Recording Your Stories At Home - 3 What's Behind the Green DAW - recording software and other bits

Here we are at the third installment of Recording Your Stories At Home. In this blog, I will be talking about digital audio workstations. You have your space. You have a recording devise. And now it's time to look at recording!

Following are my feelings and opinions based on my experiences. And that is all they are. Everyone, as I said, has their own favourite DAW or any equipment or device, and some may disagree with me! And I welcome comments about the software I do not use, or have not used, so please speak up!

There are a lot of digital audio workstations (DAWs) out there. And everyone seems to have their favourite. Most people in the industry use Avid's Pro Tools, but this is not cheap. It is also way more than a storyteller or voice artist will ever need! I truly believe that this would not be a good use of valuable resources. Here is a quick list of some of the available software in no real order:

Don't worry it doesn't have to be this serious or scary!

Ableton's Live
Propellorhead Reason
Cakewalk's SONAR
Sony's SoundForge
Steinberg's Cubase
Adobe's Audition
Audacity
Logic Pro
Avid's Pro Tools
and my favourite - Studio One by PreSonus

Some thoughts on software in general. Some software manufacturers are now providing cloud based software. What this means is that you pay a fee every year to keep using it. It is cloud based, so not on your computer, and it is ALWAYS up to date. I think this is a great model for large production houses, but for a small user like me, I hate it. I find myself with yet another annual fee to add to my expenses. For my uses I do not want a ton of bells and whistles. The basics do just fine for what I need and I do not like being held hostage to these big companies. So although Adobe's Audition has some great tools, at $250 a year I am striking them off the list! The above list is not comprehensive either. These are the better known DAWs or DAWs that are better suited for voice work, and not rappers and electronica!

Most DAWs come with a 30 days free trial. Some voice recorders and both Presonus' AudioBox and the Scarlett 2i2 (mentioned in the previous blog) come with free, or light versions of a DAW. Try these out and see what you like the best. But read the rest first!

There are free DAWs out there. Are they any good? For some very basic uses, yes. Try out Audacity, if you want. However, when you set out to create great end products, after spending a few weeks maybe even a month or so playing around with it, you will find it lacking and need to find a program more suitable. So save your time and start off right.

As I began buying recording devices I tried out a few of the above mentioned DAWs. I started with Audacity, and found it lacking. I tried the light version of SONAR and found that, although it was good, was not great. Same thing with Cubase. I have met and know people who love both of those programs and will never change. In doing my due diligence I have looked up some reviews, so you don't have to, of the new versions. The programs  used, I used a good long while ago. A source I discovered and like is: http://ehomerecordingstudio.com/best-daw-software/ In writing this particular blog post, I have also used a fair number of other sources, including Amazon for likes and dislikes of users. I liked ehomerecoording because Bryan seems to have similar thoughts to mine! I also found Ask.Audio to be a very helpful site.

Ableton's Live
More for multi-instrument, and live recording so will have a lot of what you might not use for just voice work. I have heard it works better with a Mac, but I have heard that with Adobe products, and never had an issue as a PC user! I have heard and read that Ableton is not so good for vocal and better for electronic music, but wanted to mention it as it is quite popular with some. (from $88 to $700 in 3 stages)

Propellorhead Reason
Although this new '9' release is supposed to be much improved, this has many tools a none musician will not need, making the intro price of $400 a little steep. It has many music maker fans, so if you play and write songs, this might be, if the price is not too off-putting, a way to go.

Cakewalk's SONAR
When I used this years ago, I hated it. Not user friendly, not intuitive for me, and I went back to... dare I say it... Audacity! I did. But then I found Studio One! SONAR - Entry level $90, mid-level $160, top level, $400. It has been a bit of a mainstay for us PC users apparently. Recently they have been welcomed to the world of Mac, although it was said somewhere there is so much old programming it might be found to have glitches on a Mac! And SONAR has its rabid fans. Sometimes tried and true is good. And it seems, from what I have read, it's new release is a lot easier to use. It would have to be. It has lots of bells and whistles at lower levels than some (like Cubase), and it seems much better (from reviews) than I remember it.

