Going to take the plunge

Dhaygood · #1 November 7th, 2007

Clueless as to what I'm doing, but I know I can record using the DI on my amp and plugging it into my computer. I would like to do a little more than that. I have narrowed my choices to Audacity, Kristal and Reaper. Opinions and advice please!

allthumbs · #2 November 7th, 2007

All three are good. Various members use each of them. Look in the home studio forum for tips about each and also wickpedia has an extensive amount of info on reaper.

Dhaygood · #3 November 7th, 2007

I appreciate that allthumbs. And thanks to anyone else ahead of time that puts in there two cents worth!

Tekker · #4 November 8th, 2007

Reaper.

I've tried all three, as well as several other inexpensive programs (Tracktion, N-Track, etc) and Reaper blows them all out of the water.

-tkr

Stratrat · #5 November 9th, 2007

There are others here far more advanced than me - all I can offer is that Audacity works fine for the recording I've been doing so far. I've experimented with all three of those programs (as well as a couple others), and found Audacity to be the easiest to use. Maybe as I get more advanced I'll want the extra options available in Reaper or Kristal - they definitely seem like more capable (i.e. feature-filled) programs.

SlickCat · #6 November 10th, 2007

I agree with Stratrat...I tried all three and Im using Audacity. For me its easier and less complicated than Reaper. If you have lots of time to learn it....Reaper has more features.
I wanted something quick and easy...like pressing record on a tape player!

Hilch · #7 November 10th, 2007

I have all 3

Audacity is a great way to start with recording easy to use and simplistic ...

Kristal ..Is a little more difficult to understand in the beginning and knowing how everything works takes a bit of working out in my humble opinion ..

Reaper : This is a little beyond me at the moment but it looks very interesting , I am still playing around with it to get what I want out of it ...

Personal choice of course but a understanding of recording isn't really needed as there is always help here

Trev..

starsailor · #8 November 10th, 2007

Have fun with the recording Dhaygood, I'm using Reaper which was easy to set up, I did have problems because my soundcard wasn't up to scratch but basic recording on Reaper is fine and it has a lot more to offer which I'm still getting my head around, I found Tekkers lessons very useful and there are some really informative threads in the Home Studio, look forward to hearing you.

Ian McAllister · #9 December 23rd, 2007

How long is the Reaper evaluation period? I'm busy looking at it now, as it;s the first time I've heard of it.
Ian

Ian McAllister · #10 December 23rd, 2007

Sorry if that post was off topic, I'm clueless too, but find Audacity and Cool Edit Pro to be really easy to get stuff down. The infinite possibilities of the digital recording world still elude me, but I understand that putting down a guide with drum machine, (Zoom) guitar,(Ibanez 320) and vocals,(Mr McAllister on 'hoarse' setting) on track one, and then overdubbing one track at a time works.
Tart everything up, as Nick Lowe would say, and delete track one, and there you have it.
Ian

Tekker · #11 December 23rd, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian McAllister

How long is the Reaper evaluation period? I'm busy looking at it now, as it;s the first time I've heard of it.
Ian

The evaluation period never expires.

So technically you could use the demo as long as you wanted, but he does ask that if you continue using the program and find it useful to pay for it. It's only $40 (for the non-commercial version) which is still ridiculously cheap for what all this program does.

-tkr

Ian McAllister · #12 December 23rd, 2007

Thanks Tekker, it's not that I mind paying, it;s that I don't have a credit card or PayPal and I'm in China, so my options are limited.

Back to Dhaygood; both Reaper and Audacity have good manuals and info available,(I downloaded the Reaper manual last night). Don't be afraid of getting stuck in. From what I've seen during my short stay on this forum, there are plenty of people who will help you.

If you have any backing tracks,(like the ones from the guitar magazines) open one in Audacity, then di your guitar onto another track, and noodle about to get the feel of things. I'm going to be hard at work with Reaper today, so I'll keep in touch and let you know how it's going.
Merry Christmas,
Ian