If you had to stick to one DAW, which one would it be?

[sQeetz]

I've got over 1.4 billion streams on my Youtube channel, and my album was a huge hit in Japan. Check it out:

No wonder. Top notch production right there.

[musicproducerdee]

I bet there's people who've posted here for years and never made a single album.

I've got over 1.4 billion streams on my Youtube channel, and my album was a huge hit in Japan. Check it out:

youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

that's brilliant production value right there

[EnGee]

Reaper will be on top because it’s free but NOT because it’s the best

It's not free though.

I think the main reasons for it's popularity is that it's cpu efficient, small, fast to start and has all the functions in audio and midi.

I have a license for it (non-commercial) and I tried hard more than once to get used to its counter-intuitive menus and workflow, but I always fail!

For example, I've never right click on item and found the function I want! Never!! And I never could setup a hardware synth or audio routings without failing and must look in the net to see how they do it! So it's absolutely a music flow killer for me. I ended using it to just load plugins for testing or sound design.

Currently what I use is either Cubase or Live mainly. But I still like to play around with Logic, FL Studio and Reason. They all are wonderful DAWs but Cubase and Live are my top used DAWs and I intend to keep them updated and optimizing my hardware and workflow around them

[vurt]

I would chalk the derailment of this thread off to the fact IMO that we're in a golden age of DAWs.

And yet we all come on here in our spare time.

Think it's probably more a case of choice overload leading us to be somewhat lethargic and focus directed to technical elements vs ourselves and the music we wish to be making.

Discussions relating to what we could or should be using clearly becomes a hobby in itself.

I bet there's people who've posted here for years and never made a single album.

album? ok granddad, we're all streaming hits on tik tok these days!


(joking, i am actually a granddad and have been involved in several albums, both as a musician and engineer)
(now i noodle)

[Jac459]

I've got over 1.4 billion streams on my Youtube channel, and my album was a huge hit in Japan. Check it out:

No wonder. Top notch production right there.

Yeah but this is the kind of music that wasn't possible to be done before. You really need the track level, polyphonic, audiorate, lfo wavetables modulators of bitwig to sound like that.

[liquidsound]

I've got over 1.4 billion streams on my Youtube channel, and my album was a huge hit in Japan. Check it out:

No wonder. Top notch production right there.

Yeah but this is the kind of music that wasn't possible to be done before. You really need the track level, polyphonic, audiorate, lfo wavetables modulators of bitwig to sound like that.

[BONES]

I think the main reasons for it's popularity is that it's cpu efficient, small, fast to start and has all the functions in audio and midi.

I think it is more because there are a lot of noodlers around here who enjoy playing with the software, rather than getting anything done. If you'd never visited KVR, it's possible you'd never even know it existed. OTOH, you can walk into any music shop anywhere and buy Cubase, Studio One, ProTools, Live, Reason or even FL Studio, which makes a big difference. We here at KVR are not, by any stretch of the imagination, representative of the wider music industry.

[EnGee]

I think the main reasons for it's popularity is that it's cpu efficient, small, fast to start and has all the functions in audio and midi.

I think it is more because there are a lot of noodlers around here who enjoy playing with the software, rather than getting anything done. If you'd never visited KVR, it's possible you'd never even know it existed. OTOH, you can walk into any music shop anywhere and buy Cubase, Studio One, ProTools, Live, Reason or even FL Studio, which makes a big difference. We here at KVR are not, by any stretch of the imagination, representative of the wider music industry.

I'm trying to not judge or conclude how the others are using Reaper really. For me, the only way I can be productive in Reaper is to spend a whole lots of time making my own shortcuts and my own workflow. This is however is a damn time consuming task! I need to list all what I need beforehand! So for me, it is like DIY DAW, which I'm not in that kind of things at all. However, I guess some users really like to do their own customised DAW. They see it as a bonus, but I see it unfinished DAW because it lacks a real workflow. If you try to see any tutorial, they immediately jump to how to do your own shortcuts! I see this as a flaw because all other DAWs have already most of what you want under your click or right click. Most of the setup of audio and hardware I can do in other DAWs without seeing any guide! In Reaper however, it is another world.

Anyway, maybe I missed something!

[BONES]

There are rabbit holes I don't mind falling down but my host/DAW is not one of them. For me it is something I want to spend as little time as possible playing with. I want it to just work so I can spend my time with other things I don't mind fiddling with so much. I'm sure Studio One is full of features I am completely unaware of but I am fine with that.

[Biscotto]

Reason Studios.

