HD recording (Rosegarden, Cubase....)

DingleBerry · 13 Mar 2006 at 15:45

I feel like getting all my kit set up again and knocking out a few tracks. I basicaly got a condenser mic and pre amp going into a midiman delta44 (bit old) which covers the input side (might add a few midi whatsits/keyboard type things later).

Basically seeing as my delta44 is nicely supported by alsa I have been looking at rosegarden but had no end of trouble setting it up and now I've not got a net connection for that pc its not really viable to go down that route. Fortunatly they produce studio to go which has it all setup for you. Its about £45 for a download copy which isn't too shocking really.

Cubase is another option but its costs at least £99 and means I have to use windows (which I would need to resetup as its getting a bit slow and blobby). I've used this in the past and didn't find it great...but not this version.

I will be mostly using outboard effects for the inputs (largly guitar) and perhaps a few software ones but nothing too absurd I woudln't have thought.

The main importances are
ease of use...don't want to spend for ever not recording
that I can use a software drum machine (studio to go includes one, dunno about cubase)
low latency!

Any one have any experience/comments?

cleanbluesky · 13 Mar 2006 at 15:57

DingleBerry · 21 Mar 2006 at 12:44

anyone?

skinnyl · 21 Mar 2006 at 13:08

Hey,

did my entire dissertation recording on Studio to Go! with Ardour (pro tools wannabe) and for the money its ok. but i found the EQ plugins were aweful, compression so so, reverb really horrid. if it was feeling upset it could send a 60dB spike through the mixer, which could nail any speakers attached. i had to bring all the faders down on my mixer before i touched any plugins. i mean they are all open source plugins but you will be much better off getting cubase for £99. much easier to be creative and wont crash like STG! did.

If im being honest i think its seriously tainted my dissertation. or at least what i thought i could do with it. but luckily its a project investigating Linux as a audio OS so it doesn't all come down to how it sounds.Linux had too many bugs and was too hard to work with for me. Theres nothing worse than having a good idea but having to jump through about 500 hoops to get it down, compared to 20 with something easier to work with.

Edit: there are a host of free VSTs for cubase and im sure one is a drum machine. failing that you can use midi sounds. anything better for cubase costs. although i can recomend Groove Agent.

Of course in a perfect world you'd buy a Mac G5 and Logic Pro

DingleBerry · 21 Mar 2006 at 13:24

Aha! Some one with a real opinion!!!! All I have been able to find through searches is cubase sx fanboys whining about how they can't use their vst plugins! And how when you are spending £20k on a studio the software is a drop in the ocean so linux audio is pointless.

Its a shame to hear that it doesn't work overly well. I could live with the plugins being a little poor as I'm not sure i would use them that heavily (although the option is always nice) but if it has speaker shredding capabilities I think that rules it out.

Shame we don't live in a perfect world really

everyone loves maccy goodness!

Is cubase LE the only real option for what I'm trying to do? I guess assuming that the software works well the really important factor is that its easy to use. Like you say the fewer hoops the better!

has anyone any idea how the educational disount works....can you get it as a student or do you have to be a school?

skinnyl · 21 Mar 2006 at 14:21

yeah, although it does say you can use vst plugins a lot of them when you try say it requires windows to work. It's not an over bad package. i mean you get a lot for your money. esp not having to configure the whole thing by hand.

i havent really used Rosegarden as the work i was doing was all audio i just used the Ardour program http://www.ardour.org which apart from those bugs worked fine and sounded good (considering the plugins, i mean you can't really ask for pro quality with open source software right?). if i wanted to open a project i had previously done and the project contained a mixture of EQ and Reverb (what doesn't?) then i had to go through and cut n paste all the EQ back in to all the different channels. to quell the 60dB spike. so i found it deeply annoying. then after you do that it crashes so you have to do it again. just too much for me. oh, and it took me about 30min to work out how to split a track..i had to keep going as it was the primise of my work but if it was for a hobby song so to speak i wouldn't have used it again. pitty as it would be great if it didn't do all those things

for student discounts i thing you just need to prove your in education e.g. NUS card, Uni card. if you can get a discount try and find somewhere to get Cubase SL 3. only £149 down from £249. id post the link but its a competitor. google it.

heres a feature comparason between the £99, £149-249, and the £500~ one

http://www.steinberg.net/552_1.html.

im not really up on any of the low budget stuff so maybe someone else can point you in a good direction. i know a lot of logic fan boys will bash cubase till the end of time but i have worked it it for a few years now and for the PC (bar a heafty pro-tools set-up) its probably the best for the money, unless you can find a copy of Logic 5.5 which was PC compatable and work brilliently. ebay would be the place to look, but watch out for copies.

good luck with it