Don't faint...I bought an interface

[Dedman]

yup, shock horror I finally did it. I bought a Focusrite Solo. I t comes with ( I presume a cut down version) of Pro Tools, and I just downloaded Reaper.
Any suggestions on "How too" videos on YouTube or any must have plugins? I have a mate who runs a studio but asking him questions is like speaking in Swahili, hard to get him to dumb it down

[king casey]

I'm not familiar with 'Reaper' but all DAW's are simply variations of the same theme.

If I remember the proper driver was named 'FocusriteUSBInstallerW10AU.exe'

Once installed it takes the role of the computers soundcard.
If Reaper (or any other software) doesn't find and install it automatically, you should be able to set it under that programs 'preferences'.

[edit] O.K. I downloaded the freeware Reaper to test it out.
Voila!!



cheers, Mark.

[Dedman]

yea, I wont have the interface till next week ( too expensive locally) , just hoping to play with some files in the meantime.

[DrNomis_44]

Reaper's a pretty good DAW but the learning curve is a bit steep (the makers offer a $60 non-commercial license), if you're after a free DAW you could give Audacity a go, also, be sure to do a trawl of the internet for free vst plugins cause there are some pretty good ones out there, I'm currently using the following DAW software, FL Studio 20, Reason 10, and Ableton Live standard 9.7.

I'm using a Scarlett 2i2 audio interface with my new laptop, works great.


You can find some pretty good free amp vst plugins on the internet, as well as bass amp plugins too.


Once you get your new audio interface up and running, a good idea is to just spend some time familiarizing yourself with it, do lots of simple recordings even if they don't sound the greatest, like riding a bicycle the more you do it the better you get at it.


I still have some old recordings I made with a basic computer sound card and an old copy of Soundforge.


Oh yeah, good onya mate.

[king casey]

You can also try 'Audacity' which is another free program https://www.audacityteam.org/download/
I tried out a few of them and they all involve a learning curve just to do basic recording.
I stick to Cakewalk Sonar X2 as it's become so familiar with experience.

Having said that, I just downloaded the free version of 'Reaper' and with a bit of stumbling around it's off the ground.



cheers, Mark.

[Dedman]

Funnily enough I already had Audcity installed, I used it to edit(removing silences ect) MP3's that I use in DJing, had totally forgot it is a DAW :P

[Sonic Mountain]

Oh you’re going to have a ball. Can’t help with the PC daws, I’ve had a muck around in all of the ones mentioned here, but I’m so used to GarageBand I’ll probably stick with it forever.

[FrankenWashie]

I need to start doing something with Garageband. I've had it forever but never really done anything but noodle with it.

[Sonic Mountain]

I need to start doing something with Garageband. I've had it forever but never really done anything but noodle with it.

I've been using it since V1.0. If you have any questions chances are I can answer them. It's really an amazing piece of software. The virtual drummers alone are just awesome. A good way to get your head around it is to set up a backing track of a song you know (something like Claptons Cocaine is a good choice) do the drums, bass and rhythm and presto you've got a track to jam along to. I'll often just loop up an 8 bar progression and noodle away. It will record a heap of takes.. maybe as many as 20. Then you can chop them all up into a song and sound like you really know what you are doing.

[blinddrew]

Reaper is a really powerful tool, and comes with a very extensive set of plugins as standard. It's really processor efficient and has a small footprint. $60 for a non-professional license gives you a full featured Daw that's as good as anything else and probably better for video, licensed for the duration of a major release.
And the trial version will, realistically, last as long as you need it to, you just hit 'keep evaluating'. There's a good and active support forum too.

But...

The learning curve can be quite steep. Right-click is your friend! On another forum a friend described it as a journey from 'Aaagh!' to 'Ahh!" as he figured out how to use it.
The manual is a bit marmite. Some people like it, I find it very frustrating and really not all that helpful. But it is there and does cover a lot.
The interfaces for the included plug-ins are very basic. Almost non-existent really. On the positive side, this means you tend to have to trust your ears. On the negative side, it can make figuring out how to use some of them properly very frustrating.

I went to it a few years ago from an old version of Cubase and am a committed user now. I think the value for money can't be beaten.
But YMMV (as I believe the young people used to say).