The best DAW is the one that makes you the most productive

[deastman]

So a fairly innocuous post pointing out the fairly obvious truth that DAWs are a personal choice becomes an opportunity for others to push their favorite DAW, becomes a hardware vs. software war. Who’d a thunk it?

[Cinebient]

But my DAW looks better than yours.....

[THE INTRANCER]

The HDPI rating is an error. It should be a 10, not a 0. I will fix that, thank you.

The 3rd party undocumented themability I was not aware of. I will up that rating to a 2, same as Logic.

These ratings are relative, so as far as I'm seeing, Studio One's themability pales in comparison to Reaper's Walter.

Theming Studio One, or even that of other daws that don't provide the facility to do so by default, isn't something that I think is commonly known I think. Daws like Reason, Protools Digital Performer, Bitwig and even Abelton Live to a certain extent can be reskinned to look significantly different or less flat than they might be. I did post a recent demo video of some of the more recent schemes I've created in the past week on KVR here. In away, it's actually much faster to create a GUI and to be able to change it in Photoshop than it is to build a GUI for Reaper skin from scratch. Subtle changes in your peripheral vision around the borders of a program is all that's really needed too lift it visually if by default the program has been developed to look flat...the results can be quite effective with a balance of both.

[jancivil]

So a fairly innocuous post pointing out the fairly obvious truth that DAWs are a personal choice becomes an opportunity for others to push their favorite DAW, becomes a hardware vs. software war. Who’d a thunk it?

I'm not fighting for any side, I just found the notion that people must do something that individual thinks is The Way to "creativity" (twiddle knobs and hear the magic) or they must be a silly person with no experience with anything suspect.

I find the word "productive" suspect for that matter. I've been in a mood to be frank lately.

[Karl the Hermit]

Great video! I wished it could've been longer and done in concert with another professional who comes from the composer/producer/midi side of the audio world. Advice on what the "best DAW" is is often never considered with what the users' background or needs might be. Unlike the guy in the video, I have very little history with working in a studio, so something that emulates physical hardware is fairly useless to me. Also, I work with mostly midi and only record vocals, so DAW's that kill it for recording don't always have the most intuitive or flexible midi editors.

I guess what I'm getting to is this...

I'd love to see or read a truly comprehensive comparison between DAW's that looks at them from both angles and includes all modern DAW's in the comparison. To his credit, I saw that Pictus has tried something like this, but forgot to include at least one DAW that is modern and of consequence... FL Studio. And there may be other DAW's I'm missing here...

And if some noob looks to your "expertise" to help get them started on a direction in DAW's, please remember to ask them how they plan to make music. I mean, if you're an architect drawing out plans for someone's house, you should really find out how many bedrooms they need, no?

[whyterabbyt]

So a fairly innocuous post pointing out the fairly obvious truth that DAWs are a personal choice becomes an opportunity for others to push their favorite DAW, becomes a hardware vs. software war. Who’d a thunk it?

new here?

[elxsound]

So a fairly innocuous post pointing out the fairly obvious truth that DAWs are a personal choice becomes an opportunity for others to push their favorite DAW, becomes a hardware vs. software war. Who’d a thunk it?

new here?

Conditionals have not been proven true.

[Pictus]

Great video!
I'd love to see or read a truly comprehensive comparison between DAW's that looks at them from both angles and includes all modern DAW's in the comparison. To his credit, I saw that Pictus has tried something like this, but forgot to include at least one DAW that is modern and of consequence... FL Studio. And there may be other DAW's I'm missing here...

Not me, but Robert Randolph, he may test FL Studio(FL 20?) someday...

[Hink]

^^^^you gonna buy it for him

[jancivil]

I vastly prefer writing control data and automation to twiddling knobs. To say people are "missing" some path to 'creativity', on top of they must be a n00b, by not preferring hardware synths is a narrow view and too bold by half IMO. I was using a minimoog in 1974 and that very object and a TEAC was my first composition 'workstation' in 1980. I have so much more just on my MBP and with *no* controller.

I prefer using a mouse and cursor for graphic design work than using a pen or pencil, but I know for sure that I have more creative freedom to use a pen or pencil to design something if I put in the time and effort to do so, and that what I eventually create with a computer will be much better because I have the idea's laid out in front of me. You only get out what you put in as with all things.

Here's a notion: You're not me. I'm not you.

I was a classical guitarist at one time. You make tarnce afaict.

[Robert Randolph]

Great video!
I'd love to see or read a truly comprehensive comparison between DAW's that looks at them from both angles and includes all modern DAW's in the comparison. To his credit, I saw that Pictus has tried something like this, but forgot to include at least one DAW that is modern and of consequence... FL Studio. And there may be other DAW's I'm missing here...

Not me, but Robert Randolph, he may test FL Studio(FL 20?) someday...

I already have FL written up for the DAW Chart, however all of my testing (except for SAW) chart has been on macOS.

When FLStudio is stable on macOS, I'll add it to the chart.

If someone from IL contacts me and says they don't mind if I put up my evaluation of their product in the current beta-stage, then i'll do that. Until then, I think it's unfair to IL to compare their beta product to other stable products on the market.

[jancivil]

If any DAW got the notion to make me productive I would rebel. "You're not my real mom!!!1!1!".

[Deefex]

That's very true. Now that the technology is pretty great all across the board, the DAW that one should pick out is the DAW that will make their more productive. Since I can't upgrade to the latest version of cubase yet, I decided to go back to FL Studio because it's the 2nd DAW where I feel most comfortable with producing. Yes, it's easier than Cubase, but It's the DAW I learned more than a decade ago. So I'm back learning how it works now, and giving it a second chance.
But yeah, don't pick DAWs based on what you read has the best features, pick ones that will make your workflow easier to make great music.

[lfm]

Can't help it - but most productive is still the days of my Fostex hdd portastudio 15 years ago.

Too many things to fiddle with in computers.

But productive is not the only thing that matters - end result is.

[solomute]

And the new favourite is ... samplitude. And mixbus is crap. I have compared rendered files from both and that from mixbuss is totally flat and spaceless. Definitely when you listen to playback in mixbus it sounds pretty but the rendered file does not have anything what you hear at playback. So mixbus sounds as much as it costs. Samplitude is the best in all aspects. First you think that it has too soft sound but then you begin to value it because the rendered result is close to hw studio provided that you keep BBA genwave eq on the master to raise highs. I have got to know that secret from one sound director. As for motu digital performer I don't like its interface, workflow, etc and it's more cpu hungry.

As for productivity questioin it's only one of aspects. Quality does matter too. If you use something that spoils sound you won't get good results. I recommend sticking to magix's builtin plugins + hofa + genwave + timeworks millenium 1999, vb-audio's vsts. Remember that choice of plugins defines the quality and coloring. If you violate this law you won't get studio quality.