UPDATE: operators manual blues

Still working on figuring out the basics of recording with Cubase.... getting better..slowly.
Don't know if you've heard of this site or not ....it's got a ton of information on it.
http://theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

I hope it helps.

ksblu.

You see, it's a multi-prong attack on us. Not only do we need to struggle with the musical aspects of learning our craft, but we also have to learn the technical aspect as well. I spent 4 months recording and re-recording one song, my first one, because I was experimenting with my sound and learning the software. The ins and outs of all the plugins, how it affects the system it's running on and keep it from glitching and dropping out. I use Sonar and there is nothing simple or easy about it. I've heard good things about Cubase, however, I don't have that kind of money to purchase multiple copies of software to use or expariment with, so I use what I have.

Bottom line, if you use what you have enough times, you'll get it. Then you've got to continue to use it otherwise, you'll forget what you know. The last few things i recorded recently went alot smoother and without a lot of the yelling and cussing the acompanied my first attempts. I know what to expect out of my software and system now. The learnings not over yet, I've still got a long way to go. The other day I just discovered how to use busses for my effects and rediscovered the synth rack just this morning.

Thanks for the guitar9 site. Kinda cool info.

I replied to your original thread about Cubase and have since switched to Audacity. joe fish, you might want to give it a try, it's free. It works pretty well, there are some things I knew in Cubase that I haven't learned how to do yet and a few things that worked better in Cubase, but overall it's much simpler to use and works perfectly for 90% of my needs.

One thing I learned about Cubase this weekend as I was trying to clean up my projects and transfer them: nothing ever gets deleted. When you remove a track from the project, it still exists in the project. You have to go to the Pool (Ctrl+P) and you can right click and select "Remove unused tracks." But it's still not deleted, it just gets moved to the Trash (also in the pool). Right click the Trash and select "Empty Trash." Now it's gone. I cleared about 7GB off my drive just getting rid of all the multiple takes I had kept then discarded.

I love Cubase. It is just one DAW though and most DAWs are based around the same principles. The thing with cleaning up files in Cubase is that you have to remember that it's all non-destructive ediiting. This allows you to go back to your original take if you need to. Or take 24 or take 9 for that matter. The manual is your friend. Run into a specific problem? Go to the manual and look it up in the index.

Audio pool/delete all unused files. There. Now you have deleted everything that isn't being used in your projects. At any rate to go from Cubase to Audacity is like crippling yourself.

Cubase is based around some simple ideas.

-right click shows tools.
-menu base options just like any program.
-all routing is done via the track properties panel and through the mixer.
-effects can be used as inserts or sends.
-routing MUST be assigned. This gives you the most options.

Of course the more options, the more complex but also the more control you have over your recording. Being able to edit and apply changes in real time really is something you need to experience. If it has to be free there's Kristal(windows) and Ardour (Linux, OSX).

I replied to your original thread about Cubase and have since switched to Audacity. joe fish, you might want to give it a try, it's free. It works pretty well, there are some things I knew in Cubase that I haven't learned how to do yet and a few things that worked better in Cubase, but overall it's much simpler to use and works perfectly for 90% of my needs.

Oh no, don't get me wrong. I like Sonar. I also like Cubase, from what I have seen of it. I think the workflow in Cubase is significantly better than Sonar. My initial experience with Sonar was very frustrating because I didn't know my way around it. I was always shifting tracks over unintentially, having latency issues, deleting the wrong tracks, and so on. Since then, I have bangin' around it enough to where it isn't as forbodding as it used to be. I have used Audacity, very recntly infact. I like it, however and have used it to do some simple multi-tracking demos and song rehersals. It's very handy for that. But like hueseph said, going from Sonar or Cubase to Audacity for me would be crippling.

I think I would like Cubase better, but I have too much moola tied up in the software I have and can't afford to jump ship.

