Newbie looking for software recommendation

[Prophecy8445]

Im new to this forum and to recording. I will soon be building a new DAW. I need help selecting production software for a beginner that has a lot of tracks on his korg triton.

I just want to start laying some vocals over them and fine tune the actual beats and songs.

My budget $300

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated

[fidlersound]

You might be able to get cakewalk for that price, but $300 is a pretty small budget. Are you trying to record audio or midi out of the triton? Either way you'll need an interface, either a standalong midi interface or an audio interface. Most audio interfaces have midi ins and outs as well. $300 won't cover software and the interface unless you get something used.

[sabianq]

sonar studio home by calkwalk might be a good choice, i think i saw it on sweetwater for like 99 bucks.

but if you want the interface and software, go with this.
it is also a firewire interface so you can use it with a laptop with a firewire interface.

I know of a lot of professionals that use presonus stuff with great results.

plus if you don't like Stienberg, you can always get sonar studio or a used copy of sonar5 off of eBay for a good price.


http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FireBox/
http://www.sweetwater.com/images/items/FireBox.jpg

It comes with Steinberg's Cubase LE 48-track 24-bit/96K recording software

[Prophecy8445]

You might be able to get cakewalk for that price, but $300 is a pretty small budget. Are you trying to record audio or midi out of the triton? Either way you'll need an interface, either a standalong midi interface or an audio interface. Most audio interfaces have midi ins and outs as well. $300 won't cover software and the interface unless you get something used.

Thanks for the input.

I am trying to take some beats and music tracks that I layed down in the sequencer of my triton.

I have a seperate budget for the interface. 300 was the budget for the software. I have a lot of flexability... It would just mean waiting another paycheck. If you had a recommendation for a beginner without a budget... what would it be

[Prophecy8445]

sonar studio home by calkwalk might be a good choice, i think i saw it on sweetwater for like 99 bucks.

but if you want the interface and software, go with this.
it is also a firewire interface so you can use it with a laptop with a firewire interface.

I know of a lot of professionals that use presonus stuff with great results.

plus if you don't like Stienberg, you can always get sonar studio or a used copy of sonar5 off of eBay for a good price.


http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FireBox/
http://www.sweetwater.com/images/items/FireBox.jpg

It comes with Steinberg's Cubase LE 48-track 24-bit/96K recording software

Thanks!!!!

I will definately check out this setup. I did read that firewire isn't as stable as a pci interface. Is this true?

I have no idea what Im doning. Dont get me wrong, I have done alot of research, but I dont know what works for me. If you have anymore suggestions... please let me know

Thanks again

[supercellwish]

Your going to get a different answer from every one. To figure out the most popular and possibly an approximate value for money the forum would have to run a poll or somthing.

Personally I make my own loops, and sometimes parts of the song using Fruity Loops, and then I export the loop as a wave file. I then Sequence the *.wav files in ACID PRO, I do this because I find it easier to sequence in ACID Pro as oposed to using the Play List Editor in Fruity.

I Think It Largly comes down to Prefererence like how ppl can be FORD or CHEV Fans etc. Theres also the Factor That this kind of software is extremely expensive, so alot of ppl will (at least for a while) be stuck with what ever they got, coz they cant afford to upgrade, usually they wont be able to return it just coz they didnt like what they bought. Instead i think maybe ppl just do their best to learn how to use what they got, and then when you ask what to use, every one just says "use this, and that" because thats what they have become good at using. Unless of course they can afford to just buy equip[meant and software at whim ( I only wish I could).

If this is your first Package, I recomend using some Demos first, so you can see what you find easiest to get your head around. I have been making my own Digital Music for about 11 years now. I have played instrumeants most of my life though. I used to buy computer magazines alot, and a few demos came on them from time to time of Music production software. The firs demo I ever used was Cakewalk pro audio. I found it very difficult to get my head around at first. Then some one showed me how to sequence wav files in it, and how to make some midi drum beats. I quickly relised I had a bit of a knack for it. I could hear though that these beats were not of a good quality, this is also because it was a crappy computer back then though too lol. I decided I would buy somthing hopefully a little more simpler, I had too when I found out how much I needed to pay for cakewalk pro audio. ($900 AU) about $450 U.S. back then. So I came across this software called Mix man studio, and it came with these pre recorded loops and samples, with a focus on Rap, hip hop, RnB and Tekno. (im not saying for you to buy mixman, its a little bit lame) This software did not allow you to make your own basic loops what so ever, you could use ones you made with another program, or the ones they suplied, but yeh any way, it made me relise that if I could learn to make my own loops I could probablly make some good music.

