Which DAW would you recommend coming from FL Studio? Bitwig, Ableton, Cubase etc.

[liquidsound]

Yes, most DAWs have multiple midi tracks view. However, shared/ghost/cloned clips has its use that when you want to edit all of them, you edit just one because they are ghost (linked) copies to each other which can be very handy if you want your repetitive part to be edited:

That's not my understanding of what ghost notes are. I thought they were notes from other parts that display in your PR window while you are working on another part. What you described is the "pattern" workflow in Studio One.

You are correct about the ghost notes, but what we were talking about was the ghost clips or cloned clips (midi or audio). The ghost/cloned clips are any clips (midi or audio) that you can copy and paste. They are linked to one clip and when you change any midi or audio data inside that clips, it reflects on all other cloned clips.
Yes, patterns are the same but more organized midi clips. So, in FL Studio you can of course repeat the patterns but you can 'disconnect' the repetitions from the original so when you edit one of them, it doesn't reflect on the other (the same in S1).

In Ableton Live there is no cloned clips, so when you copy and paste the same clip, all are not connected to each other. Personally, I like them like this so I can edit what I want without reflecting the changes in other clips. I don't remember if Cubase has it or not because I really don't use this feature.

Ghost notes is another feature but completely different usage. It means notes of multiple midi tracks in the same piano roll. Ableton Live has that and I think now all of the DAWs I know of as well. I use this feature from time to time especially when I want to match or inspect the relation between the chords and melody. Also, important for me to lay the bass notes so it doesn't clash a lot with the kick drum for example. Although, ideally, I should depend on my ears, but my ears are not enough to judge! I don't have a good musical ears!

To add to the list, Reaper has Ghost clips as well.

[EnGee]

I think Reaper has also individual effects per clip. Not sure about other DAWs I think S1 and Cubase might have it also.
I don’t use this feature either as I insert effects per track and use the automation track to enable/disable (or whatever) the effect. For reverb and delay I use mostly busses to send to.

[machinesworking]

AL and Bitwig come with a lot more than Logic - it's not even a fair comparison really.

IMO it's a draw. Logic has AI drums, Alchemy and Sculpture, plus a slew of great FX plugins. The step sequencer in Logic is great etc.

Bitwig and Live both have modular environments for those that want to spend hours making their own instruments from scratch, and to be fair Live has a huge free library of Max 4 Live devices.

In terms of sheer power Live Suite is ridiculous, M4L includes VJ type tools even. IMO the only downside to Live is the UX is as rigid as it gets, and it's slow. Bitwig for the most part wins the UX war, except if you have two monitors, then it's all Ableton Live by a mile.

[stoopicus]

I think Reaper has also individual effects per clip. Not sure about other DAWs I think S1 and Cubase might have it also.
I don’t use this feature either as I insert effects per track and use the automation track to enable/disable (or whatever) the effect. For reverb and delay I use mostly busses to send to.

Reaper can even have different effects per region, it's really flexible.

[stoopicus]

AL and Bitwig come with a lot more than Logic - it's not even a fair comparison really.

IMO it's a draw. Logic has AI drums, Alchemy and Sculpture, plus a slew of great FX plugins. The step sequencer in Logic is great etc.

Logic's drummers are cool.

Bitwig has tons of bundled instruments and effects though, plus of course The Grid. Polymer, Phase-4, PolySynth, Sampler, etc.

It has a fantastic arp but ironically no step sequencer (though you can make one in the grid).

[stoopicus]

AL and Bitwig come with a lot more than Logic - it's not even a fair comparison really.

IMO it's a draw.

I should also say though, all three of those are really great.

I'm pretty sure that among the major DAWs, there are no *bad* choices for OP to move to, actually, unless they did something like try and misuse Audacity as a DAW or something (which surprisingly many people seem to do, but that's usually guitarists/bass players when just starting out).

[machinesworking]

AL and Bitwig come with a lot more than Logic - it's not even a fair comparison really.

IMO it's a draw.

I should also say though, all three of those are really great.

