Hello everyone!
I've been messing around with a small personal studio setup for about a year now. I started off using Audacity, and then picked up Pro Tools M-Powered Essentials with the 49 key MIDI keyboard. Lately, I've been very frustrated with the software, since it will only allow me to record two channels at a time.
So my search for alternatives lead me to Mixcraft 5, and I have to say I've been somewhat impressed with it so far. I'm not a huge fan of the interface yet, but I'm sure some of that is just my unfamiliarity with it.
I'd like to try Cubase or Sonar, but there isn't any demos available for either of them. I'm on a really limited budget (not really doing any work for anyone other than my band) so I'm a bit hesitant to drop $300 on some software that I've never used.
I'm really looking for suggestions on which way to go here. I'm about to get an 8 channel digital interface, and I really need the ability to record multiple channels (otherwise the interface is useless!)
My big beefs with Pro Tools so far is it's crippled recording ability, and the crappy interface it comes with (tends to crash when it gets a peaked signal, like when someone drops a mic or whatnot)
All suggestions are welcome! Thanks in advance!
Comments
I'm going to buy a Zoom R16 interface. Right now I have the M-Au
I'm going to buy a Zoom R16 interface. Right now I have the M-Audio interface, and my sound card line in, so I have the capability of 4 channels right now (two stereo), all of which I can record with Mixcraft 5 with no problems.
I'm not using the MIDI keyboard, it just came with the software, I'm trying to get set up to record an entire band at the same time, or mic up an acoustic drum kit. I've never messed with Reaper, I'll look into it!
Alright, I'm going to play around with Reaper more. Gonna go thr
Alright, I'm going to play around with Reaper more. Gonna go through a few tutorials before I start asking questions about it. It's a fairly clean UI, which I like so far, so I'm going to give it a go.
Thanks for the advice geoffbrecker, but spending $750 to have access to only four channels is not worth it, considering that I can do that now with Mixcraft, for a tenth of the price. And the cheaper versions of the Avid boxes seem to once again lock me into only two channels, unless I'm missing something there.
I'm not opposed to buying the full version of Cubase, or even upgrading Pro-Tools, I just don't want to be limited in a vital basic function anymore. I am cheap, but I understand that you have to spend money to get a decent program.
Try Reaper. It will work with any interface so you don't have t
Try Reaper. It will work with any interface so you don't have to keep switching around. As to recording more than two channels, how are you going to do that? If your interface is a MIDI keyboard you are only going to have two channels available. If you want more than two channels your computer interface has to have that capability already. And unless you have some other type of equipment you haven't mentioned, you don't have that capability.