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Updating home DAW set-up, have questions about software and hardware

pfschim

pfschim

Just a Skeleton with a Jazz bass
Supporting Member
Apr 26, 2006
9,364
10,977
SF Bay Area
#1
Like many it seems, during this isolating time, I thought I would dust off my long unused home recording gear and see if I could put it back in action.

What I have:
Focusrite Scarlett 18i6 gen 1 USB 1.1
Ableton Live v8
Windows 10 laptop with USB-3 (USB C) and Thunderbolt ports, current gen fast CPU, Memory and SSD.

First off I quickly discovered that my Ableton Live software will not install in Win 10. :(

I did download Reaper under their current coronavirus offer of a free 90 day license, but the user interface/workflow is not readily apparent to me as an occasional user.

So, I started looking around and found a Motu M2 bundle (or M4 if I can get one shipped any time soon) that uses USB-C and is bundled with a current ver of Ableton Live Lite. Price is good, reviews on the Motu are good and I am at least somewhat familiar with using Ableton.

I hate to just abandon old gear like the Focusrite, but as long as I'm retooling, I felt I might as well update to a bit newer, faster audio interface.


Any reason I should NOT go this route ? or possibly other suggestions ?

thanks
 
#2
Maybe take a look into Band Lab's version of Cakewalk. It's free these days. I've been on the "not free" version of Sonar for years, had a few issues a few weeks ago that made me look at the free version as a possible fix. It looks quite similar to the old Sonar, but it's free and should go nicely with your existing hardware setup. If you get used to the work flow there, it could be a cheap option for you. Nothing lost for looking before deciding to move on to the Motu bundle you found.
 
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#3
QweziRider said:
Maybe take a look into Band Lab's version of Cakewalk. It's free these days. I've been on the "not free" version of Sonar for years, had a few issues a few weeks ago that made me look at the free version as a possible fix. It looks quite similar to the old Sonar, but it's free and should go nicely with your existing hardware setup. If you get used to the work flow there, it could be a cheap option for you. Nothing lost for looking before deciding to move on to the Motu bundle you found.
Click to expand...

I wish I could find DAW software that had a simple and intuitive interface like Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 (pre-Sonar) and supported ASIO. Even old versions of Sonar (7.5, 8) have too much junk I will never use.
 
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#4
I agree, this stuff is definitely not very plug-and-play. I don't recall having as many challenges several years ago when I set up a modest laptop based DAW on a Windows 7 machine and Ableton. Guess I just have to keep at the manuals and youtube tutorials :unsure:
 
#5
Ableton Live 10 Suite has a full 90 day trial period
Link Removed
In 90 days I think you'd know if you want to upgrade.

MOTU M4 is a killer interface. The metering and knobs work great.

My current two most used DAWs are Ableton and Presonus Studio One. Studio One because it works with
Notion. Drag and drop between Ableton and Studio One works cool.
 
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#6
i like protools, but my 10 year old mbox3 is not reliable on the newer puter. getting by for the moment
with my stompbox that is also a usb/soundcard. i have gotten ok with cakewalk.
just got a novation mini keyboard which came with Ableton, so i am learning that now. plans are to get a
focusrite 2i2 so i can mike the upright bass. if you have a better idea, please tell.
lol
 
#8
thanks for some of the suggestions. I did download/install Bandlab/Cakewalk, but did not try it with the Focusrite interface yet.

I also had a bit of a breakthrough with Reaper and the Focusrite interface .. was able to setup some tracks, add a drum track and did a short sample recording. So, maybe that will work out.
 
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#10
seamonkey said:
Ableton Live 10 Suite has a full 90 day trial period
Link Removed
In 90 days I think you'd know if you want to upgrade.

MOTU M4 is a killer interface. The metering and knobs work great.

My current two most used DAWs are Ableton and Presonus Studio One. Studio One because it works with
Notion. Drag and drop between Ableton and Studio One works cool.
Click to expand...
cool, even though I have gotten the Focusrite to work with Reaper .. at least on a basic level, I will probably go ahead and get the Motu M2 or M4 interface, both of which come bundled with Ableton Live Lite. The Motu would let me use the greater throughput of USB-C on my latest laptop and help keep latency down which has been a problem in the past with the older Focusrite (unit I have uses USB 2).

It's great that Ableton Live Suite has a 90 day free trial period, but I just don't see myself dropping $749 for it once the trial is over. It just seems like a lot for the basic needs I have. It's also kind of hard to justify with products like Reaper and Cakewalk(Bandlab) available for free, or much less ($60 for Reaper). Plus if I do get the Motu interface, I'm guessing the ver of Ableton thats bundled with it will work for me just fine. I think it's limited to 16 simultaneous tracks, and I rarely use more than 8 concurrently (and usually more like 2-4).
 
