Which DAW is fastest to load?
- KVRAF
- 37408 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
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I_Am_Become_KVR I_Am_Become_KVR https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=742227
- KVRist
- 97 posts since 18 Feb, 2025
Reaper and FL Studio are instant, if the splash screens etc are turned off.
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- KVRer
- 5 posts since 30 Mar, 2025
Out of the few I've tried (FL, Live, Bitwig, Renoise) FL is definitely the fastest, although I have found that sometimes it takes a little bit for the audio engine to actually kick in after the UI has loaded. (Still the fastest overall even with that though)
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- KVRAF
- 2166 posts since 22 Jan, 2005 from For me to know, for you to find out
What constitutes when it's loaded? A blank project with nothing in it? An orchestral project with many many instances of say Spitfire, which takes a while to load into RAM?
And then the other question I have would be dependent on the computer you are running. Pretty sure RAM, CPU, Hard drive config, and computer optimization all come into play.
YMMV
Just sayin ...
I have a really fast computer, some good mics, vintage musical instruments, and lots of fancy software. Just need some talent
- KVRian
- 991 posts since 24 May, 2024
Just recently a REAPER project of mine opened up in about 5 seconds: it was about 30 stereo tracks full of a lot of edits.
Some of the tracks had VST effects on them.
Honestly, though, it depends upon your hard drive, CPU, and which plug-ins you might be using. Some plugins are really slow, while others aren't.
But I find the REAPER open's projects really fast. LMMS opens projects fast. Probably most modern DAW's are fast these days. I can't think of what would make a DAW slow except the project itself being really dense and complicated. Some of the FL Studio demos are really complex and take a while to load, for example. But complex doesn't necessarily sound better. A lot of the demo projects are utter crap, in my opinion.
Some of the tracks had VST effects on them.
Honestly, though, it depends upon your hard drive, CPU, and which plug-ins you might be using. Some plugins are really slow, while others aren't.
But I find the REAPER open's projects really fast. LMMS opens projects fast. Probably most modern DAW's are fast these days. I can't think of what would make a DAW slow except the project itself being really dense and complicated. Some of the FL Studio demos are really complex and take a while to load, for example. But complex doesn't necessarily sound better. A lot of the demo projects are utter crap, in my opinion.
- KVRAF
- 2471 posts since 25 Sep, 2014 from Specific Northwest
I just wanna know who these weirdos are that CLOSE their DAWs in the first place...
I started on Logic 5 with a PowerBook G4 550Mhz. I now have a MacBook Air M1 and it's ~165x faster! So, why is my music not proportionally better? 
- KVRist
- 134 posts since 13 Jul, 2021 from Mars
It depends on what VGA, Processor and RAM you are using.
- KVRAF
- 1767 posts since 3 May, 2023 from Norway
FL Studio is very quick
FL Studio 25 | AudioThing JULY - Deimos - U-he Filterscape - NI Kontour - Softube Model 80 - LUSH-2 - UAD Opal - WaveOSC
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- KVRAF
- 4340 posts since 8 Mar, 2005
- KVRAF
- 9551 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
Simply any DAW that thinks it needs to scan plugins before it lets you start to work is dead slow, I mean really slow. I use for certain tasks Logic. Often enough it even thinks it has to rescan all plugins. This will stall it for several minutes with pop-ups and all that shit. If you use a DAW rarely, its happening regularly…mjolnir wrote: Tue Apr 08, 2025 3:45 pmProbably most modern DAW's are fast these days. I can't think of what would make a DAW slow except the project itself being really dense and complicated.
Scanning plugins has to happen in the background, or only for those you actually want to use. Its completely unnecessary for a lot of tasks…
I never understood, why nobody would simply create a plugin scanner, that exposes its result for any DAW in a simple data base…