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

[Jac459]

Ha ha, v6 is not for now....

Do you use Ableton Note by the way? Can you tweak the sounds or is it very limited?

I don’t use it. I saw some late videos and it looks like fun but I’m always eager to seat in front of Ableton and produce and still learning more techniques from some freaking gifted producers. For me it’s a pure joy and all the other DAWs I own don’t inspire me as much.
I’m lucky in that sense. It was an unusual DAW for me when I got it but once I committed to be my production canvas I got blessed with it and M4L incredible tools, lately being the Fors devices (all of them ): a sonic world of its own….

Here is Chiral, one of the devices.


Shorter 1 minute video…

I fully agree with your vision... I can not begin to think how these tools are awesome. Sure, I prefere bitwig on my side but I totally love the instruments of Ableton.
We are living an awesome period, music production wise.

[liquidsound]

Absolutely

[Trensharo]

Anyway, I always turn off my laptop. Turning it on again and booting Windows just takes a few seconds, and I prefer to start fresh every time. Besides, that saves battery too. As Linus states in the video, a laptop is not a mobile phone, it's a computer. Computers were not thought to be always on.

Well, now one has the freedom to think about the laptop how one wants.

I rarely turn my laptop off. Even on a roadtrip or on the airplane. And with my M1 MBP, I can close the screen, go on the road for a day or two and the battery is fine. Right now I have 4 projects open in Bitwig and I have not even done an initial save. One of those projects has been there for over a week. Have a number of other apps open and maybe 20 tabs on the browser. So yeah, I kinda treat the laptop like the phone... no reason not to.

You can't use an M1 MBP for a day or two for music production on battery. I have an M1 Pro MBP and had a 13" M1 MBP when those released. I can probably squeeze 5 hours of actual music production out of that laptop. A day ... maybe, if I'm barely using it. Two days. No. But, it's not like you can't carry a PD battery bank and just charge it in the bag when you're not using it, anyways. Beyond that, the scenario you are inferring is not possible. Creative software, including DAWs (and the plug-ins, virtual instruments, and samplers that run within them), drain the battery during use.

If you're just writing lyrics in TextEdit, it will last you a couple of days - easy

Like I said, I get about 5 hours producing music on mine with Logic Pro, and about 3.5 hours editing video (if I'm not heavily pre-rendering high raster footage). If you're only recording audio (not many plug-ins, etc.) then you can probably get a couple more hours out of it.

I don't even bother use it off the charger for those kinds of scenarios anymore. I have a TB3 Dock with Dual NVMe and 87W PD passthrough charging that's about the size of a PreSonus AudioBox 96... and I just plug it into that.

On my PC Laptop, I have a USB-C Dock with 60W PD Passthrough and an M.2 SATA SSD for a similar user experience.

Most airplanes I've been on have plugs and you can plug any Apple 67-96W adapter into the airplane and just connect the MagSafe 3 to the laptop. There is no point in using a MacBook (or any PC Laptop with USB-C PD Charging) off battery on an airplane... or on Amtrack... or even in a car riding shotgun since the car plugs for 60-90W charging cost very little.

I've ridden on a number of different types of public transport over the past year, and I never had to run any of my devices off the battery. There were plugs everywhere, Lol. I even kept my iPhone plugged in when I was using it.

The rated battery life for all of these laptops is for relatively light productivity workloads (Microsoft Office, iWorks, Edge or Safari with very little add-ins, etc.) and media consumption (Audio and Video playback). In those scenarios, a lot is offloaded to efficiency cores and the machine can run well at near-base clock speeds.

It's a lot different when you're running software that demands more. It has always been this way.

For professional/workstation use, those numbers are drastically exaggerated. Halve it, and that's about what you should expect it to be "rated" at (which is always an overstatement as consumers don't use "clean" install machines like the manufacturer does when testing this).

