Best Software for editing on a laptop

pajodublin

i have done the recording now i want to edit the files myself and add some strings and piano etc to the songs
what would be the best software for doing this that will work fine on an average laptop.

thanks

Pajo

old gregg

in advance of the folks who truly know what they are talking about getting involved, I'd imagine you'd need to provide a bit more info .. such as the type of music you are hoping to work with, specs on your laptop, your expertise, budget, and stuff like that.

pajodublin

old gregg wrote: »

in advance of the folks who truly know what they are talking about getting involved, I'd imagine you'd need to provide a bit more info .. such as the type of music you are hoping to work with, specs on your laptop, your expertise, budget, and stuff like that.

Budget: Open
Music: Indie/Rock/Acoustic
Specs: Toshiba Qosmio 2.1ghz Dual Core 2gb RAM
Expertise: None yet

Stufinnegan

The professionals (recording studios) use Protools, but I have a feeling you can now get a lite version of this software that should run on a fairly high spec laptop.

ogy

check the stickies!

PC: Cubase/Protools
Mac: As above plus Logic

other options too, all good, all essentially do the same thing.

pajodublin

ogy wrote: »

check the stickies!

PC: Cubase/Protools
Mac: As above plus Logic

other options too, all good, all essentially do the same thing.

Most of the high end ones are way too powerful to run on a Laptop thats why i asked in a seperate thread

Protools LE seems to be lighter but still requires some amount of hardware
Not 100% on cubase and whether it has a Lite Edition

thanks

Pajo

old gregg

I have a friend who does stuff like taking recordings from his band and adding keyboards and simple stuff using Reason.

I've never used Reason but your lappy spec is pretty decent.

Up till recently I was using FL Studio for much of my work and it would probably do what you want, though unless you are leaning in the direction of electronica may not be the most expedient. FL Studio is very easy to get started with which is useful when you want to hit the ground running though.

ogy

reason definitely not a good choice, its not designed to be an audio editor/DAW

im running cubase on a single core centrino laptop without a hitch, any modern €500 dell yoke would be fine. 2gb of ram is a good idea but sure that costs buttons these days!

woodsdenis

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100&navid=104&itemid=23596

Mbox 2 micro at the bottom of the page

Denis

Survivin' Ivan

I love my micro.:cool:

pajodublin

how does it work ivan

old gregg

out of interest, you'd recommend Pro Tools for someone who has no experience using a DAW? Just curious, I'd have figured Pro Tools to be a pretty serious learning curve for a beginner. Maybe not though?

I'm currently looking at the personal pros and cons in a Pro Tools v Cubase choice for the next few years after working with various less complicated DAWs for the last few years. hence my curiosity about Pro Tools at the moment.

woodsdenis

old gregg wrote: »

out of interest, you'd recommend Pro Tools for someone who has no experience using a DAW? Just curious, I'd have figured Pro Tools to be a pretty serious learning curve for a beginner. Maybe not though?

I'm currently looking at the personal pros and cons in a Pro Tools v Cubase choice for the next few years after working with various less complicated DAWs for the last few years. hence my curiosity about Pro Tools at the moment.

Much easier to learn than Logic. If you have previous engineering experience it is the easiest.

Denis

ZV Yoda

old gregg wrote: »

out of interest, you'd recommend Pro Tools for someone who has no experience using a DAW? Just curious, I'd have figured Pro Tools to be a pretty serious learning curve for a beginner. Maybe not though?

I'm currently looking at the personal pros and cons in a Pro Tools v Cubase choice for the next few years after working with various less complicated DAWs for the last few years. hence my curiosity about Pro Tools at the moment.

Choice of DAW is personal preference & to some extent depends on the music genre. I started with Pro Tools LE in April/May last year. I had absolutely no experience using a DAW & it was my first attempt at home recording. I was able to figure out the basic mechanics of how it works fairly easily. The real trick is to get smarter/faster/better at it. I’m still working at that.