Long time Ableton user, then immersion in Bitwig for 1 year but I was not pleased and went back to Ableton.

Then I upgraded to Reason 12 and it felt just right.
Made substantial amount of music with it in the past and again since the last upgrade.

Fast ideas are sometime done in XT64 since its resurrection.

[Jac459]

Reason Studios.

Long time Ableton user, then immersion in Bitwig for 1 year but I was not pleased and went back to Ableton.

Then I upgraded to Reason 12 and it felt just right.
Made substantial amount of music with it in the past and again since the last upgrade.

Fast ideas are sometime done in XT64 since its resurrection.

I still prefere much bitwig but I do understand why you love reasons. Especially since it got vst3 support. A really fun daw.

[vurt]

In regards to derailment, anyone know where we are right now? I presume we've left the tracks at this point, and heading sideways through fields at a rate of steadily increasing knots.

just to let you know, by kvr standards, that was nothing, and look, we're back

[Biscotto]

Reason Studios.

Long time Ableton user, then immersion in Bitwig for 1 year but I was not pleased and went back to Ableton.

Then I upgraded to Reason 12 and it felt just right.
Made substantial amount of music with it in the past and again since the last upgrade.

Fast ideas are sometime done in XT64 since its resurrection.

I still prefere much bitwig but I do understand why you love reasons. Especially since it got vst3 support. A really fun daw.

What really matter is the musician behind the tool and the intended result. Bitwig could not deliver but it was a fun exploration.
Now it is Reason, tomorrow something else. The constant is me.
I even changed real pianos until settling for a great one which is actually graceful enough to allow me to mess with it

[musicproducerdee]

I think the main reasons for it's popularity is that it's cpu efficient, small, fast to start and has all the functions in audio and midi.

I think it is more because there are a lot of noodlers around here who enjoy playing with the software, rather than getting anything done. If you'd never visited KVR, it's possible you'd never even know it existed. OTOH, you can walk into any music shop anywhere and buy Cubase, Studio One, ProTools, Live, Reason or even FL Studio, which makes a big difference. We here at KVR are not, by any stretch of the imagination, representative of the wider music industry.

I'm trying to not judge or conclude how the others are using Reaper really. For me, the only way I can be productive in Reaper is to spend a whole lots of time making my own shortcuts and my own workflow. This is however is a damn time consuming task! I need to list all what I need beforehand! So for me, it is like DIY DAW, which I'm not in that kind of things at all. However, I guess some users really like to do their own customised DAW. They see it as a bonus, but I see it unfinished DAW because it lacks a real workflow. If you try to see any tutorial, they immediately jump to how to do your own shortcuts! I see this as a flaw because all other DAWs have already most of what you want under your click or right click. Most of the setup of audio and hardware I can do in other DAWs without seeing any guide! In Reaper however, it is another world.

Anyway, maybe I missed something!

I feel almost the exact same way about Reaper. It's like IKEA of DAWs, but even after you finish setting it up for yourself, it's still not finished. I will never understand why it's highly recommended (apart from the price point and people thinking it's free, which it's not), because if someone asks me to recommend a DAW, I will probably leave Reaper off the list altogether. Reaper to me feels like browsing the web on a Windows Xp machine, using Netscape web browser lol. I really don't care that much about being able to set it up and make it as personalized as possible, because once I'm done doing that, then what? back to making music right! Anyways, I'm a musician and a producer first, then an audio engineer, so my point of view is different. I've mostly seen audio engineering guys using/recommending Reaper the most. Most of the producers/musicians will most of the times recomment FL Studio/Ableton Live or Logic, and the rest later. I'm pretty sure most of them aren't even aware that something like Reaper exists. I know I wasn't aware of Reaper for a long long time even after I was seriously into this craft.

PS: I don't have anything against Reaper, but I will never get the hype about it and you can't convince me otherwise. Not unless the DAW is actually a finished product, which in it's current state, I don't think it is.

[Trensharo]

I think it is more because there are a lot of noodlers around here who enjoy playing with the software, rather than getting anything done.

Yes, the "Enthusiasts" who spend the equivalent of a part time job reading and posting on forums, and almost no time actually making music.

Generally, DAWs like REAPER and FL have a large concentration of those users, which is why any time there is an online DAW popularity poll they tend to win or compete for the top spots de facto. They are overrepresented in online discussion, because online discussions tend to overrepresent non-professional users.

It's why price point is always such a huge factor in ONLINE discussion, when - in reality - DAW pricing is almost ignorable in the real world to a professional user (it is one of the smallest investments you will make, even if the DAW costs $1,000).