Recording Studio Software?

[ekenny]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to which software package would be the best to use for recording. Its more for fun than for profession. Garrage band came with the mac I bought, would that work fine?

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[CanadaRAM]

There is no "best".

There is a wide variety of software and hardware, from $100 to $100,000 for recording with your Mac. Besides the software there is a huge number of chooices in the recording hardware that will input the music to your Mac. GarageBand is a good start for learning the field.

How about you tell us more about what you intend to use it for?
Recording live bands? Overdubbing one instrument/singer at a time? Electronic loop-based composition using computer-synthesized instruments and sounds? Live performance with the computer as a backing band? Turntables?

Bone up on some of the basics with books and magazines before making a decision. Read anything written by Craig Anderton. Good magazines to read are: Keyboard, Electronic Musician, Sound on Sound, Future Music, Computer Music, Recording, Mix. They have how-to articles on recording and reviews of hardware and software.

 

[tag]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to which software package would be the best to use for recording. Its more for fun than for profession. Garrage band came with the mac I bought, would that work fine?

Thanks for any ideas.

Yeah Garage Band should suffice to get you started. I've just started playing around with it and it has tons of options and demo samples to use. Plus if you have a mic or guitar or keyboard you can hook it up and use the live input and record it. For vocals there is even different effects you can add to your voice. All in all its pretty good.

 

[ekenny]

Cool thanks,

Its mostley going to be one instrument at a time:
Guitar, electric violin, bass, etc.

 

[Poeben]

If you are serious about doing recordings you might want to look into getting an MBox, by digidesign. It seems you will be using real instruments as opposed to software synths and loops, so that means microphones. You will need some way to get those signals into the mac. The MBox comes with ProTools LE software, the defacto audio production tool. Sure some studios use Logic, and I use Digital Performer at home, but in the long run ProTools is king. At around $450 it is not a bad deal either, but it only handles 2ch of i/o over USB. The 002R runs about $1100 and will give you 8ch of analog i/o and 8ch digital over firewire.

I haven't used garageband v2 at all, but I find that while all of the apple iApps (including GB) do function well, they are at times too simplistic for me to even understand. If you get into wanting to be seriously creative then you will probably outgrow Garageband pretty quick. It is worth trying though if you have it already and are new to recording, but don't expect it to do very much.

 

[DXoverDY]

http://audacity.sf.net

free open source audio editor similar to soundforge.

 

[faintember]

GB will get your feet wet, then it may be time to look at other software/hardware. (Cubase, Logic Exp, DP, ProTools LE, + audio interface).

If you just want to record a track and play it back, (that is without editing or layering tracks) there are lots of freeware programs that will do that, or i can throw together a quick max runtime object that will do it. Honestly, GB should be fine for your needs as of now.

-cameron

 

[pulsewidth947]

If you are serious about doing recordings you might want to look into getting an MBox, by digidesign.

While I appreciate what you say Poeben, I really couldnt recommend an MBox as a starter interface. In my opinion, its very overpriced for what it is, but you do get to use Pro Tools LE. Pro Tools is probably the most commonly used software in recording environments, but its not the most user friendly.

Personally I'd recommend starting with Garageband, learning the fundamentals, then trying the big names - Pro Tools, Logic and Cubase to see which you prefer, then buy a recording interface accordingly. If you do decide to go down the Pro Tools route but dont have a lot of money then the MBox probably would be the best step.

Other than this minor gripe there is some good advice in this thread!

 

[benbrignell]

I agree, starting off with Garage Band you also have nothing to lose as it comes with your machine and is simple to get into.

Once you have established your sound and gained some recording experience and feel that garage band doesn't provide a solution as advanced as you would like then try some demos of the alternatives.

Otherwise it's more than suitable


Cheers

Ben



Garage Band Forum

http://www.garagebandforum.net

 

[quigleybc]

I really couldnt recommend an MBox as a starter interface. In my opinion, its very overpriced for what it is


I agree,

but I would like to add that the Mbox (for some of us) is an extreme headache.

It was so buggy for me, causing all kinds of problems. Not recognizing my midi keyboard, creating a crackle feedback sound. It really set me back months, because of creating I was spending all my time trouble shooting.

I sold the damn thing and moved on to Logic. Now I am finally creating again.

(rant over)