DAW for kids

[Zexila]

As I said already, FL and Reaper are different in the eyes of the newcomers, and I tried to make all those toolbars with shortcuts so he can only press buttons, but that's still not intuitive enough, same goes for FL's patterns.

Anyone who ever tried to hook up another human being in person for first time in his life to a DAW just knows this stuff, who never did that, can't understand this and only see in the eyes of his own preference.

We all want to explain it to be so simple and easy than we realize that DAW is just not it, we know why we are workarounding and using few DAW's, but explain that to innocent guy sitting there who just wants to make some noise without all that jazz/easiest way possible.

It's all about them, not us, our own preference means nothing here, we should care about him and his best interest, I actually did expanded with one of mine on pros&cons about many of them in the way he can understand and he picked up the one he feels like using, but he is older, your kid on other hand is left on your mercy, so don't ruin his first experience that easily, choose wisely.

"DAW, big deal", yeah, it's a big deal, this can determine is he going to get into it or not.

[zenophilix]

Ultimately, you're going to have to get some info from him. What sort of music is he in to, mainly. FL would definitely be a great starter DAW, but avoid the Fruity edition. Starting out, loops and samples come in really handy for getting ideas together, and Fruity edition doesn't have support for audio tracks. Live Lite would be another possibility, but you have the 8-track limit there, and it's probably not going to be the smoothest transition from Logic. Studio One Artist would be a good one as well, lots of similarities to Logic IMHO, and you can get Artist + VST support for $179. You could also give him an AudioBox USB, which comes with artist, and is the same price as Artist, anyway. He'll thank you in the future for having a solid interface.

[Zexila]

FL would definitely be a great starter DAW

Why?

FL really got reputation it doesn't deserve, being a toy and good beginner DAW, in reality it's far away from that, really capable DAW and really not that intuitive.

[EldorBoye]

Studio One Artist looks great, and getting a decent audio interface at the same time - kind of a deal maker there. Too bad vst support is an add on, but it's acceptable.

As for type of music, they're pretty genre fluid at that age.

[do_androids_dream]

I think the concept is slightly bogus. There's not really any such thing as a 'beginner' daw. If he's new to it all, it's all going to be alien to him anyway - much learning to do. Get him the best daw your money will allow for. Sonar Steam edition is going for about £35 at the moment for instance - fully fledged daw with very little difference to the full platinum edition.

[Zexila]

I think the concept is slightly bogus. There's not really any such thing as a 'beginner' daw. If he's new to it all, it's all going to be alien to him anyway - much learning to do.

Agree, there's only DAW's that are more intuitive than others, more simpler approach to same things, less steps, less options, less menu diving and so on.

[do_androids_dream]

I think the concept is slightly bogus. There's not really any such thing as a 'beginner' daw. If he's new to it all, it's all going to be alien to him anyway - much learning to do.

Agree, there's only DAW's that are more intuitive than others, more simpler approach to same things, less steps, less options, less menu diving and so on.

Exactly.. and 'intuitive' is entirely down to each individual. I tried pretty much every daw back when I was deciding and Reaper was the only one that made sense to me without hitting the manual - cue shock horror lol

[Zexila]

I think the concept is slightly bogus. There's not really any such thing as a 'beginner' daw. If he's new to it all, it's all going to be alien to him anyway - much learning to do.

Agree, there's only DAW's that are more intuitive than others, more simpler approach to same things, less steps, less options, less menu diving and so on.

Exactly.. and 'intuitive' is entirely down to each individual. I tried pretty much every daw back when I was deciding and Reaper was the only one that made sense to me without hitting the manual - cue shock horror lol

Agree on that too, personally helped some beginners with DAW's and observed enough things there, so kinda have some personal opinion based on this that may or may not apply to others, but based on that, as I said, some DAW's appear more intuitive in bare basics even to me, realized that when I needed to explain basic things as simple as possible and that things appeared not that simple as one could want them.

On other hand, I pretty much have whole picture in head, I really don't care how fast I can do one simple thing any DAW can do, if I need too much hassle to do next thing and or there's not even option for other thing there which speeds up my whole process quite a lot, that's more important to me, but that might not be in best interest for a guy that just want's to drop few loops, records something and call it a day.

[dune_rave]

I think CAUSTIC is a "daw for kids".
It's windows version is free and full.

http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/caustic

What do you think?

[zenophilix]

FL would definitely be a great starter DAW

Why?

Why? Because I used the demo and found it very intuitive. What else do you want me to say?

[Zexila]

FL would definitely be a great starter DAW

Why?

Why? Because I used the demo and found it very intuitive. What else do you want me to say?

Well, what made you have that opinion, like "I found X, Y, Z thing to be very intuitive for beginners and the way A, B, C works makes H, J, K stuff very easy" and so on, what formed your opinion, what you find great for beginners there, pin point the actual things, that kind of stuff people on forums write when they want to actually help another one expanding on their personal opinions and preferences, so others can understand better what they are saying and thinking when they say some things.

[MachFront]

I think CAUSTIC is a "daw for kids".
It's windows version is free and full.

http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/caustic

What do you think?

I agree with this. Caustic is very easy to use. My ten year old girl loves it. She can use Reaper's most basic functions, but she enjoys and gets further and more done with Caustic. It's a solid and pretty powerful bit of software too. I'd probably use it a whole lot more myself if I had a good tablet.

[EldorBoye]

Caustic looks integrering, at least for the wallet. Did install Reaper on his PC, and found it didn't FIT the discripton at all.

[Zexila]

Did install Reaper on his PC, and found it didn't FIT the discripton at all.

Which description precisely it didn't fit or by description you mean your needs?

[EldorBoye]

For one the included software instruments were horrible and difficult to use. Seim maschine style step sequensing could be done, and I would be able to use it pretty well, but not too easy for a ten year old. Not very easy putting in audio loops either. A fine piece of software concidering the price, but not at all what I was lokking for.