I'm an Ableton Live user in need of a good/affordable 64-bit DAW.

I love Live but it's getting to the point where I need a 64-bit DAW. I get tired of having to resample all my MIDI tracks to audio. Plus, a lot of plug-ins are 64-bit now.

I've heard Reaper is good. I need something that doesn't have a very steep learning curve and has full VST support.

Close your eyes and throw a dart at a list of the most common hosts and odds are very high that you'll hit one that's 64-bit. Almost all of them are now.

Reaper, Samp, Cubendo, S1, Sonar, Logic... take your pick.

Anyway... if you hear Reaper is good (and I concur, it is)... get the demo and see if you agree? Otherwise, pop a beer and get ready for everyone to tell you what they like most is the best.

As to learning curve, subjective. It depends on how you work, how you learn, what you consider intuitive (which varies wildly from one person to another), what you consider "easy" personally and all kinds of subjective stuff like that.

Again... most recommendations will be based on personal experience that may or may not necessarily fit how you personally will view any of the above in X host.

It's better than getting yelled at in other threads:x

You CAN'T go wrong trying the demos for these. Reapers is totally functional (unlimited), S1 is mostly functional (for 30 days??? can't remember)

All of these are VERY different from live though. Both reaper and S1 have good forums as well as here

Thanks! They are all about the same I guess. I just need a good 64-bit DAW. If there are any that I should avoid I'd appreciate a heads up. I got Ableton because I assumed that it was the end-all-be-all of DAW's. I'll probably still use Live for performance I guess.

Another question I have is lets say that the 32-bit VST's I'm running now in Live are using 25% of my CPU when Live starts messing up... Can I expect 64-bit versions of the exact same set to use double that amount of CPU? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I am not the most computer savvy person. Incase that doesn't make any sense... What I'm essentially wondering is if my CPU would be able to handle it. I currently have 8GB of RAM and a 2.3ish GHZ processor (nothing special). I tend to use a lot of effects and layer multiple instances of instruments, etc. If not, can I use 32-bit VST's in a 64-bit DAW?

Sorry for all the questions it's just I need some answers from someone that's not a salesman. I hate getting things that I don't need. I just need a DAW that is not going to destroy my workflow like Live does. It seems like everytime I use it around the time I have the first build-up and breakdown it will start skipping...

A 64-bit won't make the DAW more or less CPU efficient, it just means you can use all of the available RAM for projects.

If you have a 64-bit OS and 8 GB of RAM with a 32-bit host such as Live, it will have 4 GB of RAM available. This is usually enough for most projects, unless using lots of large sample libraries.

All the hosts mentioned by LawrenceF are fine ... but you'll need to demo them first to see if they fit your workflow. Live has the unique "session view" which is not available in other hosts (well, Cubase has something similar but people say it is not nearly as good).

Peace,
Andy.

@cpu comsumption:

I had terrible problems with live and the cpu. About 50% would sputter and stutter

TBH, I really liked live a bunch. Nothing is like it. I guess the reason I use reaper the most is because it just doesn't have the performance problems for me other hosts have had. It's very efficient on the cpu.

CPU isn't a problem with a powerful computer and Studio one v2

Cheers

I guess I'll try out Reaper since it's unlimited. I think I might've already downloaded a demo for it a while back though.

I wish Live was 64-bit. I really don't feel like learning how to use a new DAW.

There is no such thing as an end-all-be-all DAW.

For me, if Ableton went 64-bit... it would be the end-all-be-all DAW.

I tried Reaper out a little. It's just too different from Live. I guess I'll just have to impatiently wait for Ableton to go 64-bit.

Since its been 4 months since your post, was wondering if you have found a suitable replacement or still hanging in there using Live?

I myself is in the same situation really getting on my nerves there isnt even a peep from Live on 64 bit version

Im ready to upgrade my PC but no point in getting more than 4gigs of ram if ableton cant handle it....

My personal preference is S1 as I like the workflow.
Definitely try some demos and see what clicks with you.

I think something needs to be said here, and that is that, even if a DAW is 64 bit, that doesn't mean that a plugin will be - always remember that a plugin will need to be developed for 64 bit before it will work with a DAW as such, and wrapping doesn't count (a la jbridging).

For a 64 bit DAW, I highly recommend Studio One, not very Ableton like, but no DAW will be, until Bitwig comes out.

fixed

I use Cubase 6.5 64-bit and I think its great. I also use and love Live, for different purposes and reasons. Cubase is expensive though and I need it for video support in 64-bit. I would actually suggest you try Studio One V2. If I was starting fresh I would probably go with that. Does most things Cubase does, and a few thngs extra (Melodyne!). Worth trying the demo.