Recording software

[GVDub]

Been using Logic since it was Notator in the bad old days. Survived the sequencer wars, going through Performer, Digital Performer, Cubase, Southworth Systems (for the real old timers), Vision, Live, Reason, and more. Currently have Logic and Studio One 3 Pro on my recording computer. Always avoided Pro Tools because of its hardware dependence, and now that CPUs are powerful enough, you don't need the outboard processing so much.

My advice to folks over the years was always to find the software with the workflow that came closest to your natural style of working and then buy the computer that ran it.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

PT became the 'industry standard' at the dawning of the recording digital age. Avid got it into all the pro studios (along with PT-dependent equipment).
It became the standard because professionals could take a PT project, and load it into any other PT-equipped system anywhere and not have to monkey around. So the Mixing engineer could send the finished mix project to the mastering engineer, who would still have the ability to go into the base
tracks and pull out any details he might want, etc.
We've come a long way since that era. Same thing with plug ins - the sheer volume of plug ins available - free and $$ - is staggering.

I think the wild card in these kind of discussions is the term "industry standard". There can be zero doubt that from a personal studio, project studio or even a small commercial studio perspective almost (if not all) current major DAW's are infinitely and equally capable. Choose your software of choice and go. Easy peasy.

If on the other hand by "industry standard" we're referring to those that are in the general professional industries (be that music, television or film) Pro Tools is still firmly and beyond doubt the absolute standard. No one even remotely knocking on the door. And where compatibility is a component of that formula the fact remains that nothing on the market can edit audio more seamlessly and easily than Pro Tools. I understand that of course is not a big issue for many if not most. You can bet your bottom dollar however if there was a piece of audio software out there that sped up my work-day and got me home in time for dinner more often, I'd have it

[clintj]

Originally Posted by M19

....Used free Audacity for while which is more straightforward for very simple editing (trim, normalize, fade out, convert to mp3). I used to record my daughter's HS jazz and band concerts with my H4n and have the files on-line before the night was over. The other parents loved it!

That's where I was with Reaper until a few months ago. Take the Tascam recordings of band rehearsals, edit a little, and send them out to the other members for critique. Now I'm working on 8 of our songs, each with around 24 tracks of audio with multiple takes, multiple plug-ins, several busses, hardware routing, etc. If there's a limitation in this $60 piece of software, I haven't hit it yet. There are definitely some quirks in how you have to do things at times, though.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[TBman]

I use Audacity. I also downloaded the free Presonus, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to record, lol.

[buzzardwhiskey]

I use Auria on my iPad and Presonus Artist on my iMac. If my band elects to record a second CD this coming winter I will probably upgrade to Presonus Pro so that I have access to second party plugins.

[GTRGUY005]

I'm just getting into recording at home and find Garageband 10 has more than enough bells and whistle to keep be busy for long time to come.

[Mooh]

GarageBand on my iMac.

Previously used Ableton, Audacity, Reaper and found them inadequate and unintuitive. GarageBand is the best thing I've used since 10" 4 track reel-to-reel.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by Mooh

GarageBand is the best thing I've used since 10" 4 track reel-to-reel.

That must have been a really, really large reel-to-real machine

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Mooh

GarageBand on my iMac.

Previously used Ableton, Audacity, Reaper and found them inadequate and unintuitive. GarageBand is the best thing I've used since 10" 4 track reel-to-reel.

Interesting and yet another conformation that everybody see's things differently. The fact that you can't set up busses in GB and get things like parallel FX going renders it for me inadequate, as a Mixing DAW as say compared to Reaper (which I would agree is much less intuitive)

[polarred21]

Audacity is all I have experience with and works well. Free and I have a $100 Blue Yeti mic connected. I've just learned a little more about multi tracking so watch out! An ear bender coming your way soon....

For quick and very simple recording that you want to post somewhere, smartphone straight to soundcloud. Works very easy and simple.

[Joseph Hanna]

For obvious reasons (this being a more organic, acoustic guitar oriented forum) the DAW that almost never gets mention is Reason. That understood and for those who may want a bit more by way of production abilities there is absolutely nothing on the market that's easier (from a work flow perspective) than Reason.

Almost everything is drag and drop. Click tracks, drum tracks (even if only for reference) are a simple "drag" away. Quantizing is ridiculously simple and accurate and shapeable. The reverbs are fantastic considering how little CPU they eat up. The sampler is really good with many libraries available. The analog synths are obviously techno oriented but with a little work they easily made acoustic oriented. The choice of bass instruments is almost endless.

