easy PC recording

[rob]

chaps, I have a mate who is a fearsome guitar player and wants to record some of his tunes. I've suggested that he build up some demo tapes first as he'll be doing all the parts so it will be a good way to thrash things out before he hits a studio with the dollar counter running. Being an old school guy ( like me ) what would be perfect for him would be a four track cassette / recorder / mixer. Never the less I don't have one any more and neither does he. He does have reasonably spec-ed laptop and I have a M-Audio USB interface I could lend him.
The question is what is the easiest, no-brainer recording / mixing software that can be found? Preferably a freeware or dirt cheap. Something that drives like a tape recorder / console without bells and whistles.
He wants to concentrate on the songs / parts / playing not becoming a DAW engineer.

[mylesgm]

audacity is pretty straightforward which just works. Garageband comes pre-loaded on macs if he has one, reaper is really cheap or free (cant remember) though isn't particularly straightforward. ardour is supposed to be awesome (osx and linux) though I haven't used it and this website might help...

http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/aud ... 80450.aspx

Cheers
M

[Text_Edifice]

Ardour is free but can be a bit daunting if your friends not computer savvy, used to need to run another program called JACK as an audio server to get sound in / out of the software which worked fine but was a pain to set up - they partnered with Harrison a while back to produce a product called mixbus http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/joomla/ ... &Itemid=42 which is cheap and has a very familiar 'console' layout.

If on a mac garageband is hard to beat for free.

[PeteB]

Rob,
The last few years I have used Reaper http://www.reaperaudio.com/
It's cheap, very good, and can be as simple or as complicated as you want. Will work with most interfaces. I really like it a lot.
I do own, and have used Protools for many years, but these days I use Reaper 80% of the time and loving it.
You can get a full licence from $40.00
Cheers

[otto ruiter]

Rob,
2 months ago I gave my son an M-Audio Fasttrack Pro I got 2nd hand and he's having no problems using it with Reaper. He's new to music but didn't have any trouble with Reaper at all. (I reckon Reaper is easy if you don't have to un-learn anything from other DAW software!). And the big plusses with Reaper are the excellent support site, the generous trial period and the low price!

Cheers,

Otto

[DwaneHollands]

yeah +10 for Reaper.

I use it and it worrks really well. For me it's the easiest DAW. Regular updates, MAC/PC version. I think it's like $60 now, but you can use it for 30 days free (possibly longer, I don't think it's crippleware)

64-bit so you can get some great performance headrroom out of it on intel dual core pprocessorrs and above. Even have the option for 64-bit signal path internally. And if he wants to do more thingss in the future with his recordings, he doesn't have to re-learn another DAW. He can expand with the same softwar that he's invested his time in.

www.reaper.fm

[rob]

Thanks team. I'll check out reaper and give it a whirl