Tracktion 12 Free or Bitwig 8-Track for homerecording newbie?

[chagzuki]

Waveform has been very stable for me on intel iMac and M1.

[Watchful]

Waveform has been very stable for me on intel iMac and M1.

I think it's very stable for the vast majority of its user base, probably by a crazy ratio, too. It's been very stable for me since 9.5 and a crash these days is (a) rare and (b) understandable, because I was doing something else at the same time.

But I've encountered so many people who, through no apparent fault of their own--and using configs similar to or equal to mine--who just cannot get it to stop crashing. For whatever reason!

Okay, it seems that most people who suffer crashes seem to use non-compliant plugins that misbehave. Fine. But not everyone: there are a number of people who reliably and legitimately demonstrate that it crashes on launch--before it's even really doing anything.

My advice on Waveform is simple: try it, but don't commit to it until you know which group it will put you in.

[Danilo Villanova]

Because it already includes everything you need to start being productive?

I am convinced that if there is any correlation between using - and especially hoarding - VSTs and productivity it's most probably rather a negative one for most peeps.

I would bet that 0% of the world's most productive producers are working on a DAW with no 3rd party plugin support.

[mtelesha]

Both are great and have a similar philosophy. I use to use both and I committed to Bitwig, but my time with Traction was not a waste of time.

[jens]

Because it already includes everything you need to start being productive?

I am convinced that if there is any correlation between using - and especially hoarding - VSTs and productivity it's most probably rather a negative one for most peeps.

I would bet that 0% of the world's most productive producers are working on a DAW with no 3rd party plugin support.

OP stated that he's a guitar-player who wants to start recording, not being a "producer".

While I "produce" a lot of music, personally I would never call myself "a producer"... *ewww*

All joking aside, I think it is completely absurd. In my opinion Studio One Prime has already everything and more than what you need to do what the OP wants to do - with the option to purchase additional plugins for small prices if you want more...

I have hundreds of plugins myself, but that doesn't mean I should lose the rest of my sanity too
by pretending I would need them.

[mtelesha]

Because it already includes everything you need to start being productive?

I am convinced that if there is any correlation between using - and especially hoarding - VSTs and productivity it's most probably rather a negative one for most peeps.

I would bet that 0% of the world's most productive producers are working on a DAW with no 3rd party plugin support.

Tracktion works with 3rd party Plugins

[deaf80]

Well, that's sad as I really liked Waveform, there's something that attracts me, clean and pretty GUI, ease of use (I can't tell much about the real workflow as I don't know the music production workflow at all). I'm puzzled and I will probably check Cakewalk before but IF ultimately WF12 Free is going to work with the M-Audio Oxygen Pro Mini controller that I plan to buy I think I will give it a chance.

I've checked Reaper and it's not my world I think although it has significant user-base and thus community support. Bitwig is absolutely great in terms of GUI, some youtube-creators that I admire use it, it has pretty significant community around too but it's on the pricey side, I can't afford $400 (it's a lot of money in the country I live in) just like I was a professional and I think I will miss some features not available in 16-tracks version (comping for sure).

Waveform looks to me, unless I'm wrong, like a desert island, seems like a DAW-of-choice for barely anyone, but as I said, there's something I like about it (it may be the fact that this is the 1st and only DAW that I've got to know, barely, but still, I'm able to do some audio and MIDI tracks operations already). The crashes that I've encountered on it are not justifiable - they started to appear on my project I was working on a week ago, with the same version of WF12 Free, the same plugins. I started playing with fade in/out and it started to crash, every time I double-clicked the audio track. Interestingly, other projects with fading in/out work good and cause no issues. This unpredictability I think is lethal to the reputation of the DAW, tools are there to help do the work, people don't want to struggle with them...

[pdxindy]

But I've encountered so many people who, through no apparent fault of their own--and using configs similar to or equal to mine--who just cannot get it to stop crashing. For whatever reason!

Yup... it was an unending crash-fest for me. I started with it way back on Tracktion 2. All the way through, the crashes never stopped. Unpredictable and unrepeatable crashes over years and across multiple computers. I liked the DAW itself and kept upgrading hoping it would finally become stable.

I finally gave up on it and stopped updating prior to the last 2 major versions.

[sbmongoose]

Studio One Artist is a great call for around $/£/€100, but it's even better value if you buy some Presonus hardware that has it bundled in, like the Atom Pad or the Audiobox interfaces, that might be a lower price than buying Studio One Artist on it's own anyway.

[jens]

Yes, which is why I suggested to start with Prime which is completely free and already included everything you need to get going.
They didn't really cripple the core functionality that much. It has an unlimited number of tracks and inserts, comping, both the drum- and the pattern-editor, yadda yadda... then at some point if you find out you actually like the DAW and want more you can still spend some money.

How would you on the other hand ever find out whether you like Bitwig without even being able to use the comping if you regularly record audio?

[spoontechnique]

Waveform's reputation as a crash-fest was true for me in version 9. Since somewhere around version 10, I virtually never have crashes. I can't even remember the last crash I had. That said, maybe there's certain plugins that cause crashes. I'd recommend trying it out, since Waveform is the best free DAW by a country mile.

Also keep in mind that Waveform has plugin sandboxing, so plugin crashes don't crash the whole DAW anymore.

[Bartone]

Most of the big brand DAWs go on sale during Black Friday or Christmas. Studio one maybe not since the new version was released just now.

So the discounts on bf / Christmas time might be something to consider if you are looking to buy a DAW and are not in hurry.

Some DAWs I think have sale in the Spring/Summer time (maybe someone knows better if you’re interested).

[pdxindy]

Note : if you are on mac, garage band is free.

And Logic is only $200 and updates are free and it is incredibly capable as is...

[bermudagold]

1. Mulab.
based on what appears to be ur use case of traditional songwriting centered around guitar, ...from what I have seen from the anecdotal data of my circle and the kids in my classes; there is nothing faster to finished song across most musical objectives and thus functional use cases than mulab... Simple, minimal, uncluttered, non intimidating, single window interface....3 views of the same underlying data accessible from a single button toggle with minimal pop ups...the power user functionality is always immediately accessible, but completely invisible and out of the way until you want it...the fastest loading and snappiest interface I've ever used
2. Tracktion Pro
cheap and probably worth it in ur use case for the composition tools alone
3. Reaper and S1 Artist
If you don't mind the increased complexity and learning curve, both are amazing value but most likely overkill in the beginning IME....

[deaf80]

Thanks all! I've decided to go ahead, accept some instabilities (not very frequent luckily) and keep using Waveform because I simply .... like it I think I will wait for the Pro version to be on sale and buy it.