Mixing software?

clayton56

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Messages
573
Reaction score
40
Any recommendations for software for mixing down *.wav files?

I now record stereo files on my Zooms, and mix them with my Turtle Beach Quad software. It's fine but will only work with the Tahiti sound card. I kind of want to find one that will work with any soundcard, in case I get a new computer or a laptop. And perhaps give more than four tracks.

Also I currently can only use files up to 16 bit 44.1, although the Zooms will record up to 24 bit 96k I think. Although I don't think humans could hear the difference.
 
I use Zooms too: an H4n and an H2. I try to keep things simple though, so Audacity is fine for what I need.

When I taught A Level Music, I used Cubase.
 
Free stuff for recording and mixing:

  • "Kristal Audio Engine" (Windows only) - up to 16 tracks at once using ASIO4All audio drivers. (The developer of this went commercial and the follow up project became Pre-Sonus' "Studio One" software).
  • Ardrour 2 (Linux and OS X) - unlimited tracks
 
Last edited:
+1 on Audacity - it's got a couple of peculiarities but nothing show stopping and the only thing I've found that I needed a better program for was for heavy noise removal from some old vinyl recordings.

John
 
Acid is another. But Audacity is free, so it gets my vote, despite some quirky features.
 
The problem I find with Audacity is that it's simply awful at multi-tracking. If you're going to be just playing your uke and singing at the same time it's, at best, ok. But you can do that with your Zoom. I use Audacity for a bit of post-mix stuff (call it "mastering" if you want, but it's not that fancy).

Spots has it right...

  • "Kristal Audio Engine" (Windows only) - up to 16 tracks at once using ASIO4All audio drivers. (The developer of this went commercial and the follow up project became Pre-Sonus' "Studio One" software).
  • Ardrour 2 (Linux and OS X) - unlimited tracks

You'll find Kristal here and Ardour here.

At this point if I'm doing a direct-to-stereo recording I use my Zoom H2. If I want to multi-track I use Ardour (on an Ubuntu Linux system). In either case I use Audacity on the stereo mix for the final trim, EQ, compression and/or normalization, and a light wash of reverb over the whole cut.
 
I use Zooms too: an H4n and an H2. I try to keep things simple though, so Audacity is fine for what I need.

When I taught A Level Music, I used Cubase.

I currently use Cubase 5. I like it a lot. Check out my signature for my free Christmas CD that was mixed and mastered through Cubase 5.
 
Top Bottom