Picking a DAW is hard…

[ontrackp]

If you have a Mac, Logic is the best choice.

I have a Mac, and I hate Logic almost as much as I hate Pro Tools. Neither work the way I would expect them too. You could try to chalk it up to me just not being familiar with the workflow, but I wasn’t familiar with Studio One’s workflow the first time I tried it, but it just did what I wanted it to.

The main appeal for me is that I can drag an ampsim preset to the arrange window and be recording a new guitar part in one click. It’s a total of 20 seconds from launching Studio One to recording. Other DAWs just frustrate me with how much fiddling is necessary just to start outing down my ideas when I’m inspired.

Pro Tools takes something like 6 menu dives just to get an audio track setup. Logic isn’t much better.

Unless you are making mixes for television or film, ProTools is not a good DAW. It was developed to mimic a physical studio so requires a certain process that makes sense to lots and lots of professional audio engineers. It's a great program for recording live tracks and mixing, and is the standard for most pro studios. Logic is also built around an interface that feels natural to people who learned their skills in studios that had hardware consoles for recording and mixing and handles midi way better than Pro Tools. If you don't have that kind of background all bets are off and you should work with whatever interface makes sense to you. If you want to just drag and drop, or get frustrated with the deliberate workflow that is required for recording into a more traditional format, I'm sure there are programs better for that than Logic, but it still provides a great value for the money and is very full featured. All these DAW's do pretty much the same thing, so it's good there is a variety to accommodate various preferences.

[enroe]

All these DAW's do pretty much the same thing, so it's good
there is a variety to accommodate various preferences.

This contains all the wisdom of this thread - and could even be the word for Sunday.

[harddaysnight]

I thought picking a DAW was hard, until I realised they're all doing the same thing and it's just on you to find what gels with you.

Logic is the best value for money DAW on the market - I don't think it has any competition. Even Reaper, if you purchase it, is way worse value for money, when you consider everything you get in Logic.

But value for money isn't all that matters when it comes to DAWs - because it's about what works for you, you're after workflow moreso than features, though features come into play.

I tried them all and went back to Studio One. I've released like 80% of everything I've ever done in Studio One Artist, I just keep going back to S1 every time.

Tried to ditch it due to disagreeing with some of their business practices, but ultimately.. it's the DAW that I gel best with and it's kinda stupid to force myself to have a harder time making music.. when music is my career.. just because I don't agree with some of the things the company does.

The DAW itself is perfect for me, I actually get things done in S1 and don't feel like I spend all my time messing around or trying to figure things out. Feels natural... feels like Logic but better, imo. More aligned with my own personal workflow tastes.

[garageg]

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Logic is the best value for money DAW on the market - I don't think it has any competition. Even Reaper, if you purchase it, is way worse value for money, when you consider everything you get in Logic.

Yes, the value for money for Logic is really good, especially if you are a student, because you basically get MainStage and Final Cut along with the purchase for free with the student discount : https://www.apple.com/us-edu/shop/produ ... -education (https://www.apple.com/us-edu/shop/product/BMGE2Z/A/pro-apps-bundle-for-education)

[holonology]

There's a lot to be said for sticking with what you know. I tried to move DAWs (Ableton > Logic) this year and it didn't work. There are good reasons to do it, but like getting in a car - if yours gets you from A to B, then it doesn't make much sense to change.

Like you said OP "I have found stuff that annoys or hinders me on every single one of these DAWs." This was my experience too. Logic had some stuff that was on paper much more in tune with what I wanted to do, but in the end, the bits I like doing (MIDI editing etc) didn't click with me. I could probably learn it if I fully committed and sold Ableton off, but tbh it came down to which was more fun and that was Ableton. There are elements of how Ableton works that bug me, but overall it's great.

Really what it comes down to is the fact that you're trading similar feature for marginal gains. In the end, workflow is king, but you might find even the features of your favored DAW are only 7/10 on paper.

[Gel274]

Good thread. Helpful responses here. I like studio one because its interface setup seems the cleanest.

[n I I e]

Everyone has passed for this phase in their life. My way out of this circle of death was to choose one daw (the one that you like most... don't worry if there are missing stuff that others have) and get rid of the other daws in your computer. Stick with that one and work with their flaws. Even if you know there are others that can do that little thing that you will use it only one or two times in your life... f**k it. Stick with your choice and learn to love it.

I got rid of logic, pro tools, reaper... and chose Ableton. Is it perfect? No way. But that was my choice and I work with it.

