What Recording Software Do You Use and Why?

[Pabligula]

Software: Sonar PE 5 (Cakewalk user since Pro Audio 9)

What sort of work are you doing?
Audio and midi.

What do you love about the program you currently use?
Sonar just come natural to me. And I'm also a computer programmer so I love that I can program in CAL script for sonar. That is cool.
But mostly. I love that It is very natural. I've used Cubase and to me is just not that natura.

What do you hate about the program you currently use?
I really like it.... It can be bettar I know. But there is nothing I hate. This can be because of my other equipment. But I like Sonar.



Overall
Sonar has a 10/10.

[guitar junkie]

1. Which Recording software do you use?
Mackie Tracktion, Ableton Live 5.2 lite, Garage Band.

2. What sort of work are you doing?
I do for the most part solo acoustic work sometimes with other stuff thrown in behind guitar, vocals...

3. What do you love about the program you currently use?
What I love about Tracktion is that it can run some huge effects and keep going while also everything is sitting in one window.... This makes for a very clean interface, work goes through very fast. the cost is rather low for the quality of the application and the audio can be edited and re worked rather simply. it also uses very little CPU and is rock solid and dang near crash proof.



Live works great for building beats or making an idea happen in a hurry it also is very clean and easy to get around in the only thing i really don't care for with Live is that it costs a lot of money for the full version!

Garage Band came with my computer, it has some cool tools!

it is a very GUI based software and has a lot of visual things, works great for people who get confused with audio rather easy.... it has a lot of great effects and easy to understand presets, the synths are great!

4. What do you hate about the program?

my only gripe with Garage Band is that it only does 16 bit audio

[Superdude]

1)Which recording software do you use?
Cubase SX3,Sound Forge 7, Har-Bal 2.2

2)What sort of work are you doing?? ?Live rock bands?? Video game music?? Samples? Midi? etc

Trying to produce acoustic/electric ballads/Rock/Blues/Pop/Electronic Dance music.I would like to make a future living out of producing.

3) What do you love about the program you currently use?
--
The layout of everything + the customibility.


4) What do you hate about the program you currently use?

- Cant bounce down multiple audio tracks in one go!
- Steinberg's Support is terrible (non-existant)
- When it crashes and i forgot to save it doh

[Wassgob]

Software: Protools 7.2 (HD3Accel)
What sort of work are you doing?: anything i can get my hands on really! a bit of everything! punk metal rock folk singer song writter but not alot of midi

What do you love about the program you currently use: ALOT! i first of all love the fact that digidesign released icon! i am normally a analog to digital kind of guy so when i first started using protools with out a board i hated it! now they have the board i love it! it saves a whole of time! the plugins are alot cheaper then getting out board gear and i can go on for ever! yes there is a little bit less of quality but in my opinion nothing to noticible! and if it is it just means you need to be more creative!!!

What do you hate about the program you currently use: the price! it cost me too much money! but honestly it is starting to pay for itself

[grubby]

I'm just getting started with Adobe Audition...

I am really interested in voiceover work...I would have to say that my ultimate dream would be the guy reading the audio book (yeah, I know it sounds completely boring, but I'd love to do it!) I just don't know how to get started.

I like the software I have, although I'm not up to par on the mic issue. I know a good mic, I play in a band and have been around sound equip. for several years. BUT...I want to record at home, and I don't have much money for investment. I have access to an SM57 and 58...is there a way I can plug these directly into my computer to do the recording?? Will I need stereo speakers to playback?

Any help you can offer - Lay it on me!!

[fndrbndr]

1. Which Recording software do you use?
Ableton Live 5 & ProTools M-Powered 7.1

2. What sort of work are you doing?
Tracking my own stuff now and will be recording live bands soon.

3. What do you love about the program you currently use?
I use Ableton Live for Pre-Production, demos & songwriting...the way you can slice and dice a song, swap the parts around & try different loops on the fly is amazing. It's an incredible creative tool. I got a great deal on it from M-Audio (bundled & bought the full upgrade).

I use PT for all the serious tracking, editing & mixing. I like how it's basically the same as a tape interface...real intuitive. It's solid & the MIDI implementation is good. I just plugged in my ancient Roland synth via MIDI to use a soft synth and PT automatically lined up the channels...it was literally plug and play.

4. What do you hate about the program?
Both of these programs have a definite learning curve. Limited number of tracks in PT M-Powered kinda stinks (only 32). You can pay another $500 to bring it up to 48 tracks, but haven't done that yet. The cool plug-ins are expensive. Other than that, no other complaints so far.

[randall321]

1)Which recording software do you use?
I use Audacity.sourceforge.net because its easy, cheap and although they don't upgrade it very fast, it gets the job done, and it gets the job done well. I'm using the 1.3 BETA version right now.

2)What sort of work are you doing?
Recording of course.. what else??

3) What do you love about the program you currently use?
Its extremely simple, (unless your using the beta version 1.3)

4) What do you hate about the program you currently use?
Nothing, I wouldn't be using it if I hated something about it.

[codex]

1)Which recording software do you use?
Cool edit pro, Sound Forge 7, Adobe audition.

2)What sort of work are you doing?* *Live rock bands?* Video game music?* Samples? Midi? etc

I produce a alternative rock bands songs. Frm my Home studio. Also try to producing rap song.

3) What do you love about the program you currently use?
--
Effect of all these software. Easy interface and easy multitrack session.
Cool noise reduction

4) What do you hate about the program you currently use?

- Cant use professional effect...I mean master effect
- No tutorial about special effect

[Guitarjun]

Hello Bradon and All,

Here are my responses:

Originally Posted by brandondrury

1)Which recording software do you use?

I have Cakewalk Home Studio XL 2004.

Originally Posted by brandondrury

2)What sort of work are you doing?* *Live rock bands?* Video game music?* Samples? Midi? etc?

Mainly Audio/MIDI combination. This time, I am trying to bring in my music skills to better understand the music information retrieval stuff that is out there. I also compose but mainly to chase the muses away.

Originally Posted by brandondrury

3) What do you love about the program you currently use??

I like the control over the recording process and the fact that you can work with video content as well.

Originally Posted by brandondrury

4) What do you hate about the program you currently use??

Right now, it would be the sound. It is restricted to a 16-bit sound card, so the sound is choppy and has little feel for the dynamics I am trying to create on the keyboard (Roland EP-9 digital piano).

[TheJoshieB]

1. Which Recording software do you use?
Adobe Audition 1.5

2. What sort of work are you doing?
Mainly my own solo work which can be anything from folk to hip hop. I also used Audition to produce a demo for my band.

3. What do you love about the program you currently use?
It is probably that I am just so familiar with Audition (cool edit). So far this program has provided everything that I have ever needed. The effects (just like most programs) are fully editible and I enjoy the ability to use most of them in real time. Also the effects include many presets in most cases. If you are like me and AREN'T a studio engineer, they can give a decent guide to what to do with the effects.

I also liked the ability to use multiple inputs at once. The bass player and I had a small set up for a while using 2 8 channel ADATs as relays that connected to the PC via optical input. It really gave quite a bit of freedom when recording with this program.


4. What do you hate about the program?
Again with the effects. You really need to learn about what the effects do and what the individual properties of the effect you are using do as well. For someone like me who is basically a hobbyist, it can be quite time consuming. They can get quite technical and scary if you have no clue.

Overall: 8/10 I would and do recommend Audition (cool edit) to anyone just getting into the whole desktop studio thing. You might need to do a bit of research if you are totally new to recording, but the knowledge is worth it.