Y'all are worrying me now. I guess I haven't run into anything yet that I haven't been able to do in Audacity. I have discovered that I don't like the EQ in Audacity. I didn't like it much in Cubase either. A lot of my preference comes from the interface and user experience. I design software and it's obvious Cubase was designed by recording engineers :D

I know Audacity can't handle midi or midi vst plug-ins...or can it? I do a lot of virtual instruments and would be lost if I couldn't lay down a track with a fake fiddle or something. But other than that, Audacity looks fairly comparable to some of these other sound editing/recording software. I really do like the capability of laying down multi-tracks, something SoundForge can't do. When I want to record multitrack stuff and not open a complicated session with Sonar, I'll open and use Audacity.

You see, it's a multi-prong attack on us. Not only do we need to struggle with the musical aspects of learning our craft, but we also have to learn the technical aspect as well. I spent 4 months recording and re-recording one song, my first one, because I was experimenting with my sound and learning the software. The ins and outs of all the plugins, how it affects the system it's running on and keep it from glitching and dropping out. .

I'm doing just that....struggle isn't how it feels though...just hard to wait.. can only absorb so much at a time. Damn there are alot of details. I'm sure that it's going to take a year at least before the perfectionist in me plays any recordings for any one.

it's gone. I cleared about 7GB off my drive just getting rid of all the multiple takes I had kept then discarded.

I just took my computer off the internet and deleted all the programs not recording related....and couldn't figure where all the memory was being used.... I haven't kept anything I've recorded...I thought.... I'll check to see if this is it. wanna bet.
Thank you jw

ksblu

I know Audacity can't handle midi or midi vst plug-ins...or can it? I do a lot of virtual instruments and would be lost if I couldn't lay down a track with a fake fiddle or something. But other than that, Audacity looks fairly comparable to some of these other sound editing/recording software. I really do like the capability of laying down multi-tracks, something SoundForge can't do. When I want to record multitrack stuff and not open a complicated session with Sonar, I'll open and use Audacity.
Audacity does support vst effects but not Instruments. Effects cannot be used in real time which is a major pain. Audacity is nothing like most software. Even the free versions of Cubase included with some of the interfaces has much more functionality.

SoundForge does in fact support Multitrack recording. I'm not sure when they implemented this, but it has been able to do multitrack for a while now.

Sorry. I was wrong Soundforge has just adopted multitracking as of version 9.

I just took my computer off the internet and deleted all the programs not recording related....and couldn't figure where all the memory was being used.... I haven't kept anything I've recorded...I thought.... I'll check to see if this is it. wanna bet.
Thank you jw

ksblu

I just built this machine with the sole purpose for recording. No bells and whistles. 2.8Ghz with 1Gb of ram and sonar with it's midi instruments sucks it dry. At least I don't get drop-outs and glitches like I did with the other machine. That's progress.
Sorry. I was wrong Soundforge has just adopted multitracking as of version 9.

I thought so. Bummer for me, I have 8.

I really gotta +1 hueseph here, the manual is your friend.

I've always had a soft spot for Cubase and Nuendo, as tey were the DAWs I learned on doing GCSE and A level music....and wen our computers got nicked one week before my GCSE composition deadline, meaning I;d lost all my guitar tracks and final pre-mix (we only had floppy disk drives and audio tracks were too much for it), I had to redo everything in one week across one old pc running Cubase and an 8 track analog desk, so I became pretty okay with running on that on-the-fly and there's a lot of overlap between Cubase and Nuendo. But I've just started running Nuendo 4, and I have already checked how many sections the manual runs to and how many days it'll take me to have "a proper sit down" with each section, as well as the day-to-day "oh, how do I do THAT?!?" issues I'll be consulting it for. Really, the biggest difference isn't between two different DAWs but between the users of those DAWs... just like playing guitar, you get out as much as you put in.

That said, I did put in a fair few cuss words trying to install the various bits of Nuendo and its expansion pack today, so I feel for ya, fam.