familiarize yourself with where all the features are located. You can use it without setting the tempo or length, they just set up the grid for you and you can adjust anything at any time. Even if you are doing the most basic recordings, you will probably outgrow Audacity and the like in a very short time.
 
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#16
Tony CC said:
Ha, I was actually going to recommend Studio 1. It is really easy to use after you familiarize yourself with where all the features are located. You can use it without setting the tempo or length, they just set up the grid for you and you can adjust anything at any time. Even if you are doing the most basic recordings, you will probably outgrow Audacity and the like in a very short time.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. :thumbsup: So putting a little time into mastering the rudiments of an entry level DAW is time well spent.
 
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#17
Chicory Blue said:
Lately I'm getting to a place where I'm feeling more confident about the work I'm doing, and I'm ready to put some things to tape.

I picked up a USB audio interface some time ago, and it came packaged with Studio 1, which... jesus.

Look... I handle my own percussion, and I handle my own effects. I have no idea what the exact tempo or length of my song is until I start and finish playing, respectively, and being interrogated about it prematurely stresses me out. Technical questions about bits and bytes and boats are robogibberish to me.

Just give me a few tracks to record on, volume control, and export functionality in simple English. If we're really getting crazy, give me the ability to add a fadeout. That will suffice. As for the rest, remove it from my workspace, as I am a simple creature and it literally scares me.

So, short of Garage Band (I'm a PC), what can I use that will give me the minimalistic experience I'm looking for?

--^@
Click to expand...

I found Ableton Live to be very intuitive, with excellent tutorials. I got quite handy with a limited version of it. When I made the jump to a full DAW, a respected friend recommended cakewalk sonar. I have not found it to be a cakewalk. I wish I had just bought the full version of Ableton Live. In fact, I'm thinking of cutting my losses and doing just that. By the way, Ableton used to have a reputation for poor mix down capability, that was resolved several generations ago from what I understand. And also by the way, my friend who recommended sonar, recently ditched it for a Mac and logic.
 
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#18
Studio one is pretty simple. There's gonna be a learning curve to any of them, so why not learn it?

You don't have to learn the complicated stuff, just use the basic recording functions.

Ableton is also pretty fun for composing and there's built in tutorials so you could give that a try.

The only advice I can give that might help out is use the DAW every day. You tend to forget some of the things if you do it once and not again for a week
 
#19
Get a digital audio recorder like a Sony 2 track machine if you just want to document things - if you plan on doing multiple tracks then you will have to do the work needed to figure out a DAW set-up of some sort - all the suggestions above are good - I have used Cubase and did find it a tad daunting at first to get going but it is very powerful once you grasp how to use it - now I intend to return to it after a year or so off and no doubt have a slight relearning curve !
 

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