What DAW Do You Hate?

[rewrite history]

hate [hāt] verb
feel intense or passionate dislike for (something or someone).

The obvious questions are …

1. Why would anyone be using any DAW that they don't like and...
2. If they're not using it because they don't like using it, why even think or talk about it so often?

#2 is a rhetorical question.

It could be that some companies don't allow the transfer or sale of their licenses, and some people are kind of dragged along for the ride? Or some of the transfer fees (software in general) are hiked up so far that it makes it not worth it, which may cause some resentment in people? Also, some companies offer updates from any version, but some people may dislike (hate) the DAW at that particular time, but future releases may win them back over?

There's many reasons people stay involved with a purchase of a product after it's made. Some people have a little more invested in the DAW, due to their emotional relationship with their art.

I think people are confusing hate for dislike in most cases.

[jancivil]

I did try REAPER. I couldn't believe what I was looking at, there is simply no way. My expectations were _not_ high either. But the thing is, other people can be not me, at all. For a time here, any question as to how to address a problem in a DAW got 'just use REAPER' so that doesn't help. But none of this is a problem, I can just look at other things.

I hate dishonesty fundamentally, obtuse but inconsequential behaviors is more of just a quirk or a kink.

[Psuper]

I did try REAPER. I couldn't believe what I was looking at, there is simply no way. My expectations were _not_ high either. But the thing is, other people can be not me, at all. For a time here, any question as to how to address a problem in a DAW got 'just use REAPER' so that doesn't help. But none of this is a problem, I can just look at other things.

I hate dishonesty fundamentally, obtuse but inconsequential behaviors is more of just a quirk or a kink.

mm hmm. don't we all 'hate' dishonesty?

Upon opening reaper, looks like any typical DAW, bout the same reaction I had when looking at Cakewalk, Sonar, Studio One, Bitwig.. pretty much all look the same, behave slightly differently, all proprietary ways but same basic layout.

Try looking at Reason for the first time, especially if you haven't come from a hardware background, there's nothing like it, and far from intuitive. Hell same can be said with step sequencer FL, very different from typical DAWs. Doesn't take long for people to come to grips, though does it? Maybe some more than others...

[reggie1979]

mm hmm. don't we all 'hate' dishonesty?

Clearly, with the most popular entertainment FIRMLY entrenched in dishonesty as a super-power, this is not the case.

Then again I digress, I don't understand how anything host wise can be dishonest (unless coding is not mathematical)

Who knows these days

[FapFilter]

regarding dishonesty: i've also heard a few times that Logic was a misleading name

[jancivil]

Well, there are one or three decisions I just don't get, there. Where you have to do a lot to get some just normal things, for me anyway.

[Deep Purple]

Does anyone else find it ironic that the DAW showing as most hated in this poll is the one that has the largest number of supporters jumping into unrelated threads to extol its virtues?

[BONES]

Not really because it is probably the most widely used, which means it is just as likely to top love and hate polls, simply because more people have interacted with it.

[Spencer Maddox]

Reaper is not the most widely used DAW...

[Deep Purple]

Hard to say what the most widely used one is, as various list published aren't always in agreement (and I've never seen one topped by Reaper).

That wasn't what I was finding ironic though...

[mgw38]

Does anyone else find it ironic that the DAW showing as most hated in this poll is the one that has the largest number of supporters jumping into unrelated threads to extol its virtues?

Yep, it's not a DAW, it's a cult. And it is this cult like following that is really annoying.

Don't get me wrong. Reaper has become my secondary DAW because it can do things no other DAW can. There are times where I use Reaper almost exclusively. Its internal routing capabilities are just insane. And I can use it in my classes without having students require to purchase expensive software.

But that does not mean I like it. Reaper's menu structure is a mess, many of the workflows lack any form of logic and the GUI is amateurish with no theme being able to fix that. It is the ultimate "form follows function" DAW.

[Psuper]

I keep hearing about these elusive 'Reaper fanatics bombarding random KVR threads', and have yet to see one.

However I do see the same people complaining about 'Reaper fanatics bombarding random KVR threads', in random KVR threads...

[mgw38]

Touche.

[LawrenceF]

Reaper is not the most widely used DAW...

That's really impossible to know, but something that's for all - practical purposes - so functional and free to use has a really good chance of being very widely used by consumers. That's the main market or demographic for all of these products, consumers, not people engaged in music for a living.

Like any other good DAW there are many valid reasons to choose it, but not having to pay for it is a pretty big one.

It's obvious that very many people do pay for it as the venture is profitable for Cockos. It's also obvious that many don't because they don't have to. We all know that technically and legally it's not free. We also all know that as a practical matter it actually is.

[rewrite history]

Reaper is most likely used for...

1. Rock
2. Metal
3. Experimental

Reaper is most likely NOT used for...

1. EDM
2. Hip Hop
3. Pop
4. Everything else.

Of course there are exemptions to the rules, but that's the basic community in a nutshell. And we all know how unpopular Rock and Metal are in 2019, so it's obvious which DAW isn't as popular at this time.