How many DAWS have you tried and what's the winner?

[Breeze]

Phrazor (GREAT as a pattern beat maker, feels solid & Demo is still available from 2006 & still works on Windows 7!)[

What's the story with Phrazor? Can you still buy it? From I've read, the author now works for NI and only does maintenance releases for people who licensed it when it was still available for purchase.

[markallsworth]

I've used a few DAWs like Acid, Live and Reason but I am totally in love with FL Studio and found that I kept rewiring the aforementioned into it anyway. Like everyone else has mentioned, it's a very individual thing and I just connect with it better than the others and can start making music quickly with it. Also, I am always pleasantly surprised at how powerful it can be sometimes. I wish it was 64 bit and I couldn't care less about the bundled instruments but with the lifetime free updates maybe one day it will be perfect. If I get more into scoring maybe Cubase would be a better option for me, however as long as I stay in the (mostly) electronic world I can't see me and FL Studio breaking up anytime soon

[robogone]

The winner is whichever one suits my needs best at the time. I own a few but don't feel tied to any one of them in the same what that I play different instruments based on what I feel is appropriate for the piece of music.

[discoDSP]

I tried enough of them. Using Logic since 2008 or so

[Jafo]

In more or less chronological order (and I'm sure I'm missing some from the Elder Days):

Jazz++
Timidity++
Buzz
Audacity
N-Track Studio
Psycle
Anvil Studio
Kristal Audio Engine
Tracktion
Sonar
Darkwave Studio
Wavosaur
Reaper
Podium
MuLab
Temper
Usine
Audition

Tracktion wins, hands-down. No contest, although I do like Reaper and Sonar. Wavosaur is probably the best audio editor, but I still use Audacity out of sheer habit.

[UltimateOutsider]

Old-school sequencers: Dr. T's KCS, Dr. T's Omega, Cubase Mac, Cubase Atari.

Modern DAWs: Reaper 3, Ableton Live 8, Cubase 5.0-6.5.

Currently using: Cubase 6.5

Have nothing but respect for Reaper and Live, but Cubase suits me and my old synths best.

[Space Coyote]

I've only tried a few but Sonar has remained #1 throughout.

Reaper also gets used sometimes on an older laptop and that's been great too.

[KevWestBeats]

I have used a lot of DAWs over the last 10 years.
Band in a box
Acid Pro 1.0 - 5.0
Reason 2.0 - 6.5 (still using)
Cubase SX 2.0
Sonar 4, 7, and X1
Live 8
Those are all of the DAWs I have used full time at one point or another. These days I am using Live 8 in tandem with Maschine MK 2 and Reason 6.5. Idk if I have a #1 DAW I feel they all serve their purpose. I wish I could get into FL Studio because its very powerful but I just don't like it. I wouldn't mind getting into Pro Tools either but I keep hearing more and more about how broken it is on PC unless you get HD.

[pwal]

sonar v1-x1, project5.2, reaper3&4, live6-9, studio one 1&2, i've ended up using live & s1 as cake abandoned p5 and sonar has become more & more buggy & bloaty since v8 (for me)

[papawillow]

making waves > vegas . making waves just gets my happy accident compositional style.. and to roll it into vegas for the final polish.

[MaF]

For songs or orchestral arrangements it's Cubase. Started with Logic ages ago but it fell behind for me nine years ago, so I switched to SX3.
For EDM it's Live.
And I have found each of them very unsuitable for the other DAW's duties.

[Saukar30]

Phrazor (GREAT as a pattern beat maker, feels solid & Demo is still available from 2006 & still works on Windows 7!)[

What's the story with Phrazor? Can you still buy it? From I've read, the author now works for NI and only does maintenance releases for people who licensed it when it was still available for purchase.

You can't buy it anymore (at least I don't think so). I haven't heard about the author working on it, as I only have the demo. You may want to try it for yourself though the "buy it" button doesn't work

http://www.sonicbytes.com/phrazor/phrazor.htm

Otherwise you can try the demo on that page or the full functioning older beta version (which is what I have)

http://plugins.gersic.com/index.php?sea ... t&action=1

It works stable except for maybe a few quirks, but I haven't noticed anything as of yet. I'm not sure if the 1.03 version has audio or the browser feature though.

[Saukar30]

Nice read Saukar30.

It's an interesting combination, using a flexible MIDI VST host like Phrazor or EXT1 in Reaper, isn't it? I love it.

It's like a dream come true! So easy to work when you're almost limitless on each end of MIDI & audio

[shadoe42]

I have used and/or tried As best as I can remember:

Cakewalk(before it was sonar)
Music Creator
Sonar
Mixcraft
garage band
Logic
Cubase
Protools
Traktion
Samplitude
Reaper
FL Studio

and most of those I have tried numerous versions and I KNOW I am leaving out quite a few. The amount of money I have spent over the years makes me a bit woozy when I actually think about.

