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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Recording Corner »

Permalink Hi, I need some advice around which DAW to try for home recording

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Hi - I am curious as to what DAW's people are using for home recording. I am a Windows user, and will be getting a new laptop in the next month or so. I've begun investigating DAW, and am curious as to what other people use. Up until now, I have used a TASCAM studio in a box, but would like to get into DAW so that I can have virtual drums, etc. So far, I have looked at Reaper, Prosonus. Any thoughts? Thanks

I use Reaper. Practically free and apparently just as good as any other DAW. It's nice that it's open source. That way you know you're never going to be left without support.

Virtual drums are probably the most important aspect of a home recorder's arsenal. This is the only plugin I've spent money on. I went for Native Instruments 50's Drummer and the sonic value it has added to my music far exceeds the $50 I spent on it (sale price.)

Last edited: Oct 25, 2021 15:40:12

I use Mixcraft 9 by Acoustica. They call it the "GarageBand" for PC's. As for drummers, I have a professional record a drum track for me. I use a site called "AirGigs," and pay $75 per song. The same drummer has done 3 songs for me. Good luck!

MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale. EP Louder Than Life coming out soon!

I use Cubase and have done so for many years. The truth is, though, that all of the major DAWs are extremely capable and all have their own ways of doing things. As stated above, Reaper is very cheap and Cakewalk by Bandlab is completely free. Most if not all, provide demo versions, so I recommend that you try a few and see which has a workflow which you’re comfortable with and also weigh up which best fits your budget.

Los Fantasticos

REAPER. It's cheap, highly customizable, very capable, fast and has small footprint.

Thanks everybody

Hopefully I will be posting some original music on one of the forums in 2022

Just pondering Harrison Mixbus. Lots of folks say it's better for mixing than recording. So I'm planning on dragging files from my Zoom R16 onto the Mac for further treatment. Works ok so far but still experimenting

I think just about anything will work. it depends what you need; if you are recording instruments that you are playing, they'll all do that (audacity is free!) I think when you get into virtual instruments, midi etc it starts to matter more. and of course if you're on Mac or PC.

Matt Heaton & the Electric Heaters
Boston's Premier Surf/Noir Combo
http://www.heatonsurf.com

I use Audacity. Free for all OSs. I found it the easiest to learn of the many DAWs I tried.

If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.

I use Reaper for recording and I am pretty satisfied with that one.(Haven't tried that many other DAW's,though.)
I also use EzDrummer for drums and they sound quite good in my ears, if you wanted some tips on virtual drums as well.
You can check out my music here if you are interested. All the songs are recorded and mixed in Reaper with EzDrummer as the drum sounds.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1ZFxrxFfQaIwWziSDaOWlh?si=QrpfxfKcRseEyNnV3MS_sA
(Not trying to hijack the thread with self promotion. If you are not interested you don't have to press the link ;) )

Beach Bomb - Black Surf from the cold waters of Norway!
https://beachbombband.bandcamp.com

ldk wrote:

I use Audacity. Free for all OSs. I found it the easiest to learn of the many DAWs I tried.

I also happily used Audacity for quite a while, and have written about my experiences with it in recording surf music here on SG101. But I'm trying to make the transition to Reaper now, mainly because Audacity does not support the (proprietary) Asio4all driver, which is used by a lot of audio interfaces (including the one I bought). (You can incorporate support through a workaround, but it seems to be rather complicated.)
Another reason for changing to Reaper is the possiblity for non-destructive audio editing: With Audacity any effect applied to a track is basically fixed once you save the file. In Reaper you always have the option to change everything later on.

That being said, I did record substantially more in the time, when I was using Audacity, because I got the hang of it very fast, since it is so straight forward. Now I'm constantly postponing things "till I have a better understanding". None

Los Apollos - cinematic surf music trio (Berlin)
"Postcards from the Scrapyard" Vol. 1, 2 & 3 NOW available on various platforms!
"Chaos at the Lobster Lounge" available as LP and download on Surf Cookie Records!

I use Reaper. It's cheap and really
easy to use with great results. There are plenty of videos on Youtube to help when you're stuck too.

I also recommend reaper; it will do everything you need it to do.

The Surf Hermits on Bandcamp

2nd album Showdown out now on Sharawaji Records!

Another Reaper fan here!

Thanks everyone. I have been looking at some Reaper tutorials on youtube. Should be getting our new computer in December, so I will likely download a trial copy and give it a go.

A sensible decision; it’s very good value and well liked. Whichever DAW you choose will involve a learning curve and, unless you have prior experience of another DAW, Reaper is as good a choice as any other.

Los Fantasticos

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