DAW with simple takes system

[pozz]

I know there are many discussions on which DAW to use but I can’t seem to find anything focusing on this particular issue: which one allows to quickly re record a track? say you make a mistake mid song and want to start again.

Right now I am using reaper and when I make a mistake while recording the workflow is:
1)Create new track
2)Solo the new one / mute the last one
3)Start recording
4)Realize I skipped something in step 2 and start everything from scratch

I could re record on the same track and reaper will create a new lane for that take (great) but then it will proceed to auto split the track seemingly at random (less great, as then I need to manually merge the lanes)

Maybe I’m missing something but I can’t believe re-recording stuff takes this many clicks?
I tried cubase AI and audacity but it seems they work the same way. Anyone else has this problem? Or am I just really lazy?

[Majik]

I don’t know about other DAWs, but I use Ardour (Ardour v7 has just been released) and I have two approaches to “takes” which are enabled by Ardour (plus a third I just thought of)

The first is, when I’m recording, if I want to abandon a take and start again, I can do a simple keypress ctrl space which deletes the current recording and repositions the playhead back to the start of the recording. I can then do shift space to start recording again.

The second approach is where I want to keep different takes. Ardour has a feature called “playlists” which can be used for various purposes including recording multiple takes. For this I refer you to the manual:

Using Playlists for takes is a good solution when one needs the ability to edit individual takes, and select between them.

Each time a new take is started, a new playlist should be created with p > New. Thus, later, any previous or later takes can be selected as desired.
Creating a composite edit from multiple takes, can be achieved either:

• by creating a new track to assemble the final version, and “cherry picking” from the playlists in the original track by copying regions over as required
• by recording each successive take on top of the others in “layers” and then editing them using the layer tools.

You can also do loop recording where you set the loop range and hit record and it will keep recording that section over and over until you hit stop, creating a separate layer for each recording.

Cheers,

Keith

[jjw]

GarageBand makes this easy. Here’s a video explaining how:

Multiple Takes in GarageBand

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

Alberto

Reaper has the functionality to loop the entire track or a selected part. Keep recording over the loop until you get a good take. You can then delete the unwanted takes. On each unwanted take, right click and select delete active take. Kenny Gioia has a Reaper Mania video on it but I am out of the house right now.

[pozz]

This seems just what I was looking for! will give Ardour a try

@jjw garageband seems awesome but my mac is too old to run it sadly, I could use it as an excuse to upgrade but it would mean less guitar stuff mmmh decisions decisions

@TheMadman_tobyjenner I tried watching some of his videos but I admit I got completely lost in punch ins, tape modes and other crazy terms this recording thing is getting almost as complex as learning guitar…

[jjw]

@pozz

garageband seems awesome but my mac is too old to run it sadly, I could use it as an excuse to upgrade but it would mean less guitar stuff mmmh decisions decisions

For someone like me, who wants to spend as little time possible futzing around with recording software, GarageBand really seems pretty great (though, I don’t have experience with other DAWs). It is pricey, though, if you factor in the extra cost have having a mac, which is a bummer.

[Tbushell]

@jjw

It is pricey, though, if you factor in the extra cost have having a mac, which is a bummer.

If you already have an iPhone or an iPad, it’s available for free…but you need an audio interface as well, so maybe that’s moot.

[Majik]

@pozz

This seems just what I was looking for! will give Ardour a try

Let me know how you get on, and feel free to ask questions. Their forum is also pretty helpful.

This is probably useful too:

Ardour 6 Quickstart (recording, editing, mixing and exporting)

Cheers,

Keith

[dmisen]

I just started using Ardour recently. I switched from Audacity due to the lack of instrument plug-in support in Audacity. After reading the quick starts and watching a couple of the videos, it’s powerful and quick to get started recording. I’m using it with an AudioBox USB96 interface.

Lots of good resources out there on Ardour to learn from. I saw a video posted further down in this thread.