Studio One. UI is clean, the built in plugins are solid, console emulation, super affordable.
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I moved from Logic to Bitwig (kind of on whim) about a year ago and it was a great decision. Bitwig just sort of gels with my brain and workflow really well. Logic is a great DAW and in some respects is better than Bitwig, but Bitwig just makes me super productive.
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And has a controller developed for it like Ableton has the push. I do wish that Apple would develop and release their own controller for Logic. I have a NI Kontroller S49 keyboard that works with my DAWs but bought a Korg Nanocontroller that is smaller footprint.
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I donāt have the desk space for a big Faderport but I really wish I did. They have an iPad app you can use as a live control surface which I use quite often, though. Itās awesome to put all the faders on the iPad and have monitor real estate for the timeline and instruments.
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Reaper is not just my favourite DAW, but my favourite software project of all time. It makes mincemeat of the big boys IMHO, nothing else is so customisable to your specific workflow and working with audio in it is just wonderful, so many options for how to achieve something.
Use it with Realearn and some MIDI hardware and you can really build out your own signal processors and instruments too.
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Iāve always been intrigued by Reaktor and should check around for an interview with Liam Howlett about the making and production of The Day Is My Enemy.
Just getting into this world, and I like both Logic and Ableton but Ableton takes it.
I like Logic. Itās simple enough to get going with little fuss, but deeper if you want it. The bundled content is pretty decent too. Somehow the workflow feels a little more tuned for band and live instrument stuff, but that might just be my perception.
That said, Ableton has everything onscreen within a couple of tabs, and so itās the quickest to get around and see pretty much anything essential in a project (this is often extra clicks or taps away in Logic). What probably clinches it is that on top of that, the amount of add ons built specifically for it (Novation, Push stuff etc) mean that it pulls away slightly. That feels fairly good for taking you from sketch to finished tune in a relatively streamlined way.
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Right on. I decided to focus on Logic since my new MacBook works well with it and so far easiest way to record my guitars and synths besides my 1010 Bluebox.
Reason is my first love, and live is my second. I jump between them, and always use the RRP within live, so Iām always using Reason regardless 
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Reason because it was affordable and I mostly just use it to track an do mixing. I know thereās a ton more in there, but Iām still not great at integrating both my hardware and DAW into my workflow/routine. Probably why I canāt seem to finish tracks these days. 
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I always used Reaper for band stuff, but for electronic stuff I did a trial of all the main DAWs and found I absolutely loved Bitwig although I find itās quite easy to get lost messing around compared to the Polyend Tracker which is just a track finishing machine.
Iād really love to learn Renoise when I