I tried a few more demos, and eventually settled with Fruity Loops 6 Producer Edition, and am still using an old copy of Acid Pro, from the sonic foundry days, i think its V4.0 LOL any hoo, What ive got allows me to write my music, if I ever want to produce it on a commercial level, I have realised Ill have to take it to a propper studio, to hjave it cleaned up and compressed etc. I just cant afford the equipmeant needed to get it sounding A1. So my Advice is demos, and lots of em. Just make sure the software can do what you want it to. Fruity loops is good for beginers, and has some very powerfull tools, but I cannot tell you weather its better than say CuBase, coz i never spent long enough on a CuBase Demo to get my head around it. Also I cannot say if its better or worse than alot of stuff, i know you can get demos of it though, same with the lates Sony version of Acid Pro, but Acid pro is very limited, plus sony is a huige multi national, they dont need your business lol

So anyway Good luck pal, I hope my novel helped you some, yes I got alot of time on my hands atm :( I like to take regular breaks from writing, I spend most of days writing.) So coming on to a forum is a way to take my mind of music for a bit. Oh yeah thats the other thing, if yoour really good with Digital music, you can do alot with very little. But you can do more with more, if you get mymeaning?!?!? Practice, Practice and Practice, Try to aim for at least, 1 basic track every 2 days, at the very least that is. If one track stands out more, spend more time on, just keep trying different things, and even different Genres, both Acoustic, and elctronic sounds alike, I like to try everything, just to see if I can, but My fav to make is Progressive, trancy tekno, sorta, But I do blues, rock heavy metal style stuff too, ive done a couple of rap tracks, but they were a bit lame lol So good luck :)

[ecc83]

I think supercellwish has the right idea. If you want to concentrate on music, and to a high technical level, you will have to decide on some software and stick with it.
If, like my son and I, you want to just do your own thing, maybe a demo or two, then go for the freebies or cheap.
We started, 2yrs ago with Magix audio/midi studio6. The learning curve even for this was steep (£10.00 WHSmiths!) but it was useful because Samplitude which we now have a good magazine freebie of, works the same way.
Other useful freebies.... Audacity (no midi) Reaper, any copy of Computer music will give you CMStudio. We could not get on with it but....

Hold onto your cash 'till your are really sure, as the Man said, Sony don't need it!
Rock on
Dave.

[sabianq]

http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

check out Kristal
it is free and dare i say "stable" I use it at work sometime when i need to record meetings, I have left it on over night and forget about it until the next day and go in the AV room just to find the record on and it is still dutifully recording an empty room hitting 72 hours.

The interface is a decidedly non-user friendly but there are forums dedicated to Kristal one is called http://www.kristalusers.net/

also I think pro tools is still allowing downloads of PT for windows 98

[Prophecy8445]

Thank you supercellwish for your very helpful insight to my situation. I will definately try demos and tweak things to see what is the best way to rip all my sequences off my triton and edit them and add vocals and all that good stuff.

Thanks ecc83 and sabianq. I will also check out these freebies until I can save up and take cracks at the serious stuff. I will actually be building this in may/June when the intel E6600 drops in price. Then I will demo until my heart is content. I will try a few now on my friends computer but I dont know how much time we will have to do so.

I have tried fruity loops to do everything because I didn't have an interface for my triton. I probably did not put enough time into it, but its learning curve seems extremely steap. Should I expect this with all software I try out?

Thanks again guys. :D

[sabianq]

I have tried fruity loops to do everything because I didn't have an interface for my triton. I probably did not put enough time into it, but its learning curve seems extremely steap. Should I expect this with all software I try out?


Uhh, Yea, that is the reason people spend a lot of money and time learning how to run DAW's

The most powerful and easiest to learn in my opinion is Adobe Audition 2.0.