KVR Audio

deep'n'dark · Post by **deep'n'dark** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:15 pm

Hi, I'm a Reason user myself since 2002, but I'm looking something really easy to use and compact DAW for my friend. He would mainly record electric guitar (so if it has some guitar amp plugins, that would be a bonus), + he'll record vocals too. Of course it should have VST support. Is there some kind of a super easy to use/learn one for his need?

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:31 pm

If he is on a Mac, Garageband

deep'n'dark · Post by **deep'n'dark** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:34 pm

pdxindy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:31 pm If he is on a Mac, Garageband

He's on a PC, forgot to mention.

CapnLockheed · Post by **CapnLockheed** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:49 pm

Cubase LE and Presonus Studio One Prime are both great beginner DAWS with easy
learning curves.

shorty · Post by **shorty** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:54 pm

Mixcraft

Lectropunk aka influx808 · Sun Mar 19, 2023 3:47 pm

Ableton live intro I got the standard version lately but all I use with it is the spectrum device, ableton is really fast as I tried nearly every DAW but I feel home with ableton intro

Dogbert · Post by **Dogbert** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 4:29 pm

Cakewalk by Bandlab, the only fully featured free DAW.

eLawnMust · Post by **eLawnMust** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 5:17 pm

Well, Compact DAW, Record & What-Not-

-Bremmer's MultiTrack Studio
-Zynewave Podium

Maybe-

-N-Track Studio
-MuTools MuLab

Scrubbing Monkeys · Post by **Scrubbing Monkeys** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 6:47 pm

I second Mulab from Mutools.
Clean and simple on the surface.
Will grow as they grow.
Docs are a bit sparse but the community is good.
Amp sims are a bit weak but there are fantastic freebies. All other instruments and fx are included no vsti shopping required.

Best reason is that it will stay out of their way.

deep'n'dark · Post by **deep'n'dark** » Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:53 pm

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I checked lots of these from their websites, without demoing anything out. Mutools indeed seems like a good choice by it's look. Simple and logical. The Propellerheads Record would be good too, but AFAIK, it doesn't work anymore when trying to authorize it. Gotta tell my friend what you suggested and let him decide himself. Cheers!

Tj Shredder · Post by **Tj Shredder** » Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:13 am

Give him a Bitwig 8-track, then he can grow…
Its sufficient for his use case…

Any intro DAW would do btw… So we can safely watch all main DAWs being recommended here…

Dogbert wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 4:29 pm Cakewalk by Bandlab, the only fully featured free DAW.

Not true, you get also older versions of Tracktion/Waveform as fully equipped versions…
Also Ardour is complete, but I would not recommend it for a beginner, unless your friend is a fan of open source software…

jens · Post by **jens** » Wed Mar 22, 2023 4:31 pm

Especially for guitar Reason is already the easiest option there is, I would say - and not only because it already has got a tuner on each audio-track (whereas with each othet host you need to load a plugin first for every track that you need to open and close all the time, which is a serious pita in comparison).

Many of the suggestions here (such as Podium) are way less immediate.

bizzazz · Post by **bizzazz** » Wed Mar 22, 2023 9:09 pm

Waveform free is surprisingly robust. One of my friends has been using it as his main DAW without any noticeable limits.

jens · Post by **jens** » Thu Mar 23, 2023 2:44 pm

Tj Shredder wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:13 am Give him a Bitwig 8-track, then he can grow…
Its sufficient for his use case…

No, since it doesn't have comping/multitake-recording it's not sufficient in the slightest for
a guitar-player (i.e. someone who mainly records audio)...

dupont · Post by **dupont** » Thu Mar 23, 2023 6:18 pm

bitwig 8 tracks ?

A compact DAW for a noob (looking to find one for my friend).