Going to be doing some serious recording with the band in the next few months. I just finished spending a few thousand dollars on equipment for this so i was wondering what multitrack recording program you would suggest that I use on my PC (not mac). I have good quality equipment (including audiophile 192 soundcard) and am left wondering if the software will make a difference in the recording quality. Im familiar with cool edit (who isnt though ) and if it makes no difference in quality i would probably just stick with that since all its being used for is tracking (all mixing is done externally).

With that being said, any suggestions?

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Few thousand dollars on recording equipment? What the hell did you buy man? For your soundcard you shouldn't need anything beyond a few mics and mic preamps hooked up to the RCA or SPDIF ins. I assume you bought a mixer, compressors and other shit, you must have an impressive home studio.

I have Cubase LE that came with my recording interface, after reading some guides(actually, tutorial DVD's for SX 3) its very easy to use, very powerful and chock loaded with features, and it's only the LE version. Download the SX version(more pro) and you'll get way more shit. Nuendo is the same shit as Cubase SX basically but it's supposed to work better on slower computers.

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Yeah i've got some rack equipment, mixers, good mics, mic preamp, modulators and other stuff. Basically left with the software decisions now. Do you need a card installed in the computer with cubase... or am i thinking of a different program? So if i want just a good straight-foreward multitrack program you suggest cubase LE?

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No cubase is not like Protools(where you need to use Protools hardware too), you can use Cubase with pretty much anything hooked up to your soundcard or recording interface(external soundcard like mine).

Cubase LE is the "OEM" version of Cubase, it's slightly dumbed down, comes bundled with many recording interfaces. You can't buy/download LE seperately I think, why would you when you can get SX? For more advanced people there's Cubase SX3. Or Nuendo which is essentially the same program(same developers).

I like LE a lot though, it's very fast and smooth. I don't think I'll be upgrading to SX for quite a while, I'm quite happy with it.

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I don't know about that recordig ability. At least with the mac version i have unless its an asio input it won't let you do shit, and its very very annoying with its away messages.

For PC i would personally use Adobe Audition. thats what i was using up until i got my mac and they don't have a mac version. I found Cubases interface to run kind of choppy, but then again it could be just because its the mac version of it.

Also i think Adobe Audition is much much better about being able to switch between inputs and outputs. With cubase if you want to switch them you have to go into the settings and change it each and every single time. Its fucking annoying. Basically you would do this if you wanted to switch from sound coming out of your mixer to sound coming out of your computer speakers. Being able to do that on the fly for me is a must.

Also i think the interface for cubase is too confusing and adobe auditions is alot more straight forward. Also adobe audition has many many more presets and better interfaces for effects, sends, and things like that.

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You need a pretty good system for Cubase SX 3 or so I hear. Nuendo runs a bit smoother, and it has a few more features. Someone I know likes how Nuendo is equally as powerful as Cubase but runs smoother on his system(which is still pretty good).

What's wrong with switching with ins/outs in cubase? It's stupid easy. You just use the window to the far left after you select a track. You do however have to select what device/driver you're using in the Something>Devices>VST Multitrack beforehand though, then choose what ins and outs you wanna use. No rocket science involved.

I've never used Adobe. When I first saw Cubase I thought it was intimidating as fuck, but I downloaded a tutorial DVD for it, and I've watched less than 10% of it and I already know how to do pretty much everything I would normally do in it. I can pass you the link to where you can find that DVD. It's equally as easy as Cool Edit Pro for me, I'm sure if it had less features it would look exactly the same as CEP and I wouldn't have gotten so scared when I saw it. Just don't go clicking shit until you know exactly what it does, like with anything really.

You might wanna try to find Cubase LE and try it out first instead of getting SX. It's supposedly faster but has most of the same features. Both are piss easy to use as far as the basic recording and editing functions go. The next thing I'm gonna learn is post recording EQ/mixing and then adding reverb to some tracks.

Btw, Cubase runs VST plugins, so you can get very well-known plugins for it like DKFH. I recently just got EZDrummer with the Drumkit From Hell add-on pack, it's essentially a super user-friendly drum machine that produces pro results. I have not tried it yet, but I can't wait to install it! I think Adobe runs VST's too though I'm not sure.

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Cubase for the win. I've tried Cakewalk and Adobe, for me Cubase was the standout champ. Sure it has a steep learning curve, but what a great return you will gain from knowing your shit on it, especially if you're serious about your music. The more you know the better it is. You can do things like automation, or setting markers up and doing multiple takes for one section, then keeping the best one from an audio pool and trashing the rest. I've been using Cubase since the VST32 version 5 days, and each version just gets better and better (though, the SX series was a radical jump from 5, in a good way of course, but it required you to relearn some aspects of Cubase.) In fact Cubase SX 2 ran smoother and faster on the same computer that I was running VST32 5 on.
And like Soeru said, VST Plugins. They rule. Just make sure your comp is strong enough (good processor & RAM speed + a stripped-down version of Windows helps alot) if you wanna go crazy on them. With a decent recording interface/soundcard and maybe some good outboard gear [DI's, compressors, etc.] making sweet recordings won't be a problem at all.

I've never properly tried Nuendo, aside from making awful keyboard tracks on a Nuendo-installed DAW at Guitar Center. Looked fine to me. I'll be honest, I prefer Cubase because it's what I started out on and what I learned to use to the best of its potential. I think most people are like that.

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