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

[fmr]

Compare that to my main DAW Digital Performers main web fan site Motunations user base in their late 50's or 60's, pro or semi pro, knows next to nothing about audio software and a lot about music.

Curious... Performer was my first DAW, then I changed to Studio Vision. After the demise of Opcode, I changed to Logic Pro, which I kept when I started to shift from Mac to PC. When Apple bought Emagic, I considered, for a while, to get back on Mac, but then I decided to go with Cubase. Didn't regret it. Nevertheless, I have licenses of all the major ones, and every now and then I pck one and work with it for a little while, to understand it.

Anyway, I'd say that someone who uses DP cannot "know next to nothing about audio software", sicne DP is not what I would call easy (none of the full featured DAWs is). And I am over 60 too (but I started early) and I have a solid background knowledge about music.

Anyway, I wonder if there is any single source where we could search for stats about the proportion of Mac/PC users in music, and the DAW each one is using, besides digging on all those groups.

Anyone?

Unfortunately it's harder than you'd think, most DAWs aren't part of publicly traded companies, and they don't publish their sales figures. Almost all attempts point to the top five or so being Cubase, Logic, FL Studio, Live, and Pro Tools. Then second tier but climbing up, Reaper, Studio One. After that Reason, Bitwig, DP, Samplitude, Mixcraft etc. etc. I don't think that Maschine or the MPC really apply here?
[/quote]
Yes, this is what I've been reading over and over, but I would like to have some figures. These seem to be mainly guesses. For example, what is the "real" quota of Pro Tools nowadays? I guess it will be almost exclusively a thing of Pros working in studios.

And what is "exactly" the proportion of Mac users vs PC users? Again, I would guess that the more "pro" (and with "pro" I mean people earning their living through music) the higher the percentage of Mac users, while in less "pro" (semi-pro or hobbyist markets) the PC will be much more prevalent.

[machinesworking]

Curious... Performer was my first DAW, then I changed to Studio Vision. After the demise of Opcode, I changed to Logic Pro, which I kept when I started to shift from Mac to PC. When Apple bought Emagic, I considered, for a while, to get back on Mac, but then I decided to go with Cubase. Didn't regret it. Nevertheless, I have licenses of all the major ones, and every now and then I pck one and work with it for a little while, to understand it.

Anyway, I'd say that someone who uses DP cannot "know next to nothing about audio software", sicne DP is not what I would call easy (none of the full featured DAWs is). And I am over 60 too (but I started early) and I have a solid background knowledge about music.

It's more of a compliment to users here, KVR has a high ratio of people who know how to troubleshoot problems. I rarely see the kinds of posts I do at Motunation where a user gets confronted with a change to a new OS and version of their DAW, run into a minor problem, then flatly blame it on "bleeding edge" without doing any troubleshooting at all. There are a few more 'set in their ways' types among the professional composer crowd than here.

Yes, this is what I've been reading over and over, but I would like to have some figures. These seem to be mainly guesses. For example, what is the "real" quota of Pro Tools nowadays? I guess it will be almost exclusively a thing of Pros working in studios.

And what is "exactly" the proportion of Mac users vs PC users? Again, I would guess that the more "pro" (and with "pro" I mean people earning their living through music) the higher the percentage of Mac users, while in less "pro" (semi-pro or hobbyist markets) the PC will be much more prevalent.

I don't know? Image Line pretty much flatly claim to have the throne, but it's hard to say, they don't know any more than we do really. In my personal experience Live and Reaper are the most common, followed by Logic and Cubase. Pro Tools and FL Studio don't come up that often among musicians I know with the exception of any recording studio worker or industry person. I know one Studio One user, on FL Studio, and one Reason user. I'm the only DP user I know locally. Again regionally, I only know two musicians using PCs with their DAWs, but this area is influenced heavily by Microsoft being so close, and it's not uncommon for MS employees to like to use a different OS when they go home. Probably has more to do with separating out work from home than anything to do with mac vs pc.

[dionenoid]

Unfortunately it's harder than you'd think, most DAWs aren't part of publicly traded companies, and they don't publish their sales figures. Almost all attempts point to the top five or so being Cubase, Logic, FL Studio, Live, and Pro Tools. Then second tier but climbing up, Reaper, Studio One. After that Reason, Bitwig, DP, Samplitude, Mixcraft etc. etc. I don't think that Maschine or the MPC really apply here?

