Poll: Which DAW interface do you find lets you get the job done quickest?
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- KVRAF
- 6113 posts since 7 Jan, 2005 from Corporate States of America
I voted based on experience with the ones I've actually used, and based on the one i chose to eventually adopt as my only DAW. Some tasks are easier in one DAW vs another, but then that one with the easier task will do something else worse or lack something one of the others doesn't lack... and none of them seem to have everything exactly right. There are compromises to be made.
- dysamoria.com
my music @ SoundCloud
my music @ SoundCloud
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- KVRAF
- 1950 posts since 17 Jun, 2005
Heh, this and the accompanying thread present such broad questions, it's very difficult to sufficiently narrow them down. In this one, it really really depends on what "the job" is. For example for me, doing a wide variety of music/audio stuff, it's quite shallow to pick just one environment.
Anyway, assuming the job is traditional linear composing and producing the final result, from the recording phase onwards, where I play ideas in draft form and proceed from there, editing the performances of different parts in MIDI, and so on... I would pick Reaper and its blazingly fast custom workflow for these tasks. When improvising, I don't need to think about project tempo or where the grid is, I just play, switch complex instrument combinations on the fly and control them through one MIDI source track each (one big slowdown for me in Studio One how you couldn't do that), record a lot of raw material, and then I pull it to project tempo afterwards, *boom*
, no matter how rubato or "loose" it is. Ripple editing the MIDI further, referencing the parts against each other in the same editor space, and so on, then mixing the final result... All of that is very powerful and effortless for me there. That's the main reason I went for some other DAW than Live for tasks like this, it's really so much more convenient to do with the right tools. Yes, I know I'm talking a lot about functions/features here (vs. the actual interface), but the way I interact with the features while working is obviously directly interface related, and yep, it gets this job done the quickest, for me.
BUT if the job is about producing (experimental) electronic stuff with labyrinthine rack constructs, nested/parallel signal chains hosted on single mixing console channels, complex layering, non-linear designs and generative stuff... Both for music and sound design purposes. Then it's Live all the way for me. The interface is so well thought out and elegant, both from the functional and aesthetic standpoint, and the workflow shines in these use cases. It's just a joy to use for me.
I picked Reaper in this thread, as you can only pick one.
Anyway, assuming the job is traditional linear composing and producing the final result, from the recording phase onwards, where I play ideas in draft form and proceed from there, editing the performances of different parts in MIDI, and so on... I would pick Reaper and its blazingly fast custom workflow for these tasks. When improvising, I don't need to think about project tempo or where the grid is, I just play, switch complex instrument combinations on the fly and control them through one MIDI source track each (one big slowdown for me in Studio One how you couldn't do that), record a lot of raw material, and then I pull it to project tempo afterwards, *boom*
, no matter how rubato or "loose" it is. Ripple editing the MIDI further, referencing the parts against each other in the same editor space, and so on, then mixing the final result... All of that is very powerful and effortless for me there. That's the main reason I went for some other DAW than Live for tasks like this, it's really so much more convenient to do with the right tools. Yes, I know I'm talking a lot about functions/features here (vs. the actual interface), but the way I interact with the features while working is obviously directly interface related, and yep, it gets this job done the quickest, for me.BUT if the job is about producing (experimental) electronic stuff with labyrinthine rack constructs, nested/parallel signal chains hosted on single mixing console channels, complex layering, non-linear designs and generative stuff... Both for music and sound design purposes. Then it's Live all the way for me. The interface is so well thought out and elegant, both from the functional and aesthetic standpoint, and the workflow shines in these use cases. It's just a joy to use for me.
I picked Reaper in this thread, as you can only pick one.