Can someone explain DAW's to me

[r0ck0ut]

I want to start recording some guitar tracks and lay down some drums. I was looking for a program where I can just plug my guitar in and work from there. Im totally clueless any help would be appreciated. I was looking at programs like guitar rig and ezdrummer.

[Lawrence Farr]

Budget?

Operating system? Mac or Windows?

Plan to do heavy audio or midi editing or just play and mix what you play?

 

Soon to follow will likely be some people mostly recommending what they use with not much info as to what you plan to do going forward, telling you why X is sub-par to Z without knowing if you even need to do Y (the thing that X may not do as well as Z) and so on. Maybe not so much here though, people seem more... reasonable here... but it's a minefield... or can be.

 

It should be interesting either way. Lots of great choices out there. If you're already on Mac and your needs are pretty basic, I'd say go with Garageband. Basic DAW's for Windows are very many, some have dongles, some not, etc, etc... the list is long and rarely has anyone actually used them all.

 

It really all depends on how deep you plan to delve into digital recording, editing and mixing, what your budget is, how computer literate you are (e.g.... how much initial drama you want to avoid) and similar.

 

Anyway, I use Studio One and (coincidentally) the Artist version comes with EDrummer light and Guitar Rig light, versions of the exact instruments you mentioned. The down side of it is you missed the "no-brainer" sale by about two weeks. It was $30, now it's $199 again which might not be the best value in that class at that price...

[TimOBrien]

My obligatory standard reply-for-newbies that I keep in Wordpad so this is just a paste (I don't want to re-type this all the time):

 

First off, immediately get a good beginner recording book (spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$) that shows you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:

Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $15

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470385421?ie=UTF8&tag=myjescom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470385421

(Wish I'd had that when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)

You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

 

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price

http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Guitar-Bass-Getting-Record/dp/0879307307/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1

(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!)

 

And you can get a FREE subscription to TapeOp magazine at www.tapeop.com

 

Barnes&Noble or Borders are great places to start --- they have recording books and you can go get a snack or coffee and read them for FREE! Don't pass by a good recording book --- this is a VERY technical hobby and you REALLY want to start a reference library!!!

 

Good Newbie guides that also explains all the basics and have good tips:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/computermusic?entry=free_beginner_pdfs

http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/tips-techniques/168409-tips-techniques.html

 

21 Ways To Assemble a Recording Rig: http://www.tweakheadz.com/rigs.htm

 

Also Good Info: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

 

Other recording books: http://musicbooksplus.com/home-recording-c-31.html

 

Still using a built-in soundcard?? Unfortunately, those are made with less than $1 worth of chips for beeps, boops and light gaming (not to mention cheapness for the manufacturer) and NOT quality music production. Even the cheapest $50 usb asio card will be a huge improvement.

#1 Rule of Recording: You MUST replace the built-in soundcard.

Here's a good guide and user-tested suggestions that work: http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

(you'll want to bookmark and read through all of Tweak's Guide while you're there...)

Another good article: Choosing an audio interface - http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/audiointerfaces.htm

 

 

Plenty of software around to record for FREE to start out on:

 

Sony ACID Express (free 10-track sequencer): http://www.acidplanet.com/downloads/xpress/

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (multi-track with VST support)

Wavosaur: http://www.wavosaur.com/ (a stereo audio file editor with VST support)\nKristal: http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

Other freebies and shareware: www.hitsquad.com/smm

 

Another great option is REAPER at http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (It's $50 but runs for free until you get guilty enough to pay for it...)

I use Reaper and highly reccomend it...

 

Music Notation and MIDI recording: Melody Assistant ($25) and Harmony Assistant ($80) have the power of $600 notation packages - http://myriad-online.com

Demo you can try on the website.

 

And you can go out to any Barnes&Noble or Borders and pick up "Computer Music" magazine - they have a full FREE studio suite in every issue's DVD, including sequencers, plugins and tons of audio samples. (November 2006 they gave away a full copy of SamplitudeV8SE worth $150, November 2007-on the racks Dec in the US- they gave away SamplitudeV9SE and July 2009 issue they put out Samplitude10SE, November 2010 SamplitudeSilver. FREE. It pays to watch 'em for giveaways...)

 

'Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat forever...'

[Hoppy Shimko]

 

I want to start recording some guitar tracks and lay down some drums. I was looking for a program where I can just plug my guitar in and work from there. Im totally clueless any help would be appreciated. I was looking at programs like guitar rig and ezdrummer.

 

 

If you want to know what to buy, I can't help you. If you want to understand what a DAW is, then I'll give you a quick lesson.

 

Multitrack is the ability to play something, have it simultaneously record, then hear it playback while you add something new. A DAW allows you to do that, and add virtual instruments ( synthesized orchestra, bass, drums, etc ) and to add audio recording as well- Examples: vocals, acoustic guitars, nature, sound effects, amplified guitars,etc.

