Rate the support for your host DAW

[pdxindy]

I'm happy with the support for Bitwig.

All repeatable bugs I have reported over the years have been fixed, support answers my tech questions promptly. Here and there I have to argue a bit to get my point across if they have jumped to a wrong conclusion, but it gets resolved in the end.

[MuttBart]

Best: Ableton, Reason, Universal Audio. Good people there, usually responsive. And they engage with their users. If stuff doesn’t work, they fix it (eventually… Reason Studios are really slow but they do get there in the end).

Worst (by far): Akai. World class douchebags. Never reply, never communicate, never explain. Only company I know of in this industry that releases firmware patches without any release notes *at all* (as in you literally have no idea what’s been fixed or not fixed) *and* breaks working functionality every time they patch anything. Worst QC ever, ignores users (don’t even think of trying to raise a support ticket), doesn’t reply to email, no reps in any online user forum ever… radio silence is the only way. Terrible company.

[JWdeJong]

Only used the support of Ableton and that was very good.

[FAS122]

Ableton has good support (but I've only used it once,) no complaints.

[BONES]

I've got to say I had the best experience (of the three) with Ableton, Presonus second, Steinberg's support was always the worst.

Steinberg have local tech support people in Australia so it's the only company where I can get timely help. With everyone else it's one email per day and that's it. It can take weeks to get to the root of a problem.

That said, I can't think of any less compelling reason to choose any software. For it to be a consideration, it would have to be some seriously bad software to begin with. e.g. I have serious issues with my Audient I/O device. Audient never bothered to respond to my support request but that's doesn't stop me using the device, nor would it stop me buying from them in the future. You just get used to working around the problems.

[jamcat]

I wouldn't know. I have never needed tech support help for Studio One.

[thecontrolcentre]

Ableton support have always been excellent with me ... no complaints


where's the poll?

[JoeJoe99]

Technical support for DAW's: From years of personal experience in that field.

While there are obviously legitimate requests, a lot of them are just nonsense.

- People asking questions about features that are clearly explained in the manual.
- People asking initial setup questions about things that are clearly explained in the manual.
- People asking for engineering or music production help, which is not what technical support is for.
- People asking how to download their software again when (of course?) it's in their account.
- People asking how to upgrade instead of just Googling "[insert daw here] Upgrade"

And way down in the queue is a user with a serious legitimate issue, but he may not get an answer until tomorrow because the support agent has to play babysitter to the 40 members of the Facebook generation in front of him first.

[billcarroll]

I've had absolutely excellent support from Bitwig, Ableton, and Steinberg.

Bitwig support has been top notch. Absolutely adore this company.
Ableton support has been good, although unmemorable
Steinberg surprisingly good

I had to use Steinberg's support last week, and their chat function was so fast. I had someone helping me within minutes during working hours, and they resolved my issue within 10 minutes.