Alternatives to Pro Tools?

[johnjohn320]

Well, this was part of another post of mine, which has since been moved to Operating Systems. Since this has nothing to do with OS, I'll post it here. Again.

I know Pro Tools is basically the industry standard for audio recording/mixing, but it doesn't work with XP. So, are there any free alternatives that you might suggest?

Thanks, guys.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Wrong forum. Try software.

 

[yellowperil]

The Pro Tools Free version is a stripped-down version of the real thing. I believe you are limited to 8 tracks and it is the only free multitracking program out there (that's worth mentioning). The real Pro Tools used in the industry costs around $12K I think.

The most commonly used alternatives are Emagic Logic Audio, Steinberg Cubase, Syntrillium Cool Edit Pro, Samplitude, Cakewalk Sonar, and a few others. They are all pricey though. I have used Cool Edit Pro 2 for a while and it is easy to use and has a good wave editor.

 

[n0cmonkey]

BTW, the way you phrased the question made it an OS question. Well, atleast one of the questions.

 

[johnjohn320]

I'm aware of that. But since this is an OT question, I put it in OT. It won't get answered in OS.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: johnjohn320
I'm aware of that. But since this is an OT question, I put it in OT. It won't get answered in OS.

Its a software question, it should be asked in software.

 

[zeon]

free. not really. there are some decent cheap alternatives. although i'd suggest looking into perhaps spending a few dollars and getting either the latest cubase, cakewalk or logic. all will suit your needs. people have differing oppiions about all of them. but they all perform essentially the same when it boils down to it.

 

[SludgeFactory]

Yeah, like yellowperil said, the full blown professional Pro Tools setup is run on a dedicated system and definitely exceeds $10k. There's a mid level version of Pro Tools that you can set up with several hundred dollars worth of specialized hardware. Pro Tools Free is indeed free, but it sucks. It only runs on Win9x, and it's buggy as hell. I tried it with a very fresh Win98 install, and had it crash multiple times in the two hours I played around with it, and I've seen plenty of people complaining about it on other forums. Wouldn't waste my time with it unless you just want to check out the interface. And since you have XP, that's not even an option.

Sonar and Cubase are pretty popular and either one would be worth trying out. A low-budget program that I've seen recommended often is N-Track.

 

[mattyrug]

Logic, Logic, and Logic! Version5 runs under XP, but be forewarned, Apple bought Emagic, and has pulled the plug on all PC versions on October 1st. You can get the Digi001 for about $700. Cool Edit Pro will do 4 tracks, i'm not sure what it costs, though.
Pro-Tools Free is really the only free multi-tracker. Goldwave is another, it's shareware and does 4 tracks, and has no DirectX plug-in support. Cubase is probally best in it's price range, and uses VST and DirectX Plugins, which is cool. I personally never liked Cakewalk, although I know quite a few people who use it faithfully. It just feels cheezy to me, the plug-ins are lame, and I really don't like it's use of the file system.

My personal preference is Logic Audio Platinum, and the Waves Gold Bundle. This is what I use on a dedicated PIII 933 Rig at home. Plug-ins are great, the interface is stable, and rocks! The only weak point to Logic is punching in & out. What kind of Audio Hardware are you going to be running? Nothing is gonna beat the Audio Editing capabilities of Pro-Tools, once you've used it, you're hooked.
The studio I work at is still running a Nu-Bus TDM based 16 bit version of Pro-Tools (version 4.1) on a trusty old Power Computing (Clone) Power-Tower 120Mhz machine. Still does 32 tracks, just like the day it was built.