Which DAW draws clips best, i.e. in a most aesthetical & legible way?

[Dalle]

I have to admit, the low Logic score is about right. It looks like the graphics haven't been updated since Logic Pro 9 from the dark ages.
This is a long-overdue request from many Logic users.

I think you’re forgetting how awful Logic 9 looked

[pdxindy]

I know I'm just being nitpick-y since I'm sure people just wanted to get into which clips (wav and midi) overall look better, but the wav rendering was the first thing that caught my attention.

Reason's btw is a travesty, along with Logic.

Yeah, Bitwig looks overall cleaner to my eye... especially zoomed out. But it is not important to me cause the difference is minimal. I might prefer the non filled in version of Live... a little lighter looking.

I wouldn't complain about either in terms of drawing. I do find Live oversaturated for my taste.

[antic604]

Reason's btw is a travesty...

The key issue with Reason is that it isn't cosistent, i.e. repeat the same kick sample 4x in a row and most likely each will look a bit different (although it will sound the same, obviously) because it seems to be resolving the sub-pixel detail differently depending where you put it. Sometimes it would even "morph" visually when dragged.

Check the transients in those 2 examples - each one is slightly different:



This really threw me off couple of times

[BONES]

Of the four examples shown, Studio One is head and shoulders better than the others. It might look a bit dark but it is consistently dark, which means your eyes aren't having to constantly adjust from bright and high contrast to dull and low contrast, so you re not going to suffer eye fatigue as quickly. It's easily the best for long sessions in a dark studio.

The worst is probably Bitwig, where you have the light window background and everything else over a very dark background. Reason isn't too bad but Live is too light/bright for long sessions in a dark studio.

The thing with it all, though, is that those images reflect choices made by Antic as to how he wants those GUIs to look. My Studio One UI doesn't look anything like that and neither did Bitwig when I was using it. This is what my Studio One looks like -


If the image isn't visible, just right-click the icon and view it in a new tab.

[antic604]

The thing with it all, though, is that those images reflect choices made by Antic as to how he wants those GUIs to look.

That's a good point, actually!

I indeed started this with Live first and then tried to replicate the look elsewhere, which was especially difficult in S1 due to a much more muted colour palette.

On the other hand I could've chosen a dark theme for Live and pick more balanced colours there (check @xbitz's screenshot) making it more night session-friendly, which I guess suggests Live is more versatile and flexible, still. S1's light themes look really weird, IMO.

[ReleaseCandidate]

Reason's btw is a travesty...

Btw. this is real aliasing now, Live has artifacts because of the anti-aliasing. And yes, filled shapes have less visible anti-aliasing artifacts than thin lines.

[Tj Shredder]

I have to admit, the low Logic score is about right. It looks like the graphics haven't been updated since Logic Pro 9 from the dark ages.
This is a long-overdue request from many Logic users.

All that are listed fail completely, can’t tick any.
Worst I came across is Logic by magnitudes, completely unprofessional unusable for serious editing...
I used to like Sonic Solutions best, as in zoomed out view you would still see a single sample spike. But my Sonic was buried long time ago with my G3 Mac, its a faded memory...
My favorite now, though I rarely work on it, is Ardours logarithmic view. No need to zoom vertically to see soft parts. I guess Harrison Mixbus has the same, as its based on Ardour...
If you want to edit classical or experimental music with huge dynamics most DAWs fail miserably as they are mostly aimed at compressed pop music with a locked timing...
Btw. I don’t care about colors, but about contrast...

[gentleclockdivider]

The problem with studio one is when you change the piano roll background colour , it automatically adapts the colour of the notes when over a certain treshold ( dark to light ) .
The user should have total control of the background's colour + grid lines +note colour .

[MuzikFreq]

Reason's btw is a travesty...

The key issue with Reason is that it isn't cosistent, i.e. repeat the same kick sample 4x in a row and most likely each will look a bit different (although it will sound the same, obviously) because it seems to be resolving the sub-pixel detail differently depending where you put it. Sometimes it would even "morph" visually when dragged.

Check the transients in those 2 examples - each one is slightly different:



This really threw me off couple of times

interesting. I tried this and don't get that result. Mine are consistent

[antic604]

interesting. I tried this and don't get that result. Mine are consistent

There's many possible explanations: the sample you used isn't good for this (kicks work best), resolution/DPI somehow matters, maybe OS makes a difference (I'm on Windows), etc.

It's clearly visible on my screenshot so it's not something I'm making up. In the end it doesn't really matter as I learned to ignore it and trust my ears instead. Hopefully this is gonna get fixed in high-res Reason 12, soon.

[MuzikFreq]

interesting. I tried this and don't get that result. Mine are consistent

There's many possible explanations: the sample you used isn't good for this (kicks work best), resolution/DPI somehow matters, maybe OS makes a difference (I'm on Windows), etc.

It's clearly visible on my screenshot so it's not something I'm making up. In the end it doesn't really matter as I learned to ignore it and trust my ears instead. Hopefully this is gonna get fixed in high-res Reason 12, soon.

Well this is interesting.I was able to replicate the issue. Though I am also using windows and a kick drum.
When zoomed out it causes it. Hopefully they can fix this in 12 with a ui update.
When zoomed in it starts to become the same.
Though I never have the issue of looking at kick drums since I never no matter in any DAW lay out my kick directly, I usually use a drum rack of some sort and in reason I use the drum computer and just make a new midi lane per sound.

[antic604]

Man, I really like how Live now draws multiple track/clip selections - it's easy to see which clips are looped and for how long, easy to edit them individually or together. And it's somehow very pleasing visually! Wish they'd allow audio clips as a bacground, like the 'other' Live does.