Sony's SoundForge
Declaration here. I do like Sony. I have thought a few time about getting SoundForge and trying it out. But then I did try out their video program Vegas, a few years ago and found it cumbersome and frustrating. And Sound Forge Pro is not cheap at $400 but will let you create a finished CD and burn it. It does not have a mastering suit, something you would think it would have, if you can burn a CD. Lots of good reviews of this program if you want to spend that sort of money to do those sorts of projects. I suppose this could be said for all the top level editions of a DAW. Apples to apples and all that! One other thing I just discovered from Ask.Audio:
The first thing to clear up is that Sound Forge is an Audio Editor, not a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). It has different functions and capabilities to your standard DAW. You can record audio and edit audio files, but it’s not like a DAW where you arrange your audio regions to form a song. It’s more of a tool where you can edit and process audio files. So it’s well suited for audio restoration, mastering and sound design as it deals with audio on a different level than your DAW,  for example audio batch processing. With an audio editor you can edit a file and apply those same settings across numerous audio file in a batch process seamlessly, which would take ages in a standard DAW.

Steinberg's Cubase
Already said something about this already. Was not my favourite, and is used by many. Not as intuitive as some other products, but a very strong contender. This latest version, Pro 8.5 has a sharing ability similar to Pro Tools. It has an improved workflow. And the Pro version costs $550. There is a Elements version for $100 which could be a good starting point, or point of entry. It seems to me that some of these editors I tried a while ago have made great strides to improve - maybe because of the number of newer products on the market now offered. Elements has an EQ system which is great to remove hisses that may come out on words like hisses! This is a huge bonus.

Logic Pro
I know people who use this and Pro Tools together. I think Pro Tools has some of the final production pieces that Logic does not. Not sure why! One disadvantage and plus to this is that it is Mac only, If you don't use Mac, this is not for you. If you use only Mac, and have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook and iMac or Mac Pro -  then this would probably be the way to go. It is $200 and is filled with lots of musical add-ons. I did not find a free version of this, or a light version. This is it!

Avid's Pro Tools
As I have said this is the go-to for professionals and has a professional price tag. They do have a free version which might be worth trying out, and if you find you need or want to upgrade, it costs $300 for the mid-range version. The pro is a lot more. I have read it is clunky and has a lot of very old (outdated?) parts to it. They do, however, have a great tool which allows engineers (that would be you!) to share work. This means you could work on something and send it to a pro studio for them to put finishing touches on. Just a thought. Because of the price, be sure you want to go this route.

My favourite:
Studio One
I have not used the new and improved, and recently released version 3. I have and use version 2.5 and love it. When I got Studio One, it came with a mic, cables, headphones and the AudioBox USB "adapter" interface. I tried Studio One and fell in love with it. I found it so easy to use, quick to pick up, and easy to discover things as I worked. It has a number of very useful features for voice work including punch and roll. I will discuss this feature/technique in the next blog. The free version does not have EQ but the $100 Artist version does. This is nice as you can get a feel for it in the free version, and buy into it if, like me, you found it easy to use. It has both Mac and PC versions of the software. If you buy the artist version and want to be able to do more, then when you are ready you can upgrade to the $400 Professional version for $300. As I imagine you can do with other multilevel DAWs. One thing I like a lot about Studio One Producer (now the Pro version) is that it has some of the tools featured in Pro Tool and Logic Pro. They are easy to learn and very useful.

Having done my due diligence and looked at/read about the newer versions of old software I have used, it seems that maybe Cubase is not so bad after all. all these programs have their fans and all of them have reasons for loving what they use and not liking the ones they do not. If you know people who have digital audio workstations or audio editing software, ask if they can show you how it works, try it out yourself and see what works for you. Ask why they like it over others. Then you can make a sound, well educated decision.

If you found this information useful in any way whatsoever, please considering following my blog and subscribing. Click there on the right! If you know anyone who is interested in this stuff, or is also thinking about getting into recording their own stuff, forward the blog!

I will also invite you to visit my website: http://www.diamondscree.com/
where there you can listen to recordings made in the studio, watch short movies of me telling tales at various places, and where you can also sign up for newsletters (which are a lot shorter than this blog) among many other cool things!  Thanks for reading.

Peace,
Simon

NEXT UP: "What the Dang Does a DAW do?" A blog about digital workstations, mic placement, headphones, popscreens and file formats - not necessarily in that order!

Intro about recording: http://worldofstories.blogspot.com/2016/01/learning-art-of-narrating-audio-books.html

Taking Something Floating in the Air

My first recorder. It weighed a ton!

