What DAW do you use?
- Thread starter seancfc
- Start date
Maybe the poll is redundant, but the thread is quite useful.
As a long time tape guy, just reading this thread I have learned a bunch. People are talking about what they use and what they like and dont like about different Daws. Valuable info.
Crying Wolf
New member
I use Pro tools exclusively...not because I am a snob or I think its the best daw out there....i am just way too financially invested in it. Not to mention I also spent alot of years learning it. Truth be told if I found another daw that would meet my needs and I didnt have to shell out $10,000 on dedicated equipment and plug ins I would probably switch. I am not an Avid fan. I know colleagues who have switch to Reaper and are quite happy. They still have Pro Tools but thats only because some of their client base expects that. Somehow Pro Tools and industry standard became synonymous and particularly new artist want whats deamed "industry standard". I am guilty of getting Pro Tools over a decade ago because it was industry standard. I didnt know anything about it except all the "pros" were using it.
If I were just starting out I would use Reaper and save a butt load of money in the end.
If I were just starting out I would use Reaper and save a butt load of money in the end.
I'm certainly not expert enough to weigh in to any significant degree, but I use Logic Pro X. I used to be committed to ProTools, but frankly, the cost just became too much. I am able to use Logic with Universal Audio's Apollo Twin and I get very satisfactory results. The UA plugins are very good and combined with Logic and all the plugins that come with it, I can't complain. Of course, I'm not a professional studio - just a musician self-recording - but I came to Logic with my ProTools nose in the air, only to be persuaded by the easy interface and audio quality, at a very reasonable cost. For what it's worth, I notice that the percentage of ProTools users is about the same as the percentage of Logic users.
Have been using Reaper for about a year now. Just started using Cubase. So far not liking Cubase. I have Al8. Seems to crash every once in a while, and I'm just not familiar with it enough to be proficient. I'm the kind of guy that likes to use a mouse with one hand and an adult beverage in another. I find Cubase lacks a lot of mouse modifiers where Reaper has a plethora.
Thomas Hartkop
New member
I use Cubase 8 for all recording. I learned with LE >4 >5>6>8. This has been very stable with my Presonus boards. I master with StudioOne 1>2>3 now. I also use Melodyne Editor as a plug in for both when needed.
gecko zzed
Grumpy Mod
I've only used two DAWs: Logic in my earlier years, and now Reaper. There may have been a difference in audio quality between them, but I never perceived one when I changed over. I expect that any differences would be swamped by other factors that affect audio quality.
ibleedburgundy
The Anti-Lambo
Obsolescence is really annoying. I bought Pro Tools LE 6.9 over a decade ago. I have a dedicated windows XP computer that runs that program only, I don't even connect it to the internet. It still runs but there are quirks. Had I kept up with the updates all this time I would have spent thousands of dollars, and even then I would have had to buy a new computer to get the newer ones.
I am going to buy a new DAW at some point and I'm thinking of going away from Pro Tools - maybe to Logic, which I already have on my laptop. I'm interested in which DAW has the most staying power. I don't mind buying a Mac Pro and a high end interface so long as I know I'm going to get a good 10 years out of it. Otherwise it's just not justified.
I am going to buy a new DAW at some point and I'm thinking of going away from Pro Tools - maybe to Logic, which I already have on my laptop. I'm interested in which DAW has the most staying power. I don't mind buying a Mac Pro and a high end interface so long as I know I'm going to get a good 10 years out of it. Otherwise it's just not justified.
joey2000
New member
When and if I go for a DAW, user friendliness/ease of use will be top priority, as what I'll be doing will be pretty basic and while I want a "good" sound, it's not like I'm trying to make something to market professionally....given that, to those who have use multiple ones, which did you use and which did you feel was easiest to use (presumably including shortest learning curve for the basics)?
Pinky
and The Brain...
Depending on your level of knowledge coming in, all of them have a learning curve. If you can learn how to arm tracks, mute, adjust gain, and select inputs then that will be sufficient for getting basic recording done. They all do this with relative ease, and there's tons of tutorials online for industry standard apps like Pro Tools and Sonar (Cakewalk). You could do as one member suggested in the AI thread and get the Audiobox USB with the free DAW, which may be sufficient for what you're looking to accomplish. The paid apps come in different cost tiers/functionality, but I would suspect the lowest cost tier would be roughly equal to the free DAW's capabilities. It's only the more advanced packages that the differences in quality, capabilities, complexity, and computing performance would be realized.
DM60
Well-known member
To add to Pinky's comments. If you read all over this board, tracking, room, instruments, etc. play a more important role than the DAW or the interface. Yes, trying to get a good sound out of a computer's sound card will have its challenges, but most of the recording audio interfaces, even at the low level do a pretty decent job. Challenge will be mostly external to the equipment, especially when starting out.
Understand what you need, for example, recording alone you can get away with a 2 channel interface. If you have a keyboard and want to go direct out and sing, you will need a 4 channel. If you are a drummer and want to mic the drum set, you may need an 8 channel interface. Make sure it has its own ASIO drivers for the OS.
The DAW just needs to be ASIO compliant and allow multiple tracks. Workflow is more what you will be looking for, as ease of use will depend on your level of knowledge with recording.
Understand what you need, for example, recording alone you can get away with a 2 channel interface. If you have a keyboard and want to go direct out and sing, you will need a 4 channel. If you are a drummer and want to mic the drum set, you may need an 8 channel interface. Make sure it has its own ASIO drivers for the OS.
The DAW just needs to be ASIO compliant and allow multiple tracks. Workflow is more what you will be looking for, as ease of use will depend on your level of knowledge with recording.
I'm new here. What is GS?
joey2000
New member
I respectfully disagree; reverb, compression, looping...these and more are also pretty basic and how easy they are to do can vary considerably from DAW to DAW from what I've read so far. Sounds like you disagree ie feel there isn't much variance-?
In my case, not really, since it'll just be the keyboard.
? Maybe I'm misunderstanding "4 channel"....if I just have a keyboard and mic, that would be 2, wouldn't it? Or by that do you mean 2 in/2out?
Minimal. Hence the emphasis on ease of use.
most Keyboards and digital pianos are stereo so you need two inputs for the keyboard/piano and one for the vocal if you are gonna record them at the same time, i have not seen a interface with 3 inputs yet ,
so yes you need 4 inputs unless you track your piano or keyboard in mono instead of stereo
the only way`s around this to get away with 2 channel inputs is to track your piano/keyboard in stereo first , and record your vocals after
another way to do it could be track your key/piano in mono with your vocal, record stereo piano after and play as close as you can to the already recorded mono piano/keyboard to get full stereo sound
using a click/metronome in your DAW would make it easier to dub record the stereo piano or keyboard