Waveform 10 vs other DAWs?

[reggie1979]

I tried waveform 9. Seems like a really nice program but like tracktion before it, I get a bunch of "poof" crashes. I have no idea why, but I can't properly evaluate it it seems.

[HansP]

currently on T7 / 32bit !
I love the workflow and versatility.

I changed the computer to a 3.5GHz i7, 12 threads, 16G RAM, SSD, Windows 10 home.
Which means, performance and stability improved a lot.
This system is easily doing 90 tracks with a ton of complex plugins and busses, but still one has to stay reasonable.
Have a fast drive, big memory, many threads on high CPU speed, and T7 will behave.

Stability caveat is about use of plugins, some will crash, and then, a few mouse clicks are toxic, you will have to remember those.

T6 had wild issues with racks and automation, you'll have to keep all used automation curves open and visible.

T7 crashes rarely with racks, but unfortunately, for me automation into rack plugins does not work. If I need it, I must try to dissolve the rack into busses and wire-rack structures (I call it a wire rack when there are only inputs and outputs, no plugins, and the rack appears in multiple tracks, so to do some cross-routing.)

I'm in the Tracktion forum and posted some mixes at "Tracktion in action".
So you see the mixes are dense and complex. But no MIDI for me. Just natural recordings of bands.
I used only free plugins, but no Tracktion stock plugines except Hipass/LP and the Delay (but many extra volume faders to keep automation and general track volume apart.)

--
I believe that currently the developers are at a point to really make progress with defeating issues, as the features now seem rich enough and have some maturity.
This will be a serious jump across the threshold of relevance.
My only reason to not use a current version is that I am too old to work as a pro audio engineer, so I do not really invest (the computer has other purpose in office), and I rely heavily on great 32bit plugins, that won't get updates no more.

[rpm]

Hmm... Enticing. At least it makes it meaningful to demo S1 now. I'm still not sure about buying--rent or not--because eventually 400 dollars will go out of my pocket. (If you were in a country whose economy was definitely sinking, you'd understand my need to be so cautious as the breadwinner of the house).

Definitely nice to know still. Thanks!

Remember too, if you want to cancel it's kosher. I did that because I just wanted to concentrate on Reason (not good at being a DAW ho )

You can find S1 in the market place pretty cheap so you could demo it for a couple of months, then buy it that way if you want, then cancel

What does it mean to cancel? You mean you can get a refund on S1? Never heard of a software purchase with refund. Confused.

[Trancit]

I tried waveform 9. Seems like a really nice program but like tracktion before it, I get a bunch of "poof" crashes. I have no idea why, but I can't properly evaluate it it seems.

This is the problem with Waveform... it simply crashes and misbehaves a whole lot...
It seems the devs don´t have any clue why, so they built in their wonky "crash protection" which automatically restarts Waveform after a crash with the last autosaved state and claim this would happen because of buggy plugins and would be similar to all DAWs...

This is the reason I turned away from them... advertising is one thing but lying because my code is simply buggy and making other appear in a negative light in the public eye to hide my own incompetency is a 100% no-go

It´s a shame because it´s a great DAW with very nice features, but everybody using more than 5 or 6 "stable" (in Waveform stable) plugins is simply not able to use Waveform for serious work...

[Trancit]

Remember too, if you want to cancel it's kosher. I did that because I just wanted to concentrate on Reason (not good at being a DAW ho )

You can find S1 in the market place pretty cheap so you could demo it for a couple of months, then buy it that way if you want, then cancel

What does it mean to cancel? You mean you can get a refund on S1? Never heard of a software purchase with refund. Confused.

You can cancel but already paid money is lost... no refund!

[reggie1979]

Hmm... Enticing. At least it makes it meaningful to demo S1 now. I'm still not sure about buying--rent or not--because eventually 400 dollars will go out of my pocket. (If you were in a country whose economy was definitely sinking, you'd understand my need to be so cautious as the breadwinner of the house).

Definitely nice to know still. Thanks!

Remember too, if you want to cancel it's kosher. I did that because I just wanted to concentrate on Reason (not good at being a DAW ho )

You can find S1 in the market place pretty cheap so you could demo it for a couple of months, then buy it that way if you want, then cancel

What does it mean to cancel? You mean you can get a refund on S1? Never heard of a software purchase with refund. Confused.

The sub. Some subs require a year or whatever but you don't have to do that here. Let's say you use it for 3 months. Then you decide it's your dream DAW, instead of paying list price (which is what the sub pay would be) you simply cancel and get it here on the market place for 170 or whatever. Does that make sense?

[rpm]

Damn! Yeah, I see, thanks!

[dupont]

Waveform crashes within a few minutes on OSX, unusable.

[rpm]

Yeah, crashing pretty often for me in Win 10 recently (W8/W10). I keep looking around. I now have demos of all the major DAWs except a few (Cubase, FL). But all of it just makes me love the Waveform UI and workflow more. I'm addicted to it.

I've used some of these other DAWs before, like Reaper and Reason. Compare W to Reaper. Now, I believe in the stability and customizability of Reaper and it's a great deal for 60 USD. But the appearance of the menus, etc. just make me really dread going back to it.

S1 in this sense is a bit less dread-provoking. But 400 vs. 60 USD is a major difference.

It's a pretty bad situation. I haven't figured out how to get out of it.

[Trancit]

Yeah, crashing pretty often for me in Win 10 recently (W8/W10). I keep looking around. I now have demos of all the major DAWs except a few (Cubase, FL). But all of it just makes me love the Waveform UI and workflow more. I'm addicted to it.

But a crashfest DAW isn´t a alternative neither...
The W10 update has shown, that they are either not able to fix their code or simply don´t have the time to investigate further because adding more features is more important to them...

Either way isn´t an option for the userbase imho... stability is the first "feature" a DAW should have...

[reggie1979]

Agreed

[reggie1979]

I don't know if Studio One ever crashed on me when I was with splice.

[Trancit]

I am not aware of any DAW which crashes at least 20 times less than Waveform if ever...

[rpm]

Yeah, crashing pretty often for me in Win 10 recently (W8/W10). I keep looking around. I now have demos of all the major DAWs except a few (Cubase, FL). But all of it just makes me love the Waveform UI and workflow more. I'm addicted to it.

But a crashfest DAW isn´t a alternative neither...
The W10 update has shown, that they are either not able to fix their code or simply don´t have the time to investigate further because adding more features is more important to them...

Either way isn´t an option for the userbase imho... stability is the first "feature" a DAW should have...

That's what I'm saying. I'm stuck cause I love the workflow and look so much but I cannot afford to use it anymore due to frequency of crashes. I will try to force myself to like another DAW but I do not like the look/feel of the other DAWs because they have a similar approach. Tracktion/Waveform differed from the norm in terms of the single screen uncluttered look. I don't think there's anything similar or at least I haven't seen it.

I also cannot place faith in TSC to clean their code. That's risky in terms of potential wait time even if it happens.

I will back off for now and try to use Geist 2 to accomplish some other ideas. So I will give up MIDI recording and 3rd party plugins and most audio recording (guitar, etc.). After several months, I'll turn to the DAW problem again.

[rpm]

Plus all the investment I already made to T/W over the years and the costs of having to learn a new DAW, aside from the mere purchase.

It's like a bad marriage where you still find your spouse super physically attractive but the joint activities you try to do always result in mutual frustration, complaint, and arguments. And you've been married 15 years (I think I started T in 2004).