What are you looking to do? Straight-forward mult-tracking? Sequencing? A combo?

Reaper is a good start. It has a free, unlimited trial. The advantage it, like any proper DAW, has over Audacity is the whole hearing-playback-while-recording thing. The downside is the learning curve is much steeper than the MSPaint of audio editing, but it's pretty accessible as far as DAWs go

I only use Audacity for editing samples on occasion when I can't get one to trim properly with my SP-404, and for mastering. I used to use it for pitching too but not so much any more.

Rather than make a thread of my own and flood the board i'm gonna see how this works. hope i don't derail this one

How do I isolate sound (ie. just vocals or just bass) from a song? I always either get till some background noise or a raspy or otherwise noticeably fucked up sounding clip

>>2046
You can't. You can boost and lower certain frequencies, but if you're working with a finished, mixed track, you can't just remove certain parts.

If you want to know for remixing, you need to find the stems, multitrack recordings, etc. Often artists will release instrumentals and a capellas for DJs and whatnot, but if you can't find that you're fucked, just do the best you can with what you have. ie, if you want to isolate the bassline, just EQ out all the high frequencies and most of the mids. If you want to get rid of the bass and isolate the vocals, good luck because they're going to be in the same frequency range as most of the melodic and many of the percussive components of the song.

What kind of manipulating/distorting/general modifying are you looking to do? One of the Roland SP samplers might be up your alley - the previously mentioned SP-404, or an SP-555, 505, 303, etc etc... the 505 is going to be the cheapest but the 555 has the most features.

Basically you can record or sample with an RCA or quarter-inch line-in, as well as a built in mic on certain models and then you can mangle, chop, layer, resample, and do all kinds of shit in a really immediate, kinetic way. Shitloads of really nice effects, tons and tons of sample time, etc. Even as I've branched out and started using software, I still use my 404 a ton for manipulating sounds with effects and crafting my sound palette.

I'd like to know a little more about what you do with Audacity, what you would like to be able to do more smoothly and quickly with more robust software, etc.

>>2045
>>2048
Mainly what I do is take a sound, say, a piece of dialogue from some random Youtube video, and use is as raw material to create sounds/textures/patterns, etc, by fucking around with the pitch, phase, reverb, echo, tempo, etc. Just about any and all forms of distortion and modification I can muster from the very limited spectrum offered by audacity. Oftentimes it won't be a sample but something I record with my (chep-as-all-fuck) computer mic.

I make these pseudopostindustrial/noisy soundscapes, mostly, but I also record instruments and arrange them and whatnot. My main concern is that there's only so much I can do to the raw material. I'd like to render a soundbit basically irrecognisable, and I'd like to add distortions to recorded instruments, amongst other things (for exmaple, in audacity, it's really hard to add several tracks without saturating the overall sound, even if it's all just ambient pieces and maybe one or two instruments). Not sure if there's anything I can actually do about that via software, thought. Maybe I should get a better audio card?

>>2049
Mangling samples into unrecognizable semi-industrial soundscapes is what I did almost exclusively for the first year or so that I had my SP-404, so I would highly recommend one of those. I wasn't so much doing Youtube sampling as sampling from my own field recordings or improvised organ/synth/percussion playing that I recorded to tape. Initially I would do it all in the box with the 404 using the resample feature but then I branched out and dropped a bit of cash on some guitar pedals - delay, reverb, and a looper - and would create ambient pieces recorded to tape. The 404 was a godsend for exactly the kind of sample-mangling you're looking to do.

Other than that, basically any DAW is going to work for you, it's just a matter of personal preference with regard to graphic user interface. Ableton is pretty advanced, so maybe start with Reaper, see how you like it and go from there.

But yeah, I'd recommend the SP-404 or anything else in that line big time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP2hpbpjwak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsZbLSJbvtE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEn5o8-n5JQ

>>2050
Don't think I can afford hardware, especially since this is not much more than a hobby and I'm making 0 jewgolds with it, but I'll give Reaper a try.

>>2051
>this is not much more than a hobby and I'm making 0 jewgolds with it
Skateboarding's not a lucrative hobby, but you still want to get a good deck, solid trucks, quality bearings, etc. Otherwise you're not going to enjoy your hobby as much. Feel me?

I hear you, though. Reaper is a good place to start. Keep in mind though: I've seen SP-505s on Craigslist and eBay in the $150 ballpark, and Zoom Sampletraks (which I've never used but heard great things about) for under $200. You could also look at getting some kind of MIDI controller or two, which can run even cheaper. Something with knobs and/or faders (Korg NanoKontrol maybe?) that you could map to effects parameters. Getting away from the click-click tedium of computer work and having a more immediate, physical interaction with your music makes a world of difference. Getting away from the computer screen and going by sound and feel rather than sight has been particularly important for me. Really can't beat the immediacy of a hardware sampler for sound mangling, as far as I'm concerned.

>Native Instruments "Maschine"

It comes with a big set of glorious Instruments and highly modifyable top notch Synths like Massive and Multi-/Effects.
It streamlined my music production workflow and makes me actually enjoy every bit of the production.
>Am a newb though, never used anything other than FL, Audacity(only for mixxing) and Maschine

>>2109
Maschine looks cool as fuck and I've been thinking about copping one for ages. Seems like a lot of bang for your buck.