How did you manage to switch DAWs?

[CapnLockheed]

bought new host, opened host, recorded stuff.

Ha! No sh#t!! I didn't even have to buy one. I bought a Presonus interface that came with free Studio One Artist. Liked it so well I dove headfirst into Presonus....became a beta tester and a forum mod and got a free upgrade S1 Pro. This after years of various flavors of Cubendo. Still occasionally use that stuff some video and MIDI....but not too often.

[machinesworking]

Anyone telling you its easy to switch didn't make much music in their prior DAW.

Bollocks. I've been making & releasing music since before there was such a thing as a DAW. If you actually finish tracks, then switching is a non issue.

It's that old extremist thing people love doing. Some people do well with minimalism, one DAW, minimal set of hard and software etc. clears their brain for music. Others like myself are never that organized, and need the chaos of massive amounts of choices to stay interested and excited about producing. There literally isn't any wrong way to do it, but people will tell you there is. Usually it's people who either experienced terrible writers block at some point and a drastic change helped, or people who don't write much at all, but know what you need to do.

[festeringheap]

Hey,
after a long fight within myself, I finally decided to switch my main DAW.
Now I know that the one I'm using now would improve my workflow in the long run, but man, I really miss my fast workflow.
The frustration sometimes eventually brings me back to the old DAW throwing me into a never ending cycle. Feels like coming back to a toxic relationship over and over
I'm sure I'm not the first one ever to experience this, so how did you guys that made the DAW switch manage to beat this?
It's even worse considering I'm lucky enough to get paid for my music related work, so it's crucial for me to deliver a quality standard.
Have you ever felt like your productivity or even quality of your work is suffering due to the switch?

I think the best way to change a DAW is to first identify the main things you do automatically (without thinking-muscle memory) in your current DAW when:
A-tracking
B- using stock instruments/FX
C-mixing

So, ie, create a new track, arm track, record, set loop points, duplicate clips/tracks, split clips,quantize, create new plugin, midi learn etc etc Just get the basics, whatever it is you need to get the job done)

Then, on a piece of paper, write down the shortcuts or methods used to get that result in the new DAW. Yes, spend a bit of time researching this and write it down. (or print it out). Kee.p it Simple

Then, Tape this sheet on the wall/shelf/wherever over your monitor.

Then start a session.If there is a point you forgot, find out how to do it and stick it on that sheet of paper. And keep referring to your paper.

Seems a lot of people get frustrated because the methods aren't exactly the same and they feel like they're wasting too much time, and they give up too easily, because they keep forgetting the new ways of doing things. Especially when life happens and you don't open up the DAW for a week or so.

[antic604]

Anyone telling you its easy to switch didn't make much music in their prior DAW.

But why would you need to access your old stuff? Finish the current projects, keep the DAW they were written in if it's for some reason important, otherwise just move on.

[simpic]

After my computer completely dying and being forced to reinstall everything on a new one, I've decided to move on from my copy of Cubase 4 and join the modern DAW scene (and move on from Cubase, for various reasons).

Live seemed like the obvious choice for what I do, so I decided I was going to learn it from the demo and then buy it eventually. Well, literally every time I've used it has been grueling, frustrating, and about as far away from fun as you can get. Nothing in that program works like I think it should, and when I do finally figure out how to do something, I've forgotten it by the next session.

It got the point where I just didn't even want to open it up anymore, and I figured if the software is making me not want to make music, maybe it just isn't for me. This was affirmed when I went back to Cubase and had a great start to a song in an hour. So in the end, I gave up on Live, and will most likely be moving to Studio One, which still has its quirks, but just seems to make sense when I use it.

So the lesson is, maybe you don't need to change? Or maybe you need to change to something other than what you've decided?

I'm exactly the same with Ableton, I keep trying the demo which I still have 5 months left to run on it with the hope of learning it and buying it eventually but I just cannot enjoy using it. On paper it sounds ideal for the music I want to make and how it is put together in the session view but I can't bring myself to use it and I don't know why.

[Passing Bye]

After my computer completely dying and being forced to reinstall everything on a new one, I've decided to move on from my copy of Cubase 4 and join the modern DAW scene (and move on from Cubase, for various reasons).

