Help with DAW and Plug ins

[The Reverend 48]

I have been dipping my toes in the fathomless pit that is Daw.....
To date I have been recording direct from a FX pedal through the mic into Audacity and Magix music maker with some success having said that there seems to be some issues......
I have had some success using midi instruments and samples
I also have used adobe audition to master using istope ozone 3...
I have a line6 tone port too.....
I have just discovered guitar rig 5 pro and am blown away by some of the stereo tones
So I want to use guitar rig5 pro through a line 6 tone port to record (ideally wet) over
Mp3s in a DAW program......
I need help deciding on the best DAW programme to do this Cubase, Acidpro, Reaper etc....
And then will need help configuring hard ware I have scoured the web and now my head is spinning........
I'm desperate for help...

[Flash Harry]

Try Reaper. It's straight forward and doesn't cost a lot. You can use it for as long as you like before you pay for it. I have used it with a number of audio interfaces and midi interfaces and it picks up whatever your machine has drivers for it seems.

Simple to set up, simple to use but advanced and mature enough to do most of what the DAWs that cost many times it's modest price tag.

It also has a user forum and on-line manuals which means that the learning curve is a pleasant ride.

I like it.

Down load it, fire it up, create a new track, import the MP3 media. Return the cursor to zero, create a new track, plug in your outboard stuff, arm the track, select the input, hit record, play.

[thouston]

Try Reaper. It's straight forward and doesn't cost a lot.

I recommend Reaper as well. I have a couple of BOSS BR series stand-alone recorders, but wanted to 'learn' DAW recording. At first I had SONAR LE, but it crashed on my single-core AMD PC if I had more 3 tracks running with plug-ins, not so with Reaper. It takes a 10 tracks with plug-ins before my PC bogs down.

As far as hardware, my brother (he works for Roland), sent me a Cakewalk (than Edirol) UA-4FX external USB audio capture device http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=758. This unit features very low-latency, I use it for record guitar with plug-ins.

But, that unit is OOP, has been replaced with other Roland USB devices http://www.rolandus.com/products/productlist.php?ParentId=104, the  DUO-CAPTURE USB audio interface http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=1155&ParentId=104 ($79) works great too.

For soft synths I use a AVID (M-Audio) AXIOM 25 - 25-Key Semi-Weighted USB MIDI Controller http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Axiom25New.html. Both these units work great with Reaper.

[The Reverend 48]

Thanks for the help guys......

[Ferryman]

Samplitude for me. Cheap and pretty straightforward. I never got on with Cubase and "big" DAWs like that, but to be fair I only use it in a very limited way.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Geir]

Glad you got some help Mike. I've tried DAW a couple of times and before I got the mbr I was putting a lot of time into getting it to work, and didn't write more than 2 half-finished songs over a 3 year period. Then I got my MicroBR ... not looking back !!

[cuthbert]

I tried Reaper over the past weekend. Not sure it does everything that Cubase can, but I must say I was impressed!

[trev]

Ableton Live 8 Suite is a really brilliant programme that comes with a load of excellent instruments and plugins. I used to use Protools but Live is very stable and really user friendly. It's changed the way I work and I found the learning curve no problem. can't recommend it highly enough.

Trev

[phantasm777]

i've gotten as far as 34 different tracks on one song in audacity. how many tracks does reaper let you do per song? i tried it once, but being a virgin in mixing i just couldnt follow it. im thinking if it is better than audacity then i should try it again, but i dont like being track limited (not that i want 30+ tracks on every song!)

[SteveB]

A point to make also, is that Daws are prone to crashing when you least need it, e.g. freezing, or even BSOD.
If you're Daw-serious, you may well want to think of a dedicated computer for music-making. Doing your email, Excel, Word, Access etc + Daw play on the same machine, esp if you're thinking of Lots of tracks & plug-ins, isn't really long-term viable. Just a point.