I'm starting to get more into recording and was looking to see what everyone uses to record tracks that sound more professional.

I cannot for whatever reason get a track in Garageband to sound somewhat decent.

Also, how do you all make your drum tracks as well?

i use logic, and easy drummer, there are so many different ones out, so i cant compare but logic is real easy to use, and easy drummer is just drag and drop.

Reaper and ez drummer, and some other vsts.

Not actually going to answer your question since I have the same issue you mentioned but I'm curios.
Do you find or at least think you sound way better when you just play through an amp?
That's where I'm at but don't want to spend the $$ to upgrade or I want to but I keep stalling because maybe it's just me and not the equipment.

I use reaper, pod farm, guitar port. I can do a high gain / dirty rock recording and get ok results, good enough that I will do an REC but something more subtle / cleaner with some bends and more vibrato sounds horrible. It's probably me.

hey kahall check out this thread, i know what you mean by wanting to play through your amp, this threads about recording and micing your amp
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=48265

I use Reaper with ampsim VSTs and Addictive drums. Im pretty happy with the sounds im getting.
I like Reaper a lot, Its simple and practical but gives good results. The price is great too!

Samplitude as the DAW, Superior Drummer, Vita for bass and strings and my AMT SS20 for the tones Pretty simple and not fancy, but does the trick

What's vita Cos? I've tried lots of vsts but they sound like ***

Reaper as DAW
Guitar Rig 4 and TH1 for guitar and bass bfd eco for drums
Pretty simple but I'm happy with the outcome.

Hey mate! Vita is one of the Samplitude vsts used for drums, strings and bass. I had no clue it is proprietary to Samplitude until Fayeed asked me about it and I took a little time to find out

My main DAW is Studio One 2, with a whole bunch of VSTs

Reaper & EZdrummer is the most successful combination here at GMC. I personally use Cubase, Reaper and EZdrummer for backing tracks and demo composing. I also use some Waves vst for mixing (EQ, Compression, Fxs).

I use garage band and EZ drummer, for guitar I'll sometimes mic my amp and other times I use guitar rig 5

I feel the exact same way man.

I work mostly on Cubase and yeah...wit EZD.

As for the guitar tone there are tons of profits of using VST since last few years the progress of vst amp sims was huge and in many situations You can cheat someone while judging a few mixed sound samples via VST + real amps.

The most important profits are:

1. You can work at night no matter whre You live (a mean annoying neighbours for example)
2. You can always go back to exactly the same tone (some of You know what it's like to record guitars in the studio and what happens when You have to take Your gear for a gig between sessions...)
3. Not always You can work with high volume that's usually needed to cross the breaking point of the tube amp
4.No ground loops problem
5. You can go back to the session from 2 years ago and change only one part of guitar tracks without trying to get the same tone as then....You already got it
6. You can mix many amps togehter...though You might not be able to buy or borrow few real amps at the same time
7. Amp is one thing...to get good sound whole the singnal chain needs to be top notch - Speaker, cabinet, room, cables, mic, preamp and audio interface....this means tons of money...

And what is really important - Some of this top notch gear could not fit your preferences together. One of the most important things in professional studio is to find correct place in the room, correct mic and correct set-up for it. They usually have tons of mics to fit the situation. At home studio You can have some great mics but it's not shure that they will fit Your current sound concept.

With software You can change all those things anytime You want and ...always go back the sound You've adjusted before.


To be clear....I'm not an enemy for recording guitars via real amp

I use Sonar X1 DAW, with a bunch of random plugins,but AD drums is is a must .

Zoom G 3 and its simulations - still experimenting -

then into garageband - thats it .

I am looking forward to logic maybe next year after more experience with the above told stuff

Studio One 2 Pro
GR5 pro
overloud TH2
Superior Drummer 2.0 (with the metal Foundry exp.)
About to add toontracks EZmix Bundle pack to it. Thats it for me.