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If you are a dedicated fan of Audacity, no need to read this post.
If you are working on learning Audacity, no need to read this post.
If your wife or Mother refuses to enter your room for fear of tripping over cables on the floor, you probably won't care about this post.
If you have recording work stations, you also won't like this post either.
If you can already make great recordings, you do not need this post.
So, who needs it? Me and I hope someone else!
I checked our archives and did not find any reference to a small miracle called MIXPAD by NCH.
How would you like to alter(improve) your violin sound with about 10 metered special effects?
This program has anything that an amateur would want. The program is very neat, clean and almost user friendly. It offers a mostly intuitive approach with moderate learning curve. In fact, I would call it Audacity all grown up.
It may still be on sale for $40 and is a steal at that price.
http://www.nch.com.au/mixpad/index.html
I should mention that I'm having some trouble getting enough audio in all the different settings but this also seems to be a problem with my Windows 7.
NCH will give refunds if there are any problems.
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Oliver said
If you are a dedicated fan of Audacity, no need to read this post.If you are working on learning Audacity, no need to read this post.
If your wife or Mother refuses to enter your room for fear of tripping over cables on the floor, you probably won't care about this post.
If you have recording work stations, you also won't like this post either.
If you can already make great recordings, you do not need this post.
LOL @Oliver - but I went on to read it anyway !
I do use Audacity, but, you are right - NCH make some lovely software. Some programs are free, those that aren't are available with full functionality for limited use, and even then, not expensive.
I purchased the NCH RecordPad software - handy little recording tool - once set into "record" mode, it awaits audio to appear (you set the level) then starts recording. If you stop playing, the recording stops after a settable number of seconds - and if you start playing again - yes - RecordPad starts recording again - to a new file ! No going back to keyboard or mouse and clicking buttons! Great for practice, recording multiple takes, or just "fragments" of a piece.
I usually then take the .wav file(s) I want into Audacity and work with them there.
I know of MixPad but never investigated it in detail, just because I'm so used to Audacity. Out of interest, I shall investigate MixPad further.
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh - 
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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I don't know as we have "dedicated fans of Audacity" here, really.
I mostly will refer to how something can be done in Audacity because Audacity is free, and they make a version for each of the major OS/machines. So it is something that anyone here can have and use. Not my place to say what others "should" pay for audio software, so I only recommend the free stuff. Not the best in the world, but enough to get the job done, in many cases. I will say that Audacity is an amazing piece of software for being free and something that will run on almost any computer a member here is likely to be using. Not the prettiest, not the easiest to use, not the fullest function.. But one can do some reasonably decent work with it.
I do use Audacity for quick takes or quick edits, but I use Ardour more often. It is a DAW and has more of the capabilities I want. But I don't think they put out a Windows version, so telling people how to do stuff in Ardour would mostly be of less use for a lot of folks.
NCH does make some nice software. I used to use some of their stuff back when I ran on Windows.
Glad to hear you found something that works well for you, Oliver!
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
DanielB
I 'm not suggesting MixPad in favor of Audacity but I think MixPad has more knobs to turn and switches to throw. That may or not be good 
I stand impressed at the talent(s) that created MixPad. (However, I also liked Windows 3!)
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My fave was Win 3.1.1
"Windows for Workgroups". Everything worked, everything behaved, and it was easy enough to just switch back out to DOS if it didn't. LOL
Win !.0 through 1.4 were kinda buggy.
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
Indeed, whenever I achieved perfect configuration, my software became out of date and was often no longer supported.
I have more annoying, unexplained, problems now than ever before.
I'll be glad to go back to bulletin boards and sysops who kept everything working.
Will Microsoft ever get it right or is Apple the only hope?
Honorary tenured advisor
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Oliver said
Will Microsoft ever get it right or is Apple the only hope?
Yes.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright
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Oliver said
...... Will Microsoft ever get it right or is Apple the only hope?
That is a debate that I prefer to avoid. LOL
I am happy with my Mac in any case.
How about Linux?
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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Personally, I don't feel there is any clear and definite answer to the neverending debates about what operating system or type of machine is "best" for this sort of thing.
Use what you like and what you can get. There is quite decent recording software and etc for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
The operating system that you know and are comfortable with will usually be the one you can get the most actual work done on. The software that you take the time and effort to learn will deliver better results than the software that you don't bother to learn. The problem is most often more the operator than the software.
So far as the machine itself, so long as it has enough ram and speed to be able to work well with the software you are using, any fairly modern home computer can give some pretty darned impressive sounding results. At the worst, you might end up needing to buy a new soundcard or an audio/usb interface. Unless you are actually shooting for an end product that sounds pretty much professional, probably won't even need those so badly that you couldn't get along fairly well without them. The soundcards that are included (usually on the motherboard these days) with any machine sold as a home computer (including Macs) is not "pro", and no amount of arguing or money spent on software will change that. But they are usually fine for the average musician doing a quick take or playing with a bit of multi-track and learning.
Unless you hit the lottery or decide to spend your life's savings on setting up a home studio and money is NO object, "best" probably isn't going to matter, even if there was a clearly superior choice.
I've seen people spend days, weeks, months, even years arguing about what is "best" or why this is better than that. Personally, I think that if most of them spent even a quarter of that amount of time and effort watching and working through tutorials and lessons for using whatever they actually have and/or can afford, they'd be a lot further ahead. LOL
"This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in 5 or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development." ~ Itzhak Perlman
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DanielB said
Personally, I don't feel there is any clear and definite answer to the neverending debates about what operating system or type of machine is "best" for this sort of thing.Use what you like and what you can get. There is quite decent recording software and etc for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
The operating system that you know and are comfortable with will usually be the one you can get the most actual work done on. The software that you take the time and effort to learn will deliver better results than the software that you don't bother to learn. The problem is most often more the operator than the software.....
Exactly. Great stuff out there for all platforms. I'm eternally grateful for that. Wouldn't it be great if we could all have the latest quickest machines too? 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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cool stuff.. I don't know a single thing about any sort of recording device. I record off my ipone 5s or ipad mini. Some day I will get some recording enhancements or something to play with. I would be fun to Play with sounds from my violin... ( I think) I am recording "challenged" in most ways.
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
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You would love it CPO. Effects are so cool. It would suffice for you to get a pickup an effect processor and an amplifier.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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