Poll: How many DAWs do you use?

[Psuper]

I was not trying to bring the typical KVR multi thread bickering into this

I think if anyone was to read the first few replies from you to my original point the majority would agree you certainly were. Regardless, I said what I said how I stated it, and everyone is entitled to interpret it how they like.

[pekbro]

He was sarcastic

Im actually baffled that anyone took it at face value.

Sry, I took that personally. Actually, all the non-native english speakers had it way
harder than me. English being particularly illogical in comparison to almost every other
language of the world, imo anyway...

[Michael L]

Im actually baffled that anyone took it at face value.

Oddly enough, I live in a place where many young people are fluent in no language (refugee camps), and it's a serious problem. But your analogy is quite good, and thought-provoking!

[festeringheap]

And Ive known several polyglots, one of the common traits of which seemed to be learning even more languages.

Looks like some people are polyDAWists.

[LawrenceF]

While I do know there is a practical use case for owning more than one daw I also think some buy multiple daws just because they can, for no other reason than they like collecting things.

Some people "switch" every time they see something new and shiny, while some others don't. It actually works out really well for developers, the former, because they know (from among that crowd) "another qualuud and she'll love me again."

I mean ... that poll thread here "How many daws do you use." would more accurately reflect the above is it asked "How many daws do you own?" Keep in mind that if you pay $300 for a daw the developer gets his $300 whether you actually "use" it or not, so daw whores or collectors are their best friends.

[chk071]

He was sarcastic, plenty of people here know english as their second language, not perfectly, but it's enough.

Exactly. Not perfect. I read and write English for years and years now (actually, about 25 years), and i still have to look up loads of stuff. Sure, might be better when i actually live in an English speaking country, but, the process of making yourself think in one language is something you surely won't do when you're "multi-lingual". A multi-lingual also won't be nearly as fluent in any of his languages, than a mother tongue. It's just not possible. Nor is it to be perfectly multi-tasking. You'll have to concentrate on one thing, to really be able to do it with full dedication.

And, to get the corner to the topic again, same applies to DAW's for me. Always switching between them is surely rather a hinderance, than beneficial. Of course, they will do stuff mostly the same, in the core, but, as they all have their slightly different approaches, to be fully fluent, it's surely not beneficial to switch the whole time.

[Straight2Vinyl]

I may slowly start trying out a couple new ones. Currently use Reaper and before that, Renoise, which I haven't touched in a while.
The first reason that's come up that is making me look at other DAWS is the lack of audio to MIDI in Reaper, which I'd mainly use for groove templates. Not an enormous feature, but it's such a common one that it's absence is annoying. Reaper is awesome for some things, but like any program it doesn't have everything.

[Zexila]

And, to get the corner to the topic again, same applies to DAW's for me. Always switching between them is surely rather a hinderance, than beneficial. Of course, they will do stuff mostly the same, in the core, but, as they all have their slightly different approaches, to be fully fluent, it's surely not beneficial to switch the whole time.

Depends on the user, some folks do use one DAW, but never get past the core, don't know about all those features behind menus and shortcuts, I can bet if you get 10 Logic power users in the room, every single of them don't know plenty of the stuff next one knows, but all of them are fluent with it based on their workflow, that workflow isn't perfect fit for most of them, but still all of them get the job done.

[ShawnG]

As an observation over the years, a lot of the DAW hopping that goes on is ironically tied to the desire and belief in having only one DAW.

It goes like this: newbie buys first DAW and everything is wonderful and amazing, until one day it isn't. they have to accomplish something and maybe the DAW they chose has a fairly clunky way of handling that something, or maybe that DAW doesn't do that something at all. or maybe they have to do a convoluted workaround to accomplish that something, and they become aware that doing what they want to do will involve some work. Now, the time honored working producer way of handling this is to start doing the work, but this guy has heard of another DAW where that feature is definitely included, and it has a snazzy youtube video of an attractive producer accomplishing that something with a few mouse clicks while downing an adult beverage and getting a message.

Our hero then decides, screw this! I'm not gonna spend 2 hours manually bouncing tracks or whatever, and starts plans to purchase the other DAW, while slagging off his original DAW and all of its fans in the forums, because obviously that feature could have been programmed with 1.5 lines of code, and they are just idiots for not taking ten minutes of time on their yacht to programming it. He then buys the other DAW, fires it up, and everything is wonderful! until one day it isn't... and then one day he wakes up and discovers he has ten DAWS and he hates all of them, but all he wants is one "good" one.

