DAW Journey thoughts and opinions

[bilrobins]

Hi

Over the last 4 years I've used several DAWs for completely 'in the box' music production (hobby, several genres).

Maybe some of these thoughts and opinions will help someone else looking for a DAW...

First Daw: Mixcraft Pro V6, 7, 8. Generally good to use and costs much less that most DAWs. The interface wasn't as slick as some other DAWs. The included plugins are enough to to get you going but not great. Has improved in later versions (now 10). Worth checking out.

Reason Studio V9-V10. Very different to most DAWs and can be a lot of fun. The sequencer/piano roll was limited and I didn't finish much stuff in this DAW. I found it good for ideas but not as my main DAW. The interface was not scalable at all which was a major issue for me (I believe it is now 4K).

Bitwig V3-V4. Pretty slick/good interface. Great for modulation, experimentation. Build your own stuff in the Grid. I liked Bitwig a lot but I didn't really use many of the features ... for me the extra stuff was a distraction and I ended up fiddling rather than making music. I briefly tried Ableton (in some ways similar to Bitwig) but I found it generally less fun to use. I found the cost to be slightly expensive overall.

Reaper (current version). Great value and really powerful but can require a lot of initial customisation and effort. Very lightweight/efficient installation. The interface is functional but not slick/friendly (this can be tailored to some extent). Using Reaper feels like a 'techie' experience to me, so less fun/enjoyable.

FL Studio (current version). Good looking, very smooth interface but the workflow can be frustrating/confusing. Loads of power and some of the native instruments/effects are really amazing...but they lack continuity and I felt that I was learning each one separately. This is the main issue I have with FL. Great value (pay once for life). Certainly a 'Pro' level product and can be a lot of fun but, for me, too often simple tasks can require too much effort/frustration.

Studio One 6 Pro. Fastest workflow that I've found. Has a good balance of included instruments/effects. Very little initial setup required. Smart/slick and intuitive user interface, Extensive use of drag and drop. In some ways not as deep as some other DAWs - no Grid or MAX, no advanced modulation but I don't miss this. For me, this DAW works as I would expect it to more than any other DAW that I've tried. I'm finding it to be the most productive DAW that I've used. Crossgrade price direct from Presonus for the Pro version was really good.

Cheers, have fun

[sQeetz]

Windows: Fruity Loops (around 2000) to Bitwig
Mac: Bitwig to Logic to Live

Dabbed around with Reason and Waveform, but they're not really my thing. Still use Reason RRP a lot, though...

Live + Push 2 that's my jam right now. Maybe Push 3 at some point maybe.

[jonljacobi]

Dr. T's to Pro 24 to Real Time, to Cakewalk to Cubase to Studio One to Bitwig to Logic to Live for the last 5 or 6 years. Happy.

[rod_zero]

I friend taught me some stuff in cubase, but it was very expensive at the time. Tried Reaper for a while but was boring to use.

Finally one day I got a great deal for Ableton Live Suite v8 14 years ago, I am still using, it is intuitive to me.

[jlgrimes11]

Hi

Over the last 4 years I've used several DAWs for completely 'in the box' music production (hobby, several genres).

Maybe some of these thoughts and opinions will help someone else looking for a DAW...

First Daw: Mixcraft Pro V6, 7, 8. Generally good to use and costs much less that most DAWs. The interface wasn't as slick as some other DAWs. The included plugins are enough to to get you going but not great. Has improved in later versions (now 10). Worth checking out.

Reason Studio V9-V10. Very different to most DAWs and can be a lot of fun. The sequencer/piano roll was limited and I didn't finish much stuff in this DAW. I found it good for ideas but not as my main DAW. The interface was not scalable at all which was a major issue for me (I believe it is now 4K).

Bitwig V3-V4. Pretty slick/good interface. Great for modulation, experimentation. Build your own stuff in the Grid. I liked Bitwig a lot but I didn't really use many of the features ... for me the extra stuff was a distraction and I ended up fiddling rather than making music. I briefly tried Ableton (in some ways similar to Bitwig) but I found it generally less fun to use. I found the cost to be slightly expensive overall.

