Which daw do you use?

[EnGee]

Bigwit these days

[Aloysius]

[Tj Shredder]

I should switch from locig to broccoli... Witbig is hard to beat though... Or was it Wigbit?

[jinotsuh]

Switched from REAPER to Studio One Pro about 4 years ago, couldn't be happier, well maybe only if I had made the switch earlier perhaps, but I'll never know.

[BONES]

Honestly though, the price is just too damn good to pass up, its been something on my radar for a long time. And while I can afford what I want, I'm not dumb with money (which is why I can afford what I want), and when this hit - I knew I was gonna bite.

... since Cubase has everything I need in one package, I'll probably completely convert eventually, I just prefer 1 DAW environment.

Couldn't agree more. I've tried switching a couple of times before, once very seriously, but always gone back to Orion but the Steinberg sale got me on-board with Cubase and I am enjoying it more than I expected and way more than anything else I've tried. I can't get my head around the fact that people are happy to work in multiple hosts, I can't think of a bigger workflow killer.

[jancivil]

"workflow" to me is about habit and ergonomic comfort. I started with Cubase SX 1 in 2004 or so and it seems to do all I ever would think to do. I'm not someone that thinks in the abstract about features, reading about them and coveting or second guessing, or really getting distracted.
I through-compose and essentially work left to right, improvising. I can open up space in the middle and grow from the middle... the flexibility it offers with Time Warp and the tempo map is key for me.

its audio editing is quite good and easy to grasp... the whole of it has been, well, not much RTFM which is good because the manual can be a little frustrating. Pretty obvious layout. So my whole flow goes hand-in-hand with it. I'm sure I could learn Logic but it's not very suitable, too much would change, things are missing... for me a back and forth, that is if the other thing really had features I need, would be kind of dissociative. I'm driven to make music, and I don't have a lot of patience this late in life to figure shit out, like reaper is a non-starter.

[BONES]

Yeah, I don't think about features, I think about the stuff I need to do. So when someone talks about a feature that some other application has, I don't think "gee-whizz, I wish we had that feature in my software", I think "I reckon I could do that easily enough if I just set this to that and add the other thing in". Save a macro or a preset or whatever and you've got that feature whenever you need it.

[Bombadil]

I've been using Logic since 2007, so I am really comfortable with it, and, imo, the whole package, including Achemy, is hard to beat.

Went for the Cubase ½ price sale, though, and am learning Cubase. I did this to gain some cross-platform independence in the case that Apple annoys me too much. I don't find the layout and workflow as elegant as Logic's, but I'm just a few more days learning away from trying an actual project with it. I like Padshop and the other synths. It is heavier on the cpu than Logic, though.

[jancivil]

I just watched a really in-depth VSL tutorial, mainly focused in VIP 2 where the guy had to keep switching CC lanes in Logic. It's a fantastic tute, but it would drive me around the bend to have to do that and not see the relationship all at once and it will have been much better to see that as he showed his ideas. Yes, there is some kind of workaround but not a very useful one TMV, and no. This is reason numero uno I never did anything with it, #2B being, and this is illustrated here as well by his using a whole instance just to get another MIDI port in VE Pro (it was the first tableaux of Stravinsky The Rite of Spring; using I think 6 instances where I would use 1.).
There is a workaround (Event Input) but this individual, a total pro, prefers not to. I tried to sort it trying to help someone and my frustration tolerance is just a bit low for it. Some people do VSL in it as a real power user nonetheless, evidently, as shown there.

EDIT: late in the video there are the other hyperedit lanes in transparent overlay, wasn't the case back then.

I bought Logic (and Digital Performer) because in 2009 Cubase latency and performance was not real good on Mac no matter what you did basically (RME PCI-e card? Helped a little.). Fortunately VE Pro came out shortly thereafter.

Pretty easy to get around in, compared to Digital Performer which I literally never used. I like the score editor in Logic better than Cubase for basic tasks such as illustrating something for a student.

[Bombadil]

I don't need to work like that for most of the things I do, and I gave up mastering VIP2 a while back. Same with VEP. Took too much time with too few foreseeable benefits. I can handle/grasp some of VIP's functionality options, but don't need to bother with key switches since Logic came out with their version of Cubase's 'expression maps. VEP is just unnecessary for how I use plugins.

[fragmentated]

Logic and Ableton here. Switched to Ableton in 2006 from Sonar and loved it. Very inspiring to use and sparked a lot of creativity. Slowly I found myself just starting stuff and not finishing it though... to much playing in session view. Started using Logic in 2008 and enjoyed it. I starting finishing stuff again since it forced me to lay out ideas into arrangements. Used both for a couple years then went mainly to Logic since I found I was more productive there. I always kept both updated to the most recent version though. Bought a push 2 recently and upgraded to Live 10 and have been getting to know it again this year. Inspiration strikes again. I switch back and forth to become inspired I suppose. Both are very different but fun to use. I don’t see switching anymore unless I move away from a Mac. These two meet my needs.

[Straight2Vinyl]

Honestly though, the price is just too damn good to pass up, its been something on my radar for a long time. And while I can afford what I want, I'm not dumb with money (which is why I can afford what I want), and when this hit - I knew I was gonna bite.

... since Cubase has everything I need in one package, I'll probably completely convert eventually, I just prefer 1 DAW environment.

Couldn't agree more. I've tried switching a couple of times before, once very seriously, but always gone back to Orion but the Steinberg sale got me on-board with Cubase and I am enjoying it more than I expected and way more than anything else I've tried. I can't get my head around the fact that people are happy to work in multiple hosts, I can't think of a bigger workflow killer.

