Good DAW to start with.

[Pacific05]

Hey, did someone say "Reaper"?

[fmr]

Hey, did someone say "Reaper"?

[GRUMP]

That's the wrong question.
You should find the DAW to STICK with.
Most DAWs have demo versions or free light versions.
Try them all until you find one that works for you.

The reason I say this is because there is a lot of investment in learning any DAW, and a lot of investment in creating music in one. The more songs you create in a DAW, the more you are tied down to it. You don't want to be in the position of having to rebuild all of your songs in a new DAW a year from now.

I'm in the Studio One camp, myself.
It's one you can start with AND stick with.
But you need to see for yourself.
What works for me may not work for you.

Personally, I feel like Studio One is geared towards musicians who play instruments and want to get their ideas down as quick and with as few obstacles as possible. It excels at that. But if you want to use a lot of software aids to make music, things like auto-arpeggiators and modulation matrices and other things that will make your tracks for you, then Studio One might not be what you're looking for.

I'd add that Demos arr only useful If you know what you need :/

Cubase imO. You can keep it and you can learn a lot.

[GRUMP]

That's the wrong question.
You should find the DAW to STICK with.
Most DAWs have demo versions or free light versions.
Try them all until you find one that works for you.

The reason I say this is because there is a lot of investment in learning any DAW, and a lot of investment in creating music in one. The more songs you create in a DAW, the more you are tied down to it. You don't want to be in the position of having to rebuild all of your songs in a new DAW a year from now.

I'm in the Studio One camp, myself.
It's one you can start with AND stick with.
But you need to see for yourself.
What works for me may not work for you.

Personally, I feel like Studio One is geared towards musicians who play instruments and want to get their ideas down as quick and with as few obstacles as possible. It excels at that. But if you want to use a lot of software aids to make music, things like auto-arpeggiators and modulation matrices and other things that will make your tracks for you, then Studio One might not be what you're looking for.

I'd add that Demos arr only useful If you know what you need :/

Cubase imO. You can keep it and you can learn a lot.

MPC Software is a DAW, a Sampler, has integrated synths and FX. AND you can even use it inside an other DAW later on (as VST). Ilike!

[dermichl]

Hey, did someone say "Reaper"?

[MMaarrkk]

To begin with, use anything you can get your hands on, there's no best DAW out there. Some start with GarageBand, some jump straight into Ableton or FL Studio, it's all down to which one you end up learning, as most of them will require you to learn to use the software from scratch unless you have prior experience.

The debate of which is better will always come down to preference. A few good questions to ask would be if you want to work with separate tracks or have the ability to put everything on the same track. As these might be seen as the biggest differences between Ableton and FL Studio when it comes to workflow, as many other DAWs will follow one or the other. And the second is if you want to mainly use plugins or samples as if you're focusing on using samples, a more simplistic DAW could be less cumbersome to use.

[fmr]

... if you want to work with separate tracks or have the ability to put everything on the same track. As these might be seen as the biggest differences between Ableton and FL Studio when it comes to workflow, as many other DAWs will follow one or the other.

Excuse me... W H A T ?????

[MMaarrkk]

... if you want to work with separate tracks or have the ability to put everything on the same track. As these might be seen as the biggest differences between Ableton and FL Studio when it comes to workflow, as many other DAWs will follow one or the other.

Excuse me... W H A T ?????

My apologies, If I misspoke in an absurd fashion, all I meant to highlight is how different playlists work for composition porpuses. That some DAWs might require you to assign an instrument to a track, while others might allow you to place your patterns/samples freely. Some people might prefer one or the other.