 

If you need drums, most often you would have a selection of drum sounds, play them with a keyboard or USB trigger pad , or in my case, a set of Roland Vdrums. Once you have that information recorded on a track in the DAW program, you can manipulate it fairly easily. You can add effects, change the speed, change the pitch, change the EQ...you can also edit it for length, double track it, make into repeating loops or samples...so, what the DAW is in essence, is a capturing and manipulating device. You can get as deep into it as you want, or do simple recording with a cheap mic and a little reverb effects.....the most basic versions will do amazing things, especially if you are the creative type. Over-laying sounds, phasing, panning.,...you can work wonders with basic features if you are creative. So, my advice is to know what you want to achieve, then find out what you can budget, and then put together a package that meets those parameters. You will need some type of input and something to hear it played...headphones, boombox, stereo, monitors.

 

Like most things, the more you spend, the more detail you get.

[Lawrence Farr]

Well, as soon as I say contrary it's back... the $30 deal. So... for a beginner who wants very little hassle and doesn't care about what others think about capabilities you may not need or even want, and who just wants to get directly to work with something relatively intuitive...

 

http://webstore.presonus.com/studioone/s1messa.aspx

 

They're running the $30 deal directly now and it appears it may even drop back to $20.11 again during Musikmesse.

[Mixwell]

this is fun

 

http://www.soundation.com/studio

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

I want to start recording some guitar tracks and lay down some drums. I was looking for a program where I can just plug my guitar in and work from there. Im totally clueless any help would be appreciated. I was looking at programs like guitar rig and ezdrummer.

 

 

DAW = Digital Audio Workstation. Essentially a computer-based system designed for the recording and manipulation of audio. It can take one of several forms - a hardware "studio in a box" unit, a rackmount digital audio recorder, or, most commonly, as a desktop or laptop computer configured with an audio interface and recording / editing software.

 

So those are the basics of what you need - an audio interface, a computer and software. And sometimes, even more software.

 

You only need a two channel interface since you are working alone and want to use "softsynths" or "virtual instruments" (like EZ Drummer) for your drums. Any decent two channel interface will do fine. I like Avid's Mbox line, and the 3rd Gen Mbox Mini would be about ideal for you in terms of I/O.

 

Some hardware includes a "lite" DAW program bundled along with the hardware purchase. Older versions of Pro Tools (8 and earlier) always did; as of the latest version (9), it's possible to get the hardware at a lower price sans software. Other companies sometimes bundle software with hardware - Yamaha and Cubase and Steinberg do so fairly often, Roland and Cakewalk / Sonar, as do others. You really have to decide which DAW program you like the best, and go with that. If you already have a computer you like, then your options will be based around that. Some programs run on both Macs and PCs, while others are either / or. For example, Logic and Digital Performer are Mac only, and Sonar is PC only. Pro Tools and Cubase / Nuendo run on both. There are other options too - Presonus has a DAW program called Studio One. There's a very popular shareware (uncrippled, full-function demo can be downloaded for free) called Reaper that, last I checked, was something like $60 for a personal-use license. Any of these programs will likely more than meet your needs in terms of recording and mixing features and capabilities. In terms of look, "feel" and the user interface and the way they function, a lot of that comes down to user preferences...

 

It sounds like you also might be interested in amp simulation software too. In most cases, that's going to be an "extra" purchase. Some DAW programs, such as Pro Tools, do have amp sims included, but they're usually the "lite" versions of the full-featured (read: extra cost / optional) plugin stuff, so it may or may not meet your needs without getting an upgrade or a full version of something like Guitar Rig or Eleven or whatever. There's a bunch of different things out there, and frankly, I'm not as current as I should be on all the latest amp sim plugin stuff; I do like Pod Farm, which I was running as a plugin, If you have a Pod or other Line 6 interface or modeling product, you may qualify for a discount on that.

 

The drum plugins are going to be in that same category. You may find a drum plugin included with your DAW software, but it's usually not going to be as fully featured (or include as many different drum sounds) as the full-featured version of the virtual instrument plugin. The one I've been playing with lately (working on a review) is FXpansion's BFD Eco. It's only $99, but at that price, it's a steal. The interface is intuitive and easy to use, it's not a resource hog, and it sounds really good.

 

Do you plan on doing any singing or tracking (recording) any acoustic guitar? If so, you'll need at least one mic, stand and cable too, not to mention at least a decent set of closed backed (sealed) headphones or earbuds to listen on while you're working - a decent speakers would be even better.

 

So why don't we start with this: What computer do you have? Do you already have any gear (mikes, cables, speakers, headphones, POD, computer sound card or audio interface, etc.), and what's your budget cap?