This past weekend I taught a workshop on recording in a home studio, from setting it up, to find the right equipment, to recording.  As a kid, my brother and I recorded on my step-father's Grundig reel to reel machine, and occasionally on the Dictaphones my dad sold from his office supply store in South Wales (before Office Max was invented).  The Grundig had a great smell to it and would wake up like a living beast.  You would click it on with the roll volume button, and watch the green light (above the word automatic) come slowly on and the whole creature of a machine would hum. You could smell the electricity of it, like you can smell the gas burning from a fast car driving 100 mph or more.

I wonder where those tapes are now, and if they still have a couple of little boys pretending to be police officers or spies on them! I later used that same Grundig to record my rock and band. I moved 'up' to a cassette machine, a Walkman and tried recording with that. My best friend Billy in the UK had a Tascam Portastudio which recorded 4 track onto a cassette.  We played with that a lot and recorded a bunch of songs - at least one albums worth! That was the first time I tried engineering a track.  I would take my cassette recorder with me and record my life and stories to my wife when she was over here in America and I was still in the UK. I have always loved recording sounds, stories, and other people, especially street musicians, as well as photograph them. I usually have a voice recorder and camera with me!

When I began life as a professional storyteller in 2003, one of the first things I wanted to do was record stories, share them with the world, and show the world what I could do. Share stories and show my talent, was my plan.  But I also knew I wanted to do the best job I could possibly do - not just a quick record, get it out there, but a really good job.

There is a folk story about a woman who spreads gossip. One day she discovers that something that she spread was a lie and went to the preacher to see what she could do to stop it from spreading further.  The preacher told her to take a feather pillow to the top of a hill on a windy day.  When she was there, she was to rip open the pillow and sake the feathers into the wind, then return to talk to the priest. She did this.  When she got back to the priest, she asked what to do next.  He told her to go and collect every single feather she had released from the pillow. She said it could not be done, and he agreed, but this is how rumours, lies, gossip spreads. Once it is out there, you have no control over it. It has a life of its own, and that is the same to ANYTHING we put up on-line. So I wanted something good, that in 10 years I could look back on say 'It's still good, and I am still happy with it."

Second-hand Tales, released 2006
Artwork copyright Rob Brookes 2006

The first CD was recorded professionally in a studio, but I watched and learned and went home, found Audacity and played with it. Audacity is a free Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). That first CD was released in 2006. I recorded more, and played with Audacity more. I began putting stories on my website. Some of the tools I purchased a long the way (my Roland Edirol R-09 and Zoom Q3) had light versions of DAW programs like Cakewalk and Cubase, so I tried those out.  But I liked the simplicity of Audacity, although there were many limitations.  I began putting more stories on my website. I recorded my second CD in another studio and sat with the engineer, watched, asked questions and played more with the programs I had, working between Audacity and the others, combining talents (tools), if you were.  That CD was released in 2008.  In

More Second-hand Tales, released 2008
Artwork copyright Rob Brookes 2008

2010, with my own equipment (the Edirol R-09) and the DAWs I had, I recorded my third CD.  The music was recorded at the second studio and the stories and music were put together there, and produced, with me helping (again asking questions and watching closely). This was released in 2011 and won Parent's Choice Gold Award.

A Tangle of Tales, released 2010
Artwork copyright Rob Brookes 2010

Then I invested in new equipment.  I bought a condenser mic, a USB box, and set of headphones, as a kit, put out by PreSonus and it came with their DAW called Studio One.  I started playing around with the kit and discovered I had found the digital audio workstation for me! It was fast to learn, easy to use, did everything I wanted it to do and more.  I recorded more and put more out on my website. Played around with the new tools I found. I made bootlegs of unreleased stories which I sometimes gave away at birthday parties. Someone asked me to record their juvenile fantasy novel, which I did.  That was in 2012. Last year (2013) I recorded 4 more books and so far this year (April 2nd 2014) I have recorded two more. All in my home studio. (I would share a photo of it, but it is in a bit of a mess right now!)

It's is not that I like the sound of my own voice.  I just love playing around and recording. I take my voice recorder everywhere I go mostly. You never know when you will hear something cool. (This is the time to listen out for those Peepers calling out to their mates!) Sometimes we just take it for granted, but there is still wonder in it for me, which is probably why I love it so much.  The DAW does not have the same smell that the Grundig used to have, and luckily it does not hum like it! But the same magic instilled in me all those years ago, has a strong hold; and that magic of taking something floating in the air, something unseen and capturing it so I can be heard again and again is pretty cool to me!