Easy recording software for my septuagenarian dad?

RichAC

My dad has dabbled in playing guitar for decades, but he’s decided that for his 80th birthday (about a year away) he wants to learn a few pieces properly and perform them with yours truly.

To this end, he’s interested in recording himself playing. He’s never going to get into the weeds of plugins and studio-grade hardware - he just wants a simple, ideally free way to get his guitar into his PC and recorded. 

He’ll need an audio interface, of course - I can handle that. But I do most of my recording in Reason and Logic, both of which are massive overkill (plus Logic is out as he’s on Win 11), so I don’t know what the best option to recommend software-wise is. 

Reaper might be an option, but it would be too complex for his needs. Simple is better. Audacity maybe? 

He’ll be recording himself on his Squier Strat, probably plugged directly into the interface with some kind of modelling plugin (which I’ll set up for him and ideally save as a template). I’ll likely use NAM if the software doesn’t have something built in. If it does, it’ll be fine. He also has an electro acoustic guitar which he’ll probably also plug straight in. It might sound like a bag of spanners but again it’ll be fine. 

The only other requirement is that it would be good if he could play along to, and record himself with, backing tracks. I’ll be able to help him source the tracks (I might end up making them myself). I realise this is basic DAW stuff!

Dad’s a retired programmer and IT manager, so he’s technically minded, but I’m not sure how much patience he has these days for learning new stuff. The easier the better!

All ideas welcome. 

rpr

The good thing about Reaper is that it can easily be reconfigured to suit your needs.  So maybe oversized tracks, coloured coded bespoke shortcuts, drag n drop import files, personised scripts etc, set it all up with plugins and save it all as a template on the desktop.

RichAC

That’s an interesting thought. I’m not that familiar with Reaper - I’m assuming that I could configure it at my end, and then send my Dad some kind of config file that will duplicate the setup?

UnclePsychosis

Audacity is pretty easy.

If he has access to an iPad then garageband might be even easier. 

Open_G

My 70 year old dad loves a bit of GarageBand for recording. He’s not anything more than a half decent uke player but has managed to programme and play full band tracks using it. I showed it to him years ago and he’s now far better than I am with it. An

steamabacus

This subject came up on here a year ago. I recommended Audacity then and it seems like the best way to go now (assuming you can set up some kind of amp modelling standalone).

Some tips in this thread on how to set up Audacity to play along with audio, YouTube, whatever...

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/276038/simple-daw-for-elderly-user/p1

RichAC

UnclePsychosis said:

Audacity is pretty easy.

If he has access to an iPad then garageband might be even easier. 

I’ll have a look at Audacity. I haven’t used it for years. He doesn’t have an iPad, sadly. 

Open_G said:

My 70 year old dad loves a bit of GarageBand for recording. He’s not anything more than a half decent uke player but has managed to programme and play full band tracks using it. I showed it to him years ago and he’s now far better than I am with it. An

Thanks. He won’t have access to anything Apple, so whatever I come up with will need to be Windows 11 compatible.steamabacus said:

This subject came up on here a year ago. I recommended Audacity then and it seems like the best way to go now (assuming you can set up some kind of amp modelling standalone).

Some tips in this thread on how to set up Audacity to play along with audio, YouTube, whatever...

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/276038/simple-daw-for-elderly-user/p1

Thanks - I’ll put my reading trousers on! Nice to know I’m now the first person treading this path.

andy_k

I'm finding the latest version of Audacity, although more capable than it was, is also more complicated.
I use Reaper, and would definitely recommend that over anything else, due to the way it can be configured to taste.
Do a bit of preparation for the default settings-ie where files are saved, backups etc, and then create a project that does exactly what you need, basic tracks, routing, layout, and then just use that as a template.
I used to like to open Audacity as a simple WAV editor, but now it seems to be trying to perform as a DAW, which means it is trying to do everything, via menus.
No real problem with that, if you are willing to learn how it works, but with Reaper, the template you open is already set up as basic ( or as complex ) as you want it.
As your Dad gets comfortable with the concept, it can grow with him-rather than having to menu dive to do stuff.
Reaper also works across platforms, and is very easy on the resources.
No brainer really.

steamabacus

I'm still using an older version of Audacity because it does what I need, so no need to change. Some while back, Audacity was bought by some company or other (can't remember who) but I'm still using a version from when it was still open source. I also have a very basic version running on an old Windows XP computer.

If it's any use, there was a continuation of the open source Audacity ethos under the name Tenacity, which may be better if simplicity is what you want?

https://tenacityaudio.org/

relic245

What about one of those blackstar polar go things that people were taking about on here recently?

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/288885/

drofluf

relic245 said:

What about one of those blackstar polar go things that people were taking about on here recently?

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/288885/

He’d still need a DAW of some sort. The Polar Go is a great piece of kit but it’s “just” a pair of microphones and an interface. 

RichAC

Thanks everyone. After chatting this through with my Dad a bit more, the focus has shifted from recording to “playing along with backing tracks” - which is obviously a lot easier, because he can just play the MP3 or WAV using Window’s built in media player and play along in the room.

This has been an interesting thread!

ecc83

RichAC said:

Thanks everyone. After chatting this through with my Dad a bit more, the focus has shifted from recording to “playing along with backing tracks” - which is obviously a lot easier, because he can just play the MP3 or WAV using Window’s built in media player and play along in the room.

This has been an interesting thread!

He can still record his "playings along" in Audacity (no, I don't like the new one!). If you have not yet bought him an AI Rich do look at the Zoom U-44 from CPC.  Conventional USB AI but can also record 'stand alone' on internal AA cells. The little Behringer C2 SDC mics are pretty good but check 'em! QC not brilliant and we had one noisy one of 4. 

Dave.

wddonalds

If he’s just wanting to play along to backing tracks he could get a version of Amplitube. It has a simple 8 track recorder built in which you can drag a backing tack onto and then jam along to using any of the amps in Amplitube. He could also then record his playing into the remaining tracks.  Would be like a simple 8 track portastudio. If you get him the IK Axe I/O One it comes with a free version of Amplitube and ToneX 

BillDL

RichAC said:

Thanks everyone. After chatting this through with my Dad a bit more, the focus has shifted from recording to “playing along with backing tracks” - which is obviously a lot easier, because he can just play the MP3 or WAV using Window’s built in media player and play along in the room.

Perhaps even just a looper pedal might do what he needs?  One of the better ones that can store and recall the loops and has some drum patterns.  Some loopers allow you to copy audio files to them from a computer using the USB cable as well, so you could copy a fairly skeletal backing track and then add to it, but this isn't something I've done.  You would have to check compatible file formats but I suspect WAV might be one that you can copy without re-encoding it to some other format.  A looper might well just be a nice and useful toy for him to mess around with in addition to playing along to backing tracks from the computer.  Just a thought.

ecc83

With regard to audio file format? I am going to urge people to avoid MP3 and other lossy formats where they can. They were developed at a time when storage was small and expensive*. That is no longer the case and a 256G stick is peanuts and a 1TB USB spinner just a couple of pints and a pie! 

*Oh! And of course dreadfully slow internet. Anyone here getting slower than 50 meg download?  

Dave.

Amigo

The old Fender Studio? Not the new Fender Studio Pro 8, which is actually Presonus Studio One 8.