Not happy with Reaper...

[GuitarBilly]

You get up my ass for every post i make lately, even if it's personal opinion and not debatable.

If that's the case you might want to keep your opinion to yourself. If you post it in a discussion forum, then it's debatable. If you are not mature enough to participate in a discussion without getting all riled up every time someone has a dissenting opinion, I suggest you stay away from the public forums, because debate is what forums are for.

If you need help with the stay away part, I'd be glad to assist, because it's not the first time you do this kind of crap and frankly, it's getting old.

Getting off people's nuts is the best advice you never took yourself.

That said, I will look into some Pro Tools tutorials online to see if the interface looks like something I can easily use. I appreciate the tip.

[GuitarBilly]

Billy, if you haven't already, seriously check out Tracktion. The price is great and it is super simple to use! It is has a full feature list as well as a midi editor. EZDrummer works with this very well, and it is uses very little CPU.

Cole

Ah, just looked and Producer One Artist 2 is only $100 and has almost everything you need, just doesn't have the ability to export to mp3! Here's a comparison between the different versions of Studio One and it looks like Artist is a bargain considering you're not really missing out on any HUGE features. The free version even looks like it might be enough to hold you over for a while! http://www.presonus.com/products/studio ... e-versions

I will look into Studio One and Tracktion. Thanks guys!!

[colejustesen]

I really liked Studio One as well. It is pretty intuitive... I just didn't like the price. Tracktion did exactly what I needed for under $100.

EDIT: I liked Studio One so much that I almost bought some presonus hardware just to get it, but I realized they only sold the basic version and I would have to spend a couple hundred more to get the version that I wanted. It was really great software!

Cole

[Loins of Fire]

You get up my ass for every post i make lately, even if it's personal opinion and not debatable.

If that's the case you might want to keep your opinion to yourself. If you post it in a discussion forum, then it's debatable. If you are not mature enough to participate in a discussion without getting all riled up every time someone has a dissenting opinion, I suggest you stay away from the public forums, because debate is what forums are for.

If you need help with the stay away part, I'd be glad to assist, because it's not the first time you do this kind of crap and frankly, it's getting old.

Getting off people's nuts is the best advice you never took yourself.

That said, I will look into some Pro Tools tutorials online to see if the interface looks like something I can easily use. I appreciate the tip.

Not trying to start shit but I've been ignoring this guy's bad attitude towards me for months. I think it's pretty obvious that something as simple as me saying "i think pro tools is easy to use" causes him to disagree with me there might be a problem. Just telling him to back off that's all.

[Markdude]

I had never heard of Tracktion before but I just checked it out and it looks pretty cool. Great price too. I may have to give it a shot and maybe make a little review of it on my site. Thanks for mentioning it, Cole.

[colejustesen]

I had never heard of Tracktion before but I just checked it out and it looks pretty cool. Great price too. I may have to give it a shot and maybe make a little review of it on my site. Thanks for mentioning it, Cole.

I first heard of it when I bought a Mackie mixer and they had a deal where the software came free. I was using Reaper at the time, but thought "what the hell..." It kind of took me a minute or two to figure my way around, but I fell in love with the concept of having everything on one screen. With Reaper, I always felt like I needed an extra screen to get the most out of the GUI. Not with Tracktion

I guess the current producer of the software was the original maker, but at some point, Mackie ended up with the rights and didn't do so much in terms of keeping it a good product. Now that the original producer/engineer of the software is back on board, they have been making strides to improve the once great platform. As a side note, if you buy Tracktion 5, you get a copy of Melodyne at no charge. I downloaded it, but I don't think it is something that I will use; it might be something awesome for you

I really like the interface, and I am glad that I could introduce it to you

Cole

[Markdude]

I've used Melodyne before and greatly preferred it to Auto Tune, so that's a good deal!

[Markdude]

Hey Cole...I had ordered a Mackie Onyx Blackjack interface and it got here today. What came with it? A license code for the full version of Tracktion! So I'll definitely try it out.

[colejustesen]

Hey Cole...I had ordered a Mackie Onyx Blackjack interface and it got here today. What came with it? A license code for the full version of Tracktion! So I'll definitely try it out.

Haha! That is too funny! The best part now is if you really like it and you want to purchase it, you get it for the upgrade price, which is like $30 and you still get a copy of Melodyne! Be sure to let me know what you think; I love it!