Based on what I've learned since then, I'd suggest that most DAWs are very similar for the most part. Same building blocks/signal routing/busses etc. If you go with PT, it’s the industry standard for most “conventional” music production (if that’s the right word… i.e. bass, drum & guitar type stuff). For dance music, you might want something different. Also, you are somewhat restricted with the hardware/interfaces you can use – generally only Digidesign & M-Audio hardware.

Anyway, to answer your original question, PT’s not too difficult to use for a beginner. If you already have some experience, I doubt if you’ll have much trouble. Read the manual, check out the Digidesign tutorial & remember, Boards, YouTube & Google are you friends!

old gregg

well that's tres cool ZV Yoda and many thanks. Not meaning to hijack the OPs thread for too much longer.

yea, I've been looking at PT m-powered for a few weeks, have enoughcompatible hardware, have a book and stuff and am working through it slowly and have some tutorial help if required, I'll look at Cubase next and then make a decision some time within the next 6 weeks. After that, I'm into an extended project and want to be able to plough ahead with the DAW of choice.

Cool for the OP if it comes with your 1st time using a DAW reccomendation.

Party on

Mick

ZV Yoda

pajodublin wrote: »

Budget: Open
Music: Indie/Rock/Acoustic
Specs: Toshiba Qosmio 2.1ghz Dual Core 2gb RAM
Expertise: None yet

That sounds similar to the type of music we do. I asked a similar question a while back. Here's the thread.

If you get Pro Tools LE, you'll get very good (IMO) virtual instrument (VI) software bundled with it (Xpand! and Structure)... basically, these are databases of sound samples that you can play using a generic midi keyboard. I did exactly what you're looking to do using this software... i.e. add piano, strings, cello etc to drums, bass & guitar.

Also, based on another Boardsie's recommendation, I got a super deal on a special promotion being run by IK Multimedia. I got SampleTank 2.5L, Miroslav Philharmonic Classik and some other stuff for less than €100. You'll pick up a cheap 2nd hand midi keyboard for €50 on adverts.ie.

This software is amazing... hours of fun.

Best of luck... feel free to drop me a PM if you need any"plain English" newbie to newbie advice!

And before anybody asks... I have no affiliation with IK, Digidesign, M-Audio or anybody else. Just a home user who happens to like their products!

DenMan

Can anybody point out the pros and cons of both Cubase and Pro Tools for me. My boss uses Cubase in the studio and prefers using it to Pro Tools. Just curious. Also can audio files edited in one program be imported into another? Thanks.

Survivin' Ivan

pajodublin wrote: »

how does it work ivan

Its the smallest Mbox you can get..all it has is a headphone socket and a volume control but comes with Pro tool LE which I like and use. You cant record with it but you can edit on the move and its handy.
Its a good into to Pro Tools etc and you will be away in a hack.
http://www.thomann.de/ie/digidesign_mbox_2_micro.htm

ogy

Can anybody point out the pros and cons of both Cubase and Pro Tools for me. My boss uses Cubase in the studio and prefers using it to Pro Tools. Just curious. Also can audio files edited in one program be imported into another? Thanks.

i think protools is probably the simplest to learn out of what we've mentioned i reckon, cubase has alot going on on-screen and can be a bit daunting, logic is well laid out but still more complicated i think. although, as mentioned, theyre all basically the same thing and the level of difficulty between them is negligible i think. Traditionally cubase and logic would be more suited to audio+midi, whereas protools is more pure audio, however this is probably not really true anymore:)

You cant switch sessions files between programs, but you can export tracks to wav and import them into other programs quite easily

ZV Yoda

Hi Pajo... I got your PM. I'm going to reply in the thread because there's far more qualified folks on here who can correct any of my mistakes! Also, I'm going to be away for the next week or so & won't be online again after this morning.
Best of luck anyway - once you start working on your own music in this way, you'll never look back. The software out there today is really amazing.

