Recording Software

[Budiesel]

I want a professional sounding recording software, but i do not want to spend too much money on it either. 500 would probly be my limit id say. Help me out?

[Pearl Player]

When you say recording software do you mean to actually record multitrack or editing software. If you looking to record true multitrack well its more than software. You need a multi channel sound card too. Now if you want to record a couple of tracks at a time then add to that by adding more tracks there are lots of things that will do that. Now if you are looking at recording bass keys guitar and drums all the the same time well you have to look at hardware too. and for 500 bucks for the software and decent hardware is gonna be hard to pull off. I have a 32 channel board Analog that I do a live mix on to record to the normal 2 channel line level inputs on your basic sound card. With the software I use I can add more tracks by playing back the already recorded stuff and adding 2 more tracks at a time. If you could define what your trying to do a bit more would be happy to mention some stuff.

Hope that makes sense.
Mike

[Budiesel]

I want to be able to record myself, make the drums sound like professional drums, like on cds and such, and then have a bassist listen to my beats and record onto that, then the same with guitar and vocals, if this is what you meant by being more specific :-/

[SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ]

Sonar (my fav), Cubase, Protools, Logic... Those are the majors. As Pearl Player said, it's more than software. At the very least you'll need a decent audio interface. Then you'll need to start looking at microphones. After that you'll probably want to get better dedicated preamps. Then you can start collecting dedicated outboard gear like compressors, EQs, other various FX if you want to mix outside of the box- oh and a mixer for that. Don't forget about the room you're recording in... heheh..

There's a lot that goes into recording. Sky is the limit. Every studio has an varying array of gear at its disposal. How far do you want to take it? Start with software, interface, and one or two quality microphones. You can get quality sounds with minimal gear, but it will take a bit of creativity and patience.

[Hellfire]

You may want to look into Audacity. Its a free semi-pro piece of recording software. It has most features of other recording softwares and includes plugin support like VST and what-not. Even if you hate it, its FREE and open source, so there is no real loss. My band is recording a CD with it and it is getting the job done.

[Pearl Player]

You may want to look into Audacity. Its a free semi-pro piece of recording software. It has most features of other recording softwares and includes plugin support like VST and what-not. Even if you hate it, its FREE and open source, so there is no real loss. My band is recording a CD with it and it is getting the job done.

Audacity is pretty decent just dont get the beta version.. It still has some problems get the release version. Its an open source project.

Here at home I use basically 2 products. Sound Forge ( since I do some video editing with Vegas ) and ProTools. I have Audacity also and its a pretty decent program.

However with out a mixing board or a pro multi input audio card you will only be able to reliably record 2 channels at a time. So that will limit you to 2 mics. If you are after quality recording you will need 2 decent mics and use them in what is called X-Y And the problem with that is that you are at the mercy or room accoustics. If you want to use close mic-ing You will have to have a mixer.. But unless you get a multi input unit, Either a card or an outboard unit. Still only 2 line inputs on your card. Now since you will be having to do what is called Duplex Audio (playing back recorded tracks and adding 2 more at a time ) you need a decent computer, And a top notch sound card. If your computer has the embedded kinda sound (AC97) your gonna have problems with skipping.

And here is a big note.... Unless you have a really good room, and sound blocks, and top notch mics. You wont be able to do what the big guys do in the studio, You can get close but you wont get exactly what they do. There is a reason studios are as large as they are. And all that stuff you see on the walls and ceilings are to tune the room... You can dampen a small room but you cant do accoustic tuning like the large studios do...

Know this is a lot to digest. You may want to look at some of the studio recording books at you local music store.

Mike

[Jeremy]

you could always get a recorder like a tascam or fostex thing that you just plug straight into, record all your tracks on there, mix and burn from there without the computer at all. my fostex was about $300, and works great. if you want to add eq or effects other than reverb you'll need some sort of computer software anyway, but if you just want to record straight it's great

[Drumowner]

....don't forget a decent pair of monitors. Headphones are all fine and good...but if your making a choice, monitors are a better on IMO.
Headphones and monitors both...even better, headphones are great for stereo separation and close detail referencing, monitors are great for full field and dynamic translation of the material.

As for the software , anything you get the quality will be affected buy the bit rate at which your pc/mac will handle.
Ensure the software is complatiable for your system/neds/requirements.
Most computer recording software can achieve the same results...it's the "getting there" process that seperates them. Try trial versions of each (most are free DL's att he manufactures site) Which ever one you find the easiest to navigate will mostl likely be your winner.