Best DAW user manual?

[Eclectrophonic]

Because it makes finding a specific thing you were looking for, and try to learn quickly tedious.

You can write a good manual, and keep it simple and small. Reason's manual always has been more of a lecture for students who learn music production (I already read them, only partly of course, when I used version 2.5).

Disagree. Reasons manual is great. You mustn't like reading. More comprehensive means more detail, more detail means more to help you understand the particular thing you're trying to learn.

I've only looked at Reasons and Reapers manuals and Reasons is much better. You can also click the page number in the index at the end and it takes you to that part of the manual in Reasons documentation unlike Reaper.

[Eclectrophonic]

Because it makes finding a specific thing you were looking for, and try to learn quickly tedious.

That's likely because a manual has to be useful to both novices and experienced users, therefore it has to assume basic level of knowledge for the former and be easily searchable & hyper-linked for the latter. Which, in my experience, Reason's does very well.

The biggest problem I always have is different terms used for the same thing by different DAWs, or using the same term of different things

Yeah that is annoying:- Reaper - Pooled clips, Logic - Aliased Clips, Cakewalk - Linked Clips and some call what Reason calls the Sequencer, the Arranger or Arrangement Window. Some call it the Midi Editor (Reaper / Reason) and some call it the Piano Roll (Cakewalk / FL Studio), in the sequencer in Reason too, they're called Clips in and not sure what they're called in other daw's but in Reaper - Items.

Something I thought of a couple of years ago for Reason, "Go To Manual" key command. It would be great if say, you selected Thor (so it highlighted blue) in the Rack and say one of the F keys (provided you have internet connectivity) took you to the manual but not just the manual, because Thor was selected, to the Thor section of the manual. The same F key with nothing selected just took you to the manual, to the contents page.

[Eclectrophonic]

I remember reading the Logic 8 manuals cover-to-cover over a few days. Of course, that was when they printed them nicely and shipped you a box...

Why do you hate trees?

Is that why do you hate trees? or why, do you hate trees?

Besides, he's not like that anymore, he's turned over a new leaf.

[pdxindy]

Because it makes finding a specific thing you were looking for, and try to learn quickly tedious.

That's likely because a manual has to be useful to both novices and experienced users, therefore it has to assume basic level of knowledge for the former and be easily searchable & hyper-linked for the latter. Which, in my experience, Reason's does very well.

The biggest problem I always have is different terms used for the same thing by different DAWs, or using the same term of different things

Yeah that is annoying:- Reaper - Pooled clips, Logic - Aliased Clips, Cakewalk - Linked Clips and some call what Reason calls the Sequencer, the Arranger or Arrangement Window. Some call it the Midi Editor (Reaper / Reason) and some call it the Piano Roll (Cakewalk / FL Studio), in the sequencer in Reason too, they're called Clips in and not sure what they're called in other daw's but in Reaper - Items.

Something I thought of a couple of years ago for Reason, "Go To Manual" key command. It would be great if say, you selected Thor (so it highlighted blue) in the Rack and say one of the F keys (provided you have internet connectivity) took you to the manual but not just the manual, because Thor was selected, to the Thor section of the manual. The same F key with nothing selected just took you to the manual, to the contents page.

In Bitwig, every device has a help page (F1) and the help page is live... meaning you can move the controls in the help page same as on the device itself. Best such help I've seen. So handy and immediately useful. The Bitwig manual is not the best, but the interactive help is awesome!

[chk071]

I've only looked at Reasons and Reapers manuals and Reasons is much better.

I'm not surprised about that. I think Reaper manual isn't even "official", i.e. a commissional work by Cockos.

I don't think for a manual to be comprehensive, it must have 1.000 pages like the Reason one though. On the contrary, I think it's a bit counterproductive. YMMV.

[superscan]

Live and Reason are great.

Haha, I was going to say the same thing! Ableton Live also has the best contextual help of any program I've used, and Reason manuals feature super-comprehensive MIDI documentation.

The content of Apple Logic Pro X documentation is good, but I don't like the lite browser/app thingy it runs in. Its search function really suxx! I prefer a PDF or link to an online webpage.

Logic manuals are available in iBooks for free.

