Ok guys here is the deal, I have a wonderful woman in my life that I really look up to when it comes to what we do. A little background on her, she went to Fullsail when it was still all Tape. Tried real hard to make it in the industry, But the early years in the profession were rough on her, she was objectified and never had a chance. Fast forward 15 years later she finds her self working at a local church doing the Audio and she is great at it. She knows how to solder. build a patch bay, run a Front of the house console and can tune a tape machine( how many of you f'ks can do that??) but What she does not know is how to run a is a D.A.W !!!! Pro tools was just coming around at the time. Now, I spent some time with her last year and showed her Ableton and Studio one, She was lost. She only knows how to to run real boards Now that I've said all that, What would be the easiest for her to learn. all she wants to do is work at her Church but also go home and record her kids , What in ya'lls opinion would be the best set up for her?? I already tweaked her computer for audio and tried to give her advice, but she is my sister and is one tough ass bitch. Any help would be nice!!??!!

 

It takes some time and learning.Lot of patience and dedication as well.
It can get very frustrating trying to figure out how to make it do what you want.

I'd bet she'd do really well with a lil learning where things are and feeling it out on her own after a lil while

I started on Hardware.
Keyboards,Drum Machines,Hard Disk Recorders,Fx processors,etc.Had done some 24 Track 2" Analog(Still My Personal Favorite),
and a lil 48 Track Adat recording before messing with cpu's.

I'd suggest her taking a gander at a few different DAW's and how they tick.
Find one you kinda can grasp the workflow of and go from there.

I started on Acid 3,and FL 3
Personally I like Cubase/Nuendo but I like many features of others.
Ableton's M4L,FL Studio for step sequencing,sampling,and some piano roll sequencing or correcting recorded midi notes
(Though I can do the same in most piano roll editors)
Getting a lil more fond of Bitwig as it's coming along too.

I can get some stuff done pretty quick in FL sequencing wise with recording 8 bar midi parts
(As long as the note timings stay at 1/8 note timings 100-200 bpm,can program others,FL has issues with quantize at faster than 8th values,Cubase does not and is rock solid at all timings.) Not that that is relative to this post,I'm just sayin,even with sequencers HW vs SW there's a difference in how they work.Cubase and Reason work alot like HW sequencers

I can get around and get what I need done in most all DAW's now.
PT10,Reaper,Studio One,Reason,Cubase,Bitwig,FL Studio,could stand to learn a lil more Ableton

It's been a journey though.
I remember ripping my hair out with Cubase Sx 1.01(Had just came out then) when I was first learning.I bet I spent a week straight with it till I made any progress.First 2 days I hated it.
Once I grasped it and had a keyboard w/16 track sequencer,FL,Reason, and all my vsti's in Cubase all playing at same time when I hit the play button...
Was all worth it!

But most any DAW with a decent mixer she should feel right at home with.With a lil experimenting

I'm starting to get to a point where I don't think hardware or software anymore,
but rather what task I want to get done,and what will do it best.
I mix HW and SW a lot

In my opinion it seems the functions and stuff are pretty much the same just different means to an end.
I'd imagine if she spent some time really learning one she'd be pretty sweet on it from how you've described her

Also Control Surface's can come in handy if you like a lil more hands on,can make things feel a lil more like hardware

Best of luck

 

As Xsze said, Cubase, i know some friend who uses cubase for recording and it is really easy it's not a big deal, i mean all the feature she's looking for is just in front of her.

she won't learn it in one day, it will take time but she will learn it, you should pass some time with her the first few weeks but she will get it, hope you acheave what you're aiming and good luck

 

yes Cubase is awesome and Easy

 

Patience, patience, patience, both of you. It matters not what DAW but rather the time spent in learning the hows the wheres and whys. Technology can be daunting to those not familiar with a new way to see and touch. Many balk and throw up defenses when attempting to learn the new and oh so shinny, but once this hurdle is behind, the path is novel and exciting and learning becomes a curve now steep and satisfying.

 

Yep, or maybe Reaper? Also easy and affordable. Lots of paid and free tutorials for it too.

Good luck, mate!

 

agreed, cubase.

 

This *yes*
Best value hands down. Not that Cubase is not good, but reaper to start off is not bad at all.
And not just to start off, I know of some pro studios using it in my area.
BTW it's also matter of taste, try both and choose the one she find more comfortable with.

