DAW With Focus On Recording Rather Than Internal Beat Making and MIDI?

[Peeved T-40]

Have you looked at some of the new recorders Tascam has releases in the last year ? Sort of digital versions of the old cassette porta studios as far as workflow but some modern features such as digital editing , more tracks etc & I believe they can also serve as an audio interface as well as stand alone recorders. Maybe that would be a good fit for what you want. I agree all DAW’s do have a learning curve & it’s sometimes painful & frustrating but I think worth it in the end of you can find one you click with enough to stick with and break through that. I couldn’t imagine going back to the old school mixer & tape or ADAT & outboard but I do feel ya on there being a certain straight forwardness to that workflow which was nice.

I have a Zoom F4 that I bought for film work. I use it as a 4 channel recorder and as my interface. I know there's a way to edit, overdub and mix on it. supposedly it'll do up to 80 some tracks but I can't for the life of me find the documentation on how to do it. It's not in the manual or on their website and I seem to be the only person on the planet that bought one of these because no one is talking about them so there's no tutorials or anything. It's a shame because it's a really nice device. I like it better than the Tascam I've used and it's a lot more robust than Zoom's h4n.

It still poses a similar problem for me though. It's all menu diving so there's no physical connections and workflow for my brain to latch onto. And honestly, I think I would prefer a DAW if for no other reason than to be able to see the tracks and waveforms

 

[mmon77]

Reaper is worth a shot for sure, especially since it is free to try. It is not however, free to use. You have to pay a whopping $60 or something like that after the trial is over. They don't enforce this, but if you like the product, $60 is hardly a big ask for something so useful, compared to what the other big names would cost you.

I think right now, most DAW software out there is perfectly usable for anyone up to pro level, the biggest differences are in the workflow and UI, which are more personal decisions. Most of them have some sort of trial version, which should at least allow you to get your feet wet in their workflow so you can decide which is the best fit before you possibly spend $$$.

 

[gregbackstrom]

Sorry if this isn't the right place to post this. If it's not, please direct me to a more appropriate location.

As the title says, I want a DAW That's more focused on recording and bring in tracks. Pretty much every DAW I've tried is loaded down with MIDI and beat making stuff and I'm just not interested. I already find DAW interfaces confusing and then when you through MIDI and beat stuff in my face I just get lost.

I'm looking for something streamlined and more like a digital tape deck with infinite tracks I suppose.

But please NOT Audacity. I hate Audacity with the burning rage of a thousand suns!

I use Cakewalk, but I really like the simplicity of Tracktion (which is now Waveform). You can download a free version, and everything you need is on one screen, with extra features available through intuitive menus. There are really helpful short YouTube instructional videos widely available that can answer all of your questions.

 

[logdrum]

Although a bit odd, you can use Ableton to record audio only. Or go Cowboy Junkies style and just record to 2 track and use one or two mics.

 

[hbabels]

I have a Zoom F4 that I bought for film work. I use it as a 4 channel recorder and as my interface. I know there's a way to edit, overdub and mix on it. supposedly it'll do up to 80 some tracks but I can't for the life of me find the documentation on how to do it. It's not in the manual or on their website and I seem to be the only person on the planet that bought one of these because no one is talking about them so there's no tutorials or anything. It's a shame because it's a really nice device. I like it better than the Tascam I've used and it's a lot more robust than Zoom's h4n.

It still poses a similar problem for me though. It's all menu diving so there's no physical connections and workflow for my brain to latch onto. And honestly, I think I would prefer a DAW if for no other reason than to be able to see the tracks and waveforms

Interesting I have a Zoom F8 for video work as well. I knew it could be an audio interface but I never even noticed that it could be more of a multi track recorder.
I guess since I already had DAWs I liked it wasn’t a need I had.
Yeah the visual feedback you can get from a DAW is really nice. what DAW’s have you tried & what have been the major things you didn’t like ?

 

[Peeved T-40]

Interesting I have a Zoom F8 for video work as well. I knew it could be an audio interface but I never even noticed that it could be more of a multi track recorder.
I guess since I already had DAWs I liked it wasn’t a need I had.
Yeah the visual feedback you can get from a DAW is really nice. what DAW’s have you tried & what have been the major things you didn’t like ?