[EdgarRothermich]

I started writing my own manuals a few years ago out of the frustration of that standard manuals, from the manufacturers and also third party.
They are way too text-heavy. You have to read a lot of dry text, try to comprehend what you just read (which can be difficult depending on your level of prior knowledge), and then you have to apply that in your application.

I use a graphical approach and call my manual series "Graphically Enhanced Manuals (GEM)"
Not only do I use a lot of screenshots with number indicators that are referenced in the text, so the reader can easily follow along with exactly what I explain, I also create a lot of custom graphics and diagrams to illustrate some technical topics. This is something that you won't find in virtually any of the current manuals. How can you explain, for example, Pan Law settings or the VCA Groups without providing some sort of illustrated background information, especially to users who haven't finished a four-year recording engineer program.

My best-selling book series (available as pdf, printed books, iBooks, and Kindle) has grown to over 15 titles from Logic, GarageBand, Pro Tools, Final Cut Pro, and more.
http://dingdingmusic.com/-gem-/graphica ... nuals.html


I also extended my visual approach to my own YouTube channel 'Music Tech Explained - the Visual Approach", because I see a similar problem there. Quantity over quality, because it is so easy to make. However, with most of the videos, you look at a computer screen and try to follow a tiny muse cursor with the explanation of the presenter. I try to use as much visual feedback and motion graphics to make it as easy as possible to follow along and add additional graphics and explanation which also allows me to dive in a bit deeper, beyond the "click here and push that approach"
Here is the link to the YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/MusicTechExplained/

[Jo_Kubrik]

I love FL Studio for both what it does and the quality of their manuals.

[Carbonboy]

When I read through the FL Studio introduction guide I couldn't find anything about playing/recording with midi keyboard or microphones, it was all geared toward inputting music with mouse/keyboard. The whole way of working is very different from other traditional DAWs and the manual didn't help demystify for me. I still don't know how use this DAW properly even after quite some time.

The process is explained in great detail and even includes a video for those who prefer watching to reading.

https://www.image-line.com/fl-studio-le ... tRecording

For sure audio recording in FL Studio appears more complicated than other DAWs but it seems to me the manual is very good here. Starts out simply and then has a step by step list including all the issues you may have and how to resolve them.

One of the unique features of the FL Studio manual are all the videos embedded in it. They are everywhere when you start looking.

https://www.image-line.com/fl-studio-le ... rkflow.htm

Another great feature is focusing any window in FL Studio and pressing F1 opens it to the page for that control. Super helpful. If that does not work, the search feature usually finds it.

Not sure how you can call the FL Studio manual bad, it gets a lot of praise.

[PeterP_swe]

When I read through the FL Studio introduction guide I couldn't find anything about playing/recording with midi keyboard or microphones, it was all geared toward inputting music with mouse/keyboard. The whole way of working is very different from other traditional DAWs and the manual didn't help demystify for me. I still don't know how use this DAW properly even after quite some time.

The process is explained in great detail and even includes a video for those who prefer watching to reading.

https://www.image-line.com/fl-studio-le ... tRecording

For sure audio recording in FL Studio appears more complicated than other DAWs but it seems to me the manual is very good here. Starts out simply and then has a step by step list including all the issues you may have and how to resolve them.

One of the unique features of the FL Studio manual are all the videos embedded in it. They are everywhere when you start looking.

https://www.image-line.com/fl-studio-le ... rkflow.htm

Another great feature is focusing any window in FL Studio and pressing F1 opens it to the page for that control. Super helpful. If that does not work, the search feature usually finds it.

Not sure how you can call the FL Studio manual bad, it gets a lot of praise.

When I said “FL Studio introduction guide” I meant FLStudio20_GettingStartedManual_English.pdf

I'm not a big fan of videos and prefer a pdf I can put on my tablet and read away from a computer, like a good book.

I'm not disputing that the online reference documentation is comprehensive and well integrated into the program.

[rod_zero]

I had a Live 8 paper manual, i red it on my commute to work. It hasn't changed that much since then, but it remains well layout.

[cryophonik]

Just be happy that Roland didn’t rewrite the Sonar manual when they owned it!

Sonar was my most used DAW for many years and I always found it to have an excellent manual, but I’m probably biased from having used it so much.