cheap recording software for windows 8.1 laptop

[heehee62]

What inexpensive recording software should I get? I want something:

 

1. Very easy to use

2. Can record multi-tracks at the same time

3. Cheap

 

I've got plenty of effects and sounds on my audio interface and instruments so I don't need those. I'm new to recording and this is just for fun so need something really simple.

 

Thanks.

 

[Seannn]

Audacity?

[yonatan]

Check out tracktion. It's as simple as it gets. Tracktion 4 comes free with lot of Behringer or Mackie stuffs.

Or check out Studio One Free.

Those two are great, you won't spend any time figuring out how everything works. Studio One Pro is my go-to DAW btw. It actually keeps me concentrating on making music rather than reading the manuals. I had Cubase and Sonar before.

 

Lot of people also recommend Reaper, cause it's cheap and very versatile. I never liked it though.

[MorayM]

Lot of people also recommend Reaper, cause it's cheap and very versatile. I never liked it though.

 

Its versatility is its downfall. I've been using it for a year or so and am still having to look things up. If you're prepared to spend a bit of time getting it set up "your way", it's incredibly capable.

[heehee62]

Thanks guys. I think I'll give Studio One Free a try first cause looking through it's features, I think it already has everything I need.

 

 

[stillplaying]

I moved to Tracktion recently and can recommend it. I'm audio capture only these days - no midi.

 

What's your audio interface?

 

You mention being a beginner. I'm interested to hear how you get on with Studio One Free. Please post again when you've had a playaround with it.

 

I get asked to recommend stuff and I'm unsure how easy some of the software actually is - if you're a proper beginner.

[heehee62]

I use an Alexis Multimix USB 2.0 mixer as my audio interface.

 

And nuts. I seem to be getting even more "pop" sounds when playing karaoke from my new laptop through the mixer than I ever did before with my old laptop. Think it may be a latency thing.

 

Sucks. Think this means I need a new mixer/audio interface now which will probably come with free software.

 

Too bad the presonus audioboxes don't let me mix effects into my live sound without a laptop being connected or I'd get one.

 

I'll post back about my software experience after I try one out for a while. I'm leaning towards the motu hybrid interface (though it is expensive) right now in which case, I'd probably still use the studioone free since motu doesn't provide DAW software for PCs.

 

My alesis mixer did come with some light version of Cubase (it was an old version). Hated Cubase - too complicated and gave up almost immediately which is why I'm still a beginner.

 

Thanks guys.

[brenner13]

I've used n-Track for about 6 years...it used to be kind of buggy in the early versions, but has been rock solid since the last few updates. Studio One is perfect to get started with, though.

[bluzeyone]

http://www.goldwave.com/ has been out for a long time. I still use is for various projects as it has some powerful filters in it.

[JeffLearman]

My understanding is that Goldwave is a wave editor (like Audacity), not a DAW. I'd be surprised to see a good wave editor morph into a really good DAW.

 

Frankly, you usually won't want to use the FX on your audio interface and instruments. Well, sometimes the FX is part of the sound, you know you want it, and that's fine.

 

But in general, the time to tweak FX is when listening to the whole mix, not when you record the track. For example, it's easy to wind up with too much reverb, by applying reverb to each track as it's recorded. Also, you can use reverb to create a soundstage; to build a room. To do that well, you want to use the same reverb for all tracks, but configured differently for each track. For example, the same basic reverb, but more for stuff in back, less for stuff in front, and with faster early reflections on the left channel for the stuff on the left, and ditto for the right. (Imitating the reflections off the wall that instrument is closer to.)

 

Now, you can always use FX in your outboard gear after recording. But, to do that, you have to wire the stuff up, and you have to run in real-time. That is, you have to play the track into the device and listen to (and/or record) the result coming back, in real time. If you decide to make a change, you have to start at the beginning and do it all over again. If you're doing this with different FX on different tracks, and assuming your gear can only do one thing at a time, it gets super time-consuming.

 

Mixing is incredibly time consuming, even when you have modern gear, with does everything in nearly an instant.

 

If you use effects built into the DAW, or "plugin" FX (and there are some great cheap and free plugins), the real-time issue is gone, and the "one at a time" issue is gone. If you're listening along and make an adjustment to some FX, you can rewind to hear how it sounds earlier in the song if you like, but you don't HAVE to.

