Favorite DAW and why?

So far I have used Ableton Live, Cubase, Studio One and now learning Logic Pro X 10.7 and like the experience with Logic the best thus far. Studio One is super easy to use but it inserts dead space at beginning and end of my tracks that makes a pain since I have to do cleanup in Audacity. Logic works seamless so far with my synths and the live loops are nice feature.

2 Likes

Ableton. Speed of workflow for multiple situations. This isnā€™t a feature of Ableton, per seā€¦ but I donā€™t have time for anything else.

7 Likes

Also using Ableton out of familiarity, Bitwig offers some great internal options for LFO-ing virtual instruments and I really ought to give it another shot at this stage.

Logic is great, though I donā€™t use my Macbook as much as I could. Probably going to get back into it for 3rd party support.

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Ableton 10 suite with push 2. Push is gaffer taped down to a music stand and a rechargeable 12v battery is velcroed to the stand to provide the extra power for illumination. Then a single long usb cable connects push to the PC. I can move the the music stand around my studio so it acts like a superpowerful remote control.

5 Likes

I started on Ableton and grew to hate it but thatā€™s just me and how my mind thinks. Logic Pro X fits my style better for a more productive workflow.

2 Likes

Caustic 3 on iPhone / iPad. Getting into SunVox tracker on the iPhone as well.

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Iā€™ve been a Reason user since V1. I have so much invested in terms of time, energy, workflows and plugins that I donā€™t really have much interest in switching DAWs.

Also, it still gets my creative juices flowing and I never feel blocked using it.

That and it has never, not once crashed or lost a project on me.

4 Likes

Cool. Iā€™m bummed out that Lemur is no longer being developed or supported. Was hoping to try it out with my Endorphin.es Shuttle control to sequence with iPad.

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I use Reason on my laptop. Iā€™ve made 1000s of trqcks on it. Love it. Caustic 3 is similar to Reason on the iPhone / iPad.

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Find Bitwig too dark and messy. Gone back to Live 11 for time being (own both)

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I just got back on computer after +10 years of break.

Iā€™m on a Mac for the first time and i was quite disappointed when i had to choose a DAW. Seems like nothing evolved much in terms of ergonomy.

Logic is not ā€¦ logic, options, features are hidden and really not intuitive to find/use.
Ableton Live is disgusting, the UI is so ugly and not inviting, come on, even Winamp had skins.
I donā€™t doubt features are amazing but the UI in these 2 is something i donā€™t understand. Not to mention when i tried crazy exotic stuff like syncing the recording of Logic with OT as a Masterā€¦

Auria Pro on iPad was a much better product in terms of ergonomy, colour codes, ease of use, no endless menu diving.

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Definitely, I donā€™t know if any DAW run from a general purpose OS enjoys syncing to other master clocks.

3 Likes

(itā€™s not officially called DAW, but) Drambo.
why: it marries two totally different sequencing/timeline paradigms ā€“ linear (tape recorder style) and pattern-based (gear-style) ā€“ in a very cool and usable way. so, for me Drambo is the most effective in terms of ready tracks output (or ā€žfinished tracksā€œ, like people usually say).

in all other (ā€žnormalā€œ) DAWs tape recorder metaphor prevails despite having clip launching, scenes and similar cool stuff. but to speak about ā€žnormalā€œ DAWs ā€“ my favorite one is Bitwig.

also, i should mention Harrison Mixbus because itā€™s my favorite one for mixing/mastering stage.

3 Likes

Renoise. Iā€™ve never felt so connected to the ITB workflow. It feels more like hardware than Ableton w/Push 2

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Ableton, because Iā€™ve used it since v. 4 and Iā€™d rather not frustrate myself with trying to learn an entirely new interface to do the same things I do with Ableton. Though, itā€™s Ableton Desk for me, since Iā€™ve not used it ā€œliveā€ in probably 12 years.

3 Likes

I gave up using it and have better faster results with Logic X and Studio One. But the easiest way to record for me so far has been using my 1010 Bluebox mixer recorder. No computer required and no complex DAW to master. I wish software had simpler and more user friendly tools. Surprised nobody mentioned Pro Tools.

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Reaper. Been using it since 2006 and itā€™s been able to handle all of the stupid genres Iā€™ve tried over the years. Itā€™s not great for making loopy techno stuff, but when it comes to recording and editing hardware jams, itā€™s relatively simple, easy to customise yet at the same time has a lot of useful features.

I may buy Ableton at some point (mostly for collaboration) but Reaper will always be the centre of my workflow.

4 Likes

Whatever works for you is the one to go with.

As an audio multitrack recording tool Audacity has a lot going for it but itā€™s not useful for recording MIDI data.

So I do most of my external hardware MIDI sequencing with the M8 Tracker or some combination of the built-in sequencers on said hardware.

For a traditional ā€˜DAWā€™ Iā€™m much more productive with Logic than, say, Ableton Live. But I only use such tools for recording/arranging a not for their built-in synths or live performance features.

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I kinda arbitrarily decided on Ableton Live ten years ago and just stuck with it. Didnā€™t really have a reason. I love it though. Seems to be the best when working with hardware as everyone makes sure their shit works with Ableton.

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Iā€™ve switched between Cubase, FL and Live and decided to stick with Live just because I somehow felt faster with it, every daw has strengths and weaknesses, there is no perfect oneā€¦ considering trying Logic.