Same with plugins. Choose one or two great comp, eq, synths, etc... and don't look back.

[BONES]

Logic is the best value for money DAW on the market - I don't think it has any competition. Even Reaper, if you purchase it, is way worse value for money, when you consider everything you get in Logic...

... I tried them all and went back to Studio One. I've released like 80% of everything I've ever done in Studio One Artist, I just keep going back to S1 every time.

The DAW itself is perfect for me, I actually get things done in S1 and don't feel like I spend all my time messing around or trying to figure things out. Feels natural... feels like Logic but better, imo. More aligned with my own personal workflow tastes.

And now that Studio One is the same price as Logic Pro, it is the best value choice as well. Of course, it could be argued that Studio one Artist was way better value than Logic, as it was half the price yet probably contained 90% of the features. And if it has all the features you need, than it is twice as good as Logic on the value front because you aren't paying for as many things you will never use.

There's a lot to be said for sticking with what you know. I tried to move DAWs (Ableton > Logic) this year and it didn't work. There are good reasons to do it, but like getting in a car - if yours gets you from A to B, then it doesn't make much sense to change.

That assumes getting from A to B is the only reason to have a car, which is deeply flawed logic (pun intended). Similarly, we don't all have the same goals with the work we do in our DAWs.

tbh it came down to which was more fun and that was Ableton. There are elements of how Ableton works that bug me, but overall it's great.

This is an excellent illustration of what I'm talking about - "having fun" is not a consideration for me at all. I just want the shortest route from idea to finished song. If the process is "fun", why would you ever bother finishing anything?

[swilow11]

You'll probably finish fewer songs if the process isn't at least somewhat "fun" though. Imo, a hobby can be defined as a thing you enjoy doing for it's own sake. And the overwhelming majority of people on KVR (and much more broadly too) are hobbyists.

[_leras]

tbh it came down to which was more fun and that was Ableton. There are elements of how Ableton works that bug me, but overall it's great.

This is an excellent illustration of what I'm talking about - "having fun" is not a consideration for me at all. I just want the shortest route from idea to finished song. If the process is "fun", why would you ever bother finishing anything?

Why do you make music if you don't enjoy doing so?

Fun/enjoy/find rewarding... Take your pick but they're all implied by 'fun'.

I would add that I feel Bitwig makes the process more fun, partly because the great workflow does allow me to get things done more quickly. I still enjoy to make music with Cubase but it is a bit less fun and more frustrating at times as things take longer to setup at each part of the process.

[BONES]

I make music so that I have music to perform on stage. That's the part I actually like. Making it is hard work and I don't enjoy any part of it. If I could press a button and have my computer create a song I like and want to perform, I'd press that button whenever I got bored with the songs I already have. As it is, I doubt that a quarter of the time I am using Studio One is spent doing actual production. Mostly I open songs to listen to them and practice/rehearse.

[Jac459]

I make music so that I have music to perform on stage. That's the part I actually like. Making it is hard work and I don't enjoy any part of it. If I could press a button and have my computer create a song I like and want to perform, I'd press that button whenever I got bored with the songs I already have. As it is, I doubt that a quarter of the time I am using Studio One is spent doing actual production. Mostly I open songs to listen to them and practice/rehearse.

But then it is an illustration that different people can have very different usage and expectations... (And then maybe that explains why there are different daws in the market).

[Jac459]

tbh it came down to which was more fun and that was Ableton. There are elements of how Ableton works that bug me, but overall it's great.

This is an excellent illustration of what I'm talking about - "having fun" is not a consideration for me at all. I just want the shortest route from idea to finished song. If the process is "fun", why would you ever bother finishing anything?

Why do you make music if you don't enjoy doing so?

Fun/enjoy/find rewarding... Take your pick but they're all implied by 'fun'.

I would add that I feel Bitwig makes the process more fun, partly because the great workflow does allow me to get things done more quickly. I still enjoy to make music with Cubase but it is a bit less fun and more frustrating at times as things take longer to setup at each part of the process.

I feel that for my usage, Bitwig has found the sweet spot between fun (for which my personal definition would be "allows for efficient exploration") and efficiency (that I would define as : provides the right feature in an accessible, easy to remember and reliable (bug-free) manner).

[BONES]

But then it is an illustration that different people can have very different usage and expectations... (And then maybe that explains why there are different daws in the market).

Which was exactly my point.

[Jac459]

But then it is an illustration that different people can have very different usage and expectations... (And then maybe that explains why there are different daws in the market).

Which was exactly my point.

Yes, absolutely.