DavidRamey Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 I have Ableton Lite version 8 and Cubase LE 5. My computer is a Pentium Quad Core i7 2.67 GHz processor, 3 TB of hard drives, 12 GB of RAM. I have a TASCAM US 144 MK II PC interface. The manual for Ableton Lite is 561 pages and the Cubase manuals totals 417 pages. All I want to do is record my guitar (Fender Telecaster) as I practice. I have a Fender G-DEC amp. I am 61 years old and don't want to spend 5 years learning to use this software. What DAW do you recommend that is cheap in price, easy to learn and give decent results? Give me old reel to reel analog equipment and I could be up and running in 30 minutes or less. Sometimes I wonder if digital is really an upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidRamey Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 Nobody have any recommendations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaysEpiphone Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 I still have and use a Fostex 4-track tape machine some times but I do have a nice Mac Pro with a MOTU rig. If you don't want to take time to learn a DAW then why try, just use what you know how to use. If you want to put your music to digital or post it to the web then get a mixer and a simple USB or Firewire interface and just dump your 2-track analog stuff into it's converter's. There are also simple plug and play card unit's that hook into a ordinary computer's motherboard right beside you video/sound card. Fist check your existing computers sound card for a line in plug, you may have to get an adapter but many computers have these. All you have to do is plug a mixer's out-put into it and BAM... You got analog to digital conversion. This is a easy DAW (software) to use and its a free one. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Here is MOTU's site, they have some basic stuff but it's not the cheap kind, more on the lines of professional gear at MOTU. http://www.motu.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidRamey Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 Thank you Ray. I will check out your links. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thouston Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 I recommend Reaper. When I wanted to learn DAW recording (I was using my Boss BR-8, than later a Boss BR-600) my brother sent me Cakewalk (he works for Roland), it was too memory intensive for my single core AMD 3300+ PC, if I had more than 3 tracks running with plug-ins. I read about Reaper, downloaded & brought it (for $60). There was a small learning curve, but since I was used to recording, it didn't take me long to start recording using Reaper. I now have a BR-800, which I prefer recording with, and I still use Reaper mainly to insert Drumcore drum loops. The drums in the BR recorder are PCM, and as long as I note the tempo, I can match tempo to any drum groove in Drumcore, and drop 'n drag the loop into Reaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidRamey Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 Thanks Tony. I have downloaded Reaper and will start working with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyg Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 I'd recommend Reaper for what you want to do as well. You can use it just like a tape machine once you get over the learning curve, which would be pretty low to use it as a tape machine. That said, the Reaper manual runs out to around 420 pages for the one version while the Ableton manual you mention covers the Lite, Intro, Live8 and Live8 Ultimate packages. More than half of the Ableton manual isn't for the Lite package anyhow. However, if you want to use MIDI now or in the future then Ableton is far superior. It's also superior if you want to sync an external drum machine (or whatever) to your PC. MIDI sync is not something Reaper does well, if at all. I use Reaper and Ableton Live Intro (the one above the 'lite' version) so the pair came to around £100.00 ($160.00) which seems a pretty fair price for what is essentially a great package. So don't throw out your copy of Ableton, you may find it's useful when you get to grips with digital recording. Try Reaper and join the Reaper forum as well. If there's a better, more helpful product forum I've yet to find it. Also worth checking out are the 'Reaper 4 Explained' tuition videos by Kenny Gioia from Groove 3 at around $40.00 (often on offer at $20.00) http://www.groove3.com/str/reaper-4-explained.html They'll get you from beginner to intermediate user in around three hours without breaking out in a sweat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidRamey Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 I have decided to go with Reaper. I want to thank everybody for their suggestions and I have looked at the different options that have been suggested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BentonC Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Let us know how it works out! BTW- I know I'm jumping in a little late in the conversation here, but don't count out Pro Tools either. I've been a user for a long time, and it rocks. I don't know if it's just because I'm used to working on it, but I can't seem to get away from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaysEpiphone Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Let us know how it works out! BTW- I know I'm jumping in a little late in the conversation here, but don't count out Pro Tools either. I've been a user for a long time, and it rocks. I don't know if it's just because I'm used to working on it, but I can't seem to get away from it. I used Pro Tool's in recording school back in the late 1990's but since then I've not touched it as Digital Performer was in my price range when I got the money to buy a system 2 years after graduating. I remember Pro Tool's as a nice system but DP is a bit easier to use IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 I have Ableton Lite version 8 and Cubase LE 5. I use Cubase LE 5. Once you load up the driver for your Tascam interface, plug in its USB connection before launching Cubase so it recognizes it when it powers up. From there it's pretty easy: Start a new Project, then open a new audio track. Then record! Then next track. All these were recorded in cubase: http://www.soundcloud/dccougar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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