The Windows Based DAW Part IV

Over the last couple of posts I have talked a lot about PC’s from hardware to tweaking your computer to get optimal performance, in windows and up until now have been fairly unrelated to actual doing any recording. This article is going to introduce you to some digital audio studio recording suites.

Most companies who produce these software suites will provide a verity of different versions. Companies do this to provide different tools to different levels of customers; form the producer to the amateur. Many times if you purchase a professional grade sound card then you will get some software that comes bundled with it. This may meet all of your needs, but sometimes you may find that you need some additional features that aren’t there.

This is by no means a complete list and if you are thinking about purchasing one of these, I would highly recommend finding a Demo version of one and make sure it meets you needs. Also there are tons of online resources on the internet of musicians who use some of this software. Look for some input from someone who does some of the same type of music and skill level as you and get input form them.

Below is a list of some PC studio software to wikipeda links.

• Ableton Live Wikipeda Page
• Ableton offical web page
• Acid Pro Wikipeda Page
• Acid Pro offical web page
• Adobe Auditon Wikipeda Page
• Offical Adobe Audion web page
• Cakewalk Sonar Wikipeda Page
• Offical Cakewalk Sonar Page
• Steinberg Cubase Wikipeda Page
• Offical Stienberg Cubase Web Page
• Reaper Wikipeda Page
• Offical Reaper Web Page
• Pro Tools Wikipeda Page
• Offical Pro Tools Web Page

There is also some software that will only work with certain hardware, for example Pro Tools, which is also a very popular will only work with certain soundcards, but it is also one on the most popular, out there.

The link below provides a nice little break down and comparison of the different suites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_multitrack_recording_software.

Next we are going to look at the interface form a generic point of view. I will be using Cubase LE, Cakewalk Sonar LE, and Albeton Live Lite because that is what I currently have installed on my PC and also came free with my sound card.

Default Interfaces....

Ableton Live Lite

Steinberg Cubase LE











Cakewalk Sonar LE

All the different music suites have track interface, where you can see the wave forms of the different track, usually there are tools at the top of the windows and a movable “Transport Panel” sometimes this panel is built into the tools sometimes it floats above every thing else. but it basically is a play button, with other functions of a tape/DVD deck.

Ableton Live Lite Transport




Cakewalk Sonar LE Transport




Steinbert Cubase LE Transport



No you may have noticed that every one of these apps had some what similar options. They all had some similar buttons. We are going to go over the very basics, of recording and playing back.

The very first thing you need to do is set up your inputs in the applications, each program is different, as is some of the options form sound card to sound card. See the correct documentation for details on how to set this up.

The first thing you will need to do is arm the track you wish to record to. There is a button that either says R for recorded or will have a dark circle like on a VCR. Next we will need to go to the transport bar and press the record button.

Ableton Live Lite Track is Armed and Ready to record !!!













Cakewalk Sonar LE audio track is armed and ready to record










Cubase LE has audio track armed and ready to record.

You will see a bar go across the application and behind it will be a wave form. Play something then press stop when your done, and un-arm your track.

Press the rewind button and then play. Now you know the basics on how to record.

I briefly wanted to talk about VST and VSTi. VST is an acronym for Virtual Studio Tools, and the little “I” is for interments. VST’s are little plug-in or programs that will run inside your studio application suite. They will give you different functions and can be alto of fun. I’ll show a couple of different one in the screen shots below

IK Multimedia Amplitube LE

This is an guitar and bass amp simulator sort of like a Line6 Pod.

EZDrummer is a MIDI drummer with a ton of build in groves and changes. You can just drag and drop the midi file into the arranger. On of the really cool things about VSTi like EZDrummer, is that I can get additional kits and just change them on the fly to get a completely different sound and feel.

And here is a image of a Korg keyboard VSTi

This about covers this series of posts on running a Windows based DAW. I hope that you found it helpful and informative. In this series we talked about the basics of PC hardware, discussed some tweaks to Windows XP for better performance, and then using some different Audio Studio software and VSTs. Feel free to post a comment or email me at stonedtrout (at) gmail.com.