Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Audacity - alternatives ? (PC)


daz
 Share

Recommended Posts

Audacity is fantastic at what it does, considering its totally FREE. It is however a tad flakey, and its .dlls or engine seems a little sensitive. It does not take much for the lot to fall over and stop responding or throwing up error messages, that nesesitate an actual reboot of ones computer. As just a fresh re start of Audacity itself will often just not do.

Does anyone have any alternatives to this ? I mean something also freeware or shareware, not some Pro tools for £500 or somethind, and which would take a year to learn anyhow?

I am not hopefull on this, but you never know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Give Reaper a go (http//www.reaper.fm). It's not shareware or freeware but the non-commercial licence fee is a generous $60 and the trial never expires (although it's worth paying the licence just to support their attitude towards fair pricing if nothing else).

If you're Mac based then Garageband is pretty good I found.

The caveat to the above is that if I've misunderstood what you use Audacity for then I've talked a load of rubbish! I'm kinda assuming you're using it as a DAW...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting comments about Audacity stability - I've always found it to be rock-solid, though I generally only use it for wav editing and recording from YouTube.

For music recording, I've been using the freeware Kristal Audio Engine (http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/). Probably not the best available but I've found it very easy to learn, possibly because it doesn't have every bell and whistle that the high-end DAWs offer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's plenty of commercial software to choose from (my personal fave is Reason), but you can't beat Reaper in terms of bang for your buck$.

£50 (or whatever it is nowadays) and you get a fully functional DAW that competes well with the best of 'em and punches way above its price tag.

Plus, the demo is free to use for 30 days (or longer if you want to keep 'evaluating' it...).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, do yourself a favour and at least give [url="http://www.reaper.fm/"]Reaper[/url] a try, I've done some seriously complex mixes on it and never had a problem, its rock solid, uses very little CPU given what it can do and includes everything you need in a DAW to record, mix and even master complex full fat tracks.

Oh and it runs on Mac and PC (32 & 64 bit)

Edited by 51m0n
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And if you're after some virtual instruments (which Reaper doesn't bloat itself with) then download the free Kontakt player from the Native Instruments site as it contains around 1GB of sounds. Also grab the free version of Sampletank from IK Multimedia. There's a free synth (Reaktor Spark I think it is) from the NI website too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1322399297' post='1450288']
And if you're after some virtual instruments (which Reaper doesn't bloat itself with) then download the free Kontakt player from the Native Instruments site as it contains around 1GB of sounds. Also grab the free version of Sampletank from IK Multimedia. There's a free synth (Reaktor Spark I think it is) from the NI website too.
[/quote]

EZdrummer download price at the moment $29.00 [Just under £19.00]
[url="http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EZdrummer/"]http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EZdrummer/[/url]


Garry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Reaper comes with a fair number of plugins (compressors, reverbs etc...), but it will automatically link to any plugin form any other DAW installed on your system - mine picked up ALL of my VSTs (Cubase format), AU (Garageband) and RTAS (Protools) and lets me use them all.

Shame I'm going back to hardware really.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Worth mentioning that Reaper will use mostly any free VST you point it at, A good place to start would be here.... [url="http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/downloads/"]http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/downloads/[/url]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm curious, for most people who have moved over to reaper what did you use before?

My first DAW was protools (loved it)
Then logic (bit of work then loved it)

Tried cubase (don't get on with it)
Then reaper (find it too clunky)

I'm wondering if most people who like reaper came from a cubase background?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got 20 years of Cubase under my belt, then moved to protools about 3 years ago. Reaper is a little bit clunky at the moment, probably because I'm a 'keyboard shortcuts' sort of guy, and I'm just not familiar with Reaper ones yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1330768217' post='1562639']
I'm wondering if most people who like reaper came from a cubase background?
[/quote]

I used GarageBand for about a year until an OSX update buggered up its ability to record then switched to Reaper. It's a bit clunky but there are some powerful features in there for not much cash. However, you can get Logic Pro from the app store for £140 now which is tempting but I'm not keen on tying myself to a Mac (it's work's Mac, not mine and my PC is far more powerful at the moment anyway). I loved the simplicity of GarageBand and the nice interface.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I started with Acid 4 and 5... Reaper was an easy transition from there as they were very similar at the time.

As for clunky. once you set the options to suit your work flow - it all makes sense. I know it sounds boring, but It really helps to spend some time with the manual and user guides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi I have mastered & recorded several CDs for commercial release using Adobe audition which I think is a great DAW and editor, very straightforward and similar in core concept to Audacity although much more sophisticated. I have used this alongside Ableton Live 4 (a very early version) for nearly 10 years with no issues. Audition used to be known as Cool Edit pro in a simpler form and was developed by Syntrllium before being bought out by Adobe who saw it as a way in to the DAW market. You can track down demos of Cool Edit online I believe. No idea of the retail cost now. I tried Audacity when I used a Mac for a while but found it too restrictive. Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone saying Reaper is clunky needs to give it a bit more time IMO.

Its lightening fast in the right hands, and seeing as it is about the most configurable DAW out there(there are even downloadable sets of ProTools key mappings and look and feel layouts apparently) pretty much how you need to work can be covered.

There are a few areas where its no all the way there I know (midi editing isnt it's strongest point for sure), but a little more time with it will reap huge rewards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1330799408' post='1563238']
Anyone saying Reaper is clunky needs to give it a bit more time IMO.

Its lightening fast in the right hands, and seeing as it is about the most configurable DAW out there(there are even downloadable sets of ProTools key mappings and look and feel layouts apparently) pretty much how you need to work can be covered.

There are a few areas where its no all the way there I know (midi editing isnt it's strongest point for sure), but a little more time with it will reap huge rewards.
[/quote]

Thanks for the pointer about PT key mappings, I'm off to get some now...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...