DAW & Digital Interface users.

[bearhugger]

I am a very amatuer guitar player and wanted to record myself playing and maybe mess around with the sound & eventually maybe write some songs purely for my own pleasure. I was just wondering if anyone else uses Digital Audio Workstations (DAW's) and Digital Interfaces to make their own music podcasts. I'm hoping that we can pass on tips & tricks too.
My digital interface is a Wharfedale Connect 802USB and I'm currently trying two DAW's which are Cakewalk by BandLab and the free version of Pro Tools Intro. I've tried Reaper but can't quite seem to get away with it.
Cakewalk seems to be really easy to use, & Pro Tools seems to be more of a music industry standard but is a little harder to learn how to use for me.

 

[GusB]

I'd quite like to get into music production at some point in the future. One software package that I became aware of when I was dabbling with Linux was Ardour (https://ardour.org/), but I wouldn't know where to start! It's also available for MacOS and Windows, and because it's open source, it's completely free.

 

[dgl]

You may want to change your audio interface as your current one does have proper ASIO drivers and under windows is required for low latency (essential for any real time use of software synthesisers or effects), the cheapish Behringer UMC interfaces are excellent for the price, ones like my UMC204HD also have the advantage of having hiZ inputs for guitars so you don't need anything between the interface and the guitar.
Saying that Thomann have some interestingly priced own brand audio interfaces that look to have decent specs despite their very low price, £52 for one with two mic/line/instrument inputs, native ASIO drivers and a copy of the cut down Cubase LE included (plus a few virtual instruments and 5gb of samples), https://www.thomann.de/gb/swissonic_audio_2.htm , at a maximum of 24bit/192khz it should be better than what you've got now.

If you want to get into software synthesisers then you'll want some sort of MIDI keyboard, any keyboard with MIDI will work, esp. if you don't need knobs or a pitch bend/mod wheel, controllers (keyboards with no inbuilt sounds) can be brought new or acquired second hand for not too much but if you want something with decent keys getting an old professional keyboard second hand can be a cheaper way and is really the only way to get the best non-hammer action keyboard as they don't make them like they used to, you certainly would not get the fantastic keybed in my Generalmusic/GEM S2 new!

Some simple analogue monosynths might also be fun to play with, something like a Behringer MS-1 gives you a simple 1 osc monosynth and can be used as a keyboard only controller for a computer or synth module (and you can use it like a keytar!), if you want to play around with the legendary Moog sound then a Behringer Model D is another great buy for little outlay, and the sound is spot on.

 

[bearhugger]

You may want to change your audio interface as your current one does have proper ASIO drivers and under windows is required for low latency (essential for any real time use of software synthesisers or effects), the cheapish Behringer UMC interfaces are excellent for the price, ones like my UMC204HD also have the advantage of having hiZ inputs for guitars so you don't need anything between the interface and the guitar.
Saying that Thomann have some interestingly priced own brand audio interfaces that look to have decent specs despite their very low price, £52 for one with two mic/line/instrument inputs, native ASIO drivers and a copy of the cut down Cubase LE included (plus a few virtual instruments and 5gb of samples), https://www.thomann.de/gb/swissonic_audio_2.htm , at a maximum of 24bit/192khz it should be better than what you've got now.

If you want to get into software synthesisers then you'll want some sort of MIDI keyboard, any keyboard with MIDI will work, esp. if you don't need knobs or a pitch bend/mod wheel, controllers (keyboards with no inbuilt sounds) can be brought new or acquired second hand for not too much but if you want something with decent keys getting an old professional keyboard second hand can be a cheaper way and is really the only way to get the best non-hammer action keyboard as they don't make them like they used to, you certainly would not get the fantastic keybed in my Generalmusic/GEM S2 new!

Some simple analogue monosynths might also be fun to play with, something like a Behringer MS-1 gives you a simple 1 osc monosynth and can be used as a keyboard only controller for a computer or synth module (and you can use it like a keytar!), if you want to play around with the legendary Moog sound then a Behringer Model D is another great buy for little outlay, and the sound is spot on.

Thanks for all the info. I've downloaded the Asio4All driver and that shows up in the settings of the DAW. I've had a brief look at MIDI controllers but will have another look.

 

[dakta]

Not an instrument player (well keyboard to a degree) but written music as a hobbyist since i got a daw demo in a pc mag in 2002. My daw of choice is Reason (I love the workflow) though got a license for cubase elements as well somewhere