Good Multi-Track Recording Software?

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Member Since: Jan 07, 2010

Is there some sort of multi-track recording software for a cheap price that I can use to actually hear previous tracks while I record? I use Audacity but I can't actually here the other tracks that I previously recorded while I'm recording. I hope this makes sense

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MASSIVE Mastering, LLC
Member
Since: Aug 05, 2008


Feb 16, 2010 07:46 pm

Reaper. Hard to beat on the mega-cheap.

Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Feb 16, 2010 11:53 pm

ditto

Formally Hydrial69
Member
Since: May 06, 2009


Feb 17, 2010 12:13 am

well give me your price range and anything else you would want to do with it besides hearing previous tracks

Member
Since: Feb 17, 2010


Feb 17, 2010 07:08 am

Well, I know this sint where to put this, but I have a topic and I see no way of poating it..I am registered..Please help..


jegray69

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Feb 17, 2010 07:09 am

Click the "add new topic" button typically does the trick.

Czar of Turd Polish
Member
Since: Jun 20, 2006


Feb 17, 2010 12:34 pm

Reaper indeed, just turned an old audition 1.5 buddy onto it so he could have ASIO support, he is digging it so far and the curve seems not too bad.

Member
Since: Jan 07, 2010


Feb 23, 2010 10:46 pm

Thanks a lot guys. Reaper looks pretty good and is well within my price range.

Marijuana Czar
Member
Since: Oct 01, 2009


Feb 23, 2010 10:54 pm

is reaper better than cubase?

John
Member
Since: May 06, 2007


Feb 24, 2010 01:34 pm

Another good one is Sony Acid Pro 7. I run it, and retail its only $250 to $300 depending on where you look. It has all the looped base features of all the older Acid versions, with all the multi tracking needs along with midi.

Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Feb 24, 2010 02:01 pm

Quote:
is reaper better than cubase?


eh, that's pretty subjective. Cubase certainly has it's followers, and I'm pretty darn sure there's people that can do stuff way faster and easier in cubase than reaper.

But . . .

I've read about quite a few people that have came from Cubase, and were much happier on Reaper. It all depends on your workflow, what you expect, etc. Reaper is a small DL (4m) so it's pretty painless to at least try out. Plus it doesn't leave any residue if you un-install. No registry add-ons, DLLs or other stuff.

I looked at the free version of Cubase (VST, i think) and was totally unimpressed. This was before I got to reaper. I was in N-Track at the time, and just couldn't get the look/feel/workflow of cubase. When I found reaper, it all made sense, and I could work right away. Plus reaper was/is stable, un-crashing and fast (unlike N-Track).

Reaper has it's developers active in the forums, plus they're fixing bugs, adding features, and discussing with the users fairly often. The support structure (forums) is quite robust.



Member
Since: Sep 30, 2009


Feb 24, 2010 02:08 pm

Even in one DAW, there's so many different ways to do something. And however you prefer/learn to work will dictate what DAW is best for your workflow. That said, there's a few things to consider. Idk much about reaper but i will say Cubase has a fairly steep learning curve imo. Idk how much easier other DAWs would be, but there's a lot to learn in cubase. The help forums for cubase aren't that helpful, i've heard reapers are. But, (and correct me if i'm wrong) i believe i've heard repear won't do midi, or at least not well. I've heard cubase is actually very good for Midi for the price. I don't know from experience, but i've heard its good. And a lot of the VSTi demos i've seen online are done with cubase, so it seems popular for that.

Formally Hydrial69
Member
Since: May 06, 2009


Feb 24, 2010 02:49 pm

im still ofcourse a Logic fan ^.^
but its $200 and up

Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Feb 24, 2010 03:11 pm

Yeah, Reaper's strengths certainly lie in the audio field. That's what it was designed to do, and do well. MIDI has been added after the audio parts were decent and stable. Over the months / years the dev team has added, and now improved the MIDI front. I don't think it's quite up to par with some other programs, but a lot of people that were using something else for MIDI are now going reaper only, so it's getting a lot better.

I've been a huge fan of the FL Studio MIDI interface, as have quite a few others. But I find myself jumping between the two, as reaper is fine for a lot of basic MIDI stuff that I do. If I get more involved, I'll probably use FLS again, but maybe not as much.

FL Studio still has a Kick-Butt soundfont player, plus I have Sytrus, which is a kick-butt synth as well, so I definitely keep it around. So I use the MIDI interface to run both of those.

Banned


May 21, 2010 09:14 pm

Deleted By Noize2u

http://www.unitedmusicians.info
Contributor
Since: Nov 11, 2007


May 21, 2010 09:32 pm

@ Zhu: Do you only make engine part 105015-5860? Because I'm in the market for engine part 105015-5870?

Byte-Mixer
Member
Since: Dec 04, 2007


May 23, 2010 02:46 pm

lolz @ Quincy

Anyway, I've been using FL Studio what seems like ages now, but I've also been mucking about with Reaper. Reason being, when I've wanted to record something over audio, I've been having to use audacity, and port those tracks into FL Studio, since I've got the fruity edition, which doesn't allow for recording audio. :P

So, I've been looking at Reaper and thinking about making the jump lately. It's cheap, efficient, developed by the guy of winamp fame, and so far, seems pretty easy to set up and get into working with audio. I haven't worked too much with the midi automation yet in it, but I'm sure it's fine for the day-to-day events. I didn't see a built-in soundfont player though, so I picked up sfz+ which was free on the cakewalk website, and made by rgc:audio. The liter version is just sfz. You can load up SF2 and/or WAV, and it's a multi-timbral player as well as being a very light-weight VST.
(I guess cakewalk sorta absorbed those guys? They made some good stuff though, so not surprised.)

I think the bottom line (for me) is that, most DAW software are capable of doing the main tasks associated with recording, editing, midi, etc. The question is which of the "extra" features do you see yourself using, and which interfaces jive with your work flow, and help you get things done. Is it easy to navigate? Is it easy to set tracks up and get rolling? Is it easy to make edits and changes? Is it easy to access some of the deeper functions in the track and mixer? Is the layout easy to understand? Those are things I look for in a good DAW. So far, I'm looking at Reaper as an excellent alternative (and possibly fully switch over) from FL Studio.

Edit: one thing that always pissed me off about FL Studio, was setting up odd meter systems (think 6/4, 7/4, 5/4, 5/8 or mixing those up in a mixed-meter piece) Reaper looks like it has a much more intuitive interface for setting up time sigs, but I haven't worked with it as far as looking into setting up mixed meter pieces.

Otherwise for that type of complex work, I'd use a notation editor like musescore (which is very nice and open source, though you need a printer installed on the computer for all the fonts to show up properly)

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