TL:DR If you are going to use one DAW, great! but music is hard. and you will have to do some work to overcome things, and the fact that you are willing to do the work gives you an advantage. If you have one DAW and it is perfect for you, even better! in fact: you win.

If you , like me, use multiple DAWS for each's strengths, and maybe own a couple others because you are a collector/DAW whore, great! some programs are better at mixing, some are better at creating.

If you constantly try different DAWS, are never satisfied, and are secretly looking either for a DAW that does all the work for you, or just looking for an excuse as to why you never get anything done, well... producing might not be your thing.

[Topcheese]

As an observation over the years, a lot of the DAW hopping that goes on is ironically tied to the desire and belief in having only one DAW.

Long before there were DAWS, people were proficient in other ways of producing music. How I choose to produce my music has nothing to do with any one particular DAW, other than it should have the feature set that fits my workflow. That's great if there's one DAW out there that can give you all of the features that you need, but my needs are going to be different than yours, so your DAW may not cut it for me.

I could just use Ableton without editing audio, but isn't that what a DAW is suppose to do? As others have said, sometimes a DAW will force us to change when we start to grow beyond its capacity.

I personally would never let one single DAW have that much sway over the flow of my creativity. Been there done that!

[poleda]

Music is an ethereal beast, much different than driving a car or a motorcycle. Music is capturing vibration and emotion, as abstract as it gets, and the efficient capturing of said vibration when one is hot in the moment is key. Music is so ephemeral, you have to capture it while it is still floating through the mind before it dissipates. Multiple DAW's can be a liability when it comes to efficient capture especially if you are semi-proficient at each.

But by all means drive your "mercedes" and your motorcycle as you see fit, (not that I believe you have either)....

Some people call that "catching lightning in a bottle"... catching sparks that fizzle out is easy.

[LawrenceF]

As an observation over the years, a lot of the DAW hopping that goes on is ironically tied to the desire and belief in having only one DAW.

It goes like this: newbie buys first DAW and everything is wonderful and amazing, until one day it isn't. they have to accomplish something and ...

Let me finish that for you from my perspective...

"... goes on the Internet daw boards (the rabbit hole) and starts worrying more about what he doesn't have, or what someone else says is essential, than just making music. Procrastinates.... buys 3-4 more... doesn't really learn any of them fully... and a year later still hasn't made any complete music. Spends more time on the net talking about other daws with cool stuff than just making music. He goes down that road where "cool daw features" become more important than his musical vision, which he's now completely forgotten about. Continually looking over the fence for greener grass becomes an obsession."

Another different singer/songwriter guy buys Garageband and a mic and decent audio interface and just plays and records and a year later has two completed albums.

[poleda]

As an observation over the years, a lot of the DAW hopping that goes on is ironically tied to the desire and belief in having only one DAW.

It goes like this: newbie buys first DAW and everything is wonderful and amazing, until one day it isn't. they have to accomplish something and ...

Let me finish that for you from my perspective...

"... goes on the Internet daw boards (the rabbit hole) and starts worrying more about what he doesn't have, or what someone else says is essential, than just making music. Procrastinates.... buys 3-4 more... doesn't really learn any of them fully... and a year later still hasn't made any complete music. Spends more time on the net talking about other daws with cool stuff than just making music. He goes down that road where "cool daw features" become more important than his musical vision, which he's now completely forgotten about. Continually looking over the fence for greener grass becomes an obsession."

Another different singer/songwriter guy buys Garageband and a mic and decent audio interface and just plays and records and a year later has two completed albums.

Limitations are known to spark creativity...

[InLight-Tone]

I like a manage' a DAW myself...

[Topcheese]

It's like bringing a blade to a knife fight, yeah you good to go for the fight, but good luck trying to clip your nose hairs with it.

Carrying a multi-functional Knife( DAWS) will yield far more successful outcomes, than just carrying a single blade(DAW), it doesn't matter how you slice it!

Of course that means that if your day job happens to be in a kitchen, then that dictates what knife you have to use at the time.