That's ignoring factors like degradation of battery (capacity loss), ambient temperature, display brightness, which radios are in use, Keyboard backlighting, connected peripherals, etc.

MBP 14 M2 pro here. I use Bitwig with a ton of heavy usage VST like Avenger or Falcon. I got more 6-8 hours of battery doing music.
My Battery is on saver mode. It reduces the CPU power by about 30% as per Bitwig CPU graph but I still have largely enough. Screen brightness is generally max. Sound through jack at about 30-40%.
If I plug my DAC by usb-C battery goes more to 5 hours.

Okay... 6-8 hours on a charge is 3-4 hours a day and if you aren't charging at all overnight you will lose some of that charge when the machine isn't plugged in if it is turned on (and even if it isn't). No one is using those machines off-battery and getting decent battery life for production on them over 2 days of use without charging.

I mean, you basically agreed with me.

That's also assuming you aren't running much for external peripherals on them. An external NVMe SSD is probably going to shave a noticeable amount of time off of that, and then there are Audio Interfaces and Mini [MIDI] Controllers that will run off of that battery, etc.

[Jac459]

Anyway, I always turn off my laptop. Turning it on again and booting Windows just takes a few seconds, and I prefer to start fresh every time. Besides, that saves battery too. As Linus states in the video, a laptop is not a mobile phone, it's a computer. Computers were not thought to be always on.

Well, now one has the freedom to think about the laptop how one wants.

I rarely turn my laptop off. Even on a roadtrip or on the airplane. And with my M1 MBP, I can close the screen, go on the road for a day or two and the battery is fine. Right now I have 4 projects open in Bitwig and I have not even done an initial save. One of those projects has been there for over a week. Have a number of other apps open and maybe 20 tabs on the browser. So yeah, I kinda treat the laptop like the phone... no reason not to.

You can't use an M1 MBP for a day or two for music production on battery. I have an M1 Pro MBP and had a 13" M1 MBP when those released. I can probably squeeze 5 hours of actual music production out of that laptop. A day ... maybe, if I'm barely using it. Two days. No. But, it's not like you can't carry a PD battery bank and just charge it in the bag when you're not using it, anyways. Beyond that, the scenario you are inferring is not possible. Creative software, including DAWs (and the plug-ins, virtual instruments, and samplers that run within them), drain the battery during use.

If you're just writing lyrics in TextEdit, it will last you a couple of days - easy

Like I said, I get about 5 hours producing music on mine with Logic Pro, and about 3.5 hours editing video (if I'm not heavily pre-rendering high raster footage). If you're only recording audio (not many plug-ins, etc.) then you can probably get a couple more hours out of it.

I don't even bother use it off the charger for those kinds of scenarios anymore. I have a TB3 Dock with Dual NVMe and 87W PD passthrough charging that's about the size of a PreSonus AudioBox 96... and I just plug it into that.

On my PC Laptop, I have a USB-C Dock with 60W PD Passthrough and an M.2 SATA SSD for a similar user experience.

Most airplanes I've been on have plugs and you can plug any Apple 67-96W adapter into the airplane and just connect the MagSafe 3 to the laptop. There is no point in using a MacBook (or any PC Laptop with USB-C PD Charging) off battery on an airplane... or on Amtrack... or even in a car riding shotgun since the car plugs for 60-90W charging cost very little.

I've ridden on a number of different types of public transport over the past year, and I never had to run any of my devices off the battery. There were plugs everywhere, Lol. I even kept my iPhone plugged in when I was using it.

The rated battery life for all of these laptops is for relatively light productivity workloads (Microsoft Office, iWorks, Edge or Safari with very little add-ins, etc.) and media consumption (Audio and Video playback). In those scenarios, a lot is offloaded to efficiency cores and the machine can run well at near-base clock speeds.

It's a lot different when you're running software that demands more. It has always been this way.

