Please suggest a DAW software for a beginner

You say that you have GarageBand,
there are a lot of people that record/mix and master with that D.A.W. .
I never used it (I have got PC.) but I think it's pretty nice for being actually free.
 
Reaper

I would also suggest Reaper. After using ProTools, reason, logic, cubase and a few others, I find Reapers routing and flexibility outstanding. The supplied efx and the easy install of 3rd party plugins all help make it a pleasure to work with. Being allowed to recreate the program to run and look as I want is a huge advantage ie: creating your own menus and tool bars and color/skin set up. I might add that I'm seeing more and more people switching from some high priced DAW to reaper all the time. This is one case where you absolutely get way more than you've paid for..that is if you pay for it at all. It has intergrated with evey piece of hardware I've throwing at it and the draw on my CPU is redicously low. I have never had my computer crash while in Reaper...but in some of my other programs it's not if it's going to crash but when. BTW Reapers customer support is second to none. Don't let the cheap price fool you this is the real deal!
 
I forgot to add that cockos/reaper support have quickly and thoroughly answered ANY questions I have had prior to getting tutorial dvd, and the Reaper Forum is excellent, with MANY ex-big-named DAW users converting all the time! It may not be "the industry standard" as PT is, but you certainly can do everything without any limitations and perhaps more than the so-called industry standard!
Read, Read, Read...practice makes perfection in just about anything!
 
Reaper

Go REAPER. For ease of use (intuitive), economics ($ 50) and also when more learn more you realize that hidden but very logical, has all the features of the best DAW. I am not ingenier but hear (with headphones or good stereo volume) this humble product build with coktos reaper
 
Ableton Live Suite 9
It does everything Club music or regular and has a simple UI, and the amount of youtube tutorials is phenominal. sure most are from electronic musicians but there are plenty of rock and hiphop artists too. Its all about the workflow everything is there once ou see the basics. Ive recorded blues in it, and also breakbeat and techno. Plus it can be used for real live performance juggling whole sections and nothing else does that. Ive seen people beatboxing and live loopin multitracks all with one mic and their voice and others using it as a guitar looper for a similar effect.

Dont go for protools. its not user friendly at all. Some will recommend logic but its not really logical to use. If you decide not to go for ableton then look at these 2 as the next best.
But honestly ableton does everything and all the others have been sitting on their thrones doing nothing for the last 10 years. where ableton have expanded constantly.

FL studio is not good for recprding but is decent for drum programming.. again ableton can do that too
 
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Not to muddy the water, but I have not seen a single vote for my all-time fav...Record/Reason from propellerhead. Go to propellerhead.se and download the free trial. You'll be amazed at the flexibility, etc. The price is higher, and honestly, I may be looking at reaper, because so many tout it's wonders. But, Record works the way a musician thinks. You can flip the rack around and rewire your plugins like a real rack. You can do everything from recording to mix to master. There are literally THOUSANDS of instruments/voices, and literally THOUSANDS of plug-ins available. Many are free. You can record from your gear, or add to the sound post. It has a Line6 guitar and bass add-in for amp/cab simulation. It can do vocoder (in some cool and interesting ways.) There are hundreds of recording tips/tutorial videos...

As has been said before...get under the hood. If you have no time to test drive a few, stick with one you know and run with it. But you never know.
 
Reaper *constantly* has newly added features and free updates if you do the right thing and pay $60. for the non-commercial license. Reaper also has had features for a long time that Pro Tools users have only just begun to get and still do not have the flexibility of Reaper. Only responded to this because your comment that "...all the others have been doing nothing..." [paraphrased], is not quite true and to be honest, Ableton is not exactly ideal for extensive midi and external real hardware synth integration/recording as many will rightly suggest, Ableton Live is geared more to the DJ/loopmaster EDM thing and qualify that by just looking at all the external controllers for Ableton--DJ/engaging loops. It's great for what it does but is totally inadequate for my hardware synth-based studio and recording. (wanted to not sound like am Ableton-bashing rather, for those of us that do a lot more than play arps/loops/queued track-making, recording audio with a midi sister track for automation, is not the pragmatic choice)
 
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BroKen_H said:
Not to muddy the water, but I have not seen a single vote for my all-time fav...Record/Reason from propellerhead. Go to propellerhead.se and download the free trial. You'll be amazed at the flexibility, etc. The price is higher, and honestly, I may be looking at reaper, because so many tout it's wonders. But, Record works the way a musician thinks. You can flip the rack around and rewire your plugins like a real rack. You can do everything from recording to mix to master. There are literally THOUSANDS of instruments/voices, and literally THOUSANDS of plug-ins available. Many are free. You can record from your gear, or add to the sound post. It has a Line6 guitar and bass add-in for amp/cab simulation. It can do vocoder (in some cool and interesting ways.) There are hundreds of recording tips/tutorial videos...

