The Acoustic Guitar Forum - Cubase or Audacity?

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Cubase or Audacity?

I am just jumping into the frey of home recording with the goals of documenting my progress in learning and perhaps in the year ahead recording my daughter (cello) and myself in a duet of some sort.

So I have purchased a Zoom H4 and am interested in downloading it and either editing or adding perhaps a bit of reverb to some of my first attempts. Based upon these simple needs would you suggest either of these two software packages over the other?

BTW I am using a MacBook Pro.

Thanks

Pat Mc

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjmsj21 (Post 1341979)

Hi Pat...
CubaseLE has more capability. It has a master mix channel (if I recall correctly), and can record more tracks. Both are fine, but for more complex work, CubaseLE is the way to go.

Both are more straightforward and less cumbersome than GarageBand (I'm a Mac user since 1988). GarageBand is a super simple beginner program and you would outgrow it and/or grow frustrated too quickly.

Either Cubase or Audacity will permit you to add, import, split or otherwise manipulate tracks in a fraction of the time as in GB.

Hope this helps...

Garageband. You already have it. But Audacity is free also. You could record in the zoom, transfer the file to the mac, and mix it in garageband, or get an interface to plug a mic into and use your macbook and garageband.

I thought the H4's come packaged with "free" Cubase LE. Am I wrong?

I'm using Cubase LE and it does just about everything I want it to. Then again, I'm just recording acoustic guitar in stereo plus vocals.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FingerPlucked (Post 1342033)

You are correct the H4 does come with Cubase LE but with Audacity being a free download option I am looking for the easiest to use for my very simple needs.

I didn't find Audacity to be very intuitive. I use Guitar Tracks Pro 3, and when I tried out Audacity, I was less than impressed. As for Cubase LE, I've got a copy on the way that came free with my Korg D888 as a mail in rebate, but it hasn't shown up yet. I'm rather excited though and got a DVD tutorial from Sweetwater...hopefully it's a step up from GT Pro 3.

I was a complete and total beginner in home recording about 6 months ago. I started using Cubase and have grown quite accustomed to it and like it just fine. I just record a couple of guitar tracks, percussion, and vocals and it does absolutely everything i need it to do... and it does them well. audacity just doesn't have near the capabilities. I will say this though, i just got a new interface-lexicon omega- that came with cubase le4... i've been having all kinds of issues iwth it.

Quote:

I didn't find Audacity to be very intuitive.

I like audacity for basic 1-track recording - just click the record to start recording then the stop button to stop then the play button to listen. If it sucks, start over. The only effect I used was amplify to gain up my track a bit. That was straightforward: click then slide over the segment to gain then goto menu effect->amplify.

I have not used the reverb much but it is the same as all the other effects - select a range and goto menu->reverb.

There are other effects as well.

I like audacity. But if I was mixing tracks and doing serious effects, perhaps I would like something more.