What DAW to get?

g41851 said:

I don't have a MIDI keyboard - instead I programmed the notes in hand on Logic, using the musical keyboard. Logic also had built in drummers, although I'm not sure if anything like this exists on a Windows 10 DAW..

I like the free open source Audacity, but my needs are probably less demanding than yours. Reaper looks a close match to your requirements, it has a virtual keyboard.

REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits

Those two, and others here:

16 Alternatives To Pro Tools - Audio Assemble

I see favorable mentions of Studio One and Stagelight, but have no personal experience.

Member Fireberd has considerable experience and can likely help you.

Studio One, Reaper and Stagelight (which I'd never heard of) all look good!

Not playing guitar at all so for information only which programs I use:

DAW
- Ableton Live Lite
- Cakewalk by BandLab
Notation
- MuseScore
Playing
- Plogue Sforzando + Salamander Grand Piano soundfont
- GrandOrgue + Strassburg sample set
Latency
- AsioConfig

All are free except Ableton (license bundled with MIDI keyboard).

muchomurka said:

Not playing guitar at all so for information only which programs I use:

DAW
- Ableton Live Lite
- Cakewalk by BandLab
Notation
- MuseScore
Playing
- Plogue Sforzando + Salamander Grand Piano soundfont
- GrandOrgue + Strassburg sample set

All are free except Ableton (license bundled with MIDI keyboard).

What is Ableton Live Lite like? I was looking at the Ableton website just before I got the notification of your topic reply.

Do you find it limiting?

g41851 said:

What is Ableton Live Lite like? I was looking at the Ableton website just before I got the notification of your topic reply.

Do you find it limiting?

Crippled version bundled with many equipment, you cannot buy it separately; similar to Live Intro but only 8 tracks instead of 16 so for very simple projects only.

Live 10 Lite | Ableton
Compare Live editions | Ableton

I use Cakewalk (Sonar) by Bandlab. It is a full "professional" DAW with many free VST plug-ins and MIDI synth. It was a victim of the Gibson Guitar Co financial downfall and picked up by Bandlab. I also have Studio One 4.5 Pro but prefer Cakewalk. I also tried ProTools but went back to Cakewalk.

You have to first register at Bandlab and then download the Bandlab Desktop Assistant to get the free Cakewalk (which was updated in July 2019).

BANDLAB

Here is a summary of enhancements and fixes in the latest version from the Cakewalk Forum post. CLICK ME

I use Ableton Live Intro. It's around $100 CDN (sorry, don't know the US price) and it features 16 tracks and is not crippled other than that. I have plenty of VST plugins that work great. I picked up a cheap MIDI controller keyboard for the synth and drum VSTs I have (all of which were free).

I think in total, beyond the guitar/USB interface, my total recording setup cost me less than $200. Amps, pedals, guitar and mics are extra of course, but the DAW stuff is quite cheap and works well. firebrd is a professional and obviously knows more about it than I do, but I'm pretty happy with my results. I built a little studio on a shoestring budget and it works well enough to get good quality recordings.

Thanks everyone, still not sure what to get, although lots of good suggestions put forward.

I'm kind of leaning towards Ableton at the minute. Cakewalk looks good, but it doesn't have any preset sounds. I'm terrible at coming up with sounds and would much rather use patches and tweak from there, which is why Ableton has the slight edge at the minute.

Thanks again folks!