Picking a DAW is hard…

[kuromir]

Bitwig’s plugin sandboxing/crash protection seems to be something that gets mentioned a lot (e.g., separate plugin processes and crash protection). I know Bitwig has several hosting modes for VSTs — but is it truly the only DAW that offers this level of sandboxing? How do other hosts (Live, Cubase, Reaper, Studio One, etc.) compare in terms of plugin isolation and crash protection?

Not the only one, but Reaper, Logic and Wveform have sandboxing.
In my kist Logic just outperforms Reapers sandboxing by 10 or 15 percent. While Waveform is last place due its sandboxing working sometimes and sometimes not (though I haven't used the last 2 version)

Interesting — when you say Logic outperforms Reaper’s sandboxing by 10–15%, what exactly are you measuring there?

Crash frequency? CPU overhead? Recovery behavior?

From what I understand, both rely on separate plugin processes, but the difference is more in architecture and defaults rather than something easily expressed as a percentage. Curious what your experience was based on.

[Firo0O]

I guess Reaper and Bitwig are both great for really geeky designs stuff. If CPU performance is an issue - then Reaper, for its crazy multicore optimization.

[Starbright]

Bitwig’s plugin sandboxing/crash protection seems to be something that gets mentioned a lot (e.g., separate plugin processes and crash protection). I know Bitwig has several hosting modes for VSTs — but is it truly the only DAW that offers this level of sandboxing? How do other hosts (Live, Cubase, Reaper, Studio One, etc.) compare in terms of plugin isolation and crash protection?

Not the only one, but Reaper, Logic and Wveform have sandboxing.
In my kist Logic just outperforms Reapers sandboxing by 10 or 15 percent. While Waveform is last place due its sandboxing working sometimes and sometimes not (though I haven't used the last 2 version)

Interesting — when you say Logic outperforms Reaper’s sandboxing by 10–15%, what exactly are you measuring there?

Crash frequency? CPU overhead? Recovery behavior?

From what I understand, both rely on separate plugin processes, but the difference is more in architecture and defaults rather than something easily expressed as a percentage. Curious what your experience was based on.

I'm still working with both sometimes some 64x vsts can crash Reaper as vst3 or 32bit or even 86x do not. In Logic on the other hand sometimes a vst 3 can crash (only had it with Kontakt 8 though). That's how I came up with my number recently

[kynua]

Ahhhh, being a new producer, this question has plagued me so. Currently I juggle Logic Pro and Ableton Live, and I'm starting to lean more towards Ableton Live at this point.

[Heiner44]

The thing with Reaper in my opinion is, that when I start up a DAW, I just want to get going and not having to take hours or even days to get all the functionality in place. To get Reaper to have all the functionality like Cubase Pro does, you have to install quite a lot of scripts and extensions and at this point I just ask the question, why not pick a DAW that already has everything in it that I need and like to use. For that reason I love Cubase as it is probably the most complete and powerful DAW there is.

[audiojunkie]

The thing with Reaper in my opinion is, that when I start up a DAW, I just want to get going and not having to take hours or even days to get all the functionality in place. To get Reaper to have all the functionality like Cubase Pro does, you have to install quite a lot of scripts and extensions and at this point I just ask the question, why not pick a DAW that already has everything in it that I need and like to use. For that reason I love Cubase as it is probably the most complete and powerful DAW there is.

But remember, you can customize it to be exactly what you want. And then, you can save the configuration and never have to do it again. If you need to reinstall, you reinstall and import your configuration file. It only has to be done once, and then your DAW is fully customized to exactly what you want, and how you want it.

[enroe]

The thing with Reaper in my opinion is, that when I start up a DAW, I just want to get going and not having to take hours or even days to get all the functionality in place. To get Reaper to have all the functionality like Cubase Pro does, you have to install quite a lot of scripts and extensions and at this point I just ask the question, why not pick a DAW that already has everything in it that I need and like to use. For that reason I love Cubase as it is probably the most complete and powerful DAW there is.

Well, other DAWs are also very ergonomic and feature-rich, like
Cubase.

To add to what audiojunkie said: With Reaper, you don't need to
install any scripts or anything else at all. Reaper is complete and
good as it is. Generally, everything can be done with Reaper!

What's more important – with Reaper and actually with all DAWs
(including Cubase!) – is: You have to READ the manual – or at
least the most important parts of the manual! That's where it
explains how and what you can customize and adjust.

And as audiojunkie already wrote: You only have to do this once.
Have fun!

[Michael L]

You have to READ the manual...
Have fun!

The User Guide is like a 450-page Reaper GUI.
The brain cannot survive

[Bohmes DSP]

Don't know if you are still following this but my 2 cents on this is - the one you invest the time into is the one you'll be most comfortable with. I started on FL, had a brief stint on Sonar, ended up on Cubase and then eventually Ableton. Along the way I was forced to use Logic at uni. They all are the same thing (give or take) just packaged differently.
There's no way of telling this before the fact, just got to put the hours in.

If you are recording and working with stems and multi-tracks then logic is probably the better choice. If you are a bit more edm/hip hop vibed then Ableton; but really either can do both.

(oh and most of the little detail stuff? Don't worry about it yet, I'm guessing if you are still picking a DAW then you are a WHILE off needing to worry about the finer details. In fact to do so now is a trap - beware. I wasted SO much time worrying about stuff that just didn't matter. I've been using Ableton for 15 years and I still don't know half of what it can do!)

[Heiner44]

Yeah I also observed that all the linear DAWs are basically doing the same but just a little different. I started out with Pro Tools 9 MP as it came with my very first audio interface in 2012 so I learned audio stuff with it but after some time I started to play around with Cubase and later Studio One. I also got Reaper but it always bugged me that I had to do extra stuff to get it to do what the other DAWs already could. I only recently got into Logic Pro as well since I've got my first Mac ever and wanted to see what it is like. I really like it as well so now I only use Cubase and Logic Pro. They can basically do the same. Logic is amazing for songwriting with its session players. I've never created songs faster. However and as bizarre as it is, it can't handle large mixing sessions as well as Cubase can on my M4 Macbook Air. Apparently, Logic Pro does not fully utilize efficiency cores whereas Cubase can do that.

[Morphulus]

As a plugin developer who tests across multiple DAWs, Reaper's flexibility is great for troubleshooting, but I get it can be a pain when you just want to make music. If songwriting speed is the priority, Logic is hard to beat right now.

[Papuzzo]

As a plugin developer who tests across multiple DAWs, Reaper's flexibility is great for troubleshooting, but I get it can be a pain when you just want to make music. If songwriting speed is the priority, Logic is hard to beat right now.

I've been using Reaper and Live for about 15 years. I recently jumped on the Apple bandwagon with a Mac Mini M4. After briefly trying out Garageband, I downloaded Logic. My impression is that Logic is the ultimate singer/songwriter DAW that has everything to get a person up and running, but there is a significant learning curve. Probably Garageband is a great place for a songwriter to start, then slowly migrate to Logic over time. Reaper is the best DAW for someone who mainly records audio, Live is the best DAW for people who primarily work with MIDI and soft synths, Studio One is the ultimate DAW for bands, and Cubase is the ultimate DAW for professional recording studios.