Building a Home Recording Studio 2:
Recording Software

Recording Software

There are so many different recording software packages around, it would take up too much room to mention them all, and describe them all in detail here. So I'll just touch on the top few.

Be sure to go online and read reviews AND check for system requirements before you decide which software you're going to buy.

• Avid's Pro Tools (Mac/PC)
  Pro Tools is known as the industry standard. The overwhelming majority of recording studios use this platform. So if you plan on moving your projects from studio to studio (home or otherwise), Pro Tools would be the way to go. That doesn't mean it's the best. One potential drawback to Pro Tools is the necessity of having to use Avid's proprietary audio interfaces. Also, many claim Pro Tools MIDI functions have a way to go.

  Pro Tools comes in three versions:

  HD (High Definition) is the big dog. If you need up to 192 tracks of 24bit/192kHz audio, and can afford the $10,000+ price tag, this is the one for you.
  
  LE is the cheaper and most common version of Pro Tools, but it's got all the features most people will ever need. Personally, I find 32 tracks is more than enough for my home recording studio.
  
  M-Powered runs in conjunction with M-Audio interfaces.
• Steinberg Cubase (Mac/PC)
  This is a favourite of many recording engineers and is a great choice when building a home recording studio. It has unlimited track count, faster than real-time bounce, and its MIDI capabilities are pretty good.






• Cakewalk SONAR (PC/Mac running Windows)
  Another very popular choice. Again, the MIDI capabilities are probably more user-friendly than Pro Tools. And it has unlimited track count. Then again, do you really need 100 tracks? Just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean you should!






• Apple Logic (Mac)
  Many consider this to be the ultimate recording software package. In addition to the usual stuff, it features real-time scoring in musical notation, the ability to generate guitar tablature, chord abbreviations and drum notation. On the minus side, installing the full Logic Studio suite consumes around 40GB of disk space! Just another thing to consider whilst building your home recording studio.

These are just a few of a multitude of choices. I encourage you to do your own research. Read reviews, talk to people who own some of these, and ideally try them out for yourself. One size definitely does not fit all!

Next up: The Audio Interface

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