I'm pretty sure that among the major DAWs, there are no *bad* choices for OP to move to, actually, unless they did something like try and misuse Audacity as a DAW or something (which surprisingly many people seem to do, but that's usually guitarists/bass players when just starting out).

Yeah I agree it really depends on what UX idiocy you're willing to settle with. I'm pretty capable in 6 or so DAWs and all of them have areas I love and things I hate.

I get a little more irritated at Bitwig and Live for this simply because the whole "less is more" aesthetic is supposed to not result in bloatware or incomplete features. Yet Live is finally coming to terms with 12, and now has an incomplete StandAlone version with Push. Bitwig is fantastic but the new browser is a huge WTF? and older parts of the DAW are not addressed like multi monitor and touch support. Some UX things remain as well, thin near invisible grid lines etc.

[xbitz]

^^^ What's wrong with the browser? I added the favorites, and with a right-click, they come up contextually. It's working fine.

[rod_zero]

Ableton Live because is one of the most widely used and you might find it useful to collaborate with other artists

[machinesworking]

^^^ What's wrong with the browser? I added the favorites, and with a right-click, they come up contextually. It's working fine.

Owning both Live and Bitwig I can say without pretense Bitwig dropped the ball compared.

I'm not alone in preferring the old one, even when I first saw the new browser I cringed, icons only, great..

[mjolnir]

Since you're already there in FL Studioland, I'd stay with that and keep getting better at it, but add both Ableton and Reaper. Then you'll have all the major workflows covered. FL Studio's step editor is best for certain styles of music and percussion and the it's slightly tracker-like arranging is cool too. FL Studio is pretty awesome in terms of being self contained yet still expandable. But you're already there, so that's already cool.

Almost every time I see a groundbreaking video about how to accomplish some pro sound, it's usually either FL Studio or Ableton Live. So I'd nominate Ableton Live as your second DAW. It just seems easy to use and powerful. So there you go.

Lastly, I think you should keep handy a version of Reaper of some kind. You might not really need or want it, but if you're already used to it for audio WAV files, it's pretty nifty. However, I find the MIDI handling to be smoother in FL Studio. Reaper has a lot of menu diving or keyboard presses to get to basic things. It's still pretty nice and powerful, but it's a slight killjoy for MIDI in my opinion. I also find that the routing is powerful yet unconventional so even though it's easy it's not what I'm used to. I wish it flowed more like a normal hardware console. The Reaper support seems to prescribe scripting to solve everything so if you're into that you won't want to give that up. I know I'm kinda both slamming and praising at the same time but that's how I feel about Reaper.

But I feel that Reaper and FL Studio is a great combo. Do what you want in FL Studio while still having fun. Then, after you hit a wall, or a plateau, render to stems and import into Reaper for WAV mixing and render to FLAC or WAVpack or whatnot. It's pretty smooth. But at this point, you can do a few steps better if you have Ableton Live. So yeah, you are in a good way. You really can't go wrong.

[stoopicus]

Yeah I agree it really depends on what UX idiocy you're willing to settle with. I'm pretty capable in 6 or so DAWs and all of them have areas I love and things I hate.

For sure. With me for Bitwig it’s the unique “special” take on timeline scrolling/zoom behavior that is something I… endure.

[heliacal]

Logic.

[twal]

REAPER is good

[machinesworking]

Yeah I agree it really depends on what UX idiocy you're willing to settle with. I'm pretty capable in 6 or so DAWs and all of them have areas I love and things I hate.

For sure. With me for Bitwig it’s the unique “special” take on timeline scrolling/zoom behavior that is something I… endure.

I just wish they would fix the dual monitor support. I've had a two monitor setup at home for decades at this point and it's frustrating how crippled it is, it actually slows you down since the shift tab command to open the edit windows doesn't work, they disabled it, plus in Ableton Live the tab key switches the Arranger and Session between the two monitors, which is a brilliant solution, tab does nothing in Bitwig with dual monitor settings. I've actually considered setting up a third monitor since that gives you the Edit, Mix and Arrange pages.