2018: What DAW do you use?

[Fimus Tauri]

23 hours ago, Peggy said:

A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files.

Thank you for that

 

I exclusively use FruityLoops (NOT FL studio - but a really early FL that I have learned to stretch way beyond its intended limit)

[Joseph Kearns]

I originally used Cakewalk. At the time it was one of the few available. This was mostly MIDI and my bass. at this time midi instruments.  Within the last few years computers really grew in power where it was fairly inexpensive to record at home. At that time I went with Studio One-2 and their 4 input recording device. It worked well. If you are doing straight recording of live instruments it give you a big bang for the buck. A couple of years ago i stated to collaborate with some friends who use logic pro X.  IA that time I bought an IMAC and logic pro. If you can afford the IMAC then logic pro is fantastic.  I use a mixture of me playing and virtual instruments. it seem to be user friendly. For whatever reason it sparked my creativity.  

[starise]

I do a similar thing Joseph in using both real and live instruments. I wouldn't mind trying Logic, but not interested enough to buy a Mac.I have nothing against Mac, it just hasn't been my main platform for as long as I can remember.

[bri]

I use[d] Kristal - a FREE 4x16track studio - still available, I think. It is the forerunner to Presonus Studio One. You can add fx (free or otherwise); I used Glaceverb. I had a stroke five years ago and am now unable to play any longer - or sing. My poor old Yamaha DGX520 is now languishing against the wall. Kristal doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a professional studio, but for free, it really is a very usable DAW.

Edited January 23, 2019 by bri
Missed a bit.

[starise]

Bri check out this. It's also free and much better.  Check the system requirements first to make sure your computer can do it.

HERE

[pianowillbebach]

On 8/20/2018 at 8:50 PM, MikeRobinson said:

FYI – one tool that i use very heavily isn't a DAW:  it's a music scoring program called MuseScore.

 

(Yes, my music often starts out as sheet music.)

 

When I first discovered MuseScore, I had "money burning a hole in my pocket" and I was prepared to invest in a full-blown version of Sibelius,® Finale,® Notation,® or "what-ev-er pap-pa picked."  

 

Well, I started with MuseScore, because it was free, and ... I stopped ... because I did not feel the need to look further.  (Yes, I still feel that way.)  I had found everything that I was looking for, supported by an extremely active open-source development community, and "it's just a bonus" that I didn't have to spend money to get it.  (I have financially supported the project since then, and I'm glad to have done so.)

 

 

Similar to MikeRobinson, one of the tools I use (in addition to MuseScore) isn't a DAW either. It's a scanning tool (that, although it has it's limitations, is better than some others). I use scanscore to scan in any music that I already have (printed out long ago from Musescore/other notation software, from my own stockpiles, or from friends) in order to then upload to Musescore and work on notating it. 

 

[starise]

It's now into March of 2020.

What might have changed since then?

Mixcraft has had a nice update.

I downloaded a copy of Musescore and have been using it for midi exports. A nice program for notation.

Word has it that Behringer will be releasing a new DAW. If their success in  live sound is any indication, we can look for good things coming from them.

I'm going between 3 or so DAWs right now for different reasons with Cakewalk and Studio One being my main ones. I have recently been using Ableton more that I anticipated I would. They all seem to be getting better and better as time goes on.

 

Have you changed DAWS? If so, What made you do so?

[John W Selleck]

12 hours ago, starise said:

It's now into March of 2020.

What might have changed since then?

The only one I have ever used is Band in A Box, not listed above. Yes I'm an "Amatuer" but I needed a way to bring music to my lyrics because so many musicians won't work with someone who is "Just" a lyricist. This gives me a way to put a basic chord structure to my songs with a style and percussion genre I think fits. Is it perfect, no, but at least I can show people a basic idea of what I want the songs to be. It is also how I got to record 200+ demos to share with many friends, family, and some new fans on the net. I'll more than likely never make any decent money at this but I have had a #1 cowrite.

Edited March 10, 2020 by John W Selleck

[starise]

I have read good things about Band-In-A Box and have heard some very good songs made with it. They seem to have different levels or quality of paks they sell. Some are mp3 and some are wav files. I have though about maybe giving them a try. So far I always seem to get into something else and never do it. I did load up Baib a long time ago and demoed it. That was so long ago that I'm certain there is no longer much similarity to recent versions.