Live seemed like the obvious choice for what I do, so I decided I was going to learn it from the demo and then buy it eventually. Well, literally every time I've used it has been grueling, frustrating, and about as far away from fun as you can get. Nothing in that program works like I think it should, and when I do finally figure out how to do something, I've forgotten it by the next session.

It got the point where I just didn't even want to open it up anymore, and I figured if the software is making me not want to make music, maybe it just isn't for me. This was affirmed when I went back to Cubase and had a great start to a song in an hour. So in the end, I gave up on Live, and will most likely be moving to Studio One, which still has its quirks, but just seems to make sense when I use it.

So the lesson is, maybe you don't need to change? Or maybe you need to change to something other than what you've decided?

I'm exactly the same with Ableton, I keep trying the demo which I still have 5 months left to run on it with the hope of learning it and buying it eventually but I just cannot enjoy using it. On paper it sounds ideal for the music I want to make and how it is put together in the session view but I can't bring myself to use it and I don't know why.

You both should try Bitwig, yeah I know there's plenty of us here on KVR using it and talking about it and bla bla bla, but there's even more people that made Live over hyped thing as it is now, why are you forcing yourself to like it, I never understood it either, it's DAW for special cases, end of story.

[Psuper]

Anyone telling you its easy to switch didn't make much music in their prior DAW.

But why would you need to access your old stuff? Finish the current projects, keep the DAW they were written in if it's for some reason important, otherwise just move on.

Read on:

So my tip would be -- backup *everything* from your old DAW in those accepted formats (mid, wav, etc). Then switch. Anything already produced don't try to import to a new DAW just call it done. Anything half baked, convert only the good possibles. Everything else just keep as backups for a rainy day.

I'm seeing a trend where people simply don't comprehend what was written, or never read it to begin with.

[antic604]

Anyone telling you its easy to switch didn't make much music in their prior DAW.

But why would you need to access your old stuff? Finish the current projects, keep the DAW they were written in if it's for some reason important, otherwise just move on.

Read on:

So my tip would be -- backup *everything* from your old DAW in those accepted formats (mid, wav, etc). Then switch. Anything already produced don't try to import to a new DAW just call it done. Anything half baked, convert only the good possibles. Everything else just keep as backups for a rainy day.

I'm seeing a trend where people simply don't comprehend what was written, or never read it to begin with.

Sorry, must've glossed over it somehow

[Psuper]

Anyone telling you its easy to switch didn't make much music in their prior DAW.

But why would you need to access your old stuff? Finish the current projects, keep the DAW they were written in if it's for some reason important, otherwise just move on.

Read on:

So my tip would be -- backup *everything* from your old DAW in those accepted formats (mid, wav, etc). Then switch. Anything already produced don't try to import to a new DAW just call it done. Anything half baked, convert only the good possibles. Everything else just keep as backups for a rainy day.

I'm seeing a trend where people simply don't comprehend what was written, or never read it to begin with.

Sorry, must've glossed over it somehow

No biggy we all do it occasionally, but KVR seems to have the lions share of it.

[vitocorleone123]

I’d say switching DAWs is one of the most disruptive things you can do, because a DAW is workflow. Unless you believe your workflow needs disruption and there won’t be serious consequences (eg a deadline), you’re probably better off changing other things first. Most DAWs have a lot of the same core features.

[BONES]

Mostly my question is how people stay in one DAW? I see a feature I like in another DAW and I learn that DAW until I get bored. I'm trying to stay in DP mainly, but I love the controller implementation and MPE support in Bitwig.

The answer to your question is that we are not all goldfish. Of course I get bored in Cubase, just as I used to get bored in Orion. Production is boring but if you have the tools to get the job done, then it doesn't matter.

When the developer stops listening to the demands of the user, when you the user have exhausted the capabilities of the tools provided and have established your key goal in the direction you want to take your music and the means in which to achieve that goal with the tools you have identified that lay elsewhere.

How does that happen? A spanner is a spanner and once you have a good set of spanners, you can use them on anything you like - an engine, a washing machine or a table. It's the same here - a mix is a mix and an arrangement is an arrangement - you use the same tools no matter what sort of music you're making - instruments, effects, a sequencer and a mixer. The first two things are irrelevant in this context and every application you want to call a DAW has the latter two. The thought that you'd run out of tools is absurd.[/quote]

Bollocks. I've been making & releasing music since before there was such a thing as a DAW. If you actually finish tracks, then switching is a non issue.

