KVR Audio

knucklez09 · Post by **knucklez09** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:50 am

OK.. I've been using Acid pro for Yeeears, but I realized about a year ago that Acid is kinda one of the worst Daws around. I didnt really care because I loved how easy it was to use with the audio sample placement and all that. I dislike MIDI drums so I love acids audio sample way of drums and sampling.

Anyways overtime the better I got, the more I realized that Acid was really lacking in ALOT of areas that I need. the LAST straw was when I realized you cant use automation on audio or midi tracks using midi controllers (knobs). You have to manually do it with your mouse. No audio effects, vst or not, will work with MIDI. I learned this using Sugar Bytes Turnado, which is useless in acid.

So my question is: What DAW would be good more me? I like manually editing my midi tracks, sometimes without using a device and I like using audio clips. That and something Not TOO hard to use. Money isnt a problem but under $500 would be nice. I know I wrote alot but I really need some help on this.

nix808 · Post by **nix808** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:04 am

hmm, although this has worked sucky for me--
u could try Acid and Orion
ReWired together.
They will both use the same tempo and transport then.

mandolarian · Post by **mandolarian** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:22 am

Pick me! Pick Me!

Oh, wait, I'm not a DAW. I'm a DAW user. An ex-Acid user. Pretty happy FL Studio user now. And this thread wouldn't be KVR without a shout out for Reaper. Although everyone has an expert opinion, it's your workflow - only you can judge the best way to come off Acid. Download some demos and see if you can get clean.

braj · Post by **braj** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:29 am

mandolarian wrote: only you can judge the best way to come off Acid

You just gotta wait for it to wear off, and remember 'I'm here, and it's now.'

mauseoleum · Post by **mauseoleum** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:16 pm

Yeah I can second the FL Studio suggestion.

At least you can download the installer and demo it till you drop.

There are lots of bundle/versions options so you can choose the one that suits you most.

One thing to remember is that once you own it, it becomes a NFR.

Another thing to remember is a pretty liberal copy protection scheme allowing you to run your Fruity on lots of different computers (if that matters to you).

And the good folks at IL set up the affiliate program allowing a 10% discount for new customers:

http://affiliate.image-line.com/HACEJC414

IOW, if you:
1) demo it and you find out that you want it,
2) demo some of their plugins and you want them
3) you can wisely choose the appropriate bundles in their shop and
4) save yourself a nifty amount of cash

... so you can buy a lesser version of Cubase in the future, haha..

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:19 pm

I'm a long user of Live and MuLab and tried several DAWs including REAPER and FL.
I took the one day 50% off from Presonus on Studio One Pro and I'm goin to get rid of ALL my DAWs (I keep my modular MuLab) . Not even two weeks of use and I have never been so productive. EVER!!!
You need to give it a couple of days and man, for me there is no going back..... Back to what!!!
And it's just version 2. So beside the present moment it looks like a fenomenal future (yes future is quite important when all your creations are in one basket) for Studio One.
And so far it hasn't crash on me no matter what a throw in it.
So now propellerhead can't claim the " no VST for stability" myth any longer!

Resonator63 · Post by **Resonator63** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:22 pm

+1 for FL Studio if you like pattern based.
If you'd prefer a more linear approach Studio One.
FL can of course be rewired into another host and be used as a vst within another host.
Best bet try a few demos and see what clicks with you.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:13 pm

In Reaper you can preview audio loops matched to tempo from its media explorer (browser) then drag to the project and it will create a new track for it, automatically named and colored and also make a mixer track with name and color. Extremely easy and I guess a bit like it's done in Acid. Adding effects to that track is also very easy as you can do it from both the arranger track or the mixer track. The effects are already sorted according to how you have them arranged on the harddisk so no need to do it in the DAW again. Plus it's only $60 for a (resellable) personal license and by far the cheapest of all.

FL is more cumbersome as you have to load things in the step sequencer before you can load it in the arranger, and mixer channels has to be set up manually for each one as well. I believe you also have to color tracks manually too and the color doesn't follow if you use single tracks in the arranger (so you have to color them again). VSTs has to be sorted and set up inside FL even if you have already done it on disk.

Ableton Live is like the name says made for live use where you are supposed to load loops to trigger, and a bit like FL where you are forced to deal with the pattern based editor as well as the normal arranger editor.

Cubase is an alternative but very expensive but has cumbersome routing and automation issues which is why I left it for Reaper.

I don't know Studio One too well but is very visually oriented if that's a thing, so recommend you demo Studio One and Reaper first.

necho2 · Post by **necho2** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:26 pm

Based on your post, Studio One is worth a look, I reckon.

Reaper is great, but you need to be prepared to put some effort in to get the most out of it. S1 is more immediate IMHO.

knucklez09 · Post by **knucklez09** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:16 pm

THANKS sooo much to everyone who posted. I tried FL some years ago and didnt like it, but then again I was waaay less experienced. Reaper looks like what I want and Mu Lab 4.0 looks good too. Think I'll spend a good week trying the demos for those 3. Without this thread I wouldve tried Cubase or Ableton which EVERYONE seems to use, they look overly complicated to me. Not that I cant learn, its just I dont wanna spend weeks trying to make one song. I have a thousand vsts so built in sounds dont matter to me. Thanks again and keep the suggestions coming.

P.S. in my thread complaining to Sugar Bytes, creators of the Turnado vst effect, they told me...
"Sorry but with Acid you have the host with the worst VST integration out there.
There is no way to send MIDI to effects in Acid. "

=( its reeally time to change

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:42 pm

If you go MuLab be aware of its depth in the modular aspect, more than any other DAWs. The forum is a great place and the developer is outstanding.
You'll love the pianoroll navigation system and the independent part/clips loops.
AND you can even build your own synths and effects. Have a good time pal!

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:21 pm

I agree Studio 1 is a good choice but so is the new Samplitude Pro X with it's new pricing. You do not get the AM suite nor do you get VANDAL but you get the same features that was 11 pro (of course with the updates of Pro X or 12 pro) for 499 usd. It's not pattern based but it is object based (and linear) and you will fall in love with objects.

I also agree with FL though, seriously...buying FL in like 02 or 03 was a great investment and a great host whether it be your primary host or not to me it's worth having

itsDavidAbraham · Post by **itsDavidAbraham** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:52 pm

Sell everything you own and get a MacBook Air and Logic Studio 9

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:37 pm

Hink wrote:I agree Studio 1 is a good choice but so is the new Samplitude Pro X with it's new pricing. You do not get the AM suite nor do you get VANDAL but you get the same features that was 11 pro (of course with the updates of Pro X or 12 pro) for 499 usd. It's not pattern based but it is object based (and linear) and you will fall in love with objects.

I also agree with FL though, seriously...buying FL in like 02 or 03 was a great investment and a great host whether it be your primary host or not to me it's worth having

Is this the only DAW with objects?

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 12:46 am

The closest thing to Acid is Live, Live has a 30 day fully working demo.
The other rational IMO thing to do is wait and see how Bitwig Studio pans out, it could be a game changer, if it is then you'll fell silly getting Live.

IMo none of the other suggestions do elastic audio the way that Acid and Live do, if you're used to that then mostly it's going to be a step back to adopt some cut down version. Studio One had Melodyne integration, but I would think that for full Melodyne use you would have to own Melodyne as well as Studio one....

Need Help Picking a new DAW