What DAW are you using?

Well?

  • GarageBand

    Votes: 8 2.3%

  • Logic Pro

    Votes: 33 9.3%

  • Mixcraft

    Votes: 11 3.1%

  • Pro Tools

    Votes: 23 6.5%

  • Reason

    Votes: 7 2.0%

  • Sonar

    Votes: 23 6.5%

  • Reaper

    Votes: 88 24.9%

  • Studio One

    Votes: 44 12.4%

  • Cubase

    Votes: 42 11.9%

  • Ableton

    Votes: 14 4.0%

  • FL Studio

    Votes: 16 4.5%

  • other

    Votes: 45 12.7%
  • Total voters
    354
Folkcafe said:
I knew the Steinberg was pretty noisy but the M2 in this comparison surprised me.

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Surprised how Folks'? Do you know the methodology? For instance are they all tested at exactly the same gain setting?
I was also surprised as I have the M4 and it is by far the lowest noise mic pre in an AI I have ever had and has plenty of gain. Cannot believe the ADA8200 is better. Not being anti-Behrry, I had a UMC 204HD and the pre amp was very good, especially considering the price of the interface but not as good as the M4.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Surprised how Folks'? Do you know the methodology? For instance are they all tested at exactly the same gain setting?
I was also surprised as I have the M4 and it is by far the lowest noise mic pre in an AI I have ever had and has plenty of gain. Cannot believe the ADA8200 is better. Not being anti-Behrry, I had a UMC 204HD and the pre amp was very good, especially considering the price of the interface but not as good as the M4.

Dave.
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Here is the video. I also found another reviewer that had issues with noise until it warmed up then tested fine. Not sure it is related. Both disliked the low output of the headphone section. It's an online review, grain of salt and all that.

Motu M2 Review

 
gecko zzed said:
Looks like they might have got a faulty Presonus audiobox in that mix. That looks more like an outlier.
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In a couple of reviews I found that did testing, it doesn't appear to be an impressive unit. That figure might be high depending as the testing was done with a SM7B. This device doesn't particularly like being pushed.

Here is a graph showing the low frequency distortion from a different review. What do you want for $100

alt=
 
Thank you guys for the input. I really appreciate it. Ive been a pro songwriter for many years but, certainly not the engineer. I tend to lean towards whatever is most songwriter friendly. Given the return on a copyright these days, I'm basically feeding my songwriting passion while trying to keep the overhead cost to a minimum. Not sure what I'll settle on but, again thanks for your help. A friend turned me on to Logic Pro X and the Mac mini route. I may look further into that and consider your advice as far as a new interface.
 
I track in Protools and mix back through my console into Harrison Mixbus for my mixes. Logic always seems illogical to me, and I can’t relate to it easily. I did just load it onto my iPad, so perhaps I’ll become a convert? I have no problems with Protools, Acid, Wavlab, Sound Forge, Vegas, but Logic seems so basakwards to me. Today It says: Drag here to create audio tracks, but nothing will drag into it? WTF?

I find it Confusing and stupid.

alt=
 
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Scott Baxendale said:
I track in Protools and mix back through my console into Harrison Mixbus for my mixes. Logic always seems illogical to me, and I can’t relate to it easily. I did just load it onto my iPad, so perhaps I’ll become a convert? I have no problems with Protools, Acid, Wavlab, Sound Forge, Vegas, but Logic seems so basakwards to me. Today It says: Drag here to create audio tracks, but nothing will drag into it? WTF?

I find it Confusing and stupid.

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That's why I love the all-in-one simplicity of Reaper....


Jeff
 
mrjlr said:
That's why I love the all-in-one simplicity of Reaper....


Jeff
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I’ve never used reaper, but I know a lot of folks like it. Protools kinda sucked me in when I upgraded my studio in 2014 and I purchased native PT for almost a grand. I won’t do the subscription version so I’m stuck on PT 12.
 
Years ago I tried one of the early Protools freebie versions. I think it might still be on one of my old WIn ME machines. It was expensive even then, and very primitive compared to day.

When I got my Yamaha AW16G, they included a version of Cubase SE. I also got newer versions with my Zoom R24 and H4n. They worked, but when I found Reaper, it just seemed to click for me. I paid for it back in the V4.xx days. I skipped v6 upgrade, but now have a v7 license, good through V8.99. I just use the V5 theme, and it feels like "home".

For a simple home recording setup, the prices for Protools and some of the other DAWs is just crazy.

I won't do a subscription deal. I know people who pay MS for Office 365, and they might use it 10 or 12 times a year, but they used it at work and it was "on their computer" when they bought it.
 
Folkcafe said:
In a couple of reviews I found that did testing, it doesn't appear to be an impressive unit. That figure might be high depending as the testing was done with a SM7B. This device doesn't particularly like being pushed.

Here is a graph showing the low frequency distortion from a different review. What do you want for $100

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That's one hell of a spike at 1Khz, And every harmonic thereafter. Not good
 
I've used Pro Tools, but it was too expensive for my needs. Tried Reaper, not a fan of the interface. I have Cubase 13 but I have issues with the complexity of using MIDI and a TASCAM 16x8 interface together, and the latency is far more than I can accept. My go to is Ableton Live 11. That said, I spent $100US to upgrade to Ableton Live 12. I spent the better part of a week trying to install it. I shall not go into details, but software upgrade(s) should not require a user to go deep into the root structure of a computer to install. That said, I've worked with computers since the mid-70s and have no problems working the Registry, but there is no reason an upgrade shouldn't be Plug and Play.
I'm now back tp Ableton 11 as I try to get a refund on 12.
 
Folkcafe said:
In a couple of reviews I found that did testing, it doesn't appear to be an impressive unit. That figure might be high depending as the testing was done with a SM7B. This device doesn't particularly like being pushed.

Here is a graph showing the low frequency distortion from a different review. What do you want for $100

View attachment 138494
Click to expand...
I just did a little more research of what exactly "dBr" is. The graph in and of itself is missing a key component, i.e, what is the reference input voltage.
X axis = frequency, Y axis = response compared to a reference. Yet the reference is not defined. That's analogous to an apples to apples comparison vs an apple to an unknown source. Without reference, that graph is meaningless.

Browse the Glossary - D - WhatIs

www.techtarget.com www.techtarget.com

For context, if the input signal was a 1Khz sine wave @ 1V RMS, it would be expected (according to the calculation) that there would be a zero dB spike at 1Khz (along with the subsequent harmonics) whereas all the other frequencies would be effectively ignored.
However, if the input signal was 1V RMS white noise the graphical response would be drastically different as all frequencies are of the same amplitude, and I would expect that there would be no spike at a given frequency, or the response would be flat from 20 to 20Khz.
Additionally, the useable frequency range for musical instruments is, at the very, very outside limit is ~3kHz.
That's more than 2 cents, but that's what I got.
 
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The graph surely shows the spectrum generated by a 1kHz sine at an input of -20dBV (~18dBu) and -1dBFS for a gain setting of 50dB.

The -85dB figure is for the total rms noise +thd and if unweighted is just about fair for a 16 bit recording. If A weighted, not so good and if 24 bits, bloody awful!

I agree, £100 does not an Apogee buy you. Many of the cheaper interfaces show poor distortion characteristics as the signal approached within a few dB of 0dBFS. I mention no names but yes! The first cheapy you all think of is one!
Fortunately, running at 24 bits you never need to get within 6dB of zero.

"Reaper + Sonar". Is that another name for Cakewalk? My son uses Reaper and Cakewalk and finds the latter useful especially the guitar FX. That is the freebie.

Dave.
 
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