I'm looking for an accessible multitrack editor. I use Audacity for most of my basic editing needs, but now find myself in the market for something that can record and mix a multitrack. I'm aware of Amadeus, ProTools, and Logic. Are there other options that I'm not aware of? Does anyone have any recommendations among these apps, from an accessibility standpoint? What about the price difference? Also, do any of these apps have free trial periods so I could test them out and see if they fit my needs?
Thanks in advance for any information or recommendations!
Comments
I'd recommend garage band
I'd recommend garage band if you're on a budget. It's not as good as logic or protools, but it works pretty well with VO.
GB
Oh I didn't even think about Garage Band, ha... I've seen lots of people asking for tutorials or quick start guides for Garage Band, but I haven't seen any. Could anybody point me in that direction? I'm sureI could make some headway if I just played around, but it'd be nice to have a starting point.
Not enough tracks
Upon a little bit of investigation, it seems that Garage Band can only record 8 simultaneous tracks. That isn't going to be enough for my purposes.
Still interested in a good guide for using Garage Band with VO, though, if anyone has one. Something like some of the awesome guides on Applevis for apps like Mail, Finder, etc. would be great!
GB and multi-tracking.
Hi, I believe, you can record 8 tracks, then compress them down in to 1 track, then have 7 more tracks left over. At least, you can do that with the iOS version. I'll have to double check if it works on the Mac as well.
Simultaneous Multitracking
Right - my problem is that I may need to record more than eight tracks simultaneously. What I'm wanting to do is run the audio from our church's sound console into a multitrack software so that I can mix down the recording of the service afterward. The board can send up to 32 channels, so I'd like the capability to import that many if possible.
Bump
I know it's not very good etiquette to bump your own topic - but I wanted to draw some more attention to this because I could really use some recommendations regarding multitrack recording on OS X. Thanks!
Reaper or Pro Tools
Reaper or Pro Tools will both handle this. Both are popular DAWs (digital audio workstations), but there are some key considerations for VoiceOver users.
Reaper is free to try and cheap as chips to buy. It probably has the steaper learning curve of the two options because there are less resources and support from other VO users available, but if cost matters to you and you're not new to the DAW scene then you stand a good chance of figuring things out. The most comprehensive resource for Mac users at the moment is www.reaperaccess.com, and questions are always welcome on the Reaper Without Peepers mailing list which you can subscribe to by emailing rwp-subscribe@bluegrasspals.com.
Pro Tools is pretty much the industry standard DAW, so chances are if there's any other people who are into audio at your church, they'll have touched PT at some point even if they didn't stick with it as their DAW of choice. It's way more expensive, but the accessibility is more complete, there are more VO users who can offer help via the PTAccess Google group, and there are also a set of cheap thorough tutorials at www.protoolswithspeech.com to get you started. Not sure whether it's out yet, but it'd be worth you Googling Pro Tools First, which is a slimmed down version of PT to see whether that'll do what you need in the interest of saving money.
I'm not a regular on AppleVis, but will turn on notifications for the topic and hopefully see if that raises more questions than it answers for you lol.
Good luck
Scott
Logic
Logic also is good. The only real limitation is that it's super hard to insert sends per channel, but there are templates that can do it for you. I also own Reaper, and feel that it's kind of hard to use on the Mac, because everything's just presented on one long line, and you have to VO through it to get where you want. Logic seems more intuitive.
How to get started using Reaper?
Hi!
Wow, I tried Reaper last summer, and couldn't get anything to work. Are there any good getting started guides for that program with specific instructions for Voiceover?
I've used Amadeus Pro myself for a few years, and a little of Audacity as well, but the last one I never got the hang of, so I sticked with Amadeus Pro. Even though I miss a truncate silence option, so any tip or advice is greatly appreciated