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Topic: Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software (Read 17470 times) previous topic - next topic
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Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

****!!... somehow the topic title got truncated  It was supposed to be "good FREE(!) simultaneous multi-track audio recording software?  (I have Audacity but it only supports 2 simultaneous tracks)"

Hi all.  I'm looking for some good free (NOT trialware) simultaneous multi-track recording software.  I have Audacity, but it can only record 2 channels (1 stereo track) at a time.
My computer's on-board sound has 6 jacks in the rear, each of which (up to all 6 simultaneously) can be set as "line-in".
When I plug separate audio sources into each jack, I'd like each one to go on a separate track, not all get mixed onto one stereo track.  What free software can I download that will do this?
I'm running Windows XP Home SP2 on a 2.1GHz dual-core AMD CPU with 2GB RAM, and slightly over 1TB HD capacity (using 3 HDDs).

I would like to use Audacity, but it only seems to support recording 2 channels at a time.  Is there some other program I could download, or is there a plugin for Audacity that will enable simultaneous multi-track recording?

(A friend of mine uses SONAR, but it's $619 over my budget.)

Thanks to the unidentified mod who edited my topic, or was it automatically fixed somehow?  Somehow the word "FREE" was omitted from the topic title, though...

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #1 –
http://www.reaper.fm/
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #2 –
Quote
I'm running Windows XP Home SP2 on a 2.1GHz dual-core AMD CPU with 2GB RAM, and slightly over 1TB HD capacity (using 3 HDDs).


If you ever get around to doing this on a Mac OS/X or Linux I can recommend Ardour to you.  Other then that good luck in your searching finding open-source alternatives on Windows (If they even exist). 

http://www.ardour.org/
budding I.T professional

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #3 –
Reaper costs $, and I'm looking for something that's no more expensive than Audacity.

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #4 –
Quote from: pianoplayer88key on
Reaper costs $, and I'm looking for something that's no more expensive than Audacity.
I want a personal butler and a helicopter for free. iow: Get a job then.

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #5 –
?????????????????????

I like Audacity for what I can do with it (and some things it can do I haven't learned much yet) but I'd like to find some true multi-track recording software that's the same price as Audacity.  No, it doesn't need to have all the effects / plugins / etc that Audacity has - I'll mainly be recording multiple sources simultaneously, saving the files as separate tracks, then when I want to edit them I'll import them in Audacity and work with them there.

Are you telling me that no multi-track recording software exists that's free?  That would be like telling me that software like Open Office, Firefox, Audacity, GIMP, VirtualDub, etc, are not free.

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #6 –
Quote from: pianoplayer88key on
Reaper costs $, and I'm looking for something that's no more expensive than Audacity.


Reaper costs only $50 for a personal licence, which is an absolute steal. Also, the demo is fully featured and not time limited so you can pretty much use it as long as you like without paying, although you will get nagged for 5 seconds every time you run it.

It's also awesome.

Kristal Audio Engine could be what you're looking for, I've never tried it though and from the feature list it looks quite limited compared to Reaper. Max of 16 tracks, etc..
Dan

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #7 –
Quote from: danbee on
Also, the demo is fully featured and not time limited so you can pretty much use it as long as you like without paying, although you will get nagged for 5 seconds every time you run it.

It's also awesome.

Kristal Audio Engine could be what you're looking for, I've never tried it though and from the feature list it looks quite limited compared to Reaper. Max of 16 tracks, etc..

Well.. in that case, seeing as I also use an older version of GoldWave (4.26), which is also nagware, I could try reaper I guess.  (The version of Goldwave I use, after you use certain commands a particular # of times per session, nags you with a popup screen about every other time you use one.  The newer versions of GW, like 5.x or something like that, are time limited.)

But... how do you call $50 an "absolute steal"? especially considering:
I generally like to spend no more than a small fraction (of the hardware costs) on the software I use for a project,
I prefer the hardware costs to be an even tinier fraction of the money I expect to actually make from selling finished copies (or whatever it is) (and that's assuming it's a bad enough commercial failure to make the Guinness Book of World Records in a category like "commercial failures so bad they can never again be matched, let alone bested")
in this particular case, it's a project I'm doing for free for my family.