Funny you should say that John because I feel that way about people who won't work with someone who only plays music. I have written very few lyrics but seem to have no problems coming up with a tune

Everything is relative here. As someone with a bunch of sound libraries and a bunch of DAWs. Not to mention some high end plugins..oh and a pile of real instruments plus .............I have 4- 2tb hard drives full of samples libraries in my computer and another one waiting to be installed. I am still a bottom feeder. A small fish in a big pond. A guy with a small home studio in his house if you compare me to a mixing engineer who makes sound for picture. Those guys have master computers , some running VEPro and 7 slaves. 4000 plus track templates. Enough money invested in sound libraries to buy a new car. Compared to them I'm just an average Joe out there supporting the home studio market. The technical end of that alone is probably years of learning to get right. Then you need to find someone to actually pay you do do it. 

[ChrisInNOLA]

I was a long time ‘don’t really know better’ Audacity user... then I learned about a Reaper and have been using it for a few months now.

 

Loving it. 

[John W Selleck]

On 3/12/2020 at 5:33 AM, starise said:

I have read good things about Band-In-A Box and have heard some very good songs made with it. They seem to have different levels or quality of paks they sell. Some are mp3 and some are wav files. I have though about maybe giving them a try. So far I always seem to get into something else and never do it. I did load up Baib a long time ago and demoed it. That was so long ago that I'm certain there is no longer much similarity to recent versions.

Funny you should say that John because I feel that way about people who won't work with someone who only plays music. I have written very few lyrics but seem to have no problems coming up with a tune

Everything is relative here. As someone with a bunch of sound libraries and a bunch of DAWs. Not to mention some high end plugins..oh and a pile of real instruments plus .............I have 4- 2tb hard drives full of samples libraries in my computer and another one waiting to be installed. I am still a bottom feeder. A small fish in a big pond. A guy with a small home studio in his house if you compare me to a mixing engineer who makes sound for picture. Those guys have master computers , some running VEPro and 7 slaves. 4000 plus track templates. Enough money invested in sound libraries to buy a new car. Compared to them I'm just an average Joe out there supporting the home studio market. The technical end of that alone is probably years of learning to get right. Then you need to find someone to actually pay you do do it. 

Sorry I didn't see this until today, but I just sent you a PM.

[Branden]

Tried FL and Ableton. Went back and forth between them for a couple of weeks.

 

Ended up deciding on Ableton as I found the interface and using VST plugins less confusing. Probably just personal taste.

 

Did like the drum programming on FL though...but from what I can figure out, each different DAW gives with one hand and then takes from another.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Branden

[Alistair]

I have started learning to use Reaper, with a lot of help from Nick.

 

You can get a long way very quickly with Reaper. There are masses of learning resources available too. It's quite a daunting DAW initially but worth the time taken to understand it. 

 

I have generally been wary of the recording process but lockdown gave me time to get into it. 

[George Yates]

FL studios is one of the best Digital Work Stations because it is so easy to use. 

[madbutnotmad]

when i first started using computer music software, it was before DAW were accessible to the "normal" people.

 

Many of the software programs were MIDI Sequencer based.

 

During these years, I first used a MOTU program called Freestyle which was a MIDI sequencer on a MAC Performa 630.

Using hard ware synthesizers and hardware samplers with MIDI interfaces (and daisy chaining the various devices through my simple 1 in 1 out midi interface).  

 

As time went on, i expanded my home studio to include a more sophisticated MOTU 8 in 8 out MIDI interface,

that allowed me much easier configurations for setting up MIDI devices.

 

but also I transferred to steinberg cubase, still on the mac. along with several other apps. Still no hard disk recording.

 

Later on, I went to uni to do a degree in sound engineering / sound tech at a famous UK performing art school.
Where i was taught to use Digidesign (now Avid) protools, and emagic (now Apple) Logic.

 

Now years after graduating I still use several of the apps.

However, as much as i loved Logic Pro, I stopped using it, as I simply couldn't afford to keep up with having to buy new computer hardware every year or so.

