Easiest DAW for recording novice?

[itsgoodnow]

Logic for writing. Particularly if you’re using a lot of midi instruments. Pro tools for pure recording and mixing. Just my take. I have lived on both for multi year stretches in the past. Love both for slightly different reasons

 

[CoreyW]

We’ve recorded in real studios in the 90s on 2” tape.

We want to capture good versions of our original music.

We are 57-70, at death’s door, we want it for memories.

Do you have a digital mixer already?

 

[stratjacket]

There's learning curves to all of them. If you have a Mac, just try Garage Band, it's free and included. It'll give you basic tracking and maybe that's enough for the memories. I believe it will be one of the easiest because of its limited functionality. Any others will have tons of functionality which make for learning curves.

If you want to get more in depth than Garage Band, then my thoughts is just pick one and dig in. Watch YouTube how-to's and read up on getting started. Trial and error is the best way to go and just start. I think you'll get good enough pretty quick on any of them.

 

[njshred]

Do you have a digital mixer already?

Yes:

Allen & Heath Qu-pac​

 

[Metalhex]

Reapers built in effects are pretty good fwiw

 

[CoreyW]

Yes:

Allen & Heath Qu-pac​

Looks like that would handle your IO needs, and save you from needing an interface to get started.

If you have access to a Mac or Macbook, you could try and check out Garageband and if you like the layout and routing, then Logic would be a good step up. Iphone and Ipad have their mobile versions of both programs as well.

Pro Tools Intro is their free version, its stripped down but still complete enough you play around with.

I dont know the other DAWs enough to comment on them...

But, here is what I would do, get a couple of the free versions of different DAWs, pick one of the online mixing courses that offer a free lesson, these typically will have a video and accompanying audio tracks to let you learn to mix that song. This is more of a what to do after you have already tracked stuff, but IMO its also the biggest learning curve.

Here is the free course from Home recording made easy, its a Tom Petty cover and its DAW agnostic but set up to utilize stock plugins.
https://www.homerecordingmadeeasy.com/


Here is a good straight up beginner pro tools video about an hour long..



Here is a more indepth video if you are intrigued enough by the previous video.. its a lot more in depth.