Anyone notice the DAW affects the type of music you create?

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I agree with this idea- you should go to a particular DAW to get particular results. This has little to do with the DAW and everything to do with you and your workflow.

I have seen orchestrations come from Ableton and loopy dance tracks come from Cubase.

If the DAW starts to dictate the outcome it might require that you spend more time learning the ins and outs of that DAW to slow or prevent that...because that can never be a good thing. Learning new things about your DAW "can" inspire you. Trust me...Ableton can be inspiring and driving, full of continuity and push forward (as you called it).

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Zexila wrote:
core wrote:
Zexila wrote:
inkwarp wrote:
Zexila wrote:
Isn't FL pattern based too?
yes it is. but it's own version of an arrangement view, the "playlist" is going from strength to strength in recent versions. it also now has a 'performance ' mode which you can trigger clips in various ways. i am still trying to get across it, but seems very good.
the other thing worth mentioning also, you can run FL as a plugin ( as well as rewire) so i am increasingly using it inside ableton and reaper. : )
So very similar workflow like Live, which makes me wonder what OP is gaining with it (FL) over it (Live).
For one, I find MIDI editing in FL Studio much easier & comprehensive.
But still, it's not that much different workflow over Live, point of his thread is how DAW workflow influences outcome, at least his and than he goes about his Live workflow, so what will FL change there when it's so similar overall...
I guess you could say both have a similar workflow, but I still get a completely different "feel" from working with one or the other, and that might influence what comes out.
In my case it doesn't really. I come up with the same kind of tracks in FL Studio as I do in Live, except I get things done in FL Studio much faster. Heck, if I check back on older stuff it seems I'm still doing the same kind of tunes I did back when I was using Cakewalk Pro Audio :D
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core wrote:I guess you could say both have a similar workflow, but I still get a completely different "feel" from working with one or the other, and that might influence what comes out.
Guess that's the thing here with OP too, which is all that matters even if on paper they are kinda similar. :tu:
This entire forum is wading through predictions, opinions, barely formed thoughts, drama, and whining. If you don't enjoy that, why are you here? :D ShawnG

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Kinh wrote: Have you noticed the music you create and especially songs sound different depending on what DAW you use? Or am I just going crazy?

(Im contemplating taking the FL route now they've killed the bugs.)
DAWs are just different tools which offer different workflows for the same challenge of music making.

You can still make the same / any type of music within them.

The DAW does not maketh the man, nor his music.

I don't want to discourage you from getting a new DAW if you feel that's best for you in terms of workflow.

However, you're real issue might be less about a DAW design and more about feeling you need to compare your own music to others, as also mentioned in the opening post.

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I find the midi editing a bit clumsy in Live compared to some other DAW's I've used. The way this affected me when I switched to Live was it made me spend less time editing midi, and more time playing parts and re-recording if I was not happy with it. The end result was better playing skills on my part and more 'human' music (ironic given the 'loop' based reputation of Live)

Live and now also Bitwig are my favorites. I like how much one can do without interrupting audio playback. I will create some sort of quick on the fly looping groove (maybe complex) as a framework and then play realtime stuff on top of that... then remove or mostly remove the framework. It is so fast to try stuff that way that I would say the Session view (Launcher in Bitwig) has made me be more experimental and spontaneous which I'm happy with. I find my results more pleasing when I spend less time thinking about it beforehand.

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I probably should clarify. Im not so much talking about workflow in terms of 'speed' (although some could say it's related) what Im referring to is linear vs non-linear. Although the workflow my be similar in FL and I think you can launch clips now, it's still a linear DAW. Ableton is not in the sense that its arrangement view sucks. I cant work in arrangement view in Ableton. It takes too long, everything is too small and fidgety. I think Ableton was originally designed to work in session view anyway.


When composition is a process of layering elements onto a loop and your brain becomes conditioned to that process of hearing repetition does that affect the 'type' of material your brain creates ie.. establishes an 'expectation' to follow a certain pattern especially as far as melody is concerned? That's what I'm trying to figure out.

Yes, I understand you go with Ableton cause you wanna make loop based music but when you think about it, its all loop based these days anyway, what's different is how it's created.

