Picking a DAW is hard…

[whyterabbyt]

Oddly enough.....Pro Tools .....''the choice of the industry'' is NEVER a part of the discussions.

It's an "industry standard" for mixers, not for music production.

Its industry standard for recording, mixing, music production, and post-production for film, TV etc. That's 'production' in the original music industry use of the term, not the far more recent 'anyone who makes music' usage.
Individual composition and recording tools are the choice of the individual composer or artist, and not quite the same context of 'industry' and thus not standard in the first place.

[eLawnMust]

Fact is that older Sequencers & DAWs had simpler workflows without so much garbage in the way...

Also most on here suggest same damn thing no matter what...

Look at Bremmer's MultiTrack Studio-

https://www.multitrackstudio.com/

Zynewave Podium which is also tight-coded like Bremmer's-

https://zynewave.com/podium/

And with fast workflow like OLD Fruity Loops & now super cheap but some plugin scanning issues is Making Waves Studio-

http://www.makingwavessoftware.com/

To a lesser degree N-Track Studio-

https://ntrack.com/digital-audio-workstation.php

Or LMMS which is free & faster workflow than current FL, some people dislike but many making great tunes in it-

https://lmms.io/

AND I would suggest but no longer available, Synapse Audio Orion, Cakewalk Project5, Dreamstation II...

Most of these have been around 20+ years (Not LMMS) I like Making Waves & some others on here have stated that it's the only thing that works for them... It's quite ingenious DAW but the coder died in like 2011 & hasn't been improved but still good... Old app still available in 2023 so works for me...

[Gavincoolguy]

You just pick Ableton and get on with it, problem solved.

[liquidsound]

You just pick Ableton and get on with it, problem solved.

Correct!
Settling on one DAW?
Never heard of it!

[Alderyos]

I'm not sure about that Reaper is a general purpose daw.

I'd be curious to know why. While I've only used a few DAWs (Cubase, PT, Sonar, REAPER), I find that REAPER is the most versatile one, hands down, among them: Music composition, production, SFX, audio and video editing, extremely customizable and scriptable, etc. Audiokinetic has also chosen it for their recent new product Strata.

From my head, I'm not aware of any features in Reaper for Composers or Producers.
Reaper is a competitor to Pro tools these days in mixers circles.

Still curious here. If you mean, by features, that it lacks some interesting tools such as virtual instruments, OMF/AAF support, a more decent sampler than RS5K, gear emulation, etc., I agree!

[stoopicus]

Lots of good discussion here but I would make two simple observations:

* OP, you don't have to customize Reaper before using it. Not sure why you thought that but I use it more or less out of the box and it's great.
* I disagree with the idea that Reaper is not a general purpose DAW. I would say it is the *most* general purpose DAW, with things like Logic, Bitwig and Ableton being more focused on specific areas.

The way I think about Reaper is it is a more stable, just as capable, but less standard replacement for Pro Tools.

FWIW I am currently working mostly in Logic but I do love Reaper and bounce back and forth a bit. I may go back to it full time, Logic has some maddening bugs right now.

[vitocorleone123]

Seems you haven’t tried Waveform Pro yet.

[Frankie.T]

It's a very personal decision, and yes, not really easy.
One year ago i tried different daw and as everyone wrote, no one is perfect. I chose Reaper for different reasons. Best performance, capable to do everythings and more.
Sure it needs some adjustment to fit your workflow, but being very customizable it's just matter of time.

After an year i coudn't be happier, it's an awesome daw

[Winstontaneous]

OP - Ignore what anyone has said here about "DAW X is only for one style of music and not others."
That's just lazy thinking.
And BTW everything recorded after the wax Edison cylinders is electronic music.

No DAW is perfect, and don't be swayed by marketing hype that leads you to think that more options will make you more creative.

[Robmobius]

If you can't find a DAW out of the ones you've tried then you are the problem.

[i need Help]

If you can't find a DAW out of the ones you've tried then you are the problem.

Well damn lol.

Also as mentioned, no DAW is perfect, make a pros and con list, a list of desired features/ functionality, or something along those lines. That helped me land on the DAW I’ll be switching to shortly.

[Robmobius]

If you can't find a DAW out of the ones you've tried then you are the problem.

Well damn lol.

Also as mentioned, no DAW is perfect, make a pros and con list, a list of desired features/ functionality, or something along those lines. That helped me land on the DAW I’ll be switching to shortly.

Very true. DAWs are pretty personal and not every DAW is right for everyone. But you really need to know what you want (or as best you can if you're new).
Also, there's nothing wrong with changing a DAW after a few years for something that suits you better.
But as you say, no DAW is perfect that's another key point.

[harryupbabble]

it wasn't that hard to me
it came down to two choices pretty fast
cubase or reaper
i tried them both
it was easier to try out reaper, i just downloaded it without hassle
what i downloaded was the actual uncrippled reaper daw
and to my surprise it was only 11 megabytes
as opposed to an entire cd

yeah, with cubase, it was the light version, LE 5
it came as a cd included with my
purchase of a zoom audio recorder hardware
it had to be registered and activated and all that hassle

cubase was easier to use, it was intuitive
reaper was harder to learn compared but it had tons of scripts
randomization scripts, especially

so reaper it was
just like that

[DaveClark]

Needless to say, my suggestion will take some time:

Think of a typical medium-sized project, and consider in advance how you would go about producing a final piece. Pick at least two DAWs from those you have already experimented with (for example, your favorite two at this time) and *fully* implement the project for each. If neither suits you very well, start with yet another DAW. Because you will have implemented the project at least twice already, it probably won't be necessary to complete it again before you can make a decision about it.

I suggest *fully* implementing a project because there will be considerations that you have not yet thought about which may have a major impact on your workflow.

Again, this will take some time up front but may save you a lot of time overall.

I did this comparison myself a few years ago between two of my top choices of DAW and was surprised to find when I found that one took twice as much time (or so it seemed) than the other, surprising because I had previously used both for numerous separate projects (i.e. without duplication). Also, comparing two DAWs for complete projects realy sensitized me regarding certain processes in that it produces an enhanced contrast between the way in which the DAWs did various tasks. I found out what really bothered me and what didn't. Before doing the same full project, I had had a much weaker impression regarding the differences.

I recently did practically the same thing, rendering several full MIDI compositions by the same composer on two different DAWs, but I believe I only did one piece as a duplicate. This time, it's more difficult to decide, I 'll have to admit. But I am very well aware of the differences now. If I plan to do more MIDI stuff, I should switch. If not, I should stay.

All three DAWs I've mentioned have a few serious drawbacks and a lot of minor nuisances, as expected.

[chk071]

Picking a DAW isn't hard at all.