Semi-Easy to Use DAW?

[Me Tarzan]

I ended up going with Mixcraft Studio 8. It has been pretty easy to learn so far and comes with Melodyne (to help fix your crappy vocals) built in which I upgraded. Also got a simple Mackie Onyx 1-2 for interface and it works great, comes with Traktion recording software which worked good too. It is available in package form with Mic or Monitors or whatever you need. Don't forget to try Audacity, it's free and many people use it. Mixcraft really is simple once you get familiar with it though. Good luck.

I don't know if this is the best place to put this but I'm looking to record with my computer also. I make too many mistakes to be a live performer, but strictly using a guitar, maybe a bass guitar and drum tracks, I like the idea of putting songs together. I only have two full songs I've come up with so far and a lot of bits and pieces that have potential. So I just want to put songs together with decent quality, maybe simply throw them out on Youtube, something like that and hopefully see a few, "wow that was cool!" replies. I don't even have an interface, I was told Focusrite was pretty good, is it? Some packages come with a mic and I'd like to have one to add sounds to recordings that may not be from instruments and manipulate those sounds with software. And yeah I'd like some decent software to learn and work with. I'll look into some mentioned in this thread. I've had my LesPaul since the mid 1980s(1977 model) and it's only really been in recent years that I started playing it more, I just have more time now. I also bought my first acoustic guitar a year ago. So what do you think about the Focusrite interface, anybody?

 

[scoloheros]

I do play with Audacity, slow down an old Rush song when G. Lee starts singing haha. I used Audacity to make my first recording but I plugged my guitar directly in the back of the computer into the mic jack. It turned out out to be not so bad, some distortion in low notes but people could get the idea of what I was trying to do though. Oh no, no voice recordings from me, I can sing though, it just sounds real bad! I'm stuck with and happy to go for instrumental recordings. OK thanks I'll check that out.

I ended up going with Mixcraft Studio 8. It has been pretty easy to learn so far and comes with Melodyne (to help fix your crappy vocals) built in which I upgraded. Also got a simple Mackie Onyx 1-2 for interface and it works great, comes with Traktion recording software which worked good too. It is available in package form with Mic or Monitors or whatever you need. Don't forget to try Audacity, it's free and many people use it. Mixcraft really is simple once you get familiar with it though. Good luck.

 

[valvenator]

I do play with Audacity, slow down an old Rush song when G. Lee starts singing haha. I used Audacity to make my first recording but I plugged my guitar directly in the back of the computer into the mic jack. It turned out out to be not so bad, some distortion in low notes but people could get the idea of what I was trying to do though. Oh no, no voice recordings from me, I can sing though, it just sounds real bad! I'm stuck with and happy to go for instrumental recordings. OK thanks I'll check that out.

Did you use any kind of pre-amp? You might want to consider getting something like a Korg Pandora headphone amp and just using the line in on the sound card, if all you want is basic guitar tracks.
The newest version is made for both guitar and bass. You could even plug a microphone into it if you get bold enough to sing a tune, or do as I do, find someone to sing it for you

 

[PureQuill]

I don't know if this is the best place to put this but I'm looking to record with my computer also. I make too many mistakes to be a live performer, but strictly using a guitar, maybe a bass guitar and drum tracks, I like the idea of putting songs together. I only have two full songs I've come up with so far and a lot of bits and pieces that have potential. So I just want to put songs together with decent quality, maybe simply throw them out on Youtube, something like that and hopefully see a few, "wow that was cool!" replies. I don't even have an interface, I was told Focusrite was pretty good, is it? Some packages come with a mic and I'd like to have one to add sounds to recordings that may not be from instruments and manipulate those sounds with software. And yeah I'd like some decent software to learn and work with. I'll look into some mentioned in this thread. I've had my LesPaul since the mid 1980s(1977 model) and it's only really been in recent years that I started playing it more, I just have more time now. I also bought my first acoustic guitar a year ago. So what do you think about the Focusrite interface, anybody?

Focusrite interfaces are a good value for the dollar and sound fine for what they are designed to do.
Have fun
PQ

 

[scoloheros]

Focusrite, Korg Pandora, I looked at Youtube vids, my head's about to explode trying to decide. No vocals, it's just a "no" there. What I have in my head is something similar to a Pink Floyd "dark" tune, at times it feels too close to it. I'll figure out something sooner or later.