Anyway… I was in the same position you’re in now (back in April last year). I’m far from being an expert. I have a 9-5 day job, but write music/play drums/guitar in my spare time. The other lads (who are full time engineers / producers / musicians) on the forum here will be able to help with more technical questions.

In the music biz, these “editing software” packages are called DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). First off, you’ll need a few things to do what you outlined:
1. A computer/Mac/laptop (doh!)
2. A DAW
3. An interface. This is in reality just a specialised form of sound card into which you can connect your audio inputs (mics, line, midi) to link the computer & DAW together. Technically not an absolute requirement as far as I know, but you will need one to get Pro Tools working. I’m not sure, but in general, on board computer sound cards are not ideal. I think the MBox micro might be the cheapest interface option (new) for Pro Tools. Check adverts.ie for 2nd hand options though.
4. A virtual instrument package (these come bundled with some DAWs, but you can but them stand alone too)
5. An (optional) midi keyboard (so you can use this to “play” the virtual instruments via USB connect to your computer/interface). You can “play” virtual instruments using the computer keyboard but you will go mad & blind very quickly.

First off, when you say you “have all the tracks” I’m going to assume that means you have a disc/memory stick with individual wav files for each individual track that was recorded for each song (i.e. wav1 = Kick drum, wav2 =snare, …..wav16 = backing vocals). So, if each song was recorded using say 16 tracks, this means you’d have 16 wav files for each song (or 32 files if it was 32 tracks etc).

If this is the case, you have a few options. As long as you have each track/instrument on it’s own wav file, you can use any editing software package you like. In the music biz, these “editing software” packages are called DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). You simply import each wav file into a session (or project file) on the DAW. E.g. you’d set up a session (called “Song1” or whatever), then import each of the 16 wav files into the session (name each one appropriately … e.g. Kick, snare, bass, main vocal, backing vocal, etc). So now you have a session called Song1, with 16 tracks taken from your “old” demo. Now you can add more tracks via the DAW... you can in theory add anything you like (either mic inputs…e.g. vocals, acoustic instruments) or line/midi inputs (this is how you’ll add your synths/virtual instruments).

After you’ve added whatever additional tracks you want to, then you can mix/edit the whole lot together as you see fit. The possibilities are endless, so I won’t even begin to describe what these DAWs enable you to do.

Anyway, that’s a very brief overview. I recommend you ask lots of questions here – they’re very helpful bunch & a wide range of experience & genres.

Best of luck whatever you decide.

Survivin' Ivan

Good job Yoda. Excellent post it was, hmm?

ZV Yoda

Survivin' Ivan wrote: »

Good job Yoda. Excellent post it was, hmm?

Oh, dunno about that... when you know very little (like I do) it's easy to fit it all in one post.

Anyway, I was just thinking, on this forum, I should change my name to ZV Padawan

masonman

I haven't seen it mentioned already ( Perhaps I missed it)

But Ableton Live is something I REALLY recommend. A friend suggested it to me years ago but I dismissed it as a DJ/Electronic based tool. ( I play Acoustic/electric rock indie)

I picked it up a year or two later and genuinely haven't looked back. Its aimed at using in Live setups but its great for recording at home too. Cheap option also.

Theres so much you can do with it to add life to a basic track. Really adds a fresh perspective on things.

Apparantly, Beck and his producer used it on "Guero" (After using Pro tools to capture basic Wavs of Vocals and Strings) to infuse all those sounds and different textures to the songs.

Probably isn't as good as Pro Tools on capturing the basics - otherwise every studio woud be using it instead of Protools

But for home recording it is really flexible and allows you to have great fun being creative. Good if your stuck in a rut writing the same old songs on the Guitar etc.

Ok I'm starting to sound like an ad for Ableton, seriously check it out if you haven't already. Just wish I had the time to use it more.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ableton_Live

Check out the Vids on the site or on you-tube for ideas

cue brute

i'm surprised nobody mentioned reaper - i find it a very intuitive platform for recording and editing

available from www.cockos.com