Question for January 19-25, 2011

[Amby Leigh]

We have asked in the past about your microphone of choice. Time to take it a little further.

What is your recording and/or mixing program(s) of choice? What does this program have to offer or what is it lacking in your opinion?

[ScottStoked]

I'm pretty happy with Adobe Audition. I started off using Cool Edit Pro (which was bought by Adobe) for music projects back in the day, so it was an interface I was already familiar with.

Pros:
- Nice multitrack interface
- Built in editor
- Works really well with most of my VST plugins

Cons:
- Pricey
- Adobe seems to have stopped updating it
- Poor VST instrument implementation

[StarYoshi14]

Audacity has served me faithfully since the day I downloaded it.

[MissAck]

Mixing - Sony Vegas 10 pro, now. Vegas has never given me a problem. Even when I wanted to work in Premiere, I ended up switching back to Vegas, just cause I'm used to it.

Recording - Used to use Audacity before I was able to get Audition and Soundbooth.

Audacity - when converting using lame, it really downgrades the quality and I'm upset with myself for not noticing it earlier. Everyone thought it was my mic. I also didn't really like using any of it's effects other than amplify. I was afraid of the others ones. o.o
It also had a tendency to crash on me. And boy did I want to burn it. You can't really recover the files unless you save the project. If you don't save it, all the temporary recording files now sound sadly like midi's and you're screwed.

Audition - I really like the edit view in Audition. It's amazing. and even with that, whatever you record in a new file, it stays seperate from what you've already got.
Soundbooth - It's fairly the same to Audition, just has some quicker ways of getting some effects in your recordings.

I shall never be converted back!

[Seymour]

Video and Audio Mixing- Magix Movie Edit 15, it has both capabilities, so it makes things easier to keep one program up, also the audio cleaning and EQ effects it can pull out are quite nice to have to make voices sound fresh and crisp :)

Recording- Adobe Audition, the recording and compressing uses..to die for

[Buris]

Audacity, of course.

[Bgilbert]

I currently use audacity, but am soon upgrading to adobe audition.

When I used the free trial, little things, like seeing visually how much sound removal will change the raw audio, and being able to control that was very impressive.

It also has many tools that, while I now am unsure of how to use, will help give me the ability to have more options to use as my knowlege grows.

Audacity is fine if you can't afford it, but look into upgrading. Ask for it for your birthday, save up cash here and there (or if you're like me, play blackjack, heh) and go for it.

This of course is secondary to getting a proper mic. Your $10 wal-mart mic will still be low quality, reguardless of how expensive the program you are using is.

[Blue Leader]

For recording I, admittedly, just use Audacity. It's free, it's easy-to-use, and while the quality sometimes may not be great... it's free. Oh, and did I mention it's free?
I would like to get a better program, but I can't see paying a few hundred dollars for one. I guess it's Torrent time, eh? :sweat

As for what I mix or edit with, I usually use MAGIX Movie Edit Pro (of varying versions). I started out with 11, now I have 15 Pro Plus. I'd like to get the latest version, but I'm waiting for it to go on sale first. Fry's usually has some good deals on them after a while. Heck, I got version 11 for free because it was $60 to start, $30 in-store rebate, and than it also had a $30 mail-in rebate. Had a Torrent of 13 (yes, I'm bad), and 15 Pro Plus I bought for around $30, which was half price or something like that.
But for being a relatively cheap program (even full price it's still not extremely expensive) it's pretty easy to use, offers quite a number of features, and the quality is fine. The only problem I've run into is that it does not like MP3s recorded in Audacity for some reason, and no one can seem to figure out why, not even the company. It's something to do with how Audacity exports the MP3s or something... So I always have to convert the Audacity-recorded MP3s to OGG before importing them.
This is another reason why I really need to get a better recording program....

Regarding microphones, though, I've come to the realization that an extremely expensive mic doesn't always mean a wonderful quality, and an extremely cheap mic doesn't always mean a horrible quality. I've been using a Logitech desktop microphone that I bought for around $10 (maybe less) and it's great. I have yet to get any complaints about it, and it sounds just fine to me when I play it back.

[BenTuttle90]

I use Sony Vegas Pro 9 for my visual cuts; I recently won it in a competition. The only issue is noise removal ; it's awful for a program like this.

I'll be using Magix 14 Pro Plus for noise removal and recording. For how much it costs; it does well. It tends to lag when it comes to HD editing.

[Tony]

I use Apple Logic. It works quite well, IMO. I just recently engineered a full episode dub and it worked pretty well for both recording/ADR with video sync and mixing. I know it's more of a music program, but it seems to do pretty well with just being used for audio.

I do want to try PT9 tho. :-D

[Sapphire]

I'm pretty happy with Adobe Audition. I started off using Cool Edit Pro (which was bought by Adobe) for music projects back in the day, so it was an interface I was already familiar with.

Pros:
- Nice multitrack interface
- Built in editor
- Works really well with most of my VST plugins

Cons:
- Pricey
- Adobe seems to have stopped updating it
- Poor VST instrument implementation

Pretty much everything here. I'm starting to test out different programs that my VST's are completely compatible with, like Cubase. Eventually, I'll switch to that when I've gotten used to the interface because Audition doesn't like mono plugins.

For dubs, I use Sony Vegas 10.

[Merodi]

Currently I use ProTools 8 LE for all of my mixing, and recording when possible.

What I love:
-Preservation of audio history (most times if you delete a waveform, it keeps a record/memory of what you lost so you can pull it back later)
-Flexability and options for editing
-Powerhouse editing program (it can handle huge audio projects, and rarely runs the risk of crashing)
-Editor/multitrack capabilities

What I dislike:
-Does not come with a noise-removal plug-in; needs to be purchased separately
-Exports files in "real time" -- a 20-minute clip will take 20 minutes to export


Why it's great:
It's a professional audio program with a lot of flexability.

Why it's not so great:
It's expensive and complicated; if you buy the program, you most likely will need training before you can use it, and I don't mean a half-hour tutorial.



Otherwise I default to Audacity for recording and speedy export of audio files.

[Sora565]

With Audacity at my side, I'll never spend money on an audio program, ever.