What DAW are you using?

Well?

  • GarageBand

    Votes: 8 2.3%
  • Logic Pro

    Votes: 33 9.5%
  • Mixcraft

    Votes: 11 3.2%
  • Pro Tools

    Votes: 21 6.0%
  • Reason

    Votes: 7 2.0%
  • Sonar

    Votes: 23 6.6%
  • Reaper

    Votes: 86 24.7%
  • Studio One

    Votes: 44 12.6%
  • Cubase

    Votes: 41 11.8%
  • Ableton

    Votes: 14 4.0%
  • FL Studio

    Votes: 16 4.6%
  • other

    Votes: 44 12.6%

  • Total voters
    348
I'm still rocking ProTools.
I love that it does everything I want it to do and does it well, but my wallet doesn't like the look of their new pricing system.

May be learning Reaper in the near future....we'll see.
Worked ProTools back in my Pro days. Didn’t love but all we had. I’ve just started using Reaper and likey
 
The list should be updated to include Cakewalk by Bandlab (formerly Sonar). Not sure why, but I clicked "other".

For those who are lacking background and education on current DAW's, Cakewalk was maybe the very first DAW ever, going way back to DOS days in the 1980s. Then somewhere in the mid-90s, they added audio to the MIDI. I cannot recall when, but a very long time ago it has had STAFF view which is a must for educated musicians to be able to read the music at a glance, as one of the recent former posts stated.

And here's the best part: The company that bought Cakewalk from bankrupt Gibson is "Bandlab", who also bought Rolling Stone magazine, then they re-released it for FREE, and they hired the original Programmers when they took it over, whose paying jobs now are to simply fix and update the program on a continual basis. I think they update the program every month or two at the most. They are truly responsive to the end-users and fix bugs as quickly as you can imagine.

Their forums site is very excellent and respond to all users (novice and experts) immediately.

The program comes with a bunch of free VST's that you can choose to install or not.

The pioneers of the DAW, both MIDI and Audio, have almost every imaginable feature you can imagine, and as so many people exclaim, it's very intuitive. You can download a regularly updated PDF Reference Manual from their Forums site. Bells and whistles galore. And on the Forums site are a long list of excellent Video Tutorials.

You should register an account before downloading and installing. Small price to pay for the best and FREE DAW available.

Only known possible caveat - Windows only (still runs on Windows 7, even though it says it does not support Win 7).

Download and register here: https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk

Forums link (Use the same name as you used when registering): https://discuss.cakewalk.com/
 
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The list should be updated to include Cakewalk by Bandlab (formerly Sonar). Not sure why, but I clicked "other".
I chose "Sonar," because I didn't want to split the vote. 😄

All you say about Cakewalk is true, and then some. IMO, the best-looking mixer view in the business, and many graphic elements and colors of the program may be customized with the Cakewalk Theme Editor.
 
On a side note I don't know if FL Studio should be figuring in this list. While you can place audio files and even record directly into it FL always looked more like sequencer than a DAW for me.
 
I started with traction and hated it. Not having a “mixer” was more than I could handle. Saw a screenshot of reaper w/ the stealth theme and thought it looked cool. Checked it out and really found it easy to work with. I still miss how easy certain things were. A program at the VA supplied me with a digital 003 and PTLE 8 and I really dug that. Unfortunately I ended up having to sell off everything and never really got reaper working the same on my MacBook. In 2014, I ended up getting Logic Pro and haven’t really looked back. I still think PT is a great platform for audio production but I feel like logic is a better tool for songwriters.
 
