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Hello Guitarists

Does anyone know of a good recording program?
I basically want to record myself playing a piece, and then record myself playing over that piece. But I want to be able to edit the tracks completely separately.

Anyone have any suggestions?
    Depends on your budget. Before I got Cubase (A bit pricey) I used Audacity. It's simple, free and easy to use, though rather limited in terms of features.
    Otherwise I've heard Reaper is good but I have no experience with it.
      Reaper lekker! Steep learning curve but once learnt, an acceptable home recording DAW. Current R/$ exchange puts it at almost a grand :'(, still way cheaper than Cubase ? and it allows for many VST and VSTi hosting.
        Reaper is GREAT! And.. it's kinda free, you can evaluate for as long as you want. I think, if you're just starting out, you can evaluate until you feel like you need to pay. It's great.
          Stoffeltoo wrote: Reaper lekker! Steep learning curve but once learnt, an acceptable home recording DAW. Current R/$ exchange puts it at almost a grand :'(, still way cheaper than Cubase ? and it allows for many VST and VSTi hosting.
          My Cubase license came with my Scarlett Studio pack so it relatively cost peanuts, but yeah, the standalone is insanely pricey.
            Does anyone have any links for a free version for me?
              Audacity or Reaper. Both are free and kinda simple to use. ?
                a year later

                Reaper is great, but I found working MIDI into it, was a nightmare.

                Another vote for Reaper. You can evaluate "forever" for free... or splurge and pay the $60 to buy it.

                  Nitebob but I found working MIDI into it, was a nightmare.

                  ...Ableton ?

                  ok blindfold on. aiming in the dark
                  Anybody with linux experience here?
                  I'm about to redo my home server and contemplating putting on an OS that actually has a GUI.
                  Ubuntu studio I see come with Guitarix and Rakarrack with the ability to record through Jack.
                  just curious to see if anybody has done or attempted it..

                  Nitebob Reaper all the way for me. Tried (i use the term to indicate 10 minutes) a bit of midi drums and promptly gave up. As for the rest, it's a great DAW!

                    Tuckstir Anybody with linux experience here?

                    I used Linux for around 15 years. Only stopped when I switched to Mac.

                    I used Ardour as a DAW and it was fantastic. This was years ago and I never tried anything with MIDI.

                    JACK seemed to be temperamental. I know it was meant to be the answer to all of the audio issues on Linux but that was only true when it worked. Things have probably changed since then, though. In fact, I think I only finally got it all working when I tried Ubuntu Studio. So you should be fine.

                    (I went Storm Linux → Slackware → Debian → Ubuntu, with Ubuntu Studio for guitar → Mac.)

                    If memory serves, I tried Rakarrack and it was pretty good. I did this track with Ardour and, I think, Rakarrak for the effects, etc:

                    https://community.guitartalk.co.za/d/791-norrirock-new-one-from-norio

                    The playing is awful but I can tell you that it was easy to do. Which was nice. But it still seemed like a professional DAW. From the stuff I read at the time, Ardour was like a professional DAW.

                    It's nice that it's opensource so you can be fairly certain it won't start costing you later. The downside is that the user-interface probably hasn't improved much and you probably won't get

                    Here's a list of its features:
                    https://ardour.org/features.html

                    And a pic:

                    Hope this helps!

                    V8 I've used Ableton Live Lite before and it was a breeze, but had limited tracks. I assume the paid version will have more tracks.
                    V8

                    • V8 replied to this.

                      I did a bit of searching and it turns out I did a whole thread on my Linux recording adventures.

                      ? https://community.guitartalk.co.za/d/453-pc-recording-in-linux/40

                      And ?https://community.guitartalk.co.za/d/751-minor-creepiness (the recording I did)

                      So looking over some of that, it looks like there's a drum machine for Linux called "Hydrogen" that I used. Honestly can't remember this stuff ?

                      Hope this all helps! Good luck bud!

                      You'll probably have an easier time with Reaper but, I know you like to tinker so Linux will give you a LOT of stuff to tinker with! And all for free. I know coz I used to love to tinker as well. (Fair warning: It does get annoying when you don't have time to fix some random thing that broke and you just want to record something. But, again, it's been years since I've tried any of this stuff. Maybe less stuff breaks and breaks less often these days?)

                      thanks Norio..
                      yeah love to tinker.. and My current Linux setup is Ubuntu server.. which after a update now gives a kernel panic error.. which seems its going to be easier to reinstall, so might as well give it a GUI while I'm at it and make it something I can use more, will also free up a Pi thats hogging a screen.

                      Love Linux but you need to be prepared to pull some hair at times.
                      had a look at the package list for Studio and its fairly comprehnsive
                      https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/PackageList
                      https://ubuntustudio.org/tour/audio/

                      also going a route with it pre-installed should give less headaches than having to try installing stuff, will give it a bash a try it out..

                      Tuckstir Love Linux but you need to be prepared to pull some hair at times.

                      Very very true. And the main reason I switched to Mac.

                      To be fair, if I bought a Dell laptop of the same cost as my Mac, I'd probably have zero issues with Ubuntu. Something like the Dell XPS 13". Dell is normally very well supported by the Linux community.

                      But, ja, I had a mix-match of hardware and the issues were aplenty! Eventually just got tired of tinkering when I needed to be working.

                      Tuckstir also going a route with it pre-installed should give less headaches than having to try installing stuff, will give it a bash a try it out..

                      Definitely true. UbuntuStudio ties everything together really well. Much nicer than trying to piece it all together yourself, using a plain Ubuntu install.

                      Tuckstir

                      Tuckstir Anybody with linux experience here?

                      My main machine runs linux, I've used ardour as well as audacity to record with minimal hassle. Ardour has more features but is also quite complex (and looks terrible on HiDPI displays). I also use Yousician which runs on Linux, but I found it to be quite crashy on my system (Intel i5 - builtin GPU), so I now have a Winblows laptop set up at my guitar.

                      I almost never record myself (I should do more but I'm shy), but my normal practice routine usually usually has the laptop running Yousician or Youtube dependent on if I'm practicing or playing. My amp (Line6 Amplifi) plugs into the laptop via USB so the laptop sounds come out the amp, and it also allows me to record directly from USB.

                      My phone connects to the amp via bluetooth and runs a metronome amp as well as the app to control the amp. The phone sounds also go out the amp via bluetooth.

                      What I've been looking for is a windows program that will capture video from the webcam and audio from USB. Most of the real DAWs require that you record the video on a separate camera and then import that into the audio project, but that is just waaaay to much of a ballache for a quick record. kdenlive on linux can do the above, but my linux machine is no longer close to the guitar ?

                      What do you guys use?

                      klaasvakie What I've been looking for is a windows program that will capture video from the webcam and audio from USB. Most of the real DAWs require that you record the video on a separate camera and then import that into the audio project, but that is just waaaay to much of a ballache for a quick record. kdenlive on linux can do the above, but my linux machine is no longer close to the guitar ?

                      What do you guys use?

                      I don't have a free suggestion but Camtasia should do exactly what you need and then some.

                      I've used it for work and it works well but it's pretty pricey.