Attack of the 60-Dollar DAW!

[Karl the Hermit]

I spent several hours last night looking at a pair of $60 DAW's... Tracktion 7 and Reaper 5. Went to their respective websites but wanted some end-user impressions of both hosts. While I don't want to start yet another host war, I do want to get recommendations based on MY host needs. And I will break it down as follows...

System Compatibility - I'm will be running this DAW on an AMD Phenom 2 Quadcore with 3.2 gig drives and 4 gigs of DDR2 ram that uses Windows 7. Would one of these hosts run better on this setup than the other? Is one considered to be more "stable" than the other?

3rd party VST(i) handling - I use a lot of 3rd party VST(i)'s and want a DAW that is fairly stable with them... especially with the preset handling of these items. I want to be as plug-n-play as possible. Which host has the edge here?

MIDI - I'm pretty much a MIDIot and need something, again, as close to plug-n-play as possible. I just received a new Arturia Mini-Lab in the post and want a minimum of fuss hooking it up and being able jam on my VSTi's as soon as possible. Which host handles MIDI hardware more easily?

Also, MIDI editing is also rather important to me. Which DAW handles it more readily in an intuitive and efficient fashion? And do either one of them include an arpeggiator?

Rumor, Experiences, and Biases - I've had prior experience with Tracktion (back when Jules first came out with it) and I found it somewhat unstable, wonky, and sporting an ugly-assed GUI . I do like the new Blue Steel GUI, but I'm not sure how my shade color-blind ass will handle it. I also liked how you could open multiple browsers at the top that are synced for your samples. I've never seen that before but could get real used to it real quick!

I've seen rumblings about a high learning-curve for Reaper, but after watching a few of the tutorials off the website, I don't see how that would be the case. Kenny Gioia does a good job, but I would like to see a tutorial on hooking up a MIDI keyboard to a VSTi and jamming.

I also use a lot of Sound Fonts and saw no indication that either one can play them without a 3rd party VSTi.

Comments, please...

[spaceman]

Tracktion or Reaper would be a good choice :p
If I really had to pick one of them, I would pick Reaper.

They've got demos. Use them.
Other people's opinions mean jack shit in these matters.

[Zexila]

Pretty much Reaper all the way, learn it how you would learn any other DAW, many people talking about steep learning curve are coming from other DAW background, obviously anything different is rather unintuitive and I can personally testify about it, but good thing is Reaper meets you little there, offering you to make at least something how you want it, you can't make it 1:1 to something else, it's still Reaper and relies on his own ways, but you can change enough to get things done fast, efficient and somehow personal.

I'm back and forth between Logic and Reaper and my love for Logic is fading away every new day, I'm not that long into Reaper, just had enough patience to overlook that it ain't Logic and realized it's even better for my own needs.

[DarkStar]

Pick a significant project that you did in your current DAW.

Try to do it in the two DAWs that you are considering. You'll learn much more that way about which is better for you then any number of comments from others.

[chokehold]

Some people will like specimen A better, because it does things differently than specimen B.
Some people will like specimen B better, because it does things differently than specimen A.

I do understand the urge to gather some intel before jumping into the cold water, but I'm afraid that's the only thing that'll give you a reliable answer to your inner question.

When watching tutorial videos and reading manuals and listening to what people explain to you, things will sound easy and logical and understandable. But when you're knee-deep in music-making and you can't remember how to do the simplest things just because the way your host works doesn't "click" with you, then all those tutorials and manuals and explanations are worthless.

Try for yourself, see if you can figure out what goes on, then add videos and manuals, start asking questions.
I know it's a long, dreary and veeeery cumbersome approach, but it's definitely worth it.

When the new Tracktion was released and they had "patent applied for" all over their damn website, I thought to myself "wait... clip FX... Reaper had that ages ago". Since taking the plunge and delving into the depths that are Reaper, I've since started laughing whenever some other host developer comes up with some "magic new feature that was never seen before and will revolutionize the scene forever" (like bussing folders in Studio One etc.) because I usually just think "but I've been doing that forever in Reaper?".

That's just my side of the story. Some Tracktion aficionado might advertise its easy drag-and-drop interface, but then does it let you create sends with 1 drag/drop and does it let you copy/bypass/delete insert FX with 1 click? Do you need a real mixer, and is a single-screen interface still so great when you're using multiple displays?

These are the little things that don't seem to matter when some paid guy in a video tells you about new feature XYZ, but these are the things that matter when you're in a weeklong recording session and start to feel every single click after a couple of hours.

So do yourself the painful favour and dive right in. Start a project in Tracktion to see if it suits you, pay for some of the tutorial videos on their site (no-brainer, right?). Then start a project in Reaper and find out if its similar-to-others-yet-entirely-different approach feels better.

Then decide.

[Karl the Hermit]

"My own needs" is a very powerful phrase that is oft overlooked... needs can be based on the project you're working on... eg, some of the classical tunes roaming my brain need a host that is good with internal MIDI and SF's, while some of the more industrial tunes roaming my brain may need a host that has good MIDI control/editing...

Looking like it could be a demo weekend in my house...

[spaceman]

Looking like it could be a demo weekend in my house...

It's the only way to find out.
Start with Reaper as it has the easiest demo to work with (no noise or anything).

[chk071]

I'd take a used copy of Studio One 2 Producer (which should be about the same price) over each of these.

[nix808]

He has S1 3 Artist to try too.
Did you try it K?

[Zexila]

"My own needs" is a very powerful phrase that is oft overlooked... needs can be based on the project you're working on... eg, some of the classical tunes roaming my brain need a host that is good with internal MIDI and SF's, while some of the more industrial tunes roaming my brain may need a host that has good MIDI control/editing...

Looking like it could be a demo weekend in my house...

Well, you mentioned your concerns/needs and pretty much that's what Reaper is better at, but that means nothing if you can't work in it even if it's on paper all you want/need.

[Phil999]

Harrison Mixbus is another DAW to consider.

[Zexila]

Harrison Mixbus is another DAW to consider.

On which grounds or is just the price?

[trimph1]

Harrison Mixbus is another DAW to consider.

I am not so sure I would throw in a newish DAW that has stability issues in this.

[manducator]

I can't say anything bad about Tracktion 7 but I konw Reaper is updated very often, has a great forum iwth lots of helpful members and you can find zillion of tutorials about it.

Maybe something to b aware of, when taking decisions.

[Karl the Hermit]

Haven't tried Studio One 3 yet because I don't have my DAW computer set up just yet and it doesn't host VSTi's without a $79 upgrade. So money-wise, a $60 DAW is cheaper... plus, if it handles MIDI as well or better than S1, it's even more of a bargain!

I will try Reaper first... see, I know it's easy to say "just demo all this stuff," not all of us have the time to spend doing demo's, so we appreciate all of the advanced warning we can get.

Thank peeps!