What's your favourite DAW's feature? I tried to make Reaper do-it-all

[jamcat]

although U2's Boy is the best Echo & the Bunnymen album ever made.

I think Boy is closest to early Chameleons. Not quite as good, but better produced.

The songs I'm talking about that sound naff are mostly Top 10 hits

Unlike today's Top 10?

[kvotchin]

M4L. Try implement that with the ugly as hell Reaper.

Show me on the doll where Reaper had its way with you.

Not that I really care who believes what about which DAWs, but hey, in case you’re not aware, Reaper has its own scripting language, that people have made some great stuff with. Including excellent plugins.

On the other hand, it would be fair to say that few people choose Reaper for its native effects or, in particular, instruments. Plenty of people do choose it for its speed, workflow, flexibility and superb support, and community.

And yes, Ableton (well, Suite) has some seriously nice instruments and effects. I suspect quite a lot of users prefer it at least partly because of those.

[licasto2]

I'm still learning Logic, so no comment for now.

My favorite feature in Ableton Live is 3 features that work together: Note Chance, Velocity Chance and Groove Random.

When all 3 are working together, every time I play a project, it sounds slight different every time.

This 3 features are my main reason to stick with Ableton Live.

If you are unaware, you can also do those things in Logic via the scripter midi fx insert.

[BONES]

Unlike today's Top 10?

I honestly wouldn't know. I was reading a newspaper article last month that was talking about how few albums you need to sell these days to top the charts and I didn't even recognise the names of the 5 or 6 chart topping artists they talked about and/or to, much less their music. There was a time when the Top 40 was impossible to escape but these days you really have to want to listen to that sort of shit to hear it at all.

[XorXisT]

I'm still learning Logic, so no comment for now.

My favorite feature in Ableton Live is 3 features that work together: Note Chance, Velocity Chance and Groove Random.

When all 3 are working together, every time I play a project, it sounds slight different every time.

This 3 features are my main reason to stick with Ableton Live.

If you are unaware, you can also do those things in Logic via the scripter midi fx insert.

Can you do all that with just what comes with Logic?

I did some research and there's some cool 3rd party scripts, like:

https://www.positivepressureaudio.com/smarterhumanize

But, if I can use only what's come with Logic, then I'm set.

Need. More. Research.

Thank you!

[dellboy]

My favorite feature in Studio One is its gapless audio engine, and the ability to undo and redo on the fly.

In Studio One,while in record mode, you can add tracks, delete them, add instruments, and choose patches, undo, redo, copy bars of music and delete them, and the audio engine will not hiccup. Because it has a monitor feature you can audition patches while still in record mode without recording anything. I have tried this in Bitwig and Cubase and they both fail. Bitwig cannot undo while the engine is running, you has to stop. Cubase just stops if you try to do just about anything while recording.

Granted, not many people like to compose on the fly, but if you do then Studio One is the clear winner. Unless of course you want to add another DAW that can also accomplish this amazing feat.

[resynthesis]

I put those people one step above flat Earthers

The surface of a sphere is in fact 2-dimensional, which is easy to prove with multivariable calculus. On a much larger scale, superstring/M theory tells us that our universe is 3-dimensional information projected on a 2-dimensional brane. So maybe they're onto something.

No expert but I thought spacetime in string and M-theory needed many more dimensions (10 or 11)

[jamcat]

I put those people one step above flat Earthers

The surface of a sphere is in fact 2-dimensional, which is easy to prove with multivariable calculus. On a much larger scale, superstring/M theory tells us that our universe is 3-dimensional information projected on a 2-dimensional brane. So maybe they're onto something.

No expert but I thought spacetime in string and M-theory needed many more dimensions (10 or 11)

Right, it’s 11 dimensional, but our reality is a 3-dimensional hologram projected in 2-dimensional space and is the product of two 2-dimensional branes slapping together or something. The other dimensions are necessary to unify the forces, gravity in particular being a bitch. So we only experience a vector or two of the whole of gravity that passes through our dimension. Or so they say.

[Kalamata Kid]

Two favorite features in a DAW:
1. I want all overlapping clips, events or objects on the same track to be audible. In Studio One, Reaper, Cakewalk and FL Studio yes. In Cubase and Samplitude only to top clip is heard.
2. ARA2!

[Tj Shredder]

One chooses a DAW in the first place for its workflow! This is something you can only change partially with customization like the one Reaper delivers. Mainly just skins and shortcuts, maybe also scripts that combine some tasks…
But different tasks need different workflows. You will never be able to replicate the ease of how to setup modulations in Bitwig with any script or skin, you need to fire up Bitwig to get inspired like that.
And you can’t (not yet) get Bitwig to deal as easy with multichannel audio as its possible in Reaper… Just as examples…
All DAWs will be fine to produce any piece of music from start to finish. (Even multichannel audio in Bitwig). But it might take longer (maybe much longer) if you insist on it…

[v1o]

That was one of the things I didn't like about Bitwig, too much emphasis on stuff I don't care about, stuff that encourages you to make things harder, not easier. That's why nothing will ever beat Orion when it comes to workflow - instead of indulging your stupidity, Orion forced you to think your way through to a more elegant, flexible solution.

Patterns in Orion aren't all that different to clips in Ableton. Even the piano roll works the same. If Orion was still actively developed I think it would be going a similar direction to Bitwig. The most fundamental aspect of Orion was the loop based sequencer that reminded me of hardware boxes.

[BONES]

Patterns in Orion were irrelevant to me and patterns in Studio One are actually a lot more powerful. It's Orion's mixer-centric workflow that makes it so good. It allows you to work in pretty much the same way you would in a real, physical studio. Even in Studio One, the mixer is less important than either the arrangement window or the piano roll, although it's easy enough to give it more prominence.

As you can see in the photo, my dual-screen laptop makes it really easy to put the mixer literally in the centre of everything, which I really like. Note also in the first mixer channel how cool it is that you can see and manipulate the curves in the ProEQ plugin without having to open it's GUI in a separate window. If it was playing, you'd also be able to see how you get a visual compression meter alongside the main meters when you use any of the native compressor/limiter effects. Having all that stuff there in a single window makes it so much easier to work up a mix.

IMG_20210826_215331743.jpg

[BONES]

You will never be able to replicate the ease of how to setup modulations in Bitwig with any script or skin, you need to fire up Bitwig to get inspired like that.

What I've never understood is the value of any of that. Why wouldn't you do all your modulation inside your instruments or with automation? Why make things more complicated than that?

[ShawnG]

You will never be able to replicate the ease of how to setup modulations in Bitwig with any script or skin, you need to fire up Bitwig to get inspired like that.

What I've never understood is the value of any of that. Why wouldn't you do all your modulation inside your instruments or with automation? Why make things more complicated than that?

Becuase the modulators are LESS complicated and more immediate in use than creating automation to do the same things, and most instruments don’t have the same depth or number of modulation options.

[Tj Shredder]

If your focus is mainly on composition and mixing, I would agree to BONES, but if you want to work on the sound itself, the way Bitwig deals with modulation is unmatched… I also get what BONES explained about the mixer. I guess these channel views of filter and compressor would only work with built in tools…
In Bitwig there is also no need to open the plugin windows, but you would need to select the channel strip. One more click, but also much more to see as its bigger and actually gives access to change it directly… In the end its just different and a matter of taste…
What BONES pointed to should be possible to push into Reaper, but it might be hard work…