Help picking a main DAW

[Zexila]

I wouldn't get to hang out on stock plugins, especially in host that can run both 32&64 bit VST's simultaneously, there's some great freebies and quite affordable stuff to be found.

[chk071]

I wouldn't get to hang out on stock plugins

Yep. They're mostly not competing with the crème de la crème of 3rd party plugins anyway.

[pekbro]

I wouldn't get to hang out on stock plugins

Yep. They're mostly not competing with the crème de la crème of 3rd party plugins anyway.

Exactly, still the stock effects in live are not 'rudimentary', I have all the DAWs on the OP's
list. In regard to included 'effects', personally, I would put live's on top pretty easily.

That said, if it were me and money was tight, I would probably get Reaper and spend
what I would have spent on a more costly DAW on 3rd party products.

[oneway]

Is there some way to demo Ableton suite? I don’t think it’s a fair comparison until you’ve tried some of the instruments and plugins in Suite, they’re very well integrated.

Personally I love Studio One. Mostly it’s a one window capable design. Studio one pro has a low hassle 30 day demo.

But it’s hard to beat Ableton’s horizontal “Inspector” for plugins and effects...

[thecontrolcentre]

Is there some way to demo Ableton suite?

https://www.ableton.com/en/trial/

[pottering]

Ableton
pro: nice workflow, Live Performance (would be relevant to me)
con: no instruments and rudimentary effects (standard version), price (would be most expensive to me)

Personally I prefer Ableton Live.

For synths you can get Hybrid 3, Vacuum Pro and Xpand!2 for free:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... m#p7160908

For sampler or drums, Live itself is a beastly sampler and drum machine.

For the effects you don't really need anything, you are wrong about Live's bundled effects being rudimentary, Live's FX are very good and you can do a lot with the Racks.

You can also get Ozone 8 Elements with a $1 purchase:

viewtopic.php?p=7160688#p7160688

Also nowadays the plugin pack that comes with Computer Music Magazine $5 is really good, Bazille CM, Thorn CM, Dune CM, etc are great synths, and the effects also cover a lot of holes. Transient shapers, good oscilloscope, stereoizer, etc... Microfuse is a pretty good option for analog-style delay in place of Echo, it is small but sounds great.

[rlared]

If you make your best music with Reason then go with it. I find Reason very inspiring to make music in because its simple, powerful, fun and has a great interface. Plus the included instruments and effects are great.

You cant worry about longevity. Youre not marrying the DAW. You can always change in the future for any reason.

I get the desire for linux compatibility but at present, in my opinion, trying to use a DAW with instrument plugins and low latency is a major pain the ass in Linux. I wouldnt factor that in unless you are comitted to Linux and willing to restrict yourself to using what works in linux. The DAWs listed above arent open source so they dont fit in with the linux philosophy anyway.

[PeterP_swe]

If you get and register the free iOS Reason Compact app then you'll get Reason Intro for free.

That'll either be a nice compliment to whatever DAW you pick or it'll make it cheaper if you decide to upgrade to full version of Reason.

[AdvancedFollower]

You cant worry about longevity. Youre not marrying the DAW. You can always change in the future for any reason.

I agree. Besides, your current DAW won't self-destruct even if the company that made it goes under or discontinues it. Well I guess in theory they could shut down the activation servers and not provide an off-line alternative, but with a popular DAW like Reason (or any other of the mainstream DAWs), I can't see that happening (and even if it did, there would be "ways" around that, too).

All the main DAWs are stupidly powerful these days, and "professional" music has been produced with all of them. So unless you're running some massive world-class studio with very specific requirements, it really comes down to personal preference and what you find works best for you.

[paradisebunny]

thanks for all the input! i pulled the trigger on bitwig! it just inspires me and seemed best bang for buck at the moment!

[Distorted Horizon]

What are your experiences if you compare Reason to Bitwig? Thanks!!

My main DAWs. I love the fact that Reason has everything built in and has more everything than BWS does (no need to buy almost any vst or RE in a loooong time), but BWS has 3 different ways to work while Reason has 2... Jamming in BWS is easier and more fun.

Personally I like the workflow of BWS more, those midi notes are just way faster to paint and ctrl + d than Reasons way of paint + ctrl and drag.

But everything tend to sound much better in Reason since I don't rush anywhere and the music just feels so much more alive etc..

A question that only you can answer

Download the full demo on both and decide then.. Reason has fully working 30 days demo if I remember correctly.

[Distorted Horizon]

thanks for all the input! i pulled the trigger on bitwig! it just inspires me and seemed best bang for buck at the moment!

You were faster

[pdxindy]

thanks for all the input! i pulled the trigger on bitwig! it just inspires me and seemed best bang for buck at the moment!

Good luck with Bitwig... there is a Bitwig user forum here at KVR which is a good resource for asking questions.

[Zexila]

thanks for all the input! i pulled the trigger on bitwig! it just inspires me and seemed best bang for buck at the moment!

Good luck with Bitwig... there is a Bitwig user forum here at KVR which is a good resource for asking questions.

This group too, very fast responses, nice folks:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bitwigusers

[paradisebunny]

thanks for all the input! i pulled the trigger on bitwig! it just inspires me and seemed best bang for buck at the moment!

You were faster

hehehe, yes! thanks anyways!!

to all the others: thanks for the tips and links!