Good DAW to start with.

[Starship Krupa]

Sidechaining is used like syrup on pancakes in synthwave production. It's a standard effect, I'd even say it's part of the genre, the pumping Daft Punk kick. Whoomp whoomp whoomp with the sidechain sucking the air out of your lungs.

But the thing is, even though I've never even tried a demo of Reason, it may be clumsy to set up sidechaining, but once you do it a couple of times and then set it up in a project template, it's probably like nothing. Things are that way with any DAW.

Cakewalk, for instance, has a needlessly obscure process to go through to set up a drum map. It made me want to scream and throw things. But once I got it figured out I made a template and instead of wading through that mess every time, I load the template with the drum map already set up and I'm good to go in seconds.

[chk071]

Sidechaining is used like syrup on pancakes in synthwave production. It's a standard effect, I'd even say it's part of the genre, the pumping Daft Punk kick. Whoomp whoomp whoomp with the sidechain sucking the air out of your lungs.

But the thing is, even though I've never even tried a demo of Reason, it may be clumsy to set up sidechaining, but once you do it a couple of times and then set it up in a project template, it's probably like nothing. Things are that way with any DAW.

It's an absolute breeze to set up in Studio One... the only thing which is a tad more tricky to set up is the "silent" trigger, but, that's pretty easy too when you know how.

Really, a DAW shouldn't make basic stuff like that more difficult than it should.

[Eclectrophonic]

Sidechaining is used like syrup on pancakes in synthwave production. It's a standard effect, I'd even say it's part of the genre, the pumping Daft Punk kick. Whoomp whoomp whoomp with the sidechain sucking the air out of your lungs.

But the thing is, even though I've never even tried a demo of Reason, it may be clumsy to set up sidechaining, but once you do it a couple of times and then set it up in a project template, it's probably like nothing. Things are that way with any DAW.

Cakewalk, for instance, has a needlessly obscure process to go through to set up a drum map. It made me want to scream and throw things. But once I got it figured out I made a template and instead of wading through that mess every time, I load the template with the drum map already set up and I'm good to go in seconds.

It is in some ways quite cumbersome to do sidechain ducking in Reason. Yeah a template is a good idea. However there are 2 decent sidechain Rack Extensions available for Reason - Reasonista's SideChain ReAction and one called Pump by Sonicbits.io.

[Distorted Horizon]

It is in some ways quite cumbersome to do sidechain ducking in Reason.

[Tannaliini]

I am between FL & Reason myself. Testing both of them. Loving both of them. And hating both of them

FL has very easy sidechain as mentioned. It has instruments which sound very rich right out of the box. But damn there are so many hidden things (very easy & basic things but difficult to find - even with the manual). So you REALLY need the many tutorial videos from YouTube! But when you find how something is done, it’s usually quite easy in FL (not always but usually).

Reason just looks very modern to me. And that is quite inspiring for me since I find visual aspects to important even in the music making. Some of the synths sound very “basic” out of the box (when compared to FL). But if you tweak them a bit, they can be very amazing! If you need audio recording, Reason is easier & faster. Sidechain... well... It can be done I think tutorial videos for Reason are very nicely done. Maybe not as many as for FL.

And what I’ve read and experienced myself, Reason is more stable than FL. And that is quite important thing. Since I don’t always remember to save while I’m lost in the music making. That said: FL Studio is said to be much more stable now, and in my cases when FL crashed there was 3rd party plugin used.

Studio One looks very interesting... I did read some reviews of it and it was said to be good. Can’t remember if Studio One had some issues with midi or audio... or was it Live that didn’t have such a strong midi...

[Tannaliini]

Big plus for the undo browser in FL - but it can be a bit limited in some instances/doesn’t work all around FL. And some items in FL have their own undo which is a bit confusing.
The undo seems to be valid for everything in Reason, very handy! But you don’t have browser for undo - so you need to undo after undo after undo...

You need to find what works for you!
What inspires you the most.

[ztrauq]

Regarding tutorial videos, Studio One has a 20-part excellent video tutorial series that goes into detail about a lot of its features.

Here's the Youtube playlist for it and others:



I recently viewed the two-part "hidden gems" video series that is also included in the playlist, and there are some very cool tricks there...

[Shazaam845]

Thanks everybody for the replies and advice.

[raveydavey]

There have been lots of good Daws mentioned - one that has not been mentioned is Acoustica Mixcraft. I seriously advise you to take a look at that one - it may not have all the bells and whistles but for the price it is an extremely good all rounder and is one of the easiest Daws to learn and use.

Here's a link:
https://acoustica.com/mixcraft/videos/m ... n-mixcraft

As I'm new, the link gives a warning but it is a link to Acoustica and is safe.

[clipnotic]

Easy answer is FL Studio!

EDIT:

okay, you want reasons:

- great piano roll
- pattern based sequencer and modern playlist
- very good VST compatibility
- great integrated own plugins
- free lifetime updates, you have to pay just one time!
- "Undo" for every knob tweak, 3rd party VSTs, too
- meanwhile very good APDC to fix different latency
- very good ASIO 4all integration, if you don't have a "good" recording soundcard
- 11 timestretching alghorithms for loops
- ...

[edthesoundman]

Take some time and install the demos for Studio One, FL Studio, and Ableton Live. These are three VERY different DAWs, and I'm sure that you'll click with one of those more than the others. It's very important that you try these out for yourself, because the truth is that you're very likely to just stick with whichever DAW that you start out with. It's best to make the right choice right out of the gate than to have to learn a whole new program somewhere down the line. Having said that, any of those three would be good choices. But you can't trust someone else's personal experience when it comes to DAWs; people swear by each and every option available, and being convincing in a forum doesn't really mean much when it comes to your own personal preferences. Take the time and try them out. You will be glad that you did, and you'll be able to answer your own question very quickly after.

[bermudagold]

The problem with starting out is that you don't really know your needs, your pet peeves, and your dominant workflow yet. So even if you demo everything, you don't really have the perspective to make a purchase for long term.
Since the quality of freeware is so high right now, I tell everyone that asks me, to not buy anything until they have made a song that they like completely with freeware. Because if you cant, you probably have the wrong hobby, and its best you find this out before you have wasted a lot of money. There are very few categories if any left for which there are not at least a few freeware options.
Once you can make a song that you actually like with freeware, you know exactly what you need to buy and more importantly why.

[dermichl]

Easy answer is FL Studio!

EDIT:

okay, you want reasons:

- great piano roll
- pattern based sequencer and modern playlist
- very good VST compatibility
- great integrated own plugins
- free lifetime updates, you have to pay just one time!
- "Undo" for every knob tweak, 3rd party VSTs, too
- meanwhile very good APDC to fix different latency
- very good ASIO 4all integration, if you don't have a "good" recording soundcard
- 11 timestretching alghorithms for loops
- ...

And you‘re not allowed to sell your license once your needs start changing...

[Distorted Horizon]

The problem with starting out is that you don't really know your needs, your pet peeves, and your dominant workflow yet. So even if you demo everything, you aren't really making a purchase for long term.
Since the quality of freeware is so high right now, I tell everyone that asks me, to not buy anything until they have made a song that they like completely with freeware. Because if you cant, you probably have the wrong hobby, and its best you find this out before you have wasted a lot of money. There are very few categories if any left for which are not at least a few freeware options.
Once you can make a song that you actually like with freeware, you know exactly what you need to buy and more importantly why.

Great answer.

[Michael L]

The problem with starting out is that you don't really know your needs, your pet peeves, and your dominant workflow yet.

+1 to that whole post.

I believe a DAW should have only the features you need. The unnecessary features are distracting and get in the way of your workflow.