Cakewalk, Audacity, FL Studio...Oh My!

[Nytrocide]

Anyone have any recommendations for a person starting audio editing for the first time/beginner? I've used Audacity here and there for editing other misc. audio files but never with an instrument/mixing. Just trying to get a good idea on what would be the best audio editing program for my newly purchased XW-P1.

Thank you so much!

 

[happyrat1]

Everyone has personal preferences and tend to like what they're used to. Your best bet is to use google and youtube and see some reviews of what's current. Then make your choice that way.

A free sequencer is Rosegarden. Some almost free softwares are Reaper and Anvil Studio. Both have trial versions.

Commercial softwares you might want to look at include Cakewalk Music Creator, Cakewalk Sonar, Abelton Live, Fruity Loops, Steinberg Cubase, Band in a Box, and even Garageband for the Mac.

One advantage is that the INS file for the XW-P1 has already been created for Cakewalk products. Other programs may not be able to fully exploit all the patches and sounds of the XW-P1 without a working config file. Then again if you look around the INS format has been around a long time and there are a lot of conversion utilities and softwares that can import the format.

Anyway, like I said, your best bet is to watch an hour or two of youtube and get an idea of what's out there and see which ones you like/can afford...

Gary

 

[Nytrocide]

Nice to hear about the XW-P1 and Cakewalk. Any certain version that has that? I saw Sonar X1 and wasn't sure if it was just on Producer, or if Essentials also has it.

Any opinions on Audacity? I've heard some good stuff about CS6 (latest release)

 

[happyrat1]

The XW-P1 INS file is compatible with all Cakewalk products and versions dating back to the 90's. It's a standard file format that Cakewalk hasn't changed for as long as I've been using it.

If you're considering going with Cakewalk get Music Creator 6 instead of Sonar. Sonar is too expensive and mostly overkill for home recording.

Audacity and Ardour are both good programs for recording sound, not MIDI sequences, but Cakewalk and most other DAW software already has that feature built in these days.