For professional/workstation use, those numbers are drastically exaggerated. Halve it, and that's about what you should expect it to be "rated" at (which is always an overstatement as consumers don't use "clean" install machines like the manufacturer does when testing this).

That's ignoring factors like degradation of battery (capacity loss), ambient temperature, display brightness, which radios are in use, Keyboard backlighting, connected peripherals, etc.

MBP 14 M2 pro here. I use Bitwig with a ton of heavy usage VST like Avenger or Falcon. I got more 6-8 hours of battery doing music.
My Battery is on saver mode. It reduces the CPU power by about 30% as per Bitwig CPU graph but I still have largely enough. Screen brightness is generally max. Sound through jack at about 30-40%.
If I plug my DAC by usb-C battery goes more to 5 hours.

Okay... 6-8 hours on a charge is 3-4 hours a day and if you aren't charging at all overnight you will lose some of that charge when the machine isn't plugged in if it is turned on (and even if it isn't). No one is using those machines off-battery and getting decent battery life for production on them over 2 days of use without charging.

I mean, you basically agreed with me.

That's also assuming you aren't running much for external peripherals on them. An external NVMe SSD is probably going to shave a noticeable amount of time off of that, and then there are Audio Interfaces and Mini [MIDI] Controllers that will run off of that battery, etc.

No, sorry, I am not sure I do...
Well, I fully agree on the external connection, when I use my dac and a midi controller, I lose easily 20% battery.
I disagree on the 6-8 hours not being enough. It is fully enough. Just for your ears, you need to reserve break time, to avoid damage, generally I use these times to plug my laptop. It is charging super quick, so if I take 20 min break, I basically have infinite time.

That's what happen to me. I always use my computer unplugged and battery is never an issue even if i use for a week without stopping (except when my cleaning lady unplug something).

[skijumptoes]

Okay... 6-8 hours on a charge is 3-4 hours a day and if you aren't charging at all overnight you will lose some of that charge when the machine isn't plugged in if it is turned on (and even if it isn't). No one is using those machines off-battery and getting decent battery life for production on them over 2 days of use without charging.

16" M1 Pro and currently getting 12+ hours use routinely use it across multiple days on a single charge as I have no other option when there's no ability to charge anywhere. I think that's far more than 'decent' battery life.

No other device has given me that.

Absolutely brilliant machine, so quiet and even the speakers are suitable to use if I want to take headphones off for an ear break. The charger that comes with it gets it up to 50% in about half an hour too, so such a great portable experience, really wonderful how long it lasts, it's performance and how quick to 'top up'.

[HHUKRadio]

In reply to the thread title "If you had to stick to one DAW, which one would it be?" my personal preference is Cubase. I've been using it since I was at school so I'm used to the "logic" and workflow in this DAW. I haven't upgraded to Cubase 12 because my current version is stable and it's not worth the upgrade price for me personally.

I think Cubase is great for musically trained users.I was "lucky" enough to have Piano lessons from age 7 (I hated them at the time) and then did all the RSM exams so that knowledge helps when using Cubase. However if you're new to music and haven't had any musical training I don't think Cubase would be a good DAW to start with. It's not very "inspiring" but then again it wasn't meant to be in the first place. Then again Padshop and Retrologue are included with Cubase and they are excellent instruments for designing sounds.

I really like Ableton and have used that in the past. I haven't had much experience with other DAW's although I'm tempted to try Bitwig.

I was at an outdoor gig in London a few weeks back and saw Richie Hawtin (of Techno fame) play live on Bitwig. It was one of the best sets I've ever heard - both from a musical and technical point of view. Definitely going to try Bitwig out now.

It is somewhat ironic that I compose Techno after all the time learning the Piano. My teacher would be rolling in his grave but learning any instrument is good in my books

[Trensharo]

Anyway, I always turn off my laptop. Turning it on again and booting Windows just takes a few seconds, and I prefer to start fresh every time. Besides, that saves battery too. As Linus states in the video, a laptop is not a mobile phone, it's a computer. Computers were not thought to be always on.

