Recording Software for OSX

[DIDriveOut2SPAC]

I have MOTU digital performer, however, I am not really satisfired with it. Does anyone know of any software ( not Garage Band) that they like to use?

[jamjumpin]

Pro Tools is the industry standard, you can probably get it from less reputable sources for free.
Other than that there's Audacity, which is shit.
There's something called Able live, I think it was multitrack, not sure, it didn't work for me though.

[DaveHead36]

Give Nuendo a shot. It's created by a bunch of studio engineers (industry top cats). It's like ProTools but far less complicated.

[jamjumpin]

Bloody hell 2 and half grand for Nuendo!!!!!

[DaveHead36]

^^ nah you can get it for $2,000 at sweetwater.com plus free shipping. It's quite the package though. Well worth the price.

[onesweetwh1rld]

Pro Tools is the industry standard, you can probably get it from less reputable sources for free.
Other than that there's Audacity, which is shit.
There's something called Able live, I think it was multitrack, not sure, it didn't work for me though.

Pro Tools would be pretty much impossible to get for free because it requires proprietary hardware. You have to buy compatible hardware and the compatible hardware comes with a version of Pro Tools anyways.

Ableton Live is a great program that I use a lot but I wouldn't recommend it for simple multi track recording and mixing. It's a great program for playing live and handling MIDI and live mixing.

Logic Pro is probably a better alternative than Nuendo as you can get it for $500 or less with a student discount but a lot of people find it very confusing.

Audacity is free and pretty good but I had some trouble figuring out how to set it up for multi track recording with my firepod.

Anyways what is wrong with Garageband? Chances are that if you're asking what software to use Garageband is going to be able to do everything you need anyways.

[jamjumpin]

Anyways what is wrong with Garageband? Chances are that if you're asking what software to use Garageband is going to be able to do everything you need anyways.

That is true, GBand gets a lot of bashing but it's actually a great bit of software for what it is

[DaveHead36]

I love GarageBand... especially with the JamPacks added, it's terrific. The only thing I don't like about GB is that it doesn't give you as many options. It all really depends on what your needs are.

If you're just writing song ideas to give to band members to learn or just writing material and getting your songs heard via myspace (which is where I'm at). Then GB will work great.

But if you're recording an album at home that you'd be selling, you should probably get something else.

Also, the one problem I have with GB is that you can't import tracks as .wav files. Say you're laying down some stuff and the acoustic part you played was perfect and that's exactly what you want on your album... you can't just import the track and insert it in. Well, you can technically, but it's no longer a loss-less file.

Just my rant. But I do love GB and I think you can't go wrong with it!

[jamjumpin]

Yeah that winds me up, you can't export as lossless audio, very annoying, i'm sure you used to be able to

I love GarageBand... especially with the JamPacks added, it's terrific. The only thing I don't like about GB is that it doesn't give you as many options. It all really depends on what your needs are.Also, the one problem I have with GB is that you can't import tracks as .wav files. Say you're laying down some stuff and the acoustic part you played was perfect and that's exactly what you want on your album... you can't just import the track and insert it in. Well, you can technically, but it's no longer a loss-less file.

Just my rant. But I do love GB and I think you can't go wrong with it!

[onesweetwh1rld]

DaveHead, GB converts all files to .aiff I believe, which is also lossless, but I guess something must get changed in any conversion so its not ideal.

As for exporting audio that is definitely true, and previous versions of GB did include the ability to export as aiff I believe. I just checked my latest version of GB and the best I can get is 192kbps! Thats kind of stupid I think, but they had to make sure they kept a gap between GB and Logic I guess for sales probably.

But like I said, if you don't even know what the options are for recording software out there then chances are you don't even really need to be exporting the highest quality audio, you're probably not using the best hardware anyways. Not to mention that if you're going to put your stuff in just about any online store right now it's going to get converted to mp3 or something anyways, and then people are gonna buy it and listen to it on a crappy system probably (everyone loves those iPod docks, huh?)

So anyways, I would say use GB unless you have pro tools hardware, or need to use a lot of MIDI plug ins, or if you're recording on an advance from a record company, in which case a competent producer should be making these decisions.

[kathryn13]

Give Nuendo a shot. It's created by a bunch of studio engineers (industry top cats). It's like ProTools but far less complicated.

Our audio engineers use Nuendo!(I work at a production facility) They love it. They used to use ProTools, but it's become too expensive!
-Good luck!

[DaveHead36]

Yeah Nuendo is great. Just found out that Nuendo 3 is geared towards post production though. So it's either get Nuendo 2 or the latest Cubase. I hear they're picking up where Nuendo left off. Though the drop in price makes me believe that you can't do as much in cubase as you could with nuendo.

[DaveHead36]

DaveHead, GB converts all files to .aiff I believe, which is also lossless, but I guess something must get changed in any conversion so its not ideal.


Yeah, what I had originally meant was that most recording programs will record your audio track as a .wav file. So say you're recording a song with a band... you run through it and you nail the PERFECT solo. You know you'll never get it cooler or better. The rest of the band says "well, we flubbed some parts, and it could be tighter..." Well now you've just lost your solo. But since most programs record individual tracks as .wav files, all you have to do is export that track with the solo, record the best take with the full band, then import the solo in. Now you've kept your dream solo.

But GB won't allow you to do that. The only way I've figured it out is if you mute all the tracks but the track you want to export, then export it to itunes. It's kind of a pain in the ass.

But like I said, the little pain's in the asses don't diminish the fact that GB is a GREAT program. Not to mention it's free with a mac!

[Sender]

Get ProTools. Period.