Yes, this is what I've been reading over and over, but I would like to have some figures. These seem to be mainly guesses. For example, what is the "real" quota of Pro Tools nowadays? I guess it will be almost exclusively a thing of Pros working in studios.

Avid is one of the few who is open about this :

- Avid had 296.000 active subscriptions by the end of 2020, from which 190.000 are ProTools subscriptions.
- Last year Avid announced that the amount of subscribers grew by 27.000.
- In 2018, Avid announced that the free versions of their software were downloaded 1 million times.

For comparison : Waves has 150.000 users (according to their CEO in 2022)

[VitaminD]

Compare that to my main DAW Digital Performers main web fan site Motunations user base in their late 50's or 60's, pro or semi pro, knows next to nothing about audio software and a lot about music.

Curious... Performer was my first DAW, then I changed to Studio Vision. After the demise of Opcode, I changed to Logic Pro, which I kept when I started to shift from Mac to PC. When Apple bought Emagic, I considered, for a while, to get back on Mac, but then I decided to go with Cubase. Didn't regret it. Nevertheless, I have licenses of all the major ones, and every now and then I pck one and work with it for a little while, to understand it.

Nooooo. Please switch Audio Hosts immediately!! You apparently are like King Midas except with audio software and what you touch doesn't turn to gold but it gets discontinued.

[fmr]

Compare that to my main DAW Digital Performers main web fan site Motunations user base in their late 50's or 60's, pro or semi pro, knows next to nothing about audio software and a lot about music.

Curious... Performer was my first DAW, then I changed to Studio Vision. After the demise of Opcode, I changed to Logic Pro, which I kept when I started to shift from Mac to PC. When Apple bought Emagic, I considered, for a while, to get back on Mac, but then I decided to go with Cubase. Didn't regret it. Nevertheless, I have licenses of all the major ones, and every now and then I pck one and work with it for a little while, to understand it.

Nooooo. Please switch Audio Hosts immediately!! You apparently are like King Midas except with audio software and what you touch doesn't turn to gold but it gets discontinued.

Well... Performer (Digital Performer) wasn't discontinued) And Logic was only discontinued in Windows

I still miss Studio Vision, up to this day.

[rod_zero]

My guess for biggest user base:

1.- Fl Studio
2.- Ableton Live
3.- Logic
4.- Cubase
5.- Protools

And for sales...probably Protools since I would bet the majority of the user base of the other programs use a cracked copy

[30pinsimms]

I like Reaper but the fanbois ruin it for me.

[pdxindy]

I don't know? Image Line pretty much flatly claim to have the throne, but it's hard to say, they don't know any more than we do really. In my personal experience Live and Reaper are the most common, followed by Logic and Cubase.

I don't believe that claim from Image Line. I know maybe 2 dozen people who make music with computers and not one uses FL Studio. Live is the most common. Also, when I watch gear reviews on YouTube, Live is the most common DAW in the background. Hardware manufacturers mention Live, Logic and Cubase a lot... and frequently don't even mention FL Studio.

[nodeseek]

I would have to vote for Logic, while Ableton gets used primarily now, have been using it since emagic days.While being mostly apple across the board just feel it would fit the long term use better.

[Jac459]

I don't know? Image Line pretty much flatly claim to have the throne, but it's hard to say, they don't know any more than we do really. In my personal experience Live and Reaper are the most common, followed by Logic and Cubase.

I don't believe that claim from Image Line. I know maybe 2 dozen people who make music with computers and not one uses FL Studio. Live is the most common. Also, when I watch gear reviews on YouTube, Live is the most common DAW in the background. Hardware manufacturers mention Live, Logic and Cubase a lot... and frequently don't even mention FL Studio.

Or maybe it is because FL is a rap centric DAW and your ans your friends are more into electronic?

It is very difficult to say actually because Live is such a great ecosystem compare to FL. They have an iOS app, a dominant DAW, L4L approach, a midi controller + music station in its third generation....

If I wasn't so much loving bitwig....

[fmr]

My guess for biggest user base:

1.- Fl Studio
2.- Ableton Live
3.- Logic
4.- Cubase
5.- Protools

And for sales...probably Protools since I would bet the majority of the user base of the other programs use a cracked copy

I don't believe Logic has more users than Cubase.

[skijumptoes]

I don't believe Logic has more users than Cubase.