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^^^That is similar to why I switched from Ableton to MuLab (after demoing various others). But trust your own taste!
Each DAW is a unique musical instrument, designed to prioritize some musical qualities over others and make producing them easier. Music is too vast for one DAW to be equally good at everything.
I also "believe" its best to find a DAW that gives you joy, and learn how to use its limitations to your advantage!
Last edited by Michael L on Sat Apr 30, 2016 2:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Kinh wrote:I probably should clarify. Im not so much talking about workflow in terms of 'speed' (although some could say it's related) what Im referring to is linear vs non-linear. Although the workflow my be similar in FL and I think you can launch clips now, it's still a linear DAW. Ableton is not in the sense that its arrangement view sucks. I cant work in arrangement view in Ableton. It takes too long, everything is too small and fidgety. I think Ableton was originally designed to work in session view anyway.


When composition is a process of layering elements onto a loop and your brain becomes conditioned to that process of hearing repetition does that affect the 'type' of material your brain creates ie.. establishes an 'expectation' to follow a certain pattern especially as far as melody is concerned? That's what I'm trying to figure out.

Yes, I understand you go with Ableton cause you wanna make loop based music but when you think about it, its all loop based these days anyway, what's different is how it's created.
Lots of people using Live are not loop based and plenty of users mainly work in Arrangement. Live is simple, straightforward and easy to use. Instrument racks and Drum racks are a marvel. There is no easier DAW to layer stuff in.

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Kinh wrote:Although the workflow my be similar in FL and I think you can launch clips now, it's still a linear DAW.
Sorry, but than Live is linear too, if your only merit is arrangement view :tu:
This entire forum is wading through predictions, opinions, barely formed thoughts, drama, and whining. If you don't enjoy that, why are you here? :D ShawnG

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keyman_sam wrote:
Groundhog #31684 wrote:Reaper has a retrospective record feature now. It's a script you can get here...

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=168855

Load it, run it, hide the track it automatically creates and save that as your default template. Job done.
I'm sure it does. There's hardly anything Reaper can't do. The point is its all using scripts, macros and endless customizations into nowhere. I'm just so glad I'm not in that boat.
I'm glad you're not in that boat too... I don't get along with Sonar, for example. Doesn't mean that it isn't a perfect fit for other people. Some people like fixed-track architecture and inflexible plugin usage... others find that limiting. Also it takes a while for new DAWs/cars to start revealing their quirks and foibles to otherwise proud new owners... I like that Reaper allows us to bypass those with scripts.

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Numanoid wrote:If the DAW "dictates" which music is made, it seems the user didn't know from the start what music s/he wanted to make
Interesting statement because in the past, when hardware ruled, the hardware would (especially drum machines) have a very dictatorial role in music making.
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keyman_sam wrote:I'm sure it does. There's hardly anything Reaper can't do. The point is its all using scripts, macros and endless customizations into nowhere. I'm just so glad I'm not in that boat.
Reaper is a mess.. but a beautiful mess :D
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Numanoid wrote:
Kinh wrote:Have you noticed the music you create and especially songs sound different depending on what DAW you use? Or am I just going crazy?
I think a user should select the DAW best geared toward the music that user want to make, not the other way around.

If the DAW "dictates" which music is made, it seems the user didn't know from the start what music s/he wanted to make
But that doesn't even make sense. Why would I not know what music I wanted to make?

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Kinh wrote:
Numanoid wrote:
Kinh wrote:Have you noticed the music you create and especially songs sound different depending on what DAW you use? Or am I just going crazy?
I think a user should select the DAW best geared toward the music that user want to make, not the other way around.

If the DAW "dictates" which music is made, it seems the user didn't know from the start what music s/he wanted to make
But that doesn't even make sense. Why would I not know what music I wanted to make?
Seriously? I usually know which music i want to make, or the sounds i create inspire me to do the music i make. The DAW really hasn't much to do with it. As i wrote earlier, if it does, you're doing something wrong.

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The instrument you use influences your music, and a DAW with its synths,fx, sequencers etc is an instrument. (Technically its an electrophone in the standard Hornbostel-Sachs musical instrument classification system.)
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