What daw is the quickest to learn, easiest to use?

[TheMaartian]

once again you people always seem to ignore presonus. studio one is the easiest to use. simply drag and drop function is so smooth

I have purchased SONAR, Reaper and Studio One. I've previewed several others. For a beginner, I agree that Studio One is simpler in a number of ways than SONAR. I would not recommend Reaper for a beginner, unless that beginner likes/understands/nerds out on programming. Lots of good things about it.

That said, I would highly recommend SONAR Artist over Studio One Artist for one reason...the product forum. Newbies get great support from the community on the SONAR forum. On the Studio One forum, they get a "have you optimized your PC for audio production?" and a link to an article telling you how to totally screw up your PC on Win7. It's basically that useless. I still check it from time to time...once a week is plenty. I'm on the SONAR forum daily...and it's time well spent.

SONAR versions: Cakewalk - SONAR - Compare Versions

Studio One versions: Studio One | Compare Versions | PreSonus

 

[HeavyMusic3000]

I've used Logic, Presonus, SlowTools, Cubase... The best and most intuitive is... REAPER!! And for $60 (with two full version updates included - which could mean years of free updates) you can not beat it.

Just park yourself over at Kenny Gioia's channel on youtube for a couple of weeks and soon you will know so many helpful tricks and shortcuts and key commands and useful techniques that you will be cruising!

Reaper has so many awesome features. The built-in plugins are fantastic. Just push yourself past the slight learning curve - so worth it.

 

[HeavyMusic3000]

... time stretch I use alot...

Cool feature

 

[gecko zzed]

I would not recommend Reaper for a beginner, unless that beginner likes/understands/nerds out on programming.

That statement puzzled me.

For a beginner, Reaper is very easy. To record a track, load Reaper, create a track, arm a track for recording, hit record. Done.

Reaper is scalable upwards, i.e. you get going with a minimum of fuss, but once you get familiar with it, you go full-nerd on it and configure it many different ways.

 

[radi0j0hn]

I'd be curious to know what bugs you found in Adobe. Windows? Mac? It needs good temp space and 1.5 doesn't play well with Windows 10.

 

[ecc83]

I'd be curious to know what bugs you found in Adobe. Windows? Mac? It needs good temp space and 1.5 doesn't play well with Windows 10.

I have AA1.5 and found it fine with XP. I had to change (kicking and screaming) to Win7 64 and it still worked but Windows always asks if I want to run it then 'does something'? I then find the controls are locked and greyed out and I have to insert a file into 'Multitrack Mode' to play it, consequently I rarely use it now.

No longer have W10, still recovering from that experience.

Dave.

 

[spitzer]

Tough question. Like many have mentioned, it really in fact comes down to what do you want to accomplish with it. You can quite easily do (even multi-track, I think?) simple recording with Audacity, but not much else. I tried Reaper at one point and found it difficult to use and sort of lacking in features. Some years ago, a friend thought Logic is the greatest thing in the world and I tried it for a few minutes (on an iMac)... I couldn't even figure out how do you set it up to record. It was like from another planet and not in a good way. Just like most Apple-related things, people say they're so incredibly user-friendly and intuitive...not to me. At all.

I use n-Track on Windows. I've used it since before the turn of the millennium. Back then it was I think the only sensibly priced (around $50) piece of software that did everything (and much more than) I needed, aka multi-tracking on a PC. It still does everything I need and has a ton of features I have never even used. I can't think of a reason to change to something else.

EDIT: I should say I don't use the same n-Track as I did in 1999 anymore, with Windows 98 It's updated regularly and is at version 8 now.

 

[famous beagle]

I use n-Track on Windows. I've used it since before the turn of the millennium. Back then it was I think the only sensibly priced (around $50) piece of software that did everything (and much more than) I needed, aka multi-tracking on a PC. It still does everything I need and has a ton of features I have never even used. I can't think of a reason to change to something else.

EDIT: I should say I don't use the same n-Track as I did in 1999 anymore, with Windows 98 It's updated regularly and is at version 8 now.

It'd be a lot cooler if you did.

(J/K)

 

[spitzer]

It'd be a lot cooler if you did.

(J/K)

Well, I DO use n-Track 4 (from 2005) on a computer that I got for free and haven't even done a clean install. It's running the same Windows XP it had been running for years when I got it. Still works perfectly. Not kidding.

That's kind of cool.

 

[famous beagle]

Well, I DO use n-Track 4 (from 2005) on a computer that I got for free and haven't even done a clean install. It's running the same Windows XP it had been running for years when I got it. Still works perfectly. Not kidding.

That's kind of cool.

Yes that is cool. I miss XP. That was my favorite OS and the most stable for me. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming when I updated to Windows 7.