Reaper (current version). Great value and really powerful but can require a lot of initial customisation and effort. Very lightweight/efficient installation. The interface is functional but not slick/friendly (this can be tailored to some extent). Using Reaper feels like a 'techie' experience to me, so less fun/enjoyable.

FL Studio (current version). Good looking, very smooth interface but the workflow can be frustrating/confusing. Loads of power and some of the native instruments/effects are really amazing...but they lack continuity and I felt that I was learning each one separately. This is the main issue I have with FL. Great value (pay once for life). Certainly a 'Pro' level product and can be a lot of fun but, for me, too often simple tasks can require too much effort/frustration.

Studio One 6 Pro. Fastest workflow that I've found. Has a good balance of included instruments/effects. Very little initial setup required. Smart/slick and intuitive user interface, Extensive use of drag and drop. In some ways not as deep as some other DAWs - no Grid or MAX, no advanced modulation but I don't miss this. For me, this DAW works as I would expect it to more than any other DAW that I've tried. I'm finding it to be the most productive DAW that I've used. Crossgrade price direct from Presonus for the Pro version was really good.

Cheers, have fun

I've worked with too much stuff over the years.

First Midi Sequencer (Passport Trax, Very Easy Sequencer to create tracks, loved its step piano roll at the time, but no audio/no VSTs (had to use hardware and I recorded to essentially a Tascam 4 track Portastudio was my DAW). What I loved (but didn't realize it was its individual midi track looping). I didn't realize at the time this was about the only sequencer with this workflow. I tried Cakewalk Professional which on paper was a better sequencer but it's workflow was very convoluted and Trax was much easier for a NOOB like me).

First Workstation: Roland XP50 (had nice sounds to compose, but honestly the sequencer was pretty wack from what I remember. Took a good bit just to record. I always remember Roland Sequencer having a weird workflow). I ended up going to an Alesis ADAT over the Portastudio which improved my sound tremendously.

MPC2000: My pride and joy, Used this to sequence the Roland XP50 and also had a Kurzweil K2VX. Was a great hardware setup. MPC had a decent workflow.

Sonar: My first real DAW. Had some advantages over MPC workflow, namely the use of VSTs which were starting to get pretty decent. Also you could fully mix your tracks in Sonar, which was alot more capable than being restricted to 8 tracks on an Adat. Midi Sequencer though wasn't as smooth of a workflow as MPC. Also Sonar while being pretty stable could have some buggy initial releases and I had some major crashes at time but after updates things would stabilize.


Reason: IMO had a very smooth midi workflow (although its sequencer was more basic than Sonar, but basic in a good way where you focused more on songwriting and less on minute details. Reason also was entirely self contained which in the early 2000s was a blessing because it meant less crashes, more CPU efficiency, and easy to transfer projects, and at the time the Refills were amazing)


Project 5: Cakewalk touted this as being a DAW with a smoother workflow and a gapless audio engine. But to be honest I tried this and never saw the point. Sonar was alot better DAW and Cakewalk clearly put more time in it so I tried it and went back.

Ableton: Softsynths started to get better than what Reason had to offer so I would switch back and forth between Reason or Sonar or use Rewire (which made workflow clunky). Sonar while having a workable midi and above average audio/mixing capabilities, I was looking for a workflow more "MPC like". Someone suggested trying Ableton. Its Session View always intrigued me as it allowed MPC style pattern chaining (similar to hardware sequencers of the old). But its workflow was entirely different. Its Session View Clip looping reminded me alot of Passport Trax of the old but to be honest I really didn't initially vibe with Ableton's workflow. Many things were too mouse centric, its DAW functionalities were "basic" compared to Sonar and it wasn't as CPU efficient which meant I needed a more powerful Computer to get the most out of it compared to Reason and Sonar. That said there were some things I can't describe I got from Ableton workflow wise that was missing in the other DAWs (Reason and Sonar). Although I still loved Reason's sequencer, one day I tried making a track on Sonar and couldn't (couldn't explain why, it just wasn't inspiring), but really all of the DAW changing kind of messed me up, but I ended up going back to Reason for midi and Sonar for Audio and mixing which worked pretty decently. I would occasionally work with Ableton which was fun but at the time it was hurting my CPU so I could only get real work done with Sonar and Reason.