Cole

[EndTime]

Pro Tools is as simple and intuitive as it gets in my opinion. I think that's the reason its so popular. Nothing is holding back creativity.

You don't think.it has anything to do with the fact that the earliest pro tools is what replaced analog recording in the pro studios?

Its simply a name at this point. And was prettyuch only a name back then. Especially their consumer level line. If you went all in on their hd lines, then you were playing with the best, but otherwise pro tools is no different or better than anything else.. It also used to be you had to use digidesign hardware only for Protools.

I think its easy to use. Is that cool with you?

Lol. You always do that. With that kinda response if i respond to sumthin specific you said.. You say sumthin, like its so popular for a reason and thats cauae of its ease of use. Ok. But its so popular cause it was the first real digital name in the pro studios. Just clarifying that a bit. You cool with that?

Guess not..

You get up my ass for every post i make lately, even if it's personal opinion and not debatable. Honestly it's becoming really fucking annoying. Get off my nuts dude.

Pro tools is only the industry standard because it was the first DAW 23 years ago. Let's go with that...

I have no idea what you are talking about. If you honestly think I'm targeting you in any way, then thats entirely on you. I can't even recall the last time this may have happened. But if i do pick sumthin to respond to, its purely based on the content.

And saying pro tools is the industry standard cause of ease of use, is certainly debatable. Its the standard in the pro industry cause of its hd hardware. Not in the consumer, home based studio. .

The real pro tools was all about the hardware and software hybrid. It was the best because it was full fledged totally integrated hardware/ software solution.. The software without hardware wasnt even offered seperately till the mid 2000's. Because by then, software only DaW solutions like Logic, nuendo, and Even cubase had better interfaces and workflow.

And when pro tools offered a budget solution to compete, they had the name to bank on. Thats the gist of what i said. Hell, people refer to just using "pro tools" when referring to fixing shit in the studio. When the studio is using Logic.. lol.

This Wasn't even meant as an argument. You took it that way and act like a baby. If anything, now i might "get on yer nuts" cause now you are bugging me.. lol

[colejustesen]

Any updates on things you have tried Billy? I am curious about your results...

Cole

[GuitarBilly]

Nothing yet, I've been watching some online video demos etc and trying to decide based on that, which is kind of hard. But so far, everything I've watched about Cubase looks good and sounds like it would be an easy transition from the Cakewalk/Sonar interface I am used to.

I watched a Tracktion demo and I was not too crazy about how the mixer looks like etc.... but I need to look into it a little harder.

I haven't started to research Studio One yet but I will....

So yeah, things are moving slow around here

[Thurston]

Billy have you checked out any of the Reaper tutorials that Kenny Giola does? If you're not completely set on switching to another DAW, you might want to check them out. He explains things in a way that makes you want to learn more. The forum can be extremely helpful too. As I'm sure you know it's very customization and if all you're looking for is a simplified multi-track recorder you can set it up to be exactly that.

You'd probably save a good chunk of money this way too. Just a thought.

[Markdude]

FWIW, I gave Tracktion (version 4) a shot and it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to use a plugin as an insert on a track (instead of the whole master bus) and enable input monitoring. I think it would be a great DAW for someone who is brand spanking new to recording, but my hypothesis is that if you're even a little bit familiar with traditional DAWs, the "user friendliness" will just confuse you since even doing basic stuff is very different.

[colejustesen]

FWIW, I gave Tracktion (version 4) a shot and it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to use a plugin as an insert on a track (instead of the whole master bus) and enable input monitoring. I think it would be a great DAW for someone who is brand spanking new to recording, but my hypothesis is that if you're even a little bit familiar with traditional DAWs, the "user friendliness" will just confuse you since even doing basic stuff is very different.

It did have a bit of a learning curve as far as the layout, and I think you hit the nail on the head with the comment about someone who is new to recording. I think that is why I really took to it; I can admit that I hardly use the full strength of any DAW. That being said, I appreciate how Tracktion seems to keep the environment readily available on one screen, whereas I felt that with Reaper I would benefit from having a second monitor.

Since my computer crashed and I had to reinstall my OS I haven't reinstalled my Reaper DAW, but Tracktion was one of the first programs that I installed.

I would like to hear Billy's input when the time comes...

Cole

[Maddnotez]

Just curious of why the issues with Reaper?

It does everything you listed pretty easliy.

The only "issue" I saw you post was punching in?

That should work the same on any DAW, I would like to try other DAW's but I have been using Reaper for a while.

