If you had to stick to one DAW, which one would it be?

[vurt]

Everything is a host. Audio software on a computer makes it a DAW. For a sound jedi, every computer is a DAW.

indeed young padawan.

[Biscotto]

Because Antic likes spreadsheets, here is a ratio based only on the poll.
Baseless but fun….

DAW existence in years/poll’s number.

Leaders in the Poll:

Ableton 2.90
Bitwig 6.0 <<<
Cubase 2.0 *
Logic Pro 0.75
Reaper 3.13
Studio One 2.5
Digital Performer 0.11

* updated

[mholloway]

Because Antic likes spreadsheets, here is a ratio based only on the poll.
Baseless but fun….

DAW existence in years/poll’s number.

Leaders in the Poll:

Ableton 2.90
Bitwig 6.0 <<<
Cubase 2.03
Logic Pro 0.75
Reaper 3.13
Studio One 2.5

I was indeed surprised by Bitwig's strong performance in this poll given how much younger it is than its competition. I'm an Ableton guy, but all the same, Good for those guys.

[Biscotto]

Ableton loooong user here as well, but moved to BWS for the whole 2022.
Then I will be able to make a better call for the future.

Keep jumping leaves your music no longer the primary reason to have a DAW in the first place.

BWS doing quite well on KVR colosseum

[machinesworking]

Because Antic likes spreadsheets, here is a ratio based only on the poll.
Baseless but fun….

DAW existence in years/poll’s number.

Leaders in the Poll:

Ableton 2.90
Bitwig 6.0 <<<
Cubase 2.0 *
Logic Pro 0.75
Reaper 3.13
Studio One 2.5
Digital Performer 0.11

* updated

One thing that irks me a bit is they all get lumped in together when they're not at all geared towards the same audience. Ableton and Bitwig are not designed to be recording studio DAWs, they'e live performance and block composition DAWs. Cubase, Reaper, Studio One, Pro Tools and DP are designed with recording studios in mind. DP, Cubase, Logic and Studio One have orchestral and film work in mind. Reason isn't replacing Pro Tools at multi million dollar studios, but at some point Nuendo, DP, Studio One, Reaper etc. might. <<< Conversely doing electronic dance music in DP or Reaper is possible, but it's not where they shine. Bitwig and Live are well suited for blank templates. DP, Cubase and Reaper IMO are better with filled out templates, or at the least pre built presets for tracks.

They aren't on the same page at all except for the fact they all can record audio and MIDI into a timeline.

[sQeetz]

what really irks me is people calling a host, a daw.
the daw implies the whole, not just the software, not much of a workstation if it's just the 1s and 0s.

ugh... that one irks me since people started doing that. I refused to call a sequencer/host a DAW for the longest time. Now I just go with the flow...

[vurt]

what really irks me is people calling a host, a daw.
the daw implies the whole, not just the software, not much of a workstation if it's just the 1s and 0s.

ugh... that one irks me since people started doing that. I refused to call a sequencer/host a DAW for the longest time. Now I just go with the flow...

ooh if there's two of us, we should start a campaign to get it fixed once and for all!!!

ive always thought i was alone in this!!

[Biscotto]

Because Antic likes spreadsheets, here is a ratio based only on the poll.
Baseless but fun….

DAW existence in years/poll’s number.

Leaders in the Poll:

Ableton 2.90
Bitwig 6.0 <<<
Cubase 2.0 *
Logic Pro 0.75
Reaper 3.13
Studio One 2.5
Digital Performer 0.11

* updated

One thing that irks me a bit is they all get lumped in together

By this “Poll” of course


I agree with your observations but the affordability of tools (and the shifting of the dream of becoming a better musician, from skills to tools) made all of them bleed into each other’s area of specialized music production.

I started with MOTU’s first product to Ableton (S1 shortly).
BWS being a natural progression.

[sQeetz]

what really irks me is people calling a host, a daw.
the daw implies the whole, not just the software, not much of a workstation if it's just the 1s and 0s.

ugh... that one irks me since people started doing that. I refused to call a sequencer/host a DAW for the longest time. Now I just go with the flow...

ooh if there's two of us, we should start a campaign to get it fixed once and for all!!!

ive always thought i was alone in this!!

Let's do this! The HOST collective!

[Spencer Maddox]

Damn, Cubase in the lead again

Absolutely Horrific, I just sold my copy of ableton live 10 for $2.45 and a Klondike bar, I never want to be associated with a DAW that’s not going to win an KVR Internet poll. Currently buying an Elicencer and moving all my stuff over to Cubase right away.