Not me.
I can solder and build/repair many thing pretty well, but I won't know where to start from with a R2R.
Tuning and doing maintenance on a R2R is a form of art.
Hold her tight mate

 

Studio One is more like drag & drop, even for the sends and stuff.
But anyway... a good way to make her learn faster and better is the real practical situations.
Don't show her the empty DAW trying to explain her what means which. Make a song with her from scratch. Like, "now because we got an empty project, lets start creating an instrument track so we can start this song recording some chords, look, just right click in this area and choose ~add instrument track~ " and so on, you can even hold your hand over her hand while she's moving the mouse, just involve her deep into the practical process of making a song.

You don't have to explain her what a DAW can extensively do, but actually let her learn what SHE needs from that DAW when she makes a song. The extensive and complex stuff will come later naturally.

 

Acid Pro...

easiest DAW ever to use with more features than people realise...

Ive recorded, mixed and mastered using it...

And the beatmapper is still unrivaled to this day...imho

 

Is she Hot? Send her to my house!


Just kidding!

Seriously, I have tried all DAW, and to me, for recording audio, Reaper is the easiest! Other DAWs might be generally easier to use, but for recording audio Reaper is the easiest. For midi stuff, no Reaper is not as easy or good as other DAWs. But you said she was going to be recording, so I recommend Reaper. Thats all I do is record audio, no sequencing or midi beat building for me. So Reaper is my first choice for what I do. And the White Tie theme seriously resembles the knobs on an analog console!

And also, I would say that learning the buttons on a DAW is not as crucial to using them as knowing actually what the DAW is doing compared to a console. I think teaching about bitrate, ASIO, and setting up the DAW is the part most people don't understand. Generally most people can arm tracks and click record in any DAW. But setting up the ASIO driver people are lost! And try to use terms that would apply to a console. Like in a DAW they are Tracks, on a console, they are Channels.

 

I've used Cubase, Ableton, Fruity Loops, Acid, Reason, Pro Tools a tiny bit and Logic. If she can afford a mac, Logic is the easiest to use, cheap and is a simple step up from Garage Band which almost any novice with a basic level of interest can use and which comes bundled with the operating system and might be enough on its own.

 

I'm completely agreed with Evorax

 

I think you shouldn't give her the easiest DAW, you should give her one that has a workflow similar to analog, like Pro Tools. All its ridiculous nuisances might actually help make the transition easier.

As mentioned above, teach by example, mix something together.
be sure to mention the virtual counterparts of analog.
Also a control surface for a more authentic feel could be nice. Faderport, BCF2000, MCU (if you really love her)

 

Greetz,

Try starting her with MixCraft 6 or MixCraft 6 Pro, low cost and easy to learn. Then maybe she'll feel more at ease inside a DAW and will then feel more comfortable the Power DAW's such as Cubase, Ableton, Fruity Loops, Acid, Reason, Pro Tools a tiny bit and Logic. Then Experiment, Experiment, she'll get it in No Time.

The Simplest Approach Leadz to the Best Answerz 2 Complicationz.

 

It sounds as though your not, or you would probably already know this and have access to it. If you are using a Macintosh machine, GarageBand comes included with each one and it would be a great place for her and you to begin a project from scratch together. GarageBand is a very simple and to the point program yet provides all of the necessary tools to start a person on their path to computer recording.

Also, check out the Video Tutorial section. It is under Education. You will be able to find various videos teaching a person the ins & outs of various programs. One or two of those along with some hands on work with an accompanied DAW may help her on her way.

Best of luck to the both of you on this adventure.

 

Thanks for the advice guys and please keep the suggestions coming, but now I have a new question, Any of you Fruity loop guys use the mobile version?? I'm kinda leaning towards FL because she can have a version on her computer and also on her phone. The mobile version would be ideal for her to be able to record on the fly without a field recorder( My nieces start singing on the random) but then again WTF do I know. I have not touched Fruity Loops since version 3

 

There's also Cubasis you might check out.

 

Reason- I hate it. But I found that people who come from analog domain really dig it very quickly.

 

There will be as many different suggestions as there are different DAWs and different members. The important thing is to not show her 4 or 5 different ones. Start her on one and let her learn it. My suggestion is Reaper. It's easy, cheap and the support forum is without peer. No matter what she wants to know she can either find on the forum or ask on the forum and get a reasonable answer sometimes within minutes. So if you're not around to answer questions she still has a resource.
Just my dos centavos.