Which DAW are you using with the Kemper?

  • I'm a 3 year Kemper disciple. I love the Kemper. For the first time I'm diving into the DAW and recording world. I just purchase a Focusrite 6i6 2nd generation. Which DAW should I use? I know there re a few free ones out there. I also own an Ipad Pro that has Garageband. All suggestions will be appreciated! Thank you.

    Rik


    Kemper toaster >Kemper remote> 2 x Alto TS310 powered speakers Furman M-8XAR

  • I would say most DAWs nowadays will do, might be just a matter of taste and if applicable also price. Personally I do use Cubase Pro for several years. A great tool for many, many things but at the same time not a cheap. For the starting point you could look out for free offers.


    What do you want to achieve? Produce own tracks with just guitar, with virtual instruments as well, with a full band? You could narrow the market for your choice by defining this a bit more. The Garageband stuff is not bad as I heard from the Apple users (personally I am on PC).

  • I would say most DAWs nowadays will do, might be just a matter of taste and if applicable also price. Personally I do use Cubase Pro for several years. A great tool for many, many things but at the same time not a cheap. For the starting point you could look out for free offers.


    What do you want to achieve? Produce own tracks with just guitar, with virtual instruments as well, with a full band? You could narrow the market for your choice by defining this a bit more. The Garageband stuff is not bad as I heard from the Apple users (personally I am on PC).

    Thanks for your input. What I want to achieve is to record songs on guitar and eventually use virtual drums and other instrumentation. I have Garageband in my ipad pro but that is a separate source. Want to download a DAW on my windows based laptop. I want to use my laptop as my main source.

    Rik


    Kemper toaster >Kemper remote> 2 x Alto TS310 powered speakers Furman M-8XAR

  • cakewalk by bandlab here. Free and I follow the creative sauce YouTube channel for some cool tips and easy tutorials

    Thanks for the input. Is cakewalk a simple source to record with the Kemper?

    Rik


    Kemper toaster >Kemper remote> 2 x Alto TS310 powered speakers Furman M-8XAR

  • I have been using Reaper for a while now and I really like it. When I had the free version, I did not find an limitations and you can run the free version as long as you would like. I liked it enough to eventually get the paid version and that is not very expensive at all. I t was only a one time $65 when I got it and that was over a year ago. So far my only limitation has been me, I need to get better at programming drums.

  • I'm a 3 year Kemper disciple. I love the Kemper. For the first time I'm diving into the DAW and recording world. I just purchase a Focusrite 6i6 2nd generation. Which DAW should I use? I know there re a few free ones out there. I also own an Ipad Pro that has Garageband. All suggestions will be appreciated! Thank you.

    All available DAWs differ mostly by their workflow and easy of use - which is highly subjective and therefore best to try some out.


    If I remember correctly there should be a copy of Ableton Lite included in your 6i6 purchase, which will be sufficient to start out. Another popular choice is Reaper as you can try it out for free and the personal license is super cheap in comparison. I also tried Cakewalk when I started out, but did not like it, it sure is worth a shot, though.


    I finally went with Studio One 4 Professional and don't regret it. It offers a nice interface and is fairly beginner friendly. Another cool DAW is Bitwig Studio, which is awesome and offers a lot of unique creative tools (the grid) to work with.


    Just keep in mind that pretty much any DAW will do to record with your Kemper via SPDIF / Main Outs :thumbup:

  • Just keep in mind that pretty much any DAW will do to record with your Kemper via SPDIF / Main Outs :thumbup:

    Exactly. And please keep in mind that pretty much any DAW will require a few moments of practice and understanding of the workflow in order to produce tangible results. But as said above there are so many tutorials and very good videos on YouTube for almost every DAW on the market. So that should finally not be a problem but just the need for some time to invest in understanding the thing :)

  • Thank you guys. It's all great advice and input. I really appreciate it. There are so many different DAWs. I've read people with Reaper, Cakewalk. Once I receive my Focusrite I'll download a DAW. I realize that I'll have to study it for a bit.

    Rik


    Kemper toaster >Kemper remote> 2 x Alto TS310 powered speakers Furman M-8XAR

  • My advice: Go with Reaper.


    It’s just as capable as any DAW, cheaper than most (maybe all), less resource intensive than most, and more customizable than most. Once you get a handle on creating “custom actions” you’ll realize you can make it fit with your workflow very easily.


    It doesn’t come with a whole bunch of virtual instruments or samples though, so if that’s what you’re looking for you might try something else, or spend some extra money on 3rd party stuff. And you’ll have the extra money because you didn’t pay $500 for Reaper in the first place!


    Audacity is not a full featured DAW as far as I know.

  • Logic for me. I’ve been using it since 6.4, before that Sonar, before that Cakewalk, before that Cubase. It’s quick and easy to get the barebones of a track up and running in Logic, once you know your way around, and it comes with a load of virtual instruments and drums. You can deep dive if you like (the Environment is a wondrous thing), or disable all the more advanced functions and run it like a nicer GarageBand. Up to you. If I was dealing purely in recorded audio and didn’t program midi at all, I’d use Pro Tools.

  • Thank you guys! Thanks for the input and valuable information. Reaper seems very good and inexpensive.

    Rik


    Kemper toaster >Kemper remote> 2 x Alto TS310 powered speakers Furman M-8XAR

  • Another Reaper fan here... I've been using it for years and every time I check out another I appreciate Reaper's workflow and simplicity more and more... it had been recommended to me as a great place to start and after using it for awhile I never saw a need for anything more.

    The older I get, the better I was.

  • If you have audio in/out for your iPad Pro, Garageband is all you need. There's no need to spend money on something else until you outgrow Garageband. Try it first and see if it does everything you need it to do.

    The key to everything is patience.
    You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.
    -- Arnold H. Glasow


    If it doesn't produce results, don't do it.

    -- Me