Valve Steam Deck DAWs ? - Exclusive

[crickey13]

Nobody will be making music in the future because everybody will be too busy uploading photos of their ass on Instagram or making threads about the future of music. Any actually new music will be composed by AI.

[PeterP_swe]

I'll try to run Bitwig on it when I get mine.

Linux version, touch screen and decent CPU/RAM. It should work. Remains to see how well though.

[Schmidi]

Just grab a current MPC or Force and enjoy a portable DAW now.

[Tj Shredder]

This can’t get even close to the hand held DAW defacto standard. An iPad…

[apoclypse]

I mean it's just a maybe not so bog standard Linux PC, but at the end of the day its just a AMD zen based 4-core 8 thread system with 16GB of ram. You can install Windows on it if you'd like probably even dual boot it. So while I don't see people buying these just to make music, if you have one and no other PC around why not. There is nothing inherently special about the device other than it's tailor made for games and Valve is involved. There are already devices like that in the market. The cool thing about Valve's device is the performance (performs better than anything else in its category), the price (it's priced lower than anything else in its category), and its game library (steam out of the box, nuff said).

Valve has said time and time again that's its a different category of PC, but its still a PC and they have no plans to lock it down. That means that it doesn't require any special console DAW or anything silly like that. Just download Ardour, Bitwig whatever if you use Linux, or install Windows and install whatever DAW suits your needs. You actually get a full Linux desktop when plugging it into an external monitor.

[AnX]

"Powerful" and "Handheld" rarely go together....

You should see my cock!

[Teksonik]

Thanks but I'll pass......

[apoclypse]

This can’t get even close to the hand held DAW defacto standard. An iPad…

It will run circles around an iPad (except maybe those M1 bases ones). Because it's just a PC with controllers tacked on. It runs x86 hardware, can install Windows (with Valves blessing), has 16GB LPDDR5 ram and can be connected to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse to get access to the full Linux desktop. This is not a console, it looks like a Switch but it's not a Switch, it's literally a laptop with dedicated gaming controls. At a fraction of the cost of an iPad Pro to boot. You can buy the 512GB version of the Steam Deck for $649. Try buying an iPad in that price range with that amount of storage.

I'd take one of these drop Windows on it and install S1, Ableton, Bitwig, Cubase, Reaper whatever and just use a USB-C dongle to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor and I'm good to go.

[Teksonik]

I wouldn't even use one to play games on and that's what it is designed for.....

"the full tech specs for the Steam Deck show it has a 4-core CPU capable of a 2.4GHz to 3.5GHz clock speed".

Hardly a powerhouse compared to today's desktop CPU chips.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/valve-the-st ... is-mini-pc

[apoclypse]

I wouldn't even use one to play games on and that's what it is designed for.....

"the full tech specs for the Steam Deck show it has a 4-core CPU capable of a 2.4GHz to 3.5GHz clock speed".

Hardly a powerhouse compared to today's desktop CPU chips.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/valve-the-st ... is-mini-pc

It's not a desktop so not sure why it needs to be a "powerhouse". It's handheld device with thermal and power constraints laptops or desktop don't have.

[Tj Shredder]

I'd take one of these drop Windows on it and install S1, Ableton, Bitwig, Cubase, Reaper whatever and just use a USB-C dongle to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor and I'm good to go.

No need to install Win, just install Bitwig or Reaper, they run on Linux… But the moment you “just use a USB-C dongle to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor and I'm good to go.” its not portable anymore, you could as well just take a Mac mini. Even a Macbook M1 is smaller (and faster and more expensive…).
It could be a fun gadget for sure, but without extra screen… I never considered to use a DAW in my (cheaper and smaller than that) iPad mini, but they exist… (cheaper than desktop DAWs)

[gentleclockdivider]

Mods , why is this in the DAW-Hosts sub ?

[Teksonik]

I wouldn't even use one to play games on and that's what it is designed for.....
"the full tech specs for the Steam Deck show it has a 4-core CPU capable of a 2.4GHz to 3.5GHz clock speed".
Hardly a powerhouse compared to today's desktop CPU chips.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/valve-the-st ... is-mini-pc

It's not a desktop so not sure why it needs to be a "powerhouse". It's handheld device with thermal and power constraints laptops or desktop don't have.

Why does a race car need a bigger engine? For performance.

I'd take one of these drop Windows on it and install S1, Ableton, Bitwig, Cubase, Reaper whatever and just use a USB-C dongle to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor and I'm good to go.

If you're going to connect a mouse,keyboard, and monitor to it then why not just use a desktop? Would it even be a handheld device at that point?

Sure you could drop some DAWs on it but with those specs how many plugins is it going to be able to run at one time? MIDI I/O and latency? It might work as a sketch pad but for a full featured music production setup I don't think so...

But if you think spending $650 (and extra for a monitor, keyboard and mouse) on such a gimmick is a good idea then by all means go for it.....

[apoclypse]

I wouldn't even use one to play games on and that's what it is designed for.....
"the full tech specs for the Steam Deck show it has a 4-core CPU capable of a 2.4GHz to 3.5GHz clock speed".
Hardly a powerhouse compared to today's desktop CPU chips.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/valve-the-st ... is-mini-pc

It's not a desktop so not sure why it needs to be a "powerhouse". It's handheld device with thermal and power constraints laptops or desktop don't have.

Why does a race car need a bigger engine? For performance.

I'd take one of these drop Windows on it and install S1, Ableton, Bitwig, Cubase, Reaper whatever and just use a USB-C dongle to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor and I'm good to go.

If you're going to connect a mouse,keyboard, and monitor to it then why not just use a desktop? Would it even be a handheld device at that point?

Sure you could drop some DAWs on it but with those specs how many plugins is it going to be able to run at one time? MIDI I/O and latency? It might work as a sketch pad but for a full featured music production setup I don't think so...

But if you think spending $650 (and extra for a monitor, keyboard and mouse) on such a gimmick is a good idea then by all means go for it.....

That's not what I said. I was replying to the OP of this thread who asked if the device was viable to use as a DAW. It is. I'm not at any point advocating that if making music is your primary concern go out and buy this thing. I'm saying that if you have one or are buying one and want to make music on it you can, because at the end of the day it's just a PC with a controller strapped to it and its more than capable of running your DAW and VSTs well.

Also 2.4Ghz-3.5Ghz 16GB is plenty to run most modern VSTs etc. You are acting like everyone needs a 5Ghz machine to do work. If you have an MBP 13" from 2020 that's a 2.7Ghz - 3.8Ghz quad core machine with slower ram and intel integrated graphics to boot and those are in the wild everywhere making music till this day. Hell my Late 2012 iMac is still going strong till this day and can run 100+ VST heavy track sessions with no issues.

You are trying to paint the device as being underpowered, okay compared to what? An Alder Lake gaming rig, a 5900X and M1 Pro Mac? I'm not sure what your point is.

[vurt]

why would anyone though? other than to say they had
no one is going to choose this for music, adding all the peripheral devices you list, it's no longer a portable daw which is what the op suggests. as in that screen and two joysticks.
so "no"