What Is Your Main Daw?

[john]

Hey

What is your main DAW?

For a change we decided to run a poll on the Songstuff Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/songstuff

And leave your vote!

Cheers

John

[carlhoude]

I use Reason 6.5 and have been using Reason since 4.0, but I'm thinking of switching over to Logic Pro. Logic Pro seems to be better for the final stages of production—mixing and mastering—which I'm starting to gain more interest in.

Though, If I do end up purchasing Logic Pro, I'll definitely still keep using Reason as a Rewire slave because of its truly incredible virtual instruments, not to mention its custom device rewiring function which has virtually no limit.

Which do you use? What do you think of Reason/Logic Pro?

-Carl

Edited June 18, 2012 by carlhoude

[Prometheus]

I use Cubase Nuendo... I've been a fan of Cubase for ten years now. I did a year when I was serving my time on Cubase and a year on Pro Tools. The year on Pro Tools shattered the myth that MACS never crash by losing dozens of hours of apprentice engineers work within the first few days, a harbinger of more to come.

Cubase has been my favourite since then. Easy to use, great functionality, excellent ASIO compatibility.

[LoveHurts]

Which do you use? What do you think of Reason/Logic Pro?

Hi, I use Sonar 8 and I have some reason experience (recorded some ideas with it). Though I never used it before I was suprised by it's very logic and easy to understand operation and great workflow!!

And most of all important to me was the fact that it has absolutely no bugs!!In Sonar I'm having many problems.. maybe it's because of using vst's of brands others than Sonar, but even with a clean install still having errors. And this also happens when I'm using it in rewire mode.

I can't judge about Logic personal, but I heard people prefer Live above Logic. For me the problem is that I'm using too much VST's from other brands. If I wasn't I would have switched to Reason 6.5.. especially now they made audio-recording possible.. Great program.. and it does have some awesome plugs already.

[TapperMike]

Abelton Live

I'm also a big fan of Samplitute.

The only thing I don't like about Live is it doesn't dither well. So much is lost in the mastering process.

[Darmin Deflern]

Reaper 64 bit used to use Mackie Tracktion 2 and had to update and Reaper was the closest I could find to that DAW which is powerful but easy to use.

[TapperMike]

Can I change mine?

Recently I went back to my AW16 G

[LayneGreene]

_{I've been using a mixture of Studio One and my Boss BR-900. I think that Studio One is highly underrated.}

[TapperMike]

Everything I've read about Studio One makes me want it. Especially the stability. Re BR. I used to have a VS - 1680 back in the day. Man that was a beast. Sometimes still wish I had it as it was a lot easier to route tracks and apply effects in.

[LayneGreene]

I'm running the free trial version, and I love it. Even basic functions seem easier to do. I'm hoping to upgrade to the producer version and maybe one of their interface's soon. I had a chance to pick up a VS-1680 a few years ago dirt cheap, I think a lot of those Boss and Roland multi-track recorders are a lot better than most people give them credit for

[Prometheus]

In all honesty, there's not much to choose between any of the high end DAW's.

2.5% of it is the choice of software, 2.5% of it is the choice of hardware, 5% of it is the choice of recording space and position of microphones. 90% of it is the decisions made by the man or woman who takes charge of the recording and mixing sessions and then to a lesser degree the mastering session. The theory hasn't changed since the late 1950's.

The fact that it is so much easier now really underscores just how f*cking amazing the judgement and the learning curve of these early guys that we stand on the shoulders of really was. The mechanical improvisation these guys displayed was simply awesome.

Les Paul, in my opinion, was the first and still the greatest of all the modern multitrack engineers... Apart from maybe one guy of course... I wouldn't be a type A, testosterone fueled sound engineer if I didn't think that...

[djax]

+1 to what Prometheus said above....

Me... I've been doing amateur home recording for about 30 years!

Does that make me a... professional amateur? heh heh

I'm just trying to create some cool music... not trying to be a rock star.

I first started recording on two tape decks.. circa 1980

Got one of the first fostex 4 track cassette machines when they came out... wore out a several of those over a few years...

Had an original classic Oberheim DX... Been through about a dozen (low end) drum machines since that one.

Sometime in the early 90s I had a home studio hookup running Cubase on an Atari ST... synced with a 4 track reel to reel... with a couple of racks of processors, modules, patchbays, etc.! SWEET!.. had to sell it all thanks to my X. Not cool...

Took a lay off of trying to record for a little while..

I got a Yamaha QY10 portable sequencer when they first came out! ... wore out the buttons. That was fun.

Then .... A few years ago..

Learned Pro Tools in a college class (aced it .. it was all just the basic stuff anyway)

Now I'm running Ableton Live on my Mac... love it!

It is super intuitive and allows me to focus more on creating music rather than engineering and recording.

And also allows me to dig in deep and tweak some of the most subtle details.

WOW ... technology has come such a long way!

[TapperMike]

I don't know about intuitive it took me forever to figure out what it did and how to do it. I too did the two cassette thing. the original four track, went to audio engineering school to boot. Had Cakewalk and Cubase back in the days of win 3.1 Thought I knew my way around daws till I got Live. though I did have an emu command station. Finally after seeing all the fun everyone else was having I started watching youtube instructional videos so I could use the damn thing. Now it's great but when I first got it I'd go insane.

[Jim622]

I just got Cubase Elements 6/Wavelab Elements 7 with Win 7/64. Not as user friendly as Cakewalks Guitar Tracks Pro 4, but after getting the book Cubase 6 Power things are starting to come together.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Jim622

[TapperMike]

whoops wrong thread.

Edited December 16, 2012 by TapperMike

[Gazebo]

Started recording in the 80's on a friends borrowed Tascam 4 track cassette recorder, but stopped in 1989/90 because of lack of time.

Then in the late 90's came back to playing and bought Cakewalk Guitar Tracks, and was pleased with the results. At the time, home computers struggled with all of the stuff going on in DAW's so I got fed up with it and replaced it with a Zoom MRS802 Multitrack recorder.

Fantastic bit of kit, very easy to record on and very much like the old Tascam, but digital with 8 tracks, tons of effects and a built in drum machine. Downside of this was exporting, because although I could use the built in CD writer, editing was a bit difficult and had problems getting the CD's to play on all types of player.

Got a better computer and started using Cakewalk Home Studio, but didn't really understand it, so only managed some very poor recordings over a couple of years.

In 2008 happened across Kristal, a free simple DAW and that changed my musical life. It is now abandonware but at the time had a thriving online community and I learnt a great deal and finally started to hear what I was hoping for.

Recently have moved to Reaper and Studio One for their enhanced abilities, but if I was honest, there is nothing that I couldn't do in Kristal, apart from midi.

Both Reaper and Studio One give fantastic results, but agree with Prometheus, the results are only 5% about the DAW, as I could sound as good on a bit of freeware as on a high end DAW.

[Nine]

I use Reason, and FL studio.. More so FL studio since the 10th release. It's grown so much since I started using it back when it was Fruity Loops Studio 3 hahahaha

[RAKIDO]

Logic and Reason !

[JackHalkabar]

I use Ableton Live (+bunch of Waves VSTs), and i really love it... there are many misconceptions about it, people tend to think that is for EDM producers only but that's so not true...

[bobbyearlray]

hi- digital performer 8, love it!!!!!!!!!