I would be willing to invest some $ in some good software around the time I buy better quality audio hardware, seeing as I would like to sometime do some professional recordings, but that's still at least a year or more into the future.  At the rate I'm raking in the dollars from my not-yet-finished piano music album that I'm in the process of recording with a Zoom H2 and a Baldwin Hamilton piano, that may as well be several years or decades. :|  (But, while I'm not making money from what I'm doing with this, nor expecting to make money, I would prefer to spend (or not) my money accordingly.  (About the in-progress piano music album - the equipment I now have seems to be working well enough - maybe it's that I've figured out how to use my Zoom H2 and Audacity effectively, and the piano's in excellent condition, especially for its age.)


I downloaded Kristal but have yet to figure out how to use it.

I only have six 1/8" jacks on my comp's motherboard, however each can be set as line-in, line-out, speaker out, mic in, etc, independently - they don't have to be assigned to the "defaults".  So in that case 12 channels (would that be 6 tracks?) is sufficient for now.  (However, if that means I can't IMPORT more than 16 pre-recorded tracks.... Audacity to the rescue.)

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #8 –
Are you *sure* your integrated soundcard supports more than one line in?  Usually, onboard soundcards only support 3 stereo outs (5.1, 4 if it's 7.1), one stereo in and one mic.


If you really can record from more than one source as you say, here there's a possible (haven't tested) workaround:

Open several audacitys.  Select a different source in each one, and start recording. (There's an option in the transport menu named timer record which you can use to syncronize their start of recording)

Of course, this gives you the extra job of putting them all in one audacity afterwards.

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #9 –
Unless you are using a special DAW-built PC, there is no way you will have more than 2 inputs on the Sound Card.

To multi-track you will need a multi-tracking sound card. The good news is many will come with bundled software.

Otherwise..

I use n-Track Studio for most of my recording needs. $64.

There are a few "projects" around (i.e Krystal) but with inexpensive options like N-Track and Reaper, I doubt there will ever be a freeware multi-track option that is worth the trouble.

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #10 –
Quote
Are you telling me that no multi-track recording software exists that's free? That would be like telling me that software like Open Office, Firefox, Audacity, GIMP, VirtualDub, etc, are not free.


There IS multi-track recording software that exists for free and is open-source, however it's not going to be ported over to Windows anytime soon. This is precisly why everyone should be dual-booting a second operating systems like Linux or have a dedicated machine that has something like Mac OS/X  on it (especially geared toward audio production). I am not saying Windows is subpar, but you need to fork over some cash in this area if you want to do anything serious. Open-source alternatives already exist on the other two operating systems. 
budding I.T professional

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #11 –
HotshotGG, I have Ubuntu also installed on this machine.

Problem is I haven't figured out how to run Linux and Windows simultaneously, yet.

(Not to mention I'm considering adding another 2GB of RAM to this comp (already has 2 - would make it 4) but that'll probably not be for a while yet).

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #12 –
Quote
HotshotGG, I have Ubuntu also installed on this machine.

Problem is I haven't figured out how to run Linux and Windows simultaneously, yet.

(Not to mention I'm considering adding another 2GB of RAM to this comp (already has 2 - would make it 4) but that'll probably not be for a while yet).


I think what you are looking for is called "VMWare"   

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

Excellent! I just installed Ubuntu on a machine yesterday. I recommend you get yourself multi-track sound card. I can't think of any that specifically come to mind, but definitely consider looking into M-Audio. Secondly I recommend you check out Ardour. It's designed for the task that you specifically asked for above.  Please let us know what your course of action is and how your project turns out!
budding I.T professional

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #13 –
Don't know if this will work with your hardware (I couldn't find anything in the manual about recording more than two tracks at once), but it's multi-track, free, and available for Windows:

http://traverso-daw.org/

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #14 –
Quote from: HotshotGG on
Quote
Are you telling me that no multi-track recording software exists that's free? That would be like telling me that software like Open Office, Firefox, Audacity, GIMP, VirtualDub, etc, are not free.


There IS multi-track recording software that exists for free and is open-source, however it's not going to be ported over to Windows anytime soon. This is precisly why everyone should be dual-booting a second operating systems like Linux or have a dedicated machine that has something like Mac OS/X  on it (especially geared toward audio production). I am not saying Windows is subpar, but you need to fork over some cash in this area if you want to do anything serious. Open-source alternatives already exist on the other two operating systems. 


