Originally Posted by: manXcat

So far I've tried the genuine freebies/cheapies, .e.g. Audacity & Reaper.

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Hey manX, I've seen more than one pro mention that Reaper is pretty good and has quite a lot of features given that it is free (with suggested donation). A great software given that it nearly has no cost.

Originally Posted by: manXcat

Traktion came inc. FOC with my Behringer U-Phoria UMC204HD, but like the bundled and 'free' versions of PreSonus Studio One, they exist primarily to sell you their upgraded versions and/or expensive value added plugins. Looking at PreSonus Studio One, I liked it, but its featureset is limited without buying into a higher segment.

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I quite liked the approach of PreSonus Studio One, but it's heavily segment price tiered and the Pro version is very expensive. Whilst it undoubtedly has all the bells and whistles, it reminds me of Photoshop with a zillion features I'd never need or use.

I don't think you could lose with Presonus. They're an established quality DAW. I'd be more apt to go with Presonus before going to a Protools. Protools now requires a subscription and I've always had a little bit of a stinkeye on how much more you can get given the cost. I have a Mac so I have the 'free' Gargeband and it is very feature rich but when I really start (bothering) to dig deep in recording, I'll bump up to Logic Pro (Mac's other recording software) for a couple hundred bucks. But for under $300, Presonus is hard to beat, I think.

To your point about the pro version of Presonus, there's a good point there too. I mean, your comparison to Photoshop was very on point too. I did freelance graphic design for a good number of years (not shocking...CD packages, DVD covers, posters etc) and I lived and loved Photoshop. But it was a tool that made me money and I needed that level of tool to do the quality of work I needed to do. I haven't done freelance in a good bit of time and when Adobe started forcing subscriptions, I figured why bother. At this point, I'd only been using it to make funny (but awesome) Christmas cards. Not exactly a 'need'.

Same I thing applies to a DAW, I think. Sure, you may get a gazillion more features and features that a recording pro might need. For the same reason I'm still happy fiddling with Mac's (free) Garageband; it's got plenty of features for my skill level.

[quote=manXcat]

I'm currently trying out NCH Wavepad, and have looked at IKM Amplitude which I haven't, yet. It receives positive accolade/feedback.

I've had Amplitube guitar sim software for a long time (I did a review of it here a very long time ago). It was pretty great then and I'm sure even better now as amp sims have vastly improved over time. I still have it and never upgraded to new. But see right below....

Currently though, I've been using Postive Grid's Bias FX 2. Right now, it's like 50% off. I really like it too. There is a warmth to the sims that I like. Bais FX 2 comes with 30 amp types, 40 effects and a couple dozen preconfigured rigs. My time using amp sims, I've learned that, like and amp, you need to fiddle with them to get what you're looking for. The other part I like is their amp cabinets (IR's, or impulse response). Truthfully, this is where the rubber meets the road. Historically amp sims didn't do a good job of replicating the sound coming out of a real life cabinet. However, with new understandings of how a cabinet pushed air (ie - wavelengths), this is getting much better and for Bias FX 2, their cabinet IRs are really quite good.

Bias FX 2 for the standard version, is on sale for $49.99 (just looked now). With that pricing, I'm going to jump up to Professional. Why not, ya know? Cheap!! I have a new Mac Mini coming tomorrow so I'll be loading that up in to the new Mac.

...So there's some imput. Some from experience and some from 'what I've heard'.

The real trick with DAWs at any level is to understand some base recording concepts about gain staging (ie - the imput level you're driving in to the DAW), good EQing skills and how to layer instruments. Some people will lay down a guitar track and think that it sounds rather lame. It probably does. Tricks like gain staging, recording seperately played guitar tracks each panned hard left and hard right give the wider sound. how the bass underlies all that. Even some tricks I learned when I sat in some studios in the past and seeing some mixing tricks. It opened me up to broader thinking about recording and mixing, like one of them is to split the bass drum out to two tracks and have one track to EQ the bottom end and the other track to EQ in the snappier part of the hit. Things like that that you learn from playing around.

If you hadn't already done so, it's worth checking out Graham at Recording Revolution. Lot's of free blogs (and yes, he does sell lessons and packages too). But there is a ton of free blogs and videos to help with some basic concepts.

Ok, I'm done yammering.....