Well, now one has the freedom to think about the laptop how one wants.

I rarely turn my laptop off. Even on a roadtrip or on the airplane. And with my M1 MBP, I can close the screen, go on the road for a day or two and the battery is fine. Right now I have 4 projects open in Bitwig and I have not even done an initial save. One of those projects has been there for over a week. Have a number of other apps open and maybe 20 tabs on the browser. So yeah, I kinda treat the laptop like the phone... no reason not to.

You can't use an M1 MBP for a day or two for music production on battery. I have an M1 Pro MBP and had a 13" M1 MBP when those released. I can probably squeeze 5 hours of actual music production out of that laptop. A day ... maybe, if I'm barely using it. Two days. No. But, it's not like you can't carry a PD battery bank and just charge it in the bag when you're not using it, anyways. Beyond that, the scenario you are inferring is not possible. Creative software, including DAWs (and the plug-ins, virtual instruments, and samplers that run within them), drain the battery during use.

If you're just writing lyrics in TextEdit, it will last you a couple of days - easy

Like I said, I get about 5 hours producing music on mine with Logic Pro, and about 3.5 hours editing video (if I'm not heavily pre-rendering high raster footage). If you're only recording audio (not many plug-ins, etc.) then you can probably get a couple more hours out of it.

I don't even bother use it off the charger for those kinds of scenarios anymore. I have a TB3 Dock with Dual NVMe and 87W PD passthrough charging that's about the size of a PreSonus AudioBox 96... and I just plug it into that.

On my PC Laptop, I have a USB-C Dock with 60W PD Passthrough and an M.2 SATA SSD for a similar user experience.

Most airplanes I've been on have plugs and you can plug any Apple 67-96W adapter into the airplane and just connect the MagSafe 3 to the laptop. There is no point in using a MacBook (or any PC Laptop with USB-C PD Charging) off battery on an airplane... or on Amtrack... or even in a car riding shotgun since the car plugs for 60-90W charging cost very little.

I've ridden on a number of different types of public transport over the past year, and I never had to run any of my devices off the battery. There were plugs everywhere, Lol. I even kept my iPhone plugged in when I was using it.

The rated battery life for all of these laptops is for relatively light productivity workloads (Microsoft Office, iWorks, Edge or Safari with very little add-ins, etc.) and media consumption (Audio and Video playback). In those scenarios, a lot is offloaded to efficiency cores and the machine can run well at near-base clock speeds.

It's a lot different when you're running software that demands more. It has always been this way.

For professional/workstation use, those numbers are drastically exaggerated. Halve it, and that's about what you should expect it to be "rated" at (which is always an overstatement as consumers don't use "clean" install machines like the manufacturer does when testing this).

That's ignoring factors like degradation of battery (capacity loss), ambient temperature, display brightness, which radios are in use, Keyboard backlighting, connected peripherals, etc.

MBP 14 M2 pro here. I use Bitwig with a ton of heavy usage VST like Avenger or Falcon. I got more 6-8 hours of battery doing music.
My Battery is on saver mode. It reduces the CPU power by about 30% as per Bitwig CPU graph but I still have largely enough. Screen brightness is generally max. Sound through jack at about 30-40%.
If I plug my DAC by usb-C battery goes more to 5 hours.

Okay... 6-8 hours on a charge is 3-4 hours a day and if you aren't charging at all overnight you will lose some of that charge when the machine isn't plugged in if it is turned on (and even if it isn't). No one is using those machines off-battery and getting decent battery life for production on them over 2 days of use without charging.

I mean, you basically agreed with me.

That's also assuming you aren't running much for external peripherals on them. An external NVMe SSD is probably going to shave a noticeable amount of time off of that, and then there are Audio Interfaces and Mini [MIDI] Controllers that will run off of that battery, etc.

