Junkyard Rocket Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 I record all all the bands rehearsals & the few live performances we've done using my trusty Zoom H1 recorder. I've been editing the recordings down to individual tracks using Adobe Soundbooth CS4 (OSX 10.6) and use the fx that come with soundbooth to master them. The fx are a bit non-intuitive to use and soundbooth crashes even more than most other adobe software. Since adobe are no longer selling updated versions of soundbooth, I'm looking at trying something more stable and better for mastering. Any suggestions? I've had an email from steinberg about the new version of wavelab, but the pricetag puts me off. Are there any less expensive or freeebie apps worth considering? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 I master our gig recordings using iZotope's Ozone mastering suite. This makes a huge difference to the output and its almost like it doesn't matter what container program you are using, as this does it all. Although i use Adobe Audition i dont use any of the EQ or built in FX.. Its not that cheap though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ras52 Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 Audacity (free) is good for editing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 Goldwave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 (edited) [url="http://www.reaper.fm/"]Reaper[/url]. Free to try forever (no lockouts or funny noises, etc), peanuts to buy. Tons of useful freeware (including mastering tools) bundled with it and it's a tiny download. You'll need [url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/lame/files/lame/3.99/"]Lame[/url] to output to mp3 - google or youtube 'reaper lame mp3' for how to install. If Reaper looks a bit daunting, just delete the number of mixer channels down to what you need, presumably two (or one stereo). Edited July 11, 2013 by skankdelvar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superclive Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 I use mixcraft 6 which is cheap as chips and very intuitive. Free to use forever but you can't save to audio until you register it. I think its about £50 all in and comes with a raft of effects plug ins, sound samples and vsts. Give it a try it is amazing for a cheap multi track daw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 Some of these are PC only aren't they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 (edited) Reaper is the best bang for the buck out there ($60 or about £35 for a personal/small business licence). And its Mac as well as PC. And its excellent. And its free to try. Edited July 11, 2013 by 51m0n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkyard Rocket Posted July 11, 2013 Author Share Posted July 11, 2013 cheers fellas. I'll give reaper a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borisbrain Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Always budget-dependent, I guess. But if you have a Firewire mixer, then you can't go wrong with Logic Pro... BB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder652003 Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Tracktion 4 is excellent and very intuitive, everything fits on the one page. [url="http://www.tracktion.com/"]http://www.tracktion.com/[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 [quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1373632551' post='2139896'] Tracktion 4 is excellent and very intuitive, [b]everything fits on the one page[/b]. [url="http://www.tracktion.com/"]http://www.tracktion.com/[/url] [/quote] How? I dont believe that is possible, I've mixed songs with 120+ tracks in, how could it possibly 'fit on one page' - its either too small to do anything with or you magnify it up and then must scroll about to see more, in which case it doesnt 'fit on one page'. What they seem to mean is, "we use a single window for everything, and move stuff out the way to make it work", which sounds great but actually is far less flexible a UI IME. For example I really like the mix window in Reaper (insert DAW of choice actually) for getting the leveling broadly right, and quick access to effects. But you cant beat the track layout window for mouse driven automation and editing and so on. And a MIDI piano roll editor doesnt need to be visible unless I'm doing that task, so why even waste the real estate required for a button to show it (assuming its hidden, in which case everything doesnt fit on one window at all), this is exactly the right time to use a dialog after all. I also cant find anything about the routing abilities of Tracktion, but I would be more than a little surprised if they were even half as flexible as Reaper's, which truly are the most powerful I've found in any software to date (although some of the most esoteric routing can take time to set up, alot is automatic, or at least very intuitive, and the power is immense). Not wanting to seem like I'm down on your suggestion, but I work on UI's and this kind of marketing promise drives me up the wall, it can't truly be accurate, and so is a bit mis-leading in reality I think. And also it suggests there is something wrong with multiple windows for different jobs, and that is a huge mistake, I run multiple monitors and can easily have a mix window on one monitor and the track layout on the other, which is a fantastic way to work, which cannot be copied in