 

As a music composer / producer, I prefer Logic and Cubase, as the environments to write music, as they are much easier to use (with MIDI) than some of the others.

 

As an engineer, I prefer to use Protools, due the precision that the program deals with digital audio.

Protools, when known, is faster and easier to use than the others.

 

However, as a writer / engineer / producer

if i have to make a choice one over the other

if cost was also a consideration

 

then cubase is the one that wins at the mo

as Apple simply has made using their exclusive programs too expensive 

 

cubase on a windows 10 base

is better value for money

 

however if money wasn't a consideration

i would have a super mac with as much ram as possible

with a fast as possible cpu

 

with loads of UAD audio interfaces and UAD DSP hardware

loaded with cubase, protools and logic

 

to name but a few...

maybe one day....

 

 

[Pantonal]

16 hours ago, madbutnotmad said:

Now years after graduating I still use several of the apps.

However, as much as i loved Logic Pro, I stopped using it, as I simply couldn't afford to keep up with having to buy new computer hardware every year or so.

I feel your pain. My first music computer was an Apple II+ that had a whopping 48k of RAM and ran Dr T Music software. Then I got an Atari 1040 ST and got hooked on Emagic Creator then Notator which eventually morphed into Logic. I was running Logic 5.51 until maybe 4 years ago when that computer finally died for the last time. At that point I decided to bite the bullet and buy a used Mac Pro with 32 GB of RAM and lots of solid state hard drive space. That computer is stuck at High Sierra and Logic is stuck at 10.4something, but it still runs great. Sadly I can't upgrade any Waves plugins, but I'm not sad at not being able to buy Waves plugins. I have the ones I want. I run a lot of Kontakt, and some other proprietary sample players (for their free sample libs), but the included drums and bass in Logic are awesome and I don't feel limited at all. In fact the stock instruments in Logic are VERY impressive, though in comparing Alchemy to Omnisphere, Omnisphere still wins.

 

I may upgrade my Mac at some point fairly soon, my question is get an Intel Mac Pro or an M1 Mini? Either will do the job. A Mini would need lots of external drives and the Pro would cost big bucks. I'm not in any hurry to decide. Thoughts?

[Glammerocity]

I was an old Cubase user back in the 80s/90s floppy disk days, then I used Cakewalk for a while (probably v1 when you had to load your samples onto your soundcard). I've only been making mashups since then and was doing them in Acid (another old 90s version) until I saw somebody doing a mashup live on YouTube with Reaper, so I got a copy and haven't looked back.

 

I remember Kai Krausse, the guru of digital art software, being asked in interview if push-button software was "cheating" and killing art. He said he wanted to make software as easy to use as a pencil. Everybody can use a pencil but there's only one Rembrandt.

[john]

10 hours ago, Glammerocity said:

I was an old Cubase user back in the 80s/90s floppy disk days, then I used Cakewalk for a while (probably v1 when you had to load your samples onto your soundcard). I've only been making mashups since then and was doing them in Acid (another old 90s version) until I saw somebody doing a mashup live on YouTube with Reaper, so I got a copy and haven't looked back.

 

I remember Kai Krausse, the guru of digital art software, being asked in interview if push-button software was "cheating" and killing art. He said he wanted to make software as easy to use as a pencil. Everybody can use a pencil but there's only one Rembrandt.

Yeah it was the infamous Mike Hunter’s crack of Cubase for my Atari ST iirc. It was used by pretty well everyone I knew back then, in studios and at home. When I moved to PCs I moved to Twelve Tone’s Cakewalk, which I used through the Sonar years until I started using Studio One 3.

[Mahesh]

It's been a solid year now that I'm on Cakewalk by Bandlab and I've acclimatized to it quite well. The upcoming release that I've been mixing has more or less used the stock plugins (beyond a few lovely free ones) and I did not feel one bit limited. 

 

I miss Studio One for sure (I used to use it when I'd the Macbook Pro) but definitely not so much that I'm encouraged to switch back. Looks like Cakewalk is gonna be my weapon of choice for production until further notice. 

[powerchord]

Every DAW is good. All depends on the personal preferences. I love Reaper. Its fast, easy, and very affordable. Also, i loved Reason but it's expensive. So I stick to Reaper.