Reason is by far the easiest DAW package to get things done quickly and efficiently with the absolute smallest amount of mouse activity. Yes it has the reputation as a EDM DAW solution but honestly for those wanting to add a bit more to their acoustic guitar recordings this is the best on the market.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by clintj

That's where I was with Reaper until a few months ago. Take the Tascam recordings of band rehearsals, edit a little, and send them out to the other members for critique. Now I'm working on 8 of our songs, each with around 24 tracks of audio with multiple takes, multiple plug-ins, several busses, hardware routing, etc. If there's a limitation in this $60 piece of software, I haven't hit it yet. There are definitely some quirks in how you have to do things at times, though.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Your post reminds me of my Reaper experience. I purchased it and then "bypassed" actually using it, since I'm basically lazy and was really conditioned to the simple one-screen interface in my hands-down favorite DAW, Tracktion.

I knew that Reaper would be a much better DAW if I just got used to it, so I made the decision to use nothing but Reaper on a 18 cut CD that I was mixing / mastering for a 4 piece acoustic band. I had a few VST plugs(verbs and mastering) that I used in addition to what came with Reaper, but making the decision to only use Reaper really brought me around to its capabilities.

I've done 3 major projects using Reaper and even started doing simple video edits with it. It was a very good use of $60!

Reaper can be a bit overwhelming to the new user simply because of everything it has to offer, but if new users would just do a simple project and use only what they need to accomplish what they want to do it can soon be a favorite tool.

[sonicland]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

For obvious reasons (this being a more organic, acoustic guitar oriented forum) the DAW that almost never gets mention is Reason.

I use Pro Tools 12 and Reason. I've always thought Reason was the most brilliantly done DAW, especially since they added audio recording years ago. The mixer is absolutely stunning. As much as I like Pro Tools, if Reason ever allowed UAD stuff to work with it, I'd go with just Reason.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

For obvious reasons (this being a more organic, acoustic guitar oriented forum) the DAW that almost never gets mention is Reason. That understood and for those who may want a bit more by way of production abilities there is absolutely nothing on the market that's easier (from a work flow perspective) than Reason.

Almost everything is drag and drop. Click tracks, drum tracks (even if only for reference) are a simple "drag" away. Quantizing is ridiculously simple and accurate and shapeable. The reverbs are fantastic considering how little CPU they eat up. The sampler is really good with many libraries available. The analog synths are obviously techno oriented but with a little work they easily made acoustic oriented. The choice of bass instruments is almost endless.

Reason is by far the easiest DAW package to get things done quickly and efficiently with the absolute smallest amount of mouse activity. Yes it has the reputation as a EDM DAW solution but honestly for those wanting to add a bit more to their acoustic guitar recordings this is the best on the market.

I agree I am also a bit surprised by how few use Reason here also.

However while I really like Reason and now almost always have it slaved to PT.
And agree to quickly get something going it is as good as gets. Plus I think the GUI really appeals to anyone who has worked with a PA mixer, or studio console, and or 19" rack gear. And I agree the Instruments are as good as any bundled instruments and some nicer than many.

And while I understand the "organic" part of your pre qualification, meaning a limited amount of detailed editing. Overall I found the audio editing to be a bit more cumbersome comparatively (with the caveat that I really haven't tried to edit anything other than changing patterns on some percussion loops, since version 6.5 and perhaps some things have changed I am not aware of ) And the many simple one step ,or key stroke moves in PT and I assume other major DAW's , in Reason often require a bit more going back and forth to the tool bar etc. Not a deal breaker, but not as efficient as many other DAW's .
I suppose for many the onboard FX are good and plenty ( and I agree the new MKII 7000 reverb, with it's convolution ability, is particularly nice) .
However the inability to use 3 rd party plugins for example, means you cannot use something like Izotope's RX series Repair tools, which IMO for an Acoustic guitarist is a fantastic tool.

But I will say your post has intrigued me and perhaps later this year when we are finally done with all are major Remodeling on the house .
I will take the time to read all the new features in version 8.3 and try some dedicated Reason projects again

Make no mistake overall I agree and endorse most of your opinion on Reason as a very viable DAW choice .

In fact here is an example of a project done almost entirely in Reason (the exception being the highly processed guitar riffs were done in PT using the Waves GTR effects plug in then imported into Reason as an audio track.
Everything else is Reason including the drums which I think Reason is excellent at. Now I realize that other than the acoustic strum rhythm track, this not the prototypical AGF solo guitar recording, and not everyones cup of tea but none the less shows a small amount of the potential available in Reason.

[Br1ck]

I use MOTU AudioDesk that came with my Track 16 mixer/interface. I've had no urge to upgrade to Digital Performer.