Zocalo

I finally figured out a way where I can record my guitar playing, and have no background noise. I plug the guitar directly to the PC's microphone jack and it records into audacity, or anything else, really, I've only tried audacity as it's the most complete program I have. Which leads me to my question:

If someone knows of some good recording software, where it's easy to use and has a bunch of effects, could you please tell me about it?

I'm looking for a program with digital distortion (which would be awesome for my guitar, but not necessary as I have a pedal and can make it myself), and just a bunch of other cool ass effects.

What I'm primarily concerned with, however, is the shittiness of my pick ups. Audacity records way too much bass, no matter if I use bridge or neck pickups (of course if I want less bass I'll use the bridge pick up).

ANYWAYS my point is that I need a program where I can edit the equalizer in a simple manner. The one on Audacity is way to complicated.

PS: I could always plug in my wah wah and turn the bass all the way off and add bass later in audacity, but it doesn't sound as real, so that's out of the question.


Thanx for ur help in advanced, guys!

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Rocketman

I use Sony Vegas Pro for all of my film editing, it has cool sound editing as well. It costs a lot though. If you buy it.

SixShottaJ

To start out with a regular easy program that still has endless features download Cool Edit Pro 2.0, once you download it go to google and type "Cool Edit Pro Serial Peter Quistgard" and you'll have the serial # and registration shit for the full version.

After you graduate Cool Edit get Pro Tools, its what most studios and big names use. Best Quality, best production, best product in the end.. get at me if you got questions

peace

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BayAreaMML

I just took my final in Digital Audio Production this morning. what a coincidence. Use Ableton. By far, the best thing that you will find for what you're doing. Search torrent websites. That's how i got my copy. Unless you got bills to burn.

TokeTillYouDrop

Sonar is a nice, easy program. Highly recommended

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Ygdonmir

I use a couple programs. My favorite is Guitar Rig 2. Basically it gives you a lot of different effects for your guitar/bass along with different simulated amps. You're able to record what you play, but it doesn't offer a mixing feature. For mixing I use Acoustica Mixcraft. It's simple and easy to layer tracks together.

The sound of my bass is garbage on the computer, though. My speakers arn't designed for deep bass sounds and my soundcard is about as good as an expensive waffle, although my guitar play comes out great.

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"Three things cannot long be hidden. The sun, the moon and the truth." -Buddha

Mushroom Man

Cubase beyond all doubt.
Garage Band works well too.

If I were you though, and this is what I stopped doing, was that I used a floorbox for my effects. That connects directly into your computer and you won't have to deal with mixing effects and having bland effects on your computer.

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Led_Head1991

I use Audicity... it has many features that would astonish you. I usually dont like to polish my music, I like that more raw rough sound my amp\guitar seem to make

I have a Squire Strat running through a Crate 33V-212 series amp... it seems like meh, but it has a really good tone.

Doc Zee

Pro tools and Logic are my favorites, for recording though it's really the method and equipment you use that carries importance over the software. Sure you can always edit the sound, but simply put, you can't make a bad recording excellent by throwing a load of effects onto it. A great affordable mic for distorted guitars is the Shure SM57, I was a bit scheptical at first, but trust me you can get some really nice sound quality off this bad boy - It also works nicely when recording bass, the lower frequencies might be a bit weak, but it'll get the job done. You can usually pick up a used SM57 of ebay and such for around $50.

I'd definitely recommend either micing up an amp, or at the very least using a DI when recording, going straight into the PC jack just won't cut it if you're looking for a really nice sound.

telefunken

Yeah, plugging your guitar direct sounds like ass. Searching for the perfect guitar tone is an almost endless process because there are so many variables working against you.

I don't know what your budget is, but if you want it to sound great you gotta invest some money. 1st thing to do is get your guitar sounding the way you like it BEFORE attempting to record it. For me, it's a Mesa Boogie MkIII amp head into a 4x12 cab with good speakers. I get my distortion from overdriving the tubes in the head, and I have an Eventide TimeFactor delay pedal plugged into the effects loop. To me, it sounds excellent. BTW you cannot capture excellent sound if it doesn't sound excellent to begin with, Garbage in > garbage out,

Next step in the process has to do with your audio signal chain (mic > preamp > digital audio converters > DAW)

For a mic, I prefer a Sennheiser e609 Silver over an SM57, though the 57 is very good. I prefer to use more than one mic though. In addition to a dynamic mic like the 57 or the e609 I like to use a quality large diaphragm condenser (LDC). The price range on these can be anywhere from like $75 all the way up to like $15,000. A very expensive one is not necessary, but don't buy the cheapest one either. My recommendation is to get a Studio Projects C1. It's a great all around mic that will be good for just about anything you want to record. Dynamic mics will give you a certain thickness or "meatiness" and a LDC will capture more of the clarity and "air". Combining the two mic signals will help you get an a bigger, fatter, clearer tone.

For preamps/converters, you can't skimp or you'll kill the tone. Of course, world class preamps and converters can run in the thousands of $$$, but you can get by with much less. I have messed around with this stuff for years, and wasted a lot of money buying crap and was never satisfied until I was willing to empty my wallet.

If you are willing to invest $500, get an Apogee Duet. It has 2 channels of mic pres and converters all in one, and you, just starting out, will be very happy with the way it sounds.

For a DAW program, I recommend Cubase 5. I have used Cubase for years and years and love it. Logic might work more seamlessly with the Duet, but I have had Apogee converters running in Cubase with no problem.

A truly good recording engineer will capture the sound as it is and will use only minimal corrective effects after the fact. Too much use of FX plugins will kill the tone, not fix it. The biggest mistake I see with people starting out (and I'm guilty of this too) is the over use of reverb and/or compressor/limiters and loudness maximizers to mask tracks that sound like crap.

Don't settle for a sound that is just "OK" and say you'll fix it in the mix. Get it sounding right in the first place and the final mix will sound much better. Use FX sparingly, and use them to ENHANCE the sound, not to CORRECT it.

There's a lot to learn. All this stuff takes years of practice to perfect. Stick with it and you'll be happy. Don't get frustrated and give up, and don't be afraid to invest money in the right tools.

BTW I owned NI guitar rig 2. It was okay, and you have lots of fx to fiddle with, but it still sounded like ass to me IMHO, and sucked more CPU power than I was wanting to give it. Should have saved the money from that and put it towards a decent amp.

p.s you'll need some decent monitors too...