Traktion at all apparently! And why Linux? I've tried, really I have, on several occasions to get a Linux box to be a productive audio workstation, and every time the effort required to get it working, and keep it working is more than the effort to create and record new music. Linux is good at some stuff (being a server), reasonably OK at others (being a Desktop) and awful at others, and audio is where, for me, its still (and always will be) in the dark ages. I wouldnt suggest anyone waste their time with a Linux version of anything. Not that you were I understand, but the big ole Tux on their homepage was just red rag to a bull Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder652003 Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 (edited) wow, whatever floats your boat, just saying i prefer it to other DAWs ive used, thats all. I believe the OP would probably want something fairly simple to use for fairly basic stuff. Edited July 12, 2013 by skidder652003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 I haven't seen a DAW yet that hasn't had a learning curve like the north face of the Eiger and a user interface that's more complicated than a Boeing 747 - and I've been using computers since I was 8. I've gone "erm, what?" at every single one I've looked at, mostly because it's looked defiantly right back at me with giant, mesmerising yet frightening compound eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Gents. We're looking at a stereo recording from a hand held recorder. Goldwave is free, has all the basics and will split your large recording into smaller individual songs. Maximize volume, do batch conversion to mp3, add reverb if you want. Allow you to add fades. You can zoom right in to individual samples. Very good bit of software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 [quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1373639458' post='2140052'] I haven't seen a DAW yet that hasn't had a learning curve like the north face of the Eiger and a user interface that's more complicated than a Boeing 747 - and I've been using computers since I was 8. I've gone "erm, what?" at every single one I've looked at, mostly because it's looked defiantly right back at me with giant, mesmerising yet frightening compound eyes. [/quote] Yup, they are impressively complex things, because they are doing a ridiculously complex task, and need to give the user access to literaly thousands of parameters during their general use in a supposedly easy way. However if you've used one you have a general idea about how most of them work. Really getting expert at one takes a long time, and you are always learning more. I've only seen a couple of absolute experts on DAWs though, and they fly, they can do operations on a project faster than I can keep up with them at all. A lot of this is down to absolute inside out knowledge of keystrokes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 [quote name='TimR' timestamp='1373639838' post='2140067'] Gents. We're looking at a stereo recording from a hand held recorder. Goldwave is free, has all the basics and will split your large recording into smaller individual songs. Maximize volume, do batch conversion to mp3, add reverb if you want. Allow you to add fades. You can zoom right in to individual samples. Very good bit of software. [/quote] But not available for Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 [quote name='TimR' timestamp='1373639838' post='2140067'] Gents. We're looking at a stereo recording from a hand held recorder. Goldwave is free, has all the basics and will split your large recording into smaller individual songs. Maximize volume, do batch conversion to mp3, add reverb if you want. Allow you to add fades. You can zoom right in to individual samples. Very good bit of software. [/quote] Mastering is mastering, 2 tracks is the norm, the need for very powerful software is all the greater when you are trying to get the most from less tracks IME. Zooming in to individual samples is absolutely nuts and bolts on all even remotely serious audio software IME. Can Goldwave load VSTs? Can you set up parallel processing as well as serial processing fx chains? Parallel compression can be super useful sometimes when mastering room recording. You'd be staggered how good you can get a stereo room recording to sound if you spend a little time on it with powerful tools. And you put the mics in a reasonable place to begin with! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Audacity is available for the Mac. I use it for editing audio recordings from a Zoom Q3 - generally just select a track, normalise it, and export selection. There's lots of other effects available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ras52 Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Hm, the OP wants to do two things, editing and mastering. The editing - which as I understand in this case is splittling and top-and-tailing - can be done with less-complex software such as Goldwave and Audacity. As for mastering... how long is a piece of potentially-very-sophisticated string? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Exactly. He's after a replacement for adobe. The recordings I get from my H4 only need normalising ang multi band compression. Anything more is just turd polishing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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