#11
If you find DAW software a bit daunting then try Tracktion Waveform Free, it is totally free and not restricted. The interface and workflow are pretty simple and could work for you.

It will recognize your interface right away, just follow the instructional videos and you'll be fine.

You can always msg if you need any further assistance.

Waveform Free | digital audio workstation band editing software - Tracktion



 
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#12
mikewalker said:
If yer mostly doing plain old linear audio recording and not doing a lot of MIDI editing, then MixBus or it's 'almost free' cousin Ardour can be very straightforward and productive
Click to expand...
I've been using Ardour for years*, and I'm very fond of it. I may start using Mixbus instead/as well if my mixing chops ever reach the point that it'll make a difference.

It's very flexible, which comes with a bit of a learning curve, especially if you also use Jack to manage the input/output connections. It's very easy to use once you've gotten the hang of the basics, though.


*A very long time ago, a bandmate and I presented at Linuxconf on the subject of making music with Linux. In the Q&A, it turned out that one of the major contributors was in the audience, so a)that was just a bit awkward, but b)he was very gracious and helpful, and c)we started asking him questions. From the stage.
 
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#13
pfschim said:
cool, even though I have gotten the Focusrite to work with Reaper .. at least on a basic level, I will probably go ahead and get the Motu M2 or M4 interface, both of which come bundled with Ableton Live Lite. The Motu would let me use the greater throughput of USB-C on my latest laptop and help keep latency down which has been a problem in the past with the older Focusrite (unit I have uses USB 2).
Click to expand...

USB-C won't actually gain you a whole heck of a lot here, as USB v2 is generally more than enough bandwidth for audio applications. The M4 has a better I/O arrangement than the 18i6 IMO (so long as you don't need the 8 simultaneous inputs). Latency could be related to drivers, or overall utilization if the USB bus on your laptop (it is shared bandwidth). Basically, it won't necessarily be a silver bullet for latency. The best solution there would be to try to enable hardware monitoring on the interface itself.

pfschim said:
It's great that Ableton Live Suite has a 90 day free trial period, but I just don't see myself dropping $749 for it once the trial is over. It just seems like a lot for the basic needs I have. It's also kind of hard to justify with products like Reaper and Cakewalk(Bandlab) available for free, or much less ($60 for Reaper). Plus if I do get the Motu interface, I'm guessing the ver of Ableton thats bundled with it will work for me just fine. I think it's limited to 16 simultaneous tracks, and I rarely use more than 8 concurrently (and usually more like 2-4).
Click to expand...

Reaper can be a bit daunting at first, but the time and energy spent in learning it up front will pay dividends the longer you use it. The latest version has done quite a bit to clean up the horrendous maze of menus that it used to have. Most objects on the interface can be right clicked for a context menu, and the help/search is pretty solid. It definitely isn't as pretty as others (though can be themed to taste), but it also isn't a piece of software you're likely to grow out of unless you need specific feature of Logic or ProTools.
 
#14
Reaper is not so bad. I have found that once you set up your preferences and develop your own workflow it goes pretty smoothly. I have only done some small projects and have really only scratched the surface but I'm not afraid of it any more.

I wish there were an easier way to explore plug-ins.
 
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#15
AGCurry said:
I wish I could find DAW software that had a simple and intuitive interface like Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 (pre-Sonar) and supported ASIO. Even old versions of Sonar (7.5, 8) have too much junk I will never use.
Click to expand...

Check out Mixcraft 9.0. It's not free but it is far from expensive. The workflow looks similar to Cakewalk, and...
upload_2020-4-1_15-39-35.png


Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio multitrack recording software.
 
#16
re: DAWs ... I tried several different ones in time past and didn't like the way any of them worked, coming from analog mixers and tape machines. They seemed to hack together a primary focus on audio or midi with an integration of the other. Finally decided it was necessary to just focus on one of them and learn how it does things and forget about the others. Reaper was the easiest to get in to, didn't have a lot of cruft, and has done everything I need since that point.

I guess ardour is an exception, it crashed quite often on hardware others had no problem with.

Your audio interface, being USB 1.1 is a place to focus if you've problem with latency.
 
#18
Seems like most of you are pc. Am I the only Mac guy out there? I've got an apogee interface and run logic. Never had any problems whatsoever, everything was plug and play from day one. Software is awesome imho, easy to use simply, and the rabbit hole can go as deep as you want it to on learning how to utilize the software better.
 
#20
I run a big XP pro machine (completely cut off from the 'net) with Cool Edit Pro 2.1, as I have for many years; matter of fact, the machine is NOS as I bought it last year and wiped Win8 to install XP Pro. I use a Delta 44 interface which sounds fine - the whole rig is 100% stable up to about 24 tracks with most running effects - the native effects are great
But when I don't, I use Reaper on my Win10, with an M-Audio M-Track+ which I use as my mastering rig.
 

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