[BONES]

You clearly contradict yourself, but whatever works for you I guess

No, I didn't. I learned a few things but in order to take advantage of them, I'd have to change the way I work. After thinking it through, I've realised that making that change would be a bad idea, as I'd end up with four or five times as many vocal tracks, which would be a huge PITA to wrangle and sort through. Therefore, the things I learned will not be things I will use or find useful. The way I am using S1 currently, the way I worked out for myself, remains the best way to work. And everything that's useful in Gregor's video is covered in this Studio One Minute, which I think I'd watched ages ago but forgotten about -

In my experience learning a DAW using official resources - videos, user manual, etc. - is beneficial, because not only you're finding out about features you'd not find yourself, but also discover new ways of working that can completely transform your process or even your music.

So how many of Joe Gilder's videos have you watched compared to Gregor's? Joe's the guy with tonnes of real world experience. His videos are a lot more watchable than Gregor's, too, and I tend to get a lot more out of them because he seems to know what needs explaining and what doesn't better than Gregor.

I can't say that moving between Orion, Bitwig, Cubase and now Studio One over the last three years or so has had any effect on our music, although it has transformed our processes in a few ways. e.g. I'd never used clip envelopes (or whatever they are called) before. They might exist in Cubase but not in a way that I was likely to discover them, whereas in S1 it was easy. In Orion I'd have had to change the level of an audio file in an external editor, like Audition, so it was a big discovery. It really changed the way I work because it allowed me to use audio tracks where previously I'd have wanted to load the audio files into a drum machine or sampler so I'd have that control. Even redoing our last album in Cubase after completing it in Orion didn't change much at all. New instruments change some of the sounds but not the overall aesthetic of what we do, which is way too strong to be overtly influenced by the tools.

Honestly, ya'll are crazy if you didn't pick Cubase

Crazy like a fox!

you need to focus on and research these subjects: 1.) 'Project Logical Editor' and 'Logical Editor' and their key command/macro integration 2.) MediaBay and custom user attributes 3.) MixConsole 1, 2, and 3. 4.) Workspaces - Global vs Project - consider making Project Templates containing Project Workspaces 5.) Groove Agent, take a day to learn the GUI then read the capabilities and you'll realize how powerful this sleeper is. 6.) MIDI Input Transformer/MIDI Channel Inspector. 7.) The stock plugins are significantly awesome, both old and new - check out Padshop and Retrologue, Squasher, Multi-Tap Delay, SuperVision, HalionSE 8.) Control Room 9.) I'm not a stock content kind of guy, but when I've stumbled into things or time did not permit recording the stock loops and sounds are actually really dope. 10.) SamplerTrack 2. Honestly, all said. The Project Logical Editor and keybinding scripts is the most important thing.

But what if none of that matters to me? I've been using Cubase for the last two or three years and it's OK but I prefer Studio One because it's just easier to use. Sure, Groove Agent is very capable but I have been using Battery for ages and there is no compelling reason to change. And Impact XT in Studio One is even better than Groove Agent for my needs. Ditto for HALion over Kontakt - I don't like the way HALion works at all, it's shit compared to Kontakt. It might be better overall, for some arcane reason, but it's not as easy to work with so why would I bother? As for shit like the Logical Editor or Control Room - shoot me if my life ever gets to bogged down in minutiae that I need shit like that to sort things out.

[digitalboytn]

Reaper 6....

[antic604]

So how many of Joe Gilder's videos have you watched compared to Gregor's? Joe's the guy with tonnes of real world experience. His videos are a lot more watchable than Gregor's, too, and I tend to get a lot more out of them because he seems to know what needs explaining and what doesn't better than Gregor.

I'd say all of them on official Presonus YT and a lot of them from his own channel.

I like him as a person, but I think Gregor is a much better educator and "youtuber". Joe can spend whole 10-15 minute episode on some feature that can be explained in 60s, he treats their audience like kids and I get this feeling he doesn't really understand a lot of what he's doing - he just knows how to do it.

[machinesworking]

We need a Youtube DAW Guru poll.

Kenny Gioia, no one comes close, and Reaper isn't even in my top three favorite DAWs, Kenny is that good. Hundreds of short videos all solving a problem clearly explained in the topic title, diction etc.

[pdxindy]

what I'm about to point you towards will illuminate to you the reasons Cubase is actually undeniably and logically the best DAW

Actually, I agree. Cubase is the overall most complete DAW.

It is still not my DAW of choice. I don't need most of it's capability and I am happy with a simpler DAW... Bitwig.