Well I've went and bought my first true DAW or Digital Audio Workstation software tonight, SONAR 8.5 said to work "seamlessly" with that composer and choir software I want and the software synths I already have.
I played around with the free (shareware) PC recording software I could find online that was recommended by acquaintances (Audacity seemed the best of these) but I wanted the real deal since those freebies are kinda quirky not working with this and that. Sonar installed and registered successfully (whew!) so now it's time to try and figure out what all those thousands of buttons and sliders onscreen actually do! The "quick start" book that came with it is only around 200 textbook sized pages...
Also, the kid at the store said that the M-audio Moblie Pre I bought a week ago is essentially a sound card that plugs in via USB instead of as a PCI card. I had assumed it was "just" an in/out but I'm happily mistaken! So I can forget about having to buy a new card and install it just run everything out through there and bypass the legacy Realtek HD soundcard altogether (Sonar's website confirms this). That's a big happy plus after the plant fiasco yesterday!
Of course, now I'll have to buy some good studio monitors to run sound outta the Mobile Pre so I don't have to wear headphones all the time...
---------- Post added 12-05-2009 at 02:01 AM ---------- Previous post was 12-04-2009 at 11:02 PM ----------
The software is not as perplexing as I had anticipated, I'm glad of that! A few misprints in the tutorials though keeps one on their toes... "Where the hell is the Simple Instrument Input button? All I have I Single Instrument Input!"
I've already worked my way through up to installing and recording with my virtual synths. I even figured out that I could use the "Line Out" of my Mobile Pre to the big screen monitor (which has speakers) instead of from the PC's sound card so I can put off studio monitors for a while too then and just use the headphones at night when I don't wanna disturb anyone but myself.
Sorry I know this isn't as exciting for all of you as it is me. I have to tell someone and my cats really don't care!
I played around with the free (shareware) PC recording software I could find online that was recommended by acquaintances (Audacity seemed the best of these) but I wanted the real deal since those freebies are kinda quirky not working with this and that. Sonar installed and registered successfully (whew!) so now it's time to try and figure out what all those thousands of buttons and sliders onscreen actually do! The "quick start" book that came with it is only around 200 textbook sized pages...
Also, the kid at the store said that the M-audio Moblie Pre I bought a week ago is essentially a sound card that plugs in via USB instead of as a PCI card. I had assumed it was "just" an in/out but I'm happily mistaken! So I can forget about having to buy a new card and install it just run everything out through there and bypass the legacy Realtek HD soundcard altogether (Sonar's website confirms this). That's a big happy plus after the plant fiasco yesterday!
Of course, now I'll have to buy some good studio monitors to run sound outta the Mobile Pre so I don't have to wear headphones all the time...
---------- Post added 12-05-2009 at 02:01 AM ---------- Previous post was 12-04-2009 at 11:02 PM ----------
The software is not as perplexing as I had anticipated, I'm glad of that! A few misprints in the tutorials though keeps one on their toes... "Where the hell is the Simple Instrument Input button? All I have I Single Instrument Input!"
I've already worked my way through up to installing and recording with my virtual synths. I even figured out that I could use the "Line Out" of my Mobile Pre to the big screen monitor (which has speakers) instead of from the PC's sound card so I can put off studio monitors for a while too then and just use the headphones at night when I don't wanna disturb anyone but myself.
Sorry I know this isn't as exciting for all of you as it is me. I have to tell someone and my cats really don't care!
