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Thread Cheap Software

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1 Cheap Software
Hi, I'm looking to buy some cheap software for home recording/sequencing and would like your advice as to what I should get. Here is the current list of possibilities:

- Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro
- Cakewalk Music Creator 2003
- Cakewalk Home Studio 2004
- Making Waves Audio (Entry Level)

Or if you know of anything else in a similar price-range, feel free to suggest it. Any advice is appreciated. TIA.
2
Hi,
I personally think that Cakewalk products are great for the price. But it is also a matter of taste as other people would probably recommend other softwares.

If you are new to home recording you might want to experiment with a few different softwares before settling on one particular product. Cakewalk has a few trial versions of its products at the followin adress:
https://www.cakewalk.com/download/default.asp#windows


Good luck
3
Hello Father Lennard,

Before answering, I would like to ask you a question: what kind of user are you? Musician? Do you want to spend more time in recording or in mixing your tracks?

As you spoke about cakewalk guitar you are certainly a musician ;-) In this case, for me there is no doubt that Cakewalk has the more adapted products! The graphic interface is realy more dedicated for musicians because everything is simple, you only have the fonctions you need when you are playing, etc...
Cakewalk Guitar is realy limited, but it's perhaps a good introduction to start a Home Studio? I've never tryed Music Creator.

Personaly I would buy Cakewalk Home Studio. It's the same than Sonar, but you have just less plugins and less audio format accepted. And if ever you would like to upgrade your Home Studio to Sonar, it's possible, so you will not have to buy a complete new soft ;-)

Hope this will help you! And do not hesitate to ask other question here!!

Krowms.
4
Thanks guys, that's really useful. I agree that Cakewalk is probably the way to go, so I tried downloading the trial version of Guitar Tracks, but I couldn't get it to work for some reason :( .

In response to Krowms' question, I want the software for recording guitar/bass/vocals, then layering them and editting them a bit to form complete songs. Nothing too fancy though... I can't afford it. :cry:

Having viewed the spec of the 4 packages I noted earlier, I'm finding it quite difficult to compare them as I'm not familiar with all the technical jargon. I'd mainly like to know, for example, what do you get in Home Studio that you're not getting in Music Creator for half the price? Is home studio really worth the extra money? Also, what's the difference between Home Studio and Guitar Tracks, as they're a similar price?

www.cakewalk.com for software specs.

If you could clear this up for me I'd be very grateful. Any further advice is appreciated.

Cheers,

- Father - :D
5
Ok, in fact there is no real difference between the diferent Cakewalk product you talked about. This is the same basis, but with different plugins ;-)

The Guitar version is an evolution of the old Cakewalk with some Direct X plugins dedicated to guitar sound processing. You have a kind of modeling processor in the package (I find it not realy performant compared to Amplitube for ex), and a tuner for guitar. My opinion is that this is just a marketing package to sell the old version of Cakewalk ;-)

The studio version is an evolution of Sonar (the last Cakewalk product), but with some limitation compared to the real Sonar (number of track avalaible, and less plugins for Digital Sound Processing and mastering). You have all the feature you can find on a real mixer (bus, aux, etc...). It's more a Homestudio approach.

The next question for you is: do you need a guitar modeling processor on your PC, or do you already have a preamp or something to record your guitar?

You can probably find interesting information in the topic about "home to record a guitar": http://www.studioathome.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15

Hope this will help!
6
I currectly have my instruments going into a Behringer Eurorack (www.behringer.com/02_products/prodindex_ub.cfm?id=UB802&lang=eng), which is then connected to my Soundblaster Live 5.1 soundcard (www.soundblaster.com/products/sblive/compare.asp). This lets me hear what I'm playing through my computer speakers, so I assumed that all I now needed was some software to record/etc what I'm playing. Correct?

Assuming it is... do you think Music Creator 2003 (https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/MusicCreator/) would do the job? It's the cheapest of the three Cakewalk products I listed, so if it would be good enough for what I need it for, it would be preferable.

What do you think? :)
7
I must let you know I've never tried the Music Creator ;-) But I use Cakewalk and Steinberg products for more than 10 years now.
The Music Creator seems to be exactly the version of Cakewalk 9 or equivalent, so It can't be a bad software! The big differences between this version and the last Sonar are the mix and the virtual instruments, and not the recording. I think it would fit your expectations.

Let us know what you will choose!
8
So with Music Creator will I still be able to do layering/editing/mixing etc of the recordings? How many tracks will I be able to layer on top of each other?

If this is all okay then I'll go for the Music Creator.

Cheers. :D
9
I think so... there is no details on the cakewalk website, but the screenshots make me think that all you need is in this software. But keep in mind this is realy first price for a virtual studio ;-)
10
I've ordered it now, it'll take a few weeks to arrive. I'll get back to you when I've had the chance to try it out to tell you what I think of it. Thanks a lot for the help Krowms! :D