Unless you want to play them live at some point. Then it is much easier to have them all in one place.

Others like myself are never that organized, and need the chaos of massive amounts of choices to stay interested and excited about producing.

How is making great music not sufficient to sustain your interest and excitement? Unless... ?

[machinesworking]

Mostly my question is how people stay in one DAW? I see a feature I like in another DAW and I learn that DAW until I get bored. I'm trying to stay in DP mainly, but I love the controller implementation and MPE support in Bitwig.

The answer to your question is that we are not all goldfish. Of course I get bored in Cubase, just as I used to get bored in Orion. Production is boring but if you have the tools to get the job done, then it doesn't matter.

Others like myself are never that organized, and need the chaos of massive amounts of choices to stay interested and excited about producing.

How is making great music not sufficient to sustain your interest and excitement? Unless... ?

You're just trolling here. No real points at all.

To attempt to answer, with this sort of thing anecdotal is just fine. Some musicians use multiple DAWs, hard and soft synths. Autechre are pretty notably prolific enough, and I don't think there's a DAW or plug in they haven't used. Some don't use but one DAW, Prodigy used Reason pretty much alone with it's built in plug ins for Always Outnumbered. Nothing to do with whether you like these groups, but it's obvious that their approaches are not affecting their outcome, it's just a preference on how to work.

Anything you can think of to say is meaningless in the face of numerous examples that can be given of both approaches working. I know it hurts your binary little head, but the truth is there is no "right" way.

[BONES]

Hardly, I just happen to use my brain a little more than some of you. What you've provided does nothing to bolster your case because I wasn't criticising what you do, just your stupid justification for it. You don't know why Autechre use every DAW under the sun so they don't back you up at all. And Liam Howlett has been using Reason pretty much since it first came out, so it's hardly surprising he's made an album with it, although he used to use it to get ideas down, before moving it over to Pro-Tools to flesh it out and polish it up.

[BONES]

Anyway, to answer the original question, having switched to Cubase last year after 20 years and five albums with Orion, I was really surprised at how easy it was. I've switched software before in my work and I long ago discovered the best way to learn anew application is to take a recently completely project you made in the old one and do it over in the new one. As you're coming from FL, that might be a bit more difficult for you at first, as FL has it's own way of working, but by re-making a recent project, you will see where your new application is similar and where you need to learn to do things a bit differently.

In my case we had just finished an album so I grabbed a couple of songs from that, exported from Orion as MIDI songs, imported the MIDI tracks and then added in instruments and effects. Where I had used an Orion native generator or effect, I had to do a bit of extra work finding a suitable replacement but mostly it was pretty easy and that little bit of extra work helped build my confidence. The hardest thing I came across was the very different way Cubase handles Send effects but even that was only a small hurdle. Watching a few videos on YT also helped me to learn about things I never knew existed. i.e. Features Orion doesn't have.

We are still using Orion live and that will continue for the foreseeable future although, who knows, if the next album is done 100% in Cubase, it might be easier to switch to using that on stage, although it worries me how slow it is to load a song.

Another approach I have recently used with good effect, when I decided to switch from my 10 year old version of 3DS Max (I have been using 3DS Max since 1998) to the free and open source Blender, was just to sit down and watch loads of videos about the kinds of tasks I normally do in 3DS Max, from the very basics of modelling and materials through to a few fancy things like explosions and water simulations. I did that mostly without having Blender open in front of me, although I made sure I understood the content of the videos. Sometimes I even slowed them down to half speed so I had time to see what hotkeys were being used as well as what they did in the viewport. There was also a lot of repetition so the important, core techniques had a chance to really sink in.

Now I am in the process of creating a couple of video clips for the singles from the new album in Blender and I am surprised how much of it has stuck in my brain. In just a month or so I already feel more at home in Blender than I do in Cinema 4D, which I have actually been using at work for the last 8 years (occasionally and for fairly simple things). Cinema 4D is a bit like Bitwig was for me - it just doesn't work in a way that I can get my head around easily or feel comfortable with.

[SneakyBeats]

It was easy actually. I took some playtime, without any need to push or press forward and I just became familiar with the DAW. Then I started using more and more the new one until it was as easy as the old one.

And I have maybe 4 DAWs?