Any questions I had were answered on the Reaper forum.

[GuitarBilly]

Just curious of why the issues with Reaper?

It does everything you listed pretty easliy.

The only "issue" I saw you post was punching in?

That should work the same on any DAW, I would like to try other DAW's but I have been using Reaper for a while.

Any questions I had were answered on the Reaper forum.

It's not an issue as in a defect on the software. It's more of an issue of not being very intuitive to me. I know I could probably just spend more time with it, go to the forum etc and learn it, but I just don't have the will/motivation to do so. Using the Cakewalk/Sonar stuff for many years, I just got used to a certain workflow and would like something similar but with a lesser load on the system.

[bdubbs]

I'm going to buck the trend. I use mixcraft and I really like it. Download the demo and check it out. I use EZD2 with it and have no issue. If you buy in October the upgrade to 7 is free. The regular version is $80 and the "pro" version with more tools is $150.

[thefyn]

Just don't go near Sonar X

I'm stuck with it because I'm in deep financially and time wise but I hate it with a passion. Buggy POS.

[Schweezly]

If you want easy, check out Mixcraft. I've been using it for about 3 years and it's great for what it is. It's also cheap and plays well with my Addictive Drums and electronic kit.

They probably still do a 2 week free trial, full version.

[Dickarms]

have a copy of cubase but no usb cable for my h4. sad times.

[bdubbs]

If you want easy, check out Mixcraft. I've been using it for about 3 years and it's great for what it is. It's also cheap and plays well with my Addictive Drums and electronic kit.

They probably still do a 2 week free trial, full version.

The standard version demo kind of goes on forever. If you need a while to test it. Works great with ezdrummer and amplitube/free amp sims.

[KCTigerChief]

Started on Sonar...when it was like version 5 or 6...Got very comfortable with that.

For whatever reason, I switched to reaper...for a smaller footprint. Got EXTREMELY comfortable with that, and haven't been able to go to anything else. I have logic and pro tools also...Reaper just makes sense to me at this point.

My point is, use what is comfortable for you. They all do the exact same thing. If you are comfortable with Sonar, go with that, and just resign to the fact that it's a pig on resources.

[DNW]

So if I go with Cubase... is the slimmed down "Elements" version good enough for what I plan to do, which is:


- run EZ drummer 2 for drum tracks
- record guitars, bass, vocals etc with a mic (no re-amping or IRs of any kind)
- add effects like reverb and delay
- mix and export to .wav and/or mp3s

Very simple, I think. Can I go with the Elements version or should I save up for the full version?

I just read up on it and it seems like those things should be no sweat for it, BUT it looks like it doesn't have a MIDI editor. That means you should probably be able to still import/drag and drop MIDI patterns/loops or whatever for drums, and probably still record them with a MIDI controller if you have one, but it sounds like you won't have the piano roll editor to create drum tracks from scratch with the mouse (and probably wouldn't be able to do any quantizing/humanizing/editing to MIDI tracks that already exist). There are also some other limitations like lower track counts/FX channel counts/numbers of inputs and outputs, but those probably wouldn't matter much unless you're doing some really elaborate, creative mixing.

Also it looks like to bounce to mp3 (rather than wav), you have to pay $16 to buy their mp3 encoder.

Here's a little comparison guide I found: http://www.steinberg.net/fileadmin/file ... _Chart.pdf

Personally I don't think I could deal with not having a MIDI editor since I don't want to be limited to just premade MIDI loops/tracks (and no ability to make small tweaks to them either), but if you're ok with that, it seems like it would fit the bill.

Thank you for posting this chart, looks like I will need the full version then. $499. Fuck me running.

Maybe a bit late to the party here, but Cubase Elements 7 definitely does have the usual piano roll and drum editor functions one expects from Cubase.

[GuitarBilly]

Started on Sonar...when it was like version 5 or 6...Got very comfortable with that.

For whatever reason, I switched to reaper...for a smaller footprint. Got EXTREMELY comfortable with that, and haven't been able to go to anything else. I have logic and pro tools also...Reaper just makes sense to me at this point.

My point is, use what is comfortable for you. They all do the exact same thing. If you are comfortable with Sonar, go with that, and just resign to the fact that it's a pig on resources.

That is probably what I am going to do. I will compensate for it by moving all my other stuff into a laptop or tablet and keep the desktop for recording only. In that scenario, Sonar should be fine.