I've tried FL Studio multiple times and I just couldn't understand the flow of the signal or how to patch things. I had to use ProTools in film school and hated it for all the same reasons I hate Media Composer. Seriously, shag Avid. And like I said in my first post, I've used Audacity and violently hated everything about it. It's like its makers went out of there way to make the interface the exact opposite of how I would think to use it. It's hard to explain, I just really... really hate it. I tried a DAW called MixPad. It seemed pretty simple and cut down like I wanted but I didn't spend a lot of time with it and pretty much no one I talked to had ever heard of it. I also own Adobe Audition and have looked at it a few times but it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing you would make music in.

Basically FL Studio turned me away from Reaper, LMMS, Cubase and all those because they all just kind of looked like FL Studio

 

[funkinbottom]

Another very satisfied Reaper user.

 

[andruca]

Reaper, besides being the most stable and resource efficient DAW I've used (after a decade of Cubase -which I still like- and ProTool -which I don't-) is also highly customizable, even the workflow, themes (lots of great themes shared around). Real flexible.

Check this ProTools looking Reaper...

 

[TheLowDown33]

Since Logic is off the table, I'm partial to Studio One. It's design ethos is based on ease of use and so far its living up to it for me. Pretty much everything you need to do can be done via drag and drop, and the menus are not extensive.

 

[AdamR]

Protools, Cubase, Reaper.

 

[Bodeeni]

+1 for Calkwalk, I use it everyday on a PC. Yes it can do midi tracks, but only if you need them. Has a good console view for traditionalist and can produce a professional result.

 

[swarfrat]

Interesting I have a Zoom F8 for video work as well. I knew it could be an audio interface but I never even noticed that it could be more of a multi track recorder.
I guess since I already had DAWs I liked it wasn’t a need I had.
Yeah the visual feedback you can get from a DAW is really nice. what DAW’s have you tried & what have been the major things you didn’t like ?

I had an R24 that I bought as an interface and stupidly sold because it wanted to work more inside the DAW.

I used it more as a standalone, and it's certainly enough for doing that. If you want a good old fashioned tape recorder, only digital,it's hard to go wrong with an R8/R24

 

[cuth]

I’ve been using Mixcraft to record demos. I too had a hard time with the DAW learning curve and tried a few but Mixcraft made the most sense to me and they have great step by step video tutorials.

 

[equill]

Mixbus, or Ardour (which Mixbus is based on).
They're very much aimed at what you have in mind; Mixbus is explicitly designed to resemble an analogue mixing console, up to and including saturation from overloading the busses.

One of the regular criticisms is that, although they support MIDI recording and editing, they don't have any kind of pattern-based sequencer functionality.

 

[TerriblePeril]

I largely dislike the typical DAW workflow. I do not use a desktop (or laptop) computer and have invested heavily over a long period of time into iOS/iPadOS recording.

My preferred method is using AUM (it’s set up more like a row of vertical channel strips vs a transport running over a session-view kinda note roll.

But I also have AUM routed to multi-out record into Cubasis 3 so I have everything separated and able to move easily into a desktop DAW or any other system.

If my sole concern was recording audio and nothing at all to do with beat creation or production or any of that, I’d just buy a zoom h1 (and when I was, I did) and record that way.

I’m much more about using what’s available than seeking to buy a solution. If we’re talking about strictly recording bass guitar, something to get a strong clean signal into something that records in decent quality. One could spend very little on a setup so described. They could also agonize over it and spend quite a lot.

 

[NKBassman]

+1 for Cubase and Reaper. These days I’m using Logic.

 

[OptimalOptimus]

Protools... its the industry standard for a reason

 

[Jim Burkland]

I'm stuck on Cakewalk (Sonar for me, but CW is now free). Yeah, it has a metric ton of stuff I don't need, but it can very easily be used for nothing but audio. If I don't need it, I don't bring it into play. I started out with doing nothing but audio in older Cakewalk, so it can be done without having to see any of the stuff you don't need.

+1 for Cakewalk (Bandlab) It has everything I need and it is free now.

 

[Guitalia]

I have a Zoom F4 that I bought for film work. I use it as a 4 channel recorder and as my interface. I know there's a way to edit, overdub and mix on it. supposedly it'll do up to 80 some tracks but I can't for the life of me find the documentation on how to do it.

Out of curiosity, I looked at some Zoom F4 tutorials, and none mentioned any "80 some tracks" aspect of the recorder. Two tutorials mentioned "false tracks," though, which seems to imply that the SIM card preserves alternative takes that are grouped together.

The video linked to below looks like a reasonably thorough introduction to the various features of the F4. See around minute 13 for some info on using the false tracks.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Reaper hands down, not even a question.