Reaper: I started doing alot of other peoples Recordings using Sonar and one day after a major update, Sonar X1 was crashing big time. It was about the worst release I ever experienced. I read up on Reaper and tried the unexpiring Demo for a project. Its Audio and mixing features I found were actually a step up from Sonar, and it was stable (minus using a very bad plugin), and it was CPU efficient. That said I never really vibed with Reaper's midi, where Sonar's midi was usable and efficient once you got the hang of it, Reaper's was extremely convoluted at the time. I didn't realize I had to customize my workflow but that said I wasn't too interested as I had other DAWs in Reason and Ableton I already enjoyed. As I got newer Computers Ableton ran alot more stable. Ableton also had cool updates which made its midi alot better, and it general DAW usage better. Also Reason which had gotten audio and REs started getting more convoluted and tedious to do things. Nontheless for awhile Reaper became my Sonar substitute for Audio and Mixing which it did pretty good and I started using Ableton more and Reason a little less.

Logic: I tried this after going Mac. This was a DAW I was wanting to love as it always seemed to have good reviews and used by a bunch of "Pros". To be honest it has really great plugins and synths but its midi workflow to me was uninspiring. It had some great things like its quantize system I did like but its workflow felt like a mix of Sonar and Reaper. So I made a few tracks and left and went back to Ableton, Reason, and Reaper.

Studio One: Someone suggested this has having a great integrated workflow. I did enjoy this as its midi workflow was similar to Reason but with added sophistication and it had great audio features. While not as deep as Reaper, it is much more user friendly which says alot and after working with other producers, it made sense to find a common DAW and Studio One became my Reaper substitute. That said I still enjoyed primarily Ableton's workflow and I continued to use Ableton. I would have stints with Reason but I would end up going back to Ableton which really made nice improvements over the years. To the point of ending up at:

Ableton: I figured that I should stick with one DAW. Ableton is a great DAW but maybe not the greatest when it comes to Mixing but to be honest, mixes I've done in Ableton holds up to any other DAW I've used. Now it is mainly just certain deep editing tasks like trying to use Melodyne with ARA where Ableton falls short. Almost everything else is pretty there more or less. I enjoy Ableton's Instruments and effects after using them over the years and I love that Ableton tends to revisit their effects over the years and make great improvements to them unlike Reason which tends very rarely to change their legacy effects. I have been tempted to try Bitwig just to see what all the fuss is but to be honest I tried the demo, it seems ok but I really didn't want to take too far and learn another DAW. But my main workflow now is using Ableton almost exclusively and maybe reverting to Studio One only if I am doing a complex Audio/mixing task.

[xbitz]

...Bitwig V3-V4. Pretty slick/good interface. Great for modulation, experimentation. Build your own stuff in the Grid. I liked Bitwig a lot but I didn't really use many of the features ... for me the extra stuff was a distraction and I ended up fiddling rather than making music. I briefly tried Ableton (in some ways similar to Bitwig) but I found it generally less fun to use. I found the cost to be slightly expensive overall...

it (the fiddling) can be avoided by checking out some templates which you like for ex. (and use native devices mostly)

in trance https://producerbox.com/items/2110/melo ... late-vol-1 it can give a solid base

personally, I use Bitwig and Cubase simultaneously, sending MIDI to both. I need Cubase to run in the background because Bitwig doesn't offer retrospective recording and the recorded clips can be dropped to Bitwig as MIDI clips directly from it (no needs files/export MIDI etc. middle steps as in the other DAWs)

[muzicxs]

personally, I use Bitwig and Cubase simultaneously, sending MIDI to both. I need Cubase to run in the background because Bitwig doesn't offer retrospective recording and the recorded clips can be dropped to Bitwig as MIDI clips directly from it (no needs files/export MIDI etc. middle steps as in the other DAWs)

You use another DAW for that?? Why don't you use one of the many VSTs that offer retrospective recording functionality?

[pdxindy]

personally, I use Bitwig and Cubase simultaneously, sending MIDI to both. I need Cubase to run in the background because Bitwig doesn't offer retrospective recording and the recorded clips can be dropped to Bitwig as MIDI clips directly from it (no needs files/export MIDI etc. middle steps as in the other DAWs)

Birds Rolling Sampler for audio and Midi Cap for midi work well in Bitwig for retrospective recording.