 

When you're happy with the mix, even if you never listened to the song all the way through, at any time you can do an "offline mixdown" which produces a stereo mix WAV file (or MP3 if you prefer) in a fraction of the time it takes to hear the whole song. Then you can load that on a thumb drive or burn it onto a CD and go listen to it in your car, your stereo, your iPod, etc. (This is called "comparison monitoring" and you'll find you'll be doing quite a lot of it.)

 

But even more important! With plugins, the DAW keeps all the FX controls remembered, and you can look at them and fiddle with them to your heart's content. If you're using external gear, you have two options (1) set it up manually, so if you want "just a tad more reverb" you have to remember which reverb you used and how much, or (2) you can get much more complicated and configure your DAW to know the MIDI for the external devices, and have the DAW do the recordkeeping but use MIDI to control the external devices. I tend to avoid that. I'm only a software engineer, and the complex stuff gets complex, and I'd rather think about music than MIDI CCs all day.

 

My arguments may not seem compelling. You may think you always have time to listen to the song all the way through when mixing it down or after making a change to the FX parameters. Trust me. After doing one song both ways, you'll understand.

 

You'll still have your external FX, and they'll be great for stuff you're sure you want baked in, and for stuff where you can't get the desired effect with a plugin (or built-in ... but even the built-ins are implemented as plugins).

[WesG]

I used Adobe Audacity a few years ago and liked it a lot. Assuming nothing has changed, you can get a 90-day demo for free. You can do a lot of recording in 90 days!

 

Wes

[Tom Williams]

Another vote for plain old (not Adobe) Audacity. I've used it for years. It's clean, good, and free. Its editing capabilities are reasonably powerful.

[DulceLabs.com]

I used Adobe Audacity a few years ago and liked it a lot. Assuming nothing has changed, you can get a 90-day demo for free. You can do a lot of recording in 90 days!

 

Wes

 

I think you mean Adobe Audition. And yes it is a good DAW... I used it for a while. I now use Reaper - just a better fit for me.

 

 

[Jazzmammal]

I'm new to recording and this is just for fun so need something really simple.

 

Simple? You're working with a computer. What noob's don't realize is PC makers could care less about us. Everything is from small third party companies who had a heckuva time getting their software to work with the PC platform. No such thing as simple when it comes to digital audio recording and the reason is the terminology and figuring out how to configure your system. So many things to learn.

 

You're already getting opinions about several different free or cheap DAW's. The reason they're free is they're very limited. Studio One Artist comes free with certain hardware, there are several others you can buy for around $50 or so. Cubase comes free with some Yamaha keyboards, lots of deals like that. Sonar LE is bundled with certain stuff. At this point imo it's a waste of time to ask for opinions because there is no "easy" one, they're all a complete pia for a noob until you learn the basics. And there is no "best" one. There is only the one that you happened to get familiar with.

 

Every suggestion here is good enough for you to start. How to choose? I have no idea, maybe pick the one that you think looks good? Trust me as soon as you try to dig into the specs not knowing anything about DAW's you'll be so confused you'll just give it up. I'm speaking from experience here. I finally got familiar with Power Tracks Pro Audio and I'm learning Studio One. This is one of those things that you don't know anything until you know everything.

 

Bob

 

[Doerfler]

Another vote for plain old (not Adobe) Audacity. I've used it for years. It's clean, good, and free. Its editing capabilities are reasonably powerful.

+1 here. I use it every day at work, hours a day. Price is right and if used properly is very stable.

[Markay]

Another +1 for Audacity. Start here. By the time you reach the limits of Audacity you will be better placed to evaluate the various DAW's. As Bob says there is a steep learning curve with all the DAW's.

[RABid]

Cakewalk's Music Creator Touch. Works well with Win 8. Does not have to have a touch screen, but if your Win 8 computer does, it will make good use of it.

[JeffLearman]

Audacity must have been completely revamped since I used it last, because when I did, it was just a multi-track wave editor, totally unsuitable for use as a DAW. Like I said, once you applied a process to a track, it changed the track's wave data. Also, IIRC, no master channel, and no MIDI.

 

The best "starter" DAW is GarageBand, but it's only for Mac. It has an excellent balance between ease of use and features, and has a nice kit of built-in software instruments.

[WesG]

Yes, I meant Adobe Audition. Not Audacity.

 

Jeff, Audacity hasn't changed much since you last used it. I don't mind using it to re-EQ a track recorded with a cellphone or something, but I would never think of recording an album with it. I HAVE recorded an album with Audition (version 3 I think), it was completely up to the task.