You wouldn't think it would because of the cross-platform advantage that Cubase has, but all the surveys show otherwise:

https://www.production-expert.com/produ ... he-results
https://ask.audio/articles/top-12-most- ... -voted-for
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/2-eAP ... xVYNXpvPZo

I guess if you've got a Mac and doing audio, you've picked up Logic along the way, It's used in education, and generally most studios I've known have Pro Tools with a Logic install as the de facto standard. ....Although, very few of those studios are going today.

We need to get our hands on this, if anyone has a few grand spare, or skills on the dark web.
https://www.technavio.com/report/music- ... e-analysis
Presuming that breaks things down by DAW.

I guess the question is does it matter? I've got 4 main DAWs that I use, as I've been doing music all my life and when crossgrade offers come up I've jumped out of curiosity. If I was doing a survey and could only pick one of them, the relevance of that result can't reflect my actual use.

If you can select multiple DAWs on a survey then the most 'popular' DAW therefore could be one that's not used as a primary, And I think that explains Logic's userbase in the wild.

[sQeetz]

If you can select multiple DAWs on a survey then the most 'popular' DAW therefore could be one that's not used as a primary, And I think that explains Logic's userbase in the wild.

That‘s definitely true in my case. I have it installed and maintain my plugin list everytime I get something new. Don’t actually use it, though, anymore.

[fmr]

If you can select multiple DAWs on a survey then the most 'popular' DAW therefore could be one that's not used as a primary, And I think that explains Logic's userbase in the wild.

You may very well be right. It's my case too. That's why I would like a deep and well fundamented study on which DAWs are actually being used everywhere, which are the primary and which are seconday but still relevant.

Anyway, you are assuming that macOS is much more prevalent than Windows. IMO they are more or less 50/50. You mentioned studios, but studios are a very small percentage of the total amount of DAW users.

For example, here's the universe of the first study which link you published: "The Experts Community is largely made up of professionals working in music and post-production" And what percentage of the total amount of users are these? Based on the percentage of Pro Tools users I would say... very small.

The third one is even more selective. "Top albums". I would guess they are talking about the DAW used in the studios where they recorded those albums.

Ask Audio is also very Apple and Mac centric, IMO. Many courses about Logic Pro, some about Ableton Live and REAPER and, in a quick view, I could find ONLY one about Cubase: "What's New in Cubase 12". Compare this with NINE about Logic Pro.

All in all I would say those results are all VERY biased. Answering your question: "...does it matter?" I would answer: Personally, not much, but hey... that's what we are discussing in this thread, so I guess it matters to us, if not for anything else just out of curiosity

[skijumptoes]

Anyway, you are assuming that macOS is much more prevalent than Windows. IMO they are more or less 50/50. You mentioned studios, but studios are a very small percentage of the total amount of DAW users.

Oh I don't presume it's more prevalent, I'd say it was less. Much more likely 70-30 in Windows favour across all users. And that's based on people I know, and various reviews/tutorials/streams online.

Which is why I find the reported dominance of Logic higher than expected, and thinking of the reasons why this is.

The third one is even more selective. "Top albums". I would guess they are talking about the DAW used in the studios where they recorded those albums.

I found that one interesting as it shows FL to be quite prolific in being a source of creation. So I don't think it's necessarily about studio gear in the traditional sense - Likely including the bedroom producer and that facet of the process.

All in all I would say those results are all VERY biased. Answering your question: "...does it matter?" I would answer: Personally, not much, but hey... that's what we are discussing in this thread, so I guess it matters to us, if not for anything else just out of curiosity

As a Cubase user myself, I would be curious to know 'how they're doing' as it seems to me that Steinberg have found themselves overwhelmed with legacy and unable to take the strides of newer/fresher DAWs and I think it's hurting their brand a little. Dropping the dongle hopefully has helped that however.

They could be in the shit for all we know, as there's no metric for us to get an indication.

Same with Presonus and Fender - is everything ok there? Is their subscription model working? ...Will Steinberg go that route in the next 24 months?

I think the bigger, most interest metric would be to compare DAWs legit vs warez users. As popularity and most loved surveys can't even capture that unless people are being completely transparent.

i.e. I don't think Ableton would ever be the success it is today if people weren't jumping on the warez scene as an inroad. Could it be that this model of creating interest and being in people's eyelines is more important than securing a product nowadays?