Basically, I have only ever used Pro Tools, but unfortunately I am not happy with the continued lack of progress on promised features. Seeing some videos of features in other programs made me quite envious and I would think, "if only pro tools could do that and save me so much time"!
One obvious example of this would be that track folders were promised in 2018. We are near 2020 and have no idea what is happening with that "promise". Also, the elastic audio quality is really quite bad vs modern DAW's which use Zplane that sounds much better. Avid even managed to ruin the offline X Form (Izotope radius) in elastic audio, by changing the settings circa 2008 to one that mushes transients. it's just all these little things that have pushed me away, but by far the number one was that to use the PT HD software now, I need to pay 800 USD per year just for the software. I morally refuse to do it. And you won't believe me when I tell you, that I won't even have a perpetual license for that cost. That's for a subscription.
The problem is, I make large projects. Mostly orchestral stuff, usually a minimum of 128 tracks. All the plugins I love consume a lot of CPU. For example, I love the IK Tape plugin. This is by far the best tape plugin on the market (to my ears in any case), and has completely replaced an analog tape workflow. The problem with that is, my 10 core mac could not even remotely handle using just a small number of them in a heated mix session (it's an outdated mac, a 10 core trashcan style mac pro, 3ghz base clock, 3.6ghz all core turbo, ivy bridge cpu generation).
What I have been doing in the last year is using bootcamp at every opportunity in my spare time, to feel comfortable with windows. I have just slowly taught myself as much as I can about it in my spare time. But in my infinite wisdom, I only ever used Pro Tools in it, never thinking outside the box. And yes, Pro Tools works great in windows with 20 threads.. It sees them all and distributes fairly evenly. Now, with my mac computer on it's last legs, it is time to finally build myself a windows machine. My husband and I moved back to Australia last year and things are very expensive here, even compared to the UK (and all the people here from the UK know how bad we get shafted over there). However, I don't want to skimp on the main computer. My goal is to build a 32 core "thread ripper" ryzen based system with around 16 terabytes of internal SSD storage and 128 gigabytes of ram. The issue is, having experience only with Pro tools, I have no idea what DAW can make use of all that power, if there is indeed one!
I realise that with such large projects, an instance of IK tape on every channel would be unrealistic even for such a cpu, however I think that an instance on every sub group and the master, as well as just a couple of individual tracks that it would really benefit, should be possible with the 3970X. After some investigation, I am positive this is the only relatively "affordable" CPU that can do it. We use a LOT of outboard samplers and romplers, but of course, the one VI we do make use of is Kontakt with a plethora of sample libraries, which provide something that the small comparative footprint of hardware samplers simply can not. So I'd definitely need plenty of CPU power for that too.
I know *nothing* about Windows DAWs. I was a mac girl from day one, a pro tools girl since version 3, and the world of windows is all new to me.
Any recommendations on a DAW that has a left to right linear workflow, can do 256 audio tracks and can make use of all those cores would me most welcome. The only contenders I can say are out of the running are a DAW called Reaper, and another called Samplitude. I found the GUI's of both incredibly complex and painful on the eye after Pro Tools, which is sheer simplicity in it's presentation. Those two were both recommendations given to me just a couple of days ago from colleagues, who obviously know me a lot less well than they thought they did
So, I thought I would try here. Any ideas? I'd like something with a perpetual license and punctual, competent support. Something that is not going to cost 1500 Australian dollars just to subscribe to every year. Dongles (obviously) don't bother me, and I'd be willing to spend around 1000 AU for something I actually own. Midi in pro tools has never been it's strong point, so anything that level or better is something I could make do with. The key is that it has to be able to make use of such a multi core monster cpu. I have already been advised that Cubase has many problems in windows with such high core counts, which is a shame as I have heard a lot about that one and in the videos it did look interesting. What about this "Studio One"? Is it reliable? The price and feature list seems great. Can it work with that many processing cores? Really, I am all ears, open to any suggestions. The other reason we really need the most powerful computer possible (without spending 25 thousand dollars on a xeon workstation) is that our new room is much smaller and therefore we have to sell off some gear, including a tape machine. All the mixing itself will be done in the box as they say, as we are even replacing our analog mixers with RME interfaces/A/D converters simply for space reasons.
Any suggestions are most welcome, and I think I put this in the correct place, as the main question is about a host sequencer. I apologise if it needs to be moved.
Thank you all!
