Avid Recording Studio

[Akin]

Hey guys,


I was looking at the Avid recording studio, but I have read so many bad reviews about them. If anybody has them, can he or she tell me how it performs? Is there any good alternatives for it in the 50 - 150 price range? AFAIK it can record electric guitars, vocals, bass guitars, keyboards. And I guess it can record drums. Those are some major must haves.

 

[Akin]

Bump

 

[ROBSCIX]

What about Free apps?  -Audacity comes to mind.
 
For recording I like to use Adobe Audition but it runs about $350 new.
Just look around as you should be able to find lots of freeware multitrack and editors.
Not sure you have for and interface, mixers..etc
Hope that helps.

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

What other hardware or software do you already own?
 
The Avid studio you mention is basically an M-Audio Fast Track (2in/2out interface) bundled with a cut down version of Pro Tools.
 
That's fine for guitar/vocals and a prerecorded backing track but you cannot expect a record a full band or even a proper drum kit (unless you have a mixer and several mikes and do it as a stem). You probably already have stereo in stereo out already on your PC and in my experience those cut down versions of pro quality audio software are cleverly crippled so you are almost always forced to upgrade to the full product.
 
If I was you I'd get a proper multichannel audio interface something like this.
 
http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio_interfaces/scarlett_8i6/
 
That's about £180 though. They have a cheaper option (2i2) and one big enough for a full band inc drums (18i6)  for only a little more.
 
THE recording software to get atm is called REAPER.
 
http://www.reaper.fm/
 
Do not be put off by the incredibly cheap price ($60) it's a proper pro quality application, probably the best on the market atm. Users absolutely love it. Check it out.

 

[Akin]

Thanks for the answer guys. I was turned off by the bad Avid and M - Audio reviews, so I started looking at Focusrite. I think the focusrite Saffire 2i2. I'm not planning to record the whole band at the same time, just want to record the instruments and vocals. Doesn't matter if its part by part. I'm planning to record electric drums, thats why I thought I could record by xlr, which the 2i2 supports. My laptop is a Pavilion dv6 with an 8 core i7 processor and 8 gigs of ram. The sound card is onboard sound ofc, and it has Beats Audio (not the reason I bought the laptop).