I’m basically a mid-level guitar/piano player and I had some questions about recording software:
1.) Any recommendations from the masses on hardware/software for recording instruments/voice? Assume at this point that I have: an electric guitar; an acoustic guitar; a fullsize keyboard (w/ midi I/O); three power house CPU’s running WinXP and Mandrake (no Mac’s); and a voice. I’m basically looking for economy as this is just for entertainment (until my first album goes platinum…)
I prefer Sonar as I used Cakewalk for many, many years. Some new to the game find the learning curve in with Sonar to be quite steep, but it has been able to handle every thing I demand from it - and I demand ALOT! I think it is worth learning.
I use a mixture of hardware and software synths and drum machines, sometimes running as many as 10 hardware keyboards, 3 drum machines, 20+ sample lines from Gigasampler as well as 10 or more audio tracks. Sonar handles it all without a glitch.
I’ve also not had it crash on me. Well, it did when I used some older drivers for my MOTU 828mkII. But, after that was cleared up it ran solid. This is on Windows 98 and 2k. I’ve not tried it on XP. —I still use 98SE in the studio because that machine has been running stable for years and I’m not in a hurry to change that. The 2000 machine is used mostly for larger audio recording projects (30+ audio tracks). The 98se machine can handle it, but the 2000 machine is faster and can process events quicker. I’d convert it all over to the 2000 machine but Sonar and Gigasampler won’t talk together under 2000. It’s a quirk Gigasampler is working on for the next release.
Sonar allows “piano roll” editing, so you can easily alter gak notes or tweak volumes, sustain, etc. It supports multi-in/outs for audio, allows you to define outputs to different midi devices, and has natural sounding quantize functions.
The only complaint I have with Sonar is VST’s are handled by another Cakewalk product to tie Sonar and VST’s together. Not that it has been a problem, but I with is was handled natively. That said, think this is fixed in the new version.