My son would like to setup a small in house studio. I'm looking for software that is functional, but easy to learn and use. So far, we are considering:
Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio XL
Sony ACID Pro 6
Cubase SL 3
Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
Best software for someone just getting into recording
-
- KVRAF
- 12977 posts since 29 Sep, 2003 from Ottawa, Canada
+1 Tracktion.
-
- KVRAF
- 3158 posts since 2 Jul, 2005 from Stuck in the closet
I started with Sonar Home Studio myself and it's a really good place to start. FLStudio is also pretty friendly. I'd skip ACID. I can't say anything about the others.
Mizutaphile.
-
- KVRist
- 237 posts since 12 Jan, 2005 from Sydney - Australia
I would recomend Tracktion too as it is easy to get started.
ALTHOUGH.... I would highly recomend that you download the demo and try that first as it is a different way of working to most other apps and seems to either make sense to people or be completely unworkable for others.
Download as meny demos as you can to see which your son finds easiest to work with/understand
Rich
ALTHOUGH.... I would highly recomend that you download the demo and try that first as it is a different way of working to most other apps and seems to either make sense to people or be completely unworkable for others.
Download as meny demos as you can to see which your son finds easiest to work with/understand
Rich
-
- KVRian
- 835 posts since 23 May, 2006
Well, REAPER of course. Try the beta (current version .992) now for free, and very soon you'll be able to buy a license for v.1.0 (plus REAPER's famous amount of updates) for 40 bucks. REAPER is the same software that in this forum was labeled as 'unbelievable' 
Very easy to learn and use. No need to read 300 pages of a manual. Superb audio recording and editing and everything else.
http://www.reaper.fm/
Very easy to learn and use. No need to read 300 pages of a manual. Superb audio recording and editing and everything else.
http://www.reaper.fm/
-
- KVRAF
- 1894 posts since 19 Apr, 2006 from Montreal, Canada
Reaper is free for now, can't really beat that. Certainly functional and flexible and improving everyday.
There will always be time later on to spend money once he knows exactly what/if he's missing anything.
[edit]I see Alex is faster on the switch than I am, mmmm...gonna have to watch this guy...
There will always be time later on to spend money once he knows exactly what/if he's missing anything.
[edit]I see Alex is faster on the switch than I am, mmmm...gonna have to watch this guy...
Last edited by bullshark on Fri Jul 21, 2006 2:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
No, that wasn't me.
-
- KVRist
- 349 posts since 18 Jan, 2003
If he's mostly recording audio, I would find it pretty hard to beat REAPER
For mor MIDI stuff, traktion or FL
For mor MIDI stuff, traktion or FL
REAPER Chat: http://www.mixxnet.net/java/?channel=reaper
-
- Tunesmith
- 2889 posts since 12 Mar, 2002 from Toronto
Welcome to the forum. What kind of music does your son want to make? Does he play keyboard or intend on using a keyboard for midi sequencing? What a good time to get into making music, so many great options out there.k3nb wrote:My son would like to setup a small in house studio. I'm looking for software that is functional, but easy to learn and use. So far, we are considering:
Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio XL
Sony ACID Pro 6
Cubase SL 3
Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
-
- KVRAF
- 3387 posts since 21 May, 2004 from Deep in the Heartlessness of Texas
+2 for Reaper.
Try it and get reality-based experience regarding what works for him and what doesn't, without spending money yet, instead of having to rely on advertising hype and the opinions of others. Once you have a better idea of what sort of functionality he actually needs, then he and you will have more experience for making decisions about what else you might need to acquire.
And Reaper, the way it's going, might end up being all he'll ever need. It's already more usable and easier to learn than a lot of the other stuff out there, and it's getting better literally every day.
Additionally, even if he ends up moving away from Reaper, a surprising amount of his learning about it will be applicable in most sequencers/hosts.
Also, if he's still in school, he can get a lot of software, and even some hardware, for less, sometimes a LOT less, at places like www.academicsuperstore.com -- assuming you're in the US, of course. Different countries have different rules about academic software elegibility.
Good luck!
Take care,
GreyLion
Try it and get reality-based experience regarding what works for him and what doesn't, without spending money yet, instead of having to rely on advertising hype and the opinions of others. Once you have a better idea of what sort of functionality he actually needs, then he and you will have more experience for making decisions about what else you might need to acquire.
And Reaper, the way it's going, might end up being all he'll ever need. It's already more usable and easier to learn than a lot of the other stuff out there, and it's getting better literally every day.
Additionally, even if he ends up moving away from Reaper, a surprising amount of his learning about it will be applicable in most sequencers/hosts.
Also, if he's still in school, he can get a lot of software, and even some hardware, for less, sometimes a LOT less, at places like www.academicsuperstore.com -- assuming you're in the US, of course. Different countries have different rules about academic software elegibility.
Good luck!
Take care,
GreyLion
-
- KVRAF
- 2427 posts since 16 Jun, 2005 from Somewhere, NV
For any hardware you might own, take some time and go to the appropriate support forum to check compatability with popular software. For example, check to see how well your midi controller might play together with say FL by following other peoples experience or problems they may have had. For Reaper...go to their forum and check out how helpful they can be...amazing app and support...just wish it wouldn't crash with my UF5, I'd still be the ardent fanboy. Oh well, it is still beta...k3nb wrote:Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.