No, sorry, I am not sure I do...
Well, I fully agree on the external connection, when I use my dac and a midi controller, I lose easily 20% battery.
I disagree on the 6-8 hours not being enough. It is fully enough. Just for your ears, you need to reserve break time, to avoid damage, generally I use these times to plug my laptop. It is charging super quick, so if I take 20 min break, I basically have infinite time.

That's what happen to me. I always use my computer unplugged and battery is never an issue even if i use for a week without stopping (except when my cleaning lady unplug something).

This makes zero sense.

First of all, if you're toggling chord power, that isn't "two days of use off the charger."

Secondly, if you can plug the laptop in for a 20 minute break, chances are there is nothing stopping you from keeping it plugged in almost all of the time, anyways.

Ignoring the fact that there are few people on this forum who would ever need to use a laptop for two days off the charger - so the claims are fantastical de facto - this just doesn't happen.

[Trensharo]

Okay... 6-8 hours on a charge is 3-4 hours a day and if you aren't charging at all overnight you will lose some of that charge when the machine isn't plugged in if it is turned on (and even if it isn't). No one is using those machines off-battery and getting decent battery life for production on them over 2 days of use without charging.

16" M1 Pro and currently getting 12+ hours use routinely use it across multiple days on a single charge as I have no other option when there's no ability to charge anywhere. I think that's far more than 'decent' battery life.

No other device has given me that.

Absolutely brilliant machine, so quiet and even the speakers are suitable to use if I want to take headphones off for an ear break. The charger that comes with it gets it up to 50% in about half an hour too, so such a great portable experience, really wonderful how long it lasts, it's performance and how quick to 'top up'.

A 16" MBP is not going to double the battery life of a 14", and really you have offered no information that informs as to what the machine is actually doing while running.

I can run my 14" for 12 hours, as well.

But not while actively using a DAW or NLE. No. Well, not while doing any actual work in the software, at least

I'm aware of how good those machines are. I have one, and I wouldnt' have one if they weren't really good, considering the price point... However, the idea that you can just run them off the charger and get battery life comparable to what you would get if you were some random novel author using Scrivener in a cafe is a fallacy - full stop.

Constantly running the battery down and fast charging will wear the battery out quite quickly, and they aren't exactly user-replaceable. So, unless you're trying to flex, I would never recommend these machines be used in that way, anyway. You'll just end up with a battery that only has 75% charge capacity after 18-24 months. The machine is set to drain to 80% and remain there until the machine is not in active use at all times out of the box, in order to stretch out the charge cycles as much as possible.

[skijumptoes]

A 16" MBP is not going to double the battery life of a 14", and really you have offered no information that informs as to what the machine is actually doing while running.

Recenlt been using Logic for audio recording and editing on-site for choir. Few weeks back was using it for creating IRs in remote locations (Cathedral and nearby castle ruins) and went 3 days without a charge as camped out for added experience. Also used for mainstage rig 4 nights in a row without a single charge as my charger cable wouldn't reach, still had 20% left and I could've got to an extension If I needed - but didn't.

It's absolutely brilliant, I even use it to charge other portable devices on the move if I'm running low. Super quiet, a real dream, use it, shut the lid, open the lid, use it... Seamless. I know it's secure if someone tried to pinch it, and It's earnt what it cost me within a week.

Came with free 3 year warranty as I got it from Costco, I don't know how good that warranty is but based on my last Mac which was 2012 and still running and in use for the kids homework, I think I'll be good.

A builder has a van load of tools to earn their money, I take a Mac. My previous windows machine was an absolute nightmare in comparison and I'm very much happy to pay the premium for hardware that doesn't let me down or drains itself in a bag - much as a workman pays thousands for their tools and not hundreds.

So yes, I'd say it's pretty decent. Game changing, in fact.

[Jac459]

This makes zero sense.

First of all, if you're toggling chord power, that isn't "two days of use off the charger."