Switching back and forth for certain tasks is definitely a pain. But every DAW does something particularly well and something else not so well. The 1 DAW does everything is never entirely true. If I was stuck with just 1, I guess Live or Studio One would come closest, but I use Renoise still because by virtue of being a tracker it does things no regular DAW will ever be able to do and in an instant. If you don't work with samples, of someone else's material or your own, they may not matter. However, if you do, the sample effects are pretty incredible. On the other hand, it is useless for live recording either audio performance or MIDI(unless you record a single note part like just a kick, snare or hat).

Ultimately, while a couple DAWs come close to doing everything well, mainly Cubase and Logic, specific DAWs will always be much better at certain tasks.

On a related note, I keep wishing Native Instruments would make a fully featured DAW integrating everything from Komplete in one environment. Imagine sampler tracks going straight to Kontakt, or a mixer featuring the solid series, replika delay etc.
I'm probably the only person who wants this, but I think it could be amazing to have all their products in a DAW optimized to run them all. Maschine doesn't really count as it is, like Renoise, mainly for beats/instrumental music only. Oh well a guy can dream. For now, I could always go overboard building an overly elaborate template in Reaper.

[Psuper]

Honestly though, the price is just too damn good to pass up, its been something on my radar for a long time. And while I can afford what I want, I'm not dumb with money (which is why I can afford what I want), and when this hit - I knew I was gonna bite.

... since Cubase has everything I need in one package, I'll probably completely convert eventually, I just prefer 1 DAW environment.

Couldn't agree more. I've tried switching a couple of times before, once very seriously, but always gone back to Orion but the Steinberg sale got me on-board with Cubase and I am enjoying it more than I expected and way more than anything else I've tried. I can't get my head around the fact that people are happy to work in multiple hosts, I can't think of a bigger workflow killer.

Switching back and forth for certain tasks is definitely a pain. But every DAW does something particularly well and something else not so well. The 1 DAW does everything is never entirely true. If I was stuck with just 1, I guess Live or Studio One would come closest, but I use Renoise still because by virtue of being a tracker it does things no regular DAW will ever be able to do and in an instant. If you don't work with samples, of someone else's material or your own, they may not matter. However, if you do, the sample effects are pretty incredible. On the other hand, it is useless for live recording either audio performance or MIDI(unless you record a single note part like just a kick, snare or hat).

Ultimately, while a couple DAWs come close to doing everything well, mainly Cubase and Logic, specific DAWs will always be much better at certain tasks.

On a related note, I keep wishing Native Instruments would make a fully featured DAW integrating everything from Komplete in one environment. Imagine sampler tracks going straight to Kontakt, or a mixer featuring the solid series, replika delay etc.
I'm probably the only person who wants this, but I think it could be amazing to have all their products in a DAW optimized to run them all. Maschine doesn't really count as it is, like Renoise, mainly for beats/instrumental music only. Oh well a guy can dream. For now, I could always go overboard building an overly elaborate template in Reaper.

I stay away from everything Kontakt (or samples/loops in general). I have a lot of stuff and haven't needed to install even the vanilla player on my new system going 1.5 yrs now. Some circles its hard to not use Kontakt -- orchestral stuff you kind of need if you want to do it all sample-based, but I play a lot of instruments and am decent at sound recording and design with my own creations.

But I'm a songwriter before anything, spending many younger years blissful with just some instruments, a microphone, and a 4 track. Right now Cubase is checking off every bullet point for everything I'd need or want in this day and age. And its surprising just how quickly some feature you never thought of, or thought you'd never need or want, becomes immediately necessary upon trying it, if just for one song... then another... and another.

Speaking of Renoise, what do you feel would be its competition sampler-wise? Or is there any out there that can compare? My sampling is good, but its relatively neanderthal how I do it - making them specific for each song and throwing them in a directory.

[BONES]

I'd never thought about Contact until I heard the demos for Output's Substance. After that it didn't matter what I needed, I just had to have what Substance does in my musical life. Since then I've discovered Contact is actually pretty good but, of course, in Cubase we have HALion which seems to be at least as good in most respects. Mind you, we probably use Zampler more than either because it's simple and does what we need (and is just like Orion's sampler).

But every DAW does something particularly well and something else not so well.

Still, I can't imagine how doing those "not so well" things in a different host is going to be easier than doing it the "not so well" way in the same host you do everything else in.

I use Renoise still because by virtue of being a tracker it does things no regular DAW will ever be able to do and in an instant.

Like what? And even if it does it in an instant, you then have the hassle of putting it all together back in your main host so you end up robbing Peter to pay Paul. That's the situation I am still Lin at the moment. I am not yet comfortable enough in Cubase to open it and start noodling around so I still do that in Orion. But there comes a point where I have to decide whether to keep going in Orion or export it to MIDI and rebuild it in Cubase. The longer I put that off, the harder it gets to do and it's all horribly inefficient no matter when I do it.

[Psuper]

Gotta say Bones, I've been focusing on Midi today in Cubase, and Ho Lee Crap dude its a whole new world, the way you can instantly set loop ranges for brainstorming, and the functions man I'm gonna be entertained for days just learning the ropes of Midi management alone in Cubase, and that's not even touching the logical editor. I'm SO damn glad I bought this, and I'm literally barely scratching the surface.

I'm now wondering how good the sampling portion and management is with Cubase, instead of looking elsewhere since I'm now full-speed "Out with the Old" mentality. The sampling management and manipulation is so weak in Reason and Reaper, I kinda got used to doing it the way I previously stated, using crappy external software to supplement. I guess I'm looking more for a drag and drop "manager" than anything, something I can load up, slice, normalize, zero out, fade, etc that has a logical directory structure I could migrate my old ways to.

**We interrupt this program as a quick search while typing revealed a "Sample Track" feature, which upon first look... appears to be exactly what is needed**