Are any of you using more than one DAW on a regular basis to get things done?
When I first got the Studio Live I would use Capture to record shows. I tried mixing them in in studio one but never really liked it which prompted me to get logic
 
Are any of you using more than one DAW on a regular basis to get things done?
I use Pro Tools for my day job. I've actually used it since it was Sound Tools. Those were exciting days as we all saw what non-linear recording might provide us. There were many frustrating days getting everything working but it felt like a miraculous new venture was unfolding. I still use it (Pro Tools) 10 hours a day. I know it inside and out and not to mention I work in a facility and in an industry that simply requires we're all on the same DAW page. That said my home music environment is Studio One 5 Pro. I don't think I'll ever move on from Studio One as for virtually everything (except for detailed audio editing) Studio One feels like a program that was designed in 2015 and decidedly not 1985. Studio One is easy, fluid, intuitive, and every bit as capable as anything out there. Its endless drag and drop motifs make everything comfortably simple. Pro Tools will always be what I indeed made my living with and I do love it for what it is but it does feel a bit like a solution that's had one too many bandaids over the years. Either will get ya there however :)
 
About 2005, I switched from a TASCAM digital recorder to a DAW, Sony ACID Pro which I used for years. Many of us waited and waited for Sony's update of version 7, but it never came. Since then, I've tried ProTools, various versions of Cubase and Ableton. Then it was on to Cakewalk (Bandlab). I thought I'd found my DAW in Samplitude Pro X3 Suite, but over time, I decided it wasn't for me, either. In 2019, I settled on Studio One and I've been happy ever since.

Side Note: My DAW odyssey has left me with some 350+ detectable plug-ins on my hard drives! I'm sure not all of them are still useful, but it does lengthen my startup time.
 
The list should be updated to include Cakewalk by Bandlab (formerly Sonar). Not sure why, but I clicked "other".
...
For many years (more than a decade, almost 2) I used Cakewalk, then Cakewalk Sonar until very recently I made the time to get the new (free) Bandlab version of Cakewalk installed, configured, and tested. Seems to work well, done two projects with it now and most of my old (some ancient) plugins work, as well as some newer VST3 stuff like Kontakt. I even imported a mid-session project to see how things would fair, and ended up finishing the project in Bandlab's Cakewalk.

Hopefully free remains free, or if they move to a subscription / pay model it's inexpensive. I'm just grateful to not have to buy and learn an entirely new DAW.
 
I am still using a Tascam MX2424 hard disk recorder and the MX View software. When I export and mix on a DAW (which I sometimes do when not using the analog console) I am still using Sony Vegas as I know it inside out (I know it is for film editing, but before this back in the sonic foundry days it was a music software that could do film, I started on version B, god I am getting old LOL). Also use Magix Sequoia for mastering.

All this will change soon as I have been trying out Reaper, Presonus Studio, and Harrison Mixbus, but before I can change over I need to train myself up so that the client is not sitting around while I try to find out how it works LOL, this when I get time, did I say get time LOL. The change over will happen when the Windows 10 machine is built.

Alan.
I am still using Sonic Foundry Vegas version 1. I mastered a ton of awesome recordings on it. Why switch? If it ain't broken don't fix it. I do have Ableton 9 but have never even opened the box. Does that look familiar?
 

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Hi,

I am a newbie on audio recording. My main setup(s) run on Atari computers.
Got two megast systems with dsp card + analog in/out and digital in/out the hardware is from digidesign and software is Sound Tools II

I also got two systems with cubase CBX running with yamaha CBX-D5 and CBX-D3 interfaces.

Also I have a ADAP kit for audio recording.

Beside the harddisk recording I also got some synth gear with midi.

Software I use is Notator/Notator Logic/Notator Logic Audio / Cubase / Cubase Audio
I also got the test version of Notator HD that was developed for the digidesign set but was never released. Found it on an old harddisk I found.

Any users here who also still have an Atari only studio setup ?
 
I have spent the last few weeks testing MixCraft's Performance Panel and I am blown away by its capabilities. It is great for live performance, as well as recording and composing music with loops.
 
It's now been a week since I put a Cubase support ticket into Steinberg because I accidentally deleted the new online Cubase licence for the install at the other studio. I even sent a reminder one and nothing! First time since 1996 that Steinberg have let me down. Probably too old to consider changing now!
 
Any users here who also still have an Atari only studio setup ?
Not for a studio, but a company I worked for in 1999, bought up whatever Ataris they could find, to use for an in-flight entertainment system they produced.
There was nothing as good as the discontinued Atari for the job.
 
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