Secondly, if you can plug the laptop in for a 20 minute break, chances are there is nothing stopping you from keeping it plugged in almost all of the time, anyways.

Ignoring the fact that there are few people on this forum who would ever need to use a laptop for two days off the charger - so the claims are fantastical de facto - this just doesn't happen.

I feel so rich reading you lol....

Like I have an house with multiple comfortable places far from a power plug....
Crazy no?

Try again, I am sure that with a little more effort you can make sense of it....

[Jac459]

....However, the idea that you can just run them off the charger and get battery life comparable to what you would get if you were some random novel author using Scrivener in a cafe is a fallacy - full stop.
....

I dont know what you are missing and why your logic is so flawed....
If we were some random novel writer we would be talking about 20+ hours of battery life. We don't. We mentionned more like 8 hours being largely enough to have a scenario full time with no power point (provided that you will do some breaks and put the mac to fast charge).
I am using my mac all the time, as a DAW, never plugged and have been doing so since 2020 (an m1 air at this time). Why are you arguing it isn't possible?

[Serhii Kot]

Okay... 6-8 hours on a charge is 3-4 hours a day and if you aren't charging at all overnight you will lose some of that charge when the machine isn't plugged in if it is turned on (and even if it isn't). No one is using those machines off-battery and getting decent battery life for production on them over 2 days of use without charging.

16" M1 Pro and currently getting 12+ hours use routinely use it across multiple days on a single charge as I have no other option when there's no ability to charge anywhere. I think that's far more than 'decent' battery life.

No other device has given me that.

Absolutely brilliant machine, so quiet and even the speakers are suitable to use if I want to take headphones off for an ear break. The charger that comes with it gets it up to 50% in about half an hour too, so such a great portable experience, really wonderful how long it lasts, it's performance and how quick to 'top up'.

A 16" MBP is not going to double the battery life of a 14", and really you have offered no information that informs as to what the machine is actually doing while running.

I can run my 14" for 12 hours, as well.

But not while actively using a DAW or NLE. No. Well, not while doing any actual work in the software, at least

I'm aware of how good those machines are. I have one, and I wouldnt' have one if they weren't really good, considering the price point... However, the idea that you can just run them off the charger and get battery life comparable to what you would get if you were some random novel author using Scrivener in a cafe is a fallacy - full stop.

Constantly running the battery down and fast charging will wear the battery out quite quickly, and they aren't exactly user-replaceable. So, unless you're trying to flex, I would never recommend these machines be used in that way, anyway. You'll just end up with a battery that only has 75% charge capacity after 18-24 months. The machine is set to drain to 80% and remain there until the machine is not in active use at all times out of the box, in order to stretch out the charge cycles as much as possible.

My MacBook Pro 16 m1pro, gives me 10-12 hours of active work on projects with connected RME Babyface and Novation Launchpad X to it. I measured it when we had 18 to 48 hours blackouts.

[kae]

Yeah, I was thinking last night that it might actually have advantages, if the application you're mastering in automatically updates the files, the way Adobe CC apps do. e.g. If I'm using an image in After Effects and I edit it in Photoshop. After Effects can see that it's been edited and updates it automatically. Orion was good at this, too, which made it really easy to work with audio.

Old post I know, but I was just wondering about this in Orion. I (think I) remember Orion (8.6) automatically reloaded audio files after editing them in an external editor, but can't get that to work. Neither with audiotracks or the sampler. Is my memory false and did I misunderstand the post? Unless you ment when reloading the song.

I just opened Orion again after many years. Man what a quick and easy workflow. A joy.
Ableton got my "one DAW" vote, but now...

[Serhii Kot]

For me personally, there is a more important question than "If you had to stick to one DAW", but "HOW to stick to one DAW".

Is there any helpline for DAWcoholics?

[skijumptoes]

Is there any helpline for DAWcoholics?

The uninstall button, you only jump cause you can. It's like having treats in the cupboard.