As has been said before...get under the hood. If you have no time to test drive a few, stick with one you know and run with it. But you never know.
Click to expand...

Ooo!Goo'rn! Let's muddy the waters, 's'wat forums are for after all!

I very often suggest MAGIX Samplitude Silver a total freebie, to the absolute noob and to try the download trials of Sam Producer and Sam Pro X.

Make sure however to avoid any MAGIX "Music Studio" products. Strictly ToysRus.

Dave.
 
reason is good to get the ball rolling but isnt advanced enough for any decent composition in my oppinion. plus its ridiculously expensive to get it with record. you can get he full ableton for that and have money for a new sound card/controller
 
I started with Adobe Audition (well, Cool Edit 96 then Pro) and still use it. However, I think it needs to be said that it won't suit everyone because it doesn't do MIDI--but it's great for recording editing and mixing live musicians.

However, I've been bothered by this thread's title for a few days and thought I'd chime in: there's no such thing as a DAW for beginners. There are just DAWs that you can learn. Yes, some DAWs are a bit simpler than others (but there's generally not much in it). However, even with the so called simple ones, there's still a learning curve to go through and the trouble is, if your first DAW is TOO simple, that learning curve will be wasted when you hit its limitations and decide to upgrade.

A far better plan is to try the free trials of as many DAWs as you can, find one that feels "right" and put the time into properly learning that one. You'll be amazed how quickly things become clear after a few mixes.

A last comment: you also need to have a think about your needs in terms of MIDI/Sequencing vs. live recording. Audition aside, most DAWs have some MIDI implementation but the emphasis varies. Some, like Sonar, are basically great sequencers with audio tracking bolted on. Other concentrate on the audio with a bit of MIDI bolted on. Only you can know what your needs are.

Frankly, on balance, I think those suggesting Reaper are giving good advice. It's a good all-round DAW at a price that can't be beaten.
 
In my experience, as far as basic home recording, and disregarding the plugins that come with all daws(i mostly use third party plugins anyways) in the beginning im-not-running-twohundred-tracks-with-multiple-busses-and-all-kinds-of-crazy-programming-and-automation stages of learning recording, really what matters more than the actual program you use, is your familiarity with it. I rocked reaper in the beginning, definitely a great start for recording. I now use studio one strictly for the ease of access. As that other guy said theres no such thing as a daw directed for a style of music, I find that not true. FL is highly directed toward electronic music, and in fact most versions you cant even actually record live instruments in(if there even are versions that let you do that) ableton is also highly more directed for the more electronic synthy stuff, as its setup is made to be able to be used live in actual time by electronic artists, hence why its called ableton live. But it still rules as a general daw for electronic stuff or live recording. The midi map interface on it is by far the easiest one Ive found to work in. I use studio one because of my familiarity with it and ability to guide seamlessly through the recording process and mixing with it. I do however use ableton to map midi, mostly for just programmed drums, as studio ones midi map is signicantly harder to work through.
 
Daw

Definately try Reaper.
I have tried CB,Sonar ... you name it.
Of course, Reaper has a learning curve but if you know a little it is fairly intuative.
It is free but while that is an important part of it, you need to get a sequencer that you will feel comfortable with and the only way you can do that is to try them out.
That will take time but you should stick with it for a few months at least.

The quick start guide gets you up and running, and the manual covers everything you might need as you learn.
One of the really, really great things about it though, and is one I cannot emphasis enough, is the Reaper Forum.
The members are incredibly helpful and patient no matter how complicated or simple the question is.
The same goes for here too.

No, I do not have shares in Reaper but if there were some available I would buy them :)

Go for it, give it a good try out. I will be surprised if you are disapointed.
 
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