[original flipper]

Hi

People have too much choice and with that get overly 'picky' and end up moving from one DAW to another and actually get very little done!
Pretty well any DAW around will allow you to produce 'top notch' productions if you actually have the time to learn them and some decent ideas and/or musical ability.
I always say to people if you were given a 'paying gig' to produce a bunch of tunes you would very quickly stop fluffing around demoing a constant stream of app's and actually get down to producing music with whatever is to hand.

[rod_zero]

Hi

People have too much choice and with that get overly 'picky' and end up moving from one DAW to another and actually get very little done!
Pretty well any DAW around will allow you to produce 'top notch' productions if you actually have the time to learn them and some decent ideas and/or musical ability.
I always say to people if you were given a 'paying gig' to produce a bunch of tunes you would very quickly stop fluffing around demoing a constant stream of app's and actually get down to producing music with whatever is to hand.

People who already compose music and are just looking to record and finish their ideas stick to one DAW, people learning music through using a DAW tend to change because they don't finish stuff, that they didn't have a clear idea how to finish anyway.

Sticking to one DAW seems the best way, unless the DAW you chose changes its bussiness model for the worst.

[jens]

I keep changing DAWs like I was getting paid for it and I complain all the time (because all of them in my opinion have unbelievably thoughtless and even outright stupid flaws) and I am convinced that those who don't complain are the ones who get very little done (because many flaws tend to only reveal themselves once you create more than just a few bars of music).

Also my assumption is that I am amongst the most productive folks on here, so there's that... and by the way - as most DAW talk on here and also in other places - this thread is a lot of noise and very little signal. I could be wrong, but I think not a single actual feature has been mentioned so far. (Which makes me even more convinced that none of you guys actually get a lot done ).

[vurt]

[zerocrossing]

Dr. T's to Pro 24 to Real Time, to Cakewalk to Cubase to Studio One to Bitwig to Logic to Live for the last 5 or 6 years. Happy.

Oh man, I remember the days of Dr. T and Metro. Metro is still going strong, though I moved on. Bitwig’s where I ended up, mostly because of the MPE support, but now I rely on the modulation system quite a bit.

[zerocrossing]

I keep changing DAWs like I was getting paid for it and I complain all the time (because all of them in my opinion have unbelievably thoughtless and even outright stupid flaws) and I am convinced that those who don't complain are the ones who get very little done (because many flaws tend to only reveal themselves once you create more than just a few bars of music).

Also my assumption is that I am amongst the most productive folks on here, so there's that... and by the way - as most DAW talk on here and also in other places - this thread is a lot of noise and very little signal. I could be wrong, but I think not a single actual feature has been mentioned so far. (Which makes me even more convinced that none of you guys actually get a lot done ).

I get tons of music and audio work done with Bitwig. I’m often under a tight deadline as well, so if it had a flaw that prevented me from working quickly, I’d have discarded it long ago.

[zerocrossing]

Hi

People have too much choice and with that get overly 'picky' and end up moving from one DAW to another and actually get very little done!
Pretty well any DAW around will allow you to produce 'top notch' productions if you actually have the time to learn them and some decent ideas and/or musical ability.
I always say to people if you were given a 'paying gig' to produce a bunch of tunes you would very quickly stop fluffing around demoing a constant stream of app's and actually get down to producing music with whatever is to hand.

People who already compose music and are just looking to record and finish their ideas stick to one DAW, people learning music through using a DAW tend to change because they don't finish stuff, that they didn't have a clear idea how to finish anyway.

Sticking to one DAW seems the best way, unless the DAW you chose changes its bussiness model for the worst.

There’s really nothing preventing anyone from finishing music in any of the major commercial DAWs. Someone recently was trying to convince me that I should move from Bitwig to Cubase, because it has some dynamic EQ that could take multiple side chain inputs and use them to control different EQ bands. Nice trick, and it definitely could make some of what I do with Waves’ F6 a lot simpler, but there’s a big cost in adopting a new DAW, and I’d be losing other things that I rely upon that don’t have a workaround in Cubase.

I get all the novel variety I need from using different instruments. I want my DAW to stay fairly static.