What's a good first software for noodling around with recording?

Matt300ZXT

Matt300ZXT

Well-known member
I am never going to mix and master an album, I just want to goof around with recording some riffs for fun, maybe laying down a track for a friend who is better at this stuff and he can take what I send him to add to his recording he spends lots of time on tweaking and adjusting. I've never recorded or used software for it. I just got a Boss Katana Mk2 yesterday. For one, I needed a new practice amp, for two, I needed an interface and this killed 2 birds with 1 stone. Maybe one day I'll get an interface and record my real amps with a mic, but for now the Katana will do for fun.

I have 2 computers laying around I can use. I have, I think it's an early 2009 Mac Pro, the big ass heavy aluminum tower that can literally stop bullets, with the quad core processor, not the dual processor. and High Sierra. The other is a 2014 PC my dad gave me yesterday with an i5 and Windows 8.1. I have a much nicer computer, but that's my business computer, and I don't really want to transition anything over from it to use it for music. Besides, I just want to record some basic guitar parts.

The Mac has Garage Band but if there's a decent intuitive program I can get for the PC, I'd prefer to use it. It does have USB 3.0 if that matters.
 
The thing about Reaper is that there's a learning curve. But I think that's true of most DAWs out there. That said, it pays dividends once you learn a few things ;)
 
If you have access to apple, garage band/Logic is so user friendly. I was midway recording songs with band we were getting together and it just wasn’t working out due to creative differences. I was able to work my song ideas out through logic and get the “Apple Drummer” set up and sounding like real drums going through the changes.

I am using my real Marshall head into that cheap bugera attenuator then a load box and running the attenuators line out into my interface. My interface is an ID4 which has 2 inputs and 2 outputs but it’s great for what I need.

From there taking the signal and using an impulse response plugin with the greenback .wav files from celestion.

Overall, my tone sounds pretty darn good and I’m recording silently in my basement.

Once I get everything done and some vocals
laid out and mixed/mastered, I think it’ll sound as good or better than any time I went to a studio.

Just message me and I could send you some samples of what I’m working on.
 
I started with reaper as it`s free. I you have an Apple computer go with Garage Band.
For reaper you can find a lot of tutorials on YT how to set up and navigate the DAW. This is probably true for Garage Band too.
 
There's a free version of Studio One, which is a lot easier to get your head around than vanilla Reaper is. That said, I use Reaper too.
 
Reaper is a huge thing to bite into. I agree that Studio One is a bit more intuitive, but I've never used the free version, so idk what features it might be lacking. Honestly, I started back in the day with Audacity and it's super simple and free. I work on Mac though these days, so Garage Band/Logic is my jam, there's so many easy creative tools in there that make songwriting a breeze compared to other software.
 
Started with reaper, went to Cubase and a few others and now back to reaper. It’s great.
 
Hey there! For your first software, I recommend starting with something simple and user-friendly like GarageBand or Audacity. Both programs are great for recording and editing basic guitar tracks, and they have plenty of helpful tutorials available online to help you get started. And if you ever decide to design and test a site, check out zaptest.com for some support. I hope that helps!
 
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Fuck reaper….and audacity…however I am slowly learning. So I would say reaper. Maybe if I wasn’t dealing with o.t. Shit all the time I could probably learn something. My problem is I try to do something and get frustrated and say fuck this shit and walk off.
 
JackBootedThug said:
Fuck reaper….and audacity…however I am slowly learning. So I would say reaper. Maybe if I wasn’t dealing with o.t. Shit all the time I could probably learn something. My problem is I try to do something and get frustrated and say fuck this shit and walk off.
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YouTube tutorials saved my ass so many times. Not only has Reaper made a video for every feature it has, it will teach you how to hack it in useful ways, and they keep putting out new videos for new features. Whatever troubles you, not only is there a tutorial on YouTube for it, but there is a way to configure Reaper to make whatever it is way easier. Just about any parameter can be modified.
 
Bandlab is free and is a better DAW imho. easier to route tracks and the prochannel is great. Also blows away reaper when it comes to midi.
 
That’s what I need to do, just watch some videos. I’m slowly learning how to use it though. I downloaded a backing track off YouTube onto audacity but it’s too loud. Can’t get my plugins to work real time. If I have reaper or stl amphup up then YouTube shits the bed on me. Can’t figure out how to do it on reaper yet. Brings me no enjoyment….makes me feel like a turd dipped in misery actually….
 
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