Your DAW when you just need a "tape machine"

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:20 pm

I have been doing a lot of live concert recordings lately, looking for an inexpensive and reliable DAW to serve the purpose. My setup is going to an Alesis HD24XR for 24 channels of A/D and simultaneous recording, and then going into an older laptop running Windows XP through an M Audio Lightbridge. For my last gig I used the evaluation version of Reaper...and it worked okay, the interface is a little wacky to me but it worked. The main function of the laptop is to serve as the backup recorder source, cut out a step of transferring from the HD24XR to the computer, to name inputs, and to monitor (I am not using an external monitoring console).

Any other options? Reaper is okay, but don't want to spend any more than that..

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 7:18 pm

It's been a while since i used audacity, which is free, but i think it can pull in multiple tracks, maybe?

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 7:33 pm

Is it reliable? I think I looked at it but maybe thought it was Mac only (which I see now it isn't) after I visited the page on my Mac and it only had download links on the front page for the OS X version. The GUI definitely leaves something to be desired...

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 7:53 pm

I've used it for tons of stuff, mostly on windows, even though i'm a mac guy. Never had stability probs with it.

JamesHE · Post by **JamesHE** » Sat Sep 01, 2012 9:38 pm

There isn't anything that is going to give you more flexibility than REAPER.

Work through the 'wacky' parts of the interface. With this type of setup, you can save a Track or project Template and have it all setup in less than a second.

Also I think REAPER is the only DAW on the planet that you can Arm / un-arm and add and subtract tracks while recording. potentially useful in live situations.

dgrieser · Post by **dgrieser** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 5:04 pm

Reaper is very solid. Push record and forget about it. It'll run till you hit stop.

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 1:18 pm

Harrison MixBus on Linux.

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 4:20 pm

JWL wrote:Harrison MixBus on Linux.

Not that I like Windows either, but I really hold a negative opinion of Linux..but that is a debate for an entirely different thread. Not sure if this impacts your recommendation, but I am not mixing with the DAW, just tracking.

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 10:47 pm

Mostly for stability....

CedarSound · Post by **CedarSound** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 7:25 am

Reaper is very solid. Push record and forget about it. It'll run till you hit stop.

Man, is this ever true.. I went back and reinstalled Pro tools 7 on my laptop a couple of weekends ago to export some old projects to import into Reaper, and I ran into installation issues and DAE errors and shit and it took me hours to sort it out.. (Pro Tools won't install with Internet Explorer 8 on it? really? WTF?)

Yesterday, while at work, I imported a track from my Tascam portable recorded into Reaper so I could listen to a band practice from Tuesday night with a little compression on it since the drums were a bit too loud, and I had Reaper minimized and running on my machine while I was on a few different web pages and administrating about eight different servers and updating machines at the same time, and Reaper didn't even flinch.. that program is so lightweight on my system and uses so few resources it's not even funny. I forget that I am using a computer when I run Reaper.. Press record and go.

Studiodawg · Post by **Studiodawg** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 10:45 am

I have been trying to "standardize" to Reaper, but making CDs in Samplitude is so dang easy. Samplitude's stock plug ins are awesome (and I am no fan boy of Magix). Reaper is easily my digital tape deck of choice. I do have a 4 track Yamaha cassette deck and a Fostex E-16 reel-to-reel to choose from too, but am getting a little "digital lazy". I would rather be a musician recording than an engineer playing music so I choose Reaper.

farview · Post by **farview** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 7:56 am

Reaper is much better than audacity. audacity will cut up your audio track files into bite-sized pieces instead of long, complete files.

Reaper is bullet proof.

SafeandSoundMastering · Post by **SafeandSoundMastering** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:26 am

Buy a flash recorder, you are only as good as your last gig in the live recording game. Much safer IMO.

cheers

SafeandSound Mastering
SafeandSound Mastering

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 3:53 pm

SafeandSoundMastering wrote:Buy a flash recorder, you are only as good as your last gig in the live recording game. Much safer IMO.

cheers

SafeandSound Mastering
Mastering studio

Noted but, for the scale of gigs I work (not life or death at this point) I think having 2 simultaneous recorders already is sufficient. Maybe not ultimately foolproof, but pretty damn near it. I plan to get one of those handheld flash recorders when I have a little extra cash, and to serve as another room sound.

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Your DAW when you just need a "tape machine"

Your DAW when you just need a "tape machine"

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