Currently what I use depends on what I am doing.
Electronic music is all done in FL Studio
Acoustic stuff is done in Mixcraft and then mastered in either FL or Sonar,

I did however recently pick up Traktion 4 so that "may" supplant Mixcraft. But early tests indicate it probably won't. Mixcraft is just so easy to set up and get going and then to do most of the base editing in before mastering.

[The Telenator]

My memory is getting foggy, but last I recall, Phrazor became abandonware with two very different versions extent. One was a somewhat limited demo that you want to avoid, and the other was actually a beta but full-featured. THAT'S the one you want. I believe that chap released his last, essentially unfinished latest version before closing up shop. Now, this version worked fine although technically unfinished. It had all features and nothing I could discern as very different from the one that came just before. That's all I remember. Oh, and it is still out there, both versions I believe, so careful which you find. It does say on it which is which. Sorry, but I completely forget where you could grab one. Probably in one of those Gersic or VSTFree types of locations.


Which DAWs, which WON?

I've used several and was fluent in 4 or 5 at one point. Working at a couple medium-large scale studios a few years back before officially 'retiring' to return to independent recording in my home studio and back to some live performance, I was brought face-to-face with Pro Tools then Cubase and finally Nuendo. I really never cared for any of those very much, Pro Tools in any of its releases the least of the three.

Had Cubase 5 at first as a home studio. I call myself essentially a Cubase Refugee. I see that v7 is vastly better, but 5 and pay-fix 5.5 were horrid, stiff and annoyed me as much as the Steinberg people themselves back then. I think Yamaha's purchase of them has cleaned house a good deal in the Attitude Dept. Meanwhile, I've always had and kept Audacity in latest editions. I still use it for fun but mainly minor editing of any audio I stream into it. It is my live streaming audio DAW on my PC. Set up and works great for that. I'm sure I have Wavosaur, too, but that's a silly little thing of not much interest to me.

Escaping Cubase, believe it or not, I went to Zynewave's Podium, which I immediately customised fully and still use at least 50% of the time. Lacks a few features but is otherwise quite solid, well-conceived and the most beautiful of any DAW to me by a landslide. GUI design was owner Frits' specialty at T.C. Electronics, so no wonder his DAW is a real beaut.

Since it lacked the full routing I desire (to me the only truly serious lack there), I thought I would try another inexpensive DAW, still feeling burned by Cubase's arrogant stiffness -- Cubase: "My way or the highway!" -- and their always top-dollar price tag, I went to REAPER, as I had heard so very much about it, particularly from performing rock musicians.

REAPER, too, is ultimately extremely customisable as well in GUI and setup, such as adding ReWire, Python and the SWS extention. It took more work than Podium to come up to speed on it, but quite soon I discovered I loved REAPER about as much as Podium. Then I saw how well the two worked together. REAPER prefers to be the 'slave' in a ReWire setup with Podium. Taken together and as tweaked and oiled as I have both, I now feel I have the ultimate setup with the two. Tweaked to suit my workflow and needs, this is a most powerful DAW setup, the best I have used.

I also own Live 8.4, but I dislike clip-based structure and the way it does business. I learned on analogue tape and studio desks and prefer track-based DAWs, so Live is just a toy to me when bored. I will never upgrade it. Plugin delay compensation not fixed nor will it be for Live 9, so they tell me.

I have used Samplitube, Sonar, MuLab and another well-known one I can't recall now. For a time, I wanted to know the virtues and shortfall in features of most top makes. I really do appreciate that Melodyne comes with Sonar, but that is still not enough to make me use it. I'm very fussy about workflow, crashworthiness and plugin support. If it won't support 3rd-party plugs, it is not a true DAW to me. I insist on good looks, too, considering I'll pull 10-hour sessions if very inspired, and I insist on staring into something pleasant during those long hours. Lately, many DAW designers have opted to go to that horrible skin colour I call "Corpse Gray", a washed out, lifeless gray that looks chilling and unwelcoming to me. Hey, we don't have to go neon, but c'mon now! How about a little colour, people?

Please excuse the great length of the post; I am recounting all my thinking and how I arrived at the perfect recording workstation. And I have kept to 32-bit, because far too many of my favourite plugins from the classic Oatmeal to the updated Variety of Sound series are still in 32 bit. REAPER's own bridging is 90+% solid, but jBridge has disappointed me.

The Winner? A photo finish tie for REAPER and Podium. I know Frits a good deal better than the REAPER honchos, so perhaps I lean toward Zynewave's largely unknown and delightful creation. Hey, thanks for the memories, and Cheers!