MetaSynth

MetaSynth is the perfect "Second DAW" because it complements a linear DAW so well. You can buy many different plugins to synthesise and sculpt a sound, but MetaSynth is an entire Instrument and Effect plugin folder in one app, and the full-screen MetaSynth UI lets you tweak sounds in much finer detail than a plugin. For example, you can import a sample and draw complex, full-screen curves with Photoshop-like tools to change the parameters of 30 effects over the time of a sample; you can synthesise sounds using pixels of diferent colours, and do the same with effect filters; you can make crazy algorithmic sequences and change scales or add chords with a click; you can layer samples with sequences and export your work at any point in the process. MetaSynth can do all that because it is pixel-based and not limited by MIDI, but you can use MIDI with a companion utility called Xx. It is for Mac, but a Windows version is in the pipeline. I have used MetaSynth for many years, and it is a quiet, creative space that does what no DAW can do.