I have a mac pro tower from the mid 2000s, I swapped out the internals for 1tb and 2tb drives as fast as were available at the same time I had a decent tax refund, then I partitioned the startup and I installed VMware Fusion (can run multiple OS at once). I am running 10.7 and windows 7 so I can do all my gaming, work, 3-D, music and video on one machine. I have tried every piece of sound software for every platform I can get my hands on and OSX and Linux have the best multi track software as well as the absolute best *FREE* options for sound design and multi track software recording, with Ardour way out front for multitrack recording freeware that is worth a poo.

The bottom line is, if you are not willing to swap systems, you are going to have to PAY for a decent multitrack software recorder and $50 for a home studio that does what you WANT it to is a STEAL. It is MUCH cheaper than the apps that the professionals use that will run you from a few hundred to a few thousand, and a fraction the cost of a new computer + operating system.

Something to ponder though, if you ever NEED to upgrade your CPU - every current Mac can run Windows. Also my mac Pro tower runs Windows 7 games and design apps FASTER and with less latency when recording than my newer Dell with comparable ram, graphics and sound card (I wish I had looked into Windows partitioning on macs before I bought another WIndows machine!!!). So if you love your Microsoft but want to be able to tool around with MacOS too (and at the same time, even!) you may want to invest in a mac next CPU upgrade and then you can run every windows and mac freeware app you can find, you can even add something like boot camp and run Linux/ubuntu as well!! Three OS on one machine... just a thought. Then again if you are not willing to drop the same price as a single tank of gas to have your home studio do exactly what you would like it to, I don't think switching to a Mac running multiple OS is in your future.

Listen to the people who have already tried many options and are trying to help you!!! You're going to need to get your feet wet, too. Nobody can hand you a perfect solution that is completely free and effortless. Even if there IS some windows freeware for tons of track inputs running together, you will need to do some of your own legwork to get things going the way you want, like making certain your interface and soundcard can actually handle that many unique tracks running separately and uniquely in a simultaneous, multilayered recording.

Simultaneous multi-track audio recording software

Reply #15 –
Quote from: pianoplayer88key on
****!!... somehow the topic title got truncated  It was supposed to be "good FREE(!) simultaneous multi-track audio recording software?  (I have Audacity but it only supports 2 simultaneous tracks)"

Hi all.  I'm looking for some good free (NOT trialware) simultaneous multi-track recording software.  I have Audacity, but it can only record 2 channels (1 stereo track) at a time.
My computer's on-board sound has 6 jacks in the rear, each of which (up to all 6 simultaneously) can be set as "line-in".


The number of jacks is not the technological limit to the number of concurrent tracks that you can record. The number of ADCs in the audio interface set that limit. The usual number is 2, and just for grins it is not uncommon for the ADCs on consumer audio interfaces to be at least a cut lower, quality wise, than the DACs. 

Listen to those other people who say that aside from special audio interfaces made for professional recordists, you lack the hardware to drive the software you lust after.

Furthermore, most multitrack recording can be and is done with an audio interface that has two or less ADCs. The common tactic is to build up your multitrack recording a track, at most two tracks at a time.

So what do you want to do? The two most common applications for recording more than 2 tracks concurrently are:

(1) Re-recording a multichannel recording.
(2) Recording a large scale live recording with multiple microphones.

One of the lowest cost audio interfaces with the ability to record > 2 channels concurrently and with good quality was the M-Audio 1010 LT, which I understand to be out of production. You can find them on ebay and the  like. I bought a used one and it was good. Fairly robust hardware with drivers going up to Windows 8.

Quote
When I plug separate audio sources into each jack, I'd like each one to go on a separate track, not all get mixed onto one stereo track.  What free software can I download that will do this?


The audio interface to do what you want starts out around $200, new. Why demand free software, especially when Reaper at a paltry $50 is a ready alternative?

Quote
I'm running Windows XP Home SP2 on a 2.1GHz dual-core AMD CPU with 2GB RAM, and slightly over 1TB HD capacity (using 3 HDDs).


That's plenty. I've been recording 20+ tracks concurrently since I had a 512K P2-666 running Win98 if memory serves.  But I had the live performances and microphone/channel count to actually need it.

Quote
I would like to use Audacity, but it only seems to support recording 2 channels at a time.  Is there some other program I could download, or is there a plugin for Audacity that will enable simultaneous multi-track recording?

(A friend of mine uses SONAR, but it's $619 over my budget.)


Excluded middle argument given that Reaper is under $50, and its probably not unique.

I suspect that your enthusiasm for this project will diminish greatly once you figure out that its going to cost you more than $1.98 for suitable hardware. ;-)