Why do people use multiple DAWs?

[RunBeerRun]

I only like Reaper and EnergyXT1.4

If others were good looking and not weird labelled....then maybe

back to the hog pen witcha!

[Tracewidth]

a little bit of Bitwig Studio in my life ...
a little bit of Ableton, theirs is 'Live',
a little bit of Cubase all night long,
and then over to Reason, even though they sold

[Alexander_D]

I am just used one Daw. Before was two - Ableton and Cubase. Now I am in Cubase only

[Cuauhtli]

Reaper mostly. Waveform as a backup (familiarity so if the scythe-bearing grim reaper comes after reaper I won't waste a month trying to learn a new DAW).

I tried Cubase but it didn't resize according to my screen settings so that was that. I tried the free 8-track version of Bitwig but the 2 vsti track limit ticked me off so to hell with that.

Actually, I liked Bitwig but I'm waiting to see what I decide to do when it's time to upgrade. Stick with windows, go with Mac, or go old school and get a multi-track recorder.

[kropotkin303]

I have Cubase 15 which handles modern stuff - plugins and things like retrospectve recording which is genius. Then I have Synapse Orion because I love it. Also it handles 32 bit plugins so nostalgic.

[ksandvik]

Historical reasons, used Logic (6.0) long long time ago and Ableton Live (3.5) long time ago. Both are good.

[BBFG#]

Maybe for the same reason we use multiple plugins essentially doing the same thing. And these days, DAWs are almost their own complete instrument. Now all we need is a host to run them together.

[arturrembe]

Back in 2003, I got my hands on Reason. I was completely green no experience, no clue about music theory, so I spent a lot of time just experimenting. Later on, I tried FL Studio, but we never really clicked.

In 2014, the itch to make music came back, and Renoise caught my eye. I was already somewhat familiar with trackers because of the Unreal and Unreal Tournament soundtracks (which I used to play back in tracker software), so I bought it. Still, I found myself missing the Piano Roll every now and then.

A few years later, I picked up Reason 10. When Reason 11 launched with the Rack Plugin, I really wanted to try it out, but Renoise didn't support it at the time since it was vst2 only. That’s how I stumbled upon Reaper. I’d been eyeing Bitwig as well it looked so cool, and the workflow felt like a cousin to Renoise and Ableton but I didn't have the cash for it. So, I spent my time "ricing" Reaper, setting up my own shortcuts, toolbars, and templates.

Then a deal came up: someone offered me his Bitwig license plus some cash in exchange for my Reason 11 Suite. I went for it. I lost Reason in the process, but I figured it was fine since I had enough other vsts. I finished up my ongoing projects in Reaper first, and then finally dove into Bitwig.

That’s when it hit me. While Bitwig’s modulation possibilities are cool in theory, I realized I never actually needed them to make music. Instead, I found myself missing all those custom Actions I had set up in Reaper.
It’s like one of those movies: You know the plot where a guy has a best friend who helps him chase his dream girl? She gives him advice, supports him, and eventually, he actually gets the girl. But after a while, he realizes that his true love wasnt the dream girl after all. It was the best friend who was by his side the whole time.

Recently, I bought Reason again at a bargain price, mostly because I realized all the Rack Extensions from my old Suite license were still tied to my account. So, here I am with four DAWs, each serving a different purpose:

- Reaper: My workhorse. When I just want to write music and, more importantly, actually finish tracks.

- Renoise: Pure passion. It feels like coming home.

- Bitwig: My playground for when I’m in the mood to experiment.
- Reason: For the nostalgia, specific REs, and opening ancient projects. I probably won't use it as a standalone DAW anymore.

[Bunny_boy]

They're gear sluts

[Michael L]

Some DAWs are entirely different but work well together, like MetaSynth and MuLab.
You can keep an audio track open in MuLab while you work on it in MetaSynth.
It's like using your eyes (MetaSynth) and ears (MuLab) together.

[Jim Roseberry]

DAW applications (just like musical instruments) have strengths/weaknesses.
If you're collaborating with artists who work in commercial studios, it's hard to avoid using ProTools.
Nearly all professional TV/Film composers use Cubase.

[fredu33]

I love Renoise but do find myself reaching for Bitwig sometimes when I am recording something and prefer the "standard" horizontal layout.

[rACatkvr]

Most of us to some extent ‘gel’ with a DAW, I use another for a feature that works well in that DAW but is otherwise a pain to use hence I use another DAW which isn’t except when I want to do stuff involving that feature.

[BONES]

But how much more hassle is it to take the work from one DAW and move it into the other when you're done? Surely it would be easier to simply do it all in one DAW and put up with it being less than optimal for certain tasks? It seems wildly inefficient to me.

[machinesworking]

But how much more hassle is it to take the work from one DAW and move it into the other when you're done? Surely it would be easier to simply do it all in one DAW and put up with it being less than optimal for certain tasks? It seems wildly inefficient to me.

Depends. I Mainly stay in DP, jumped around a bit to realize that DP annoys me the least. I still use Ableton Live, because a main collaborator uses it so it just makes the whole thing easier. Every once in a while the simplicity of Live is appealing and I'll write in it. The MPC Live II here is a DAW unto itself but it's more like a sequencer sampler, and the VSTi works in DP so I mainly use it like that, a virtual drum machine.

You yourself don't use other DAWs but last time you talked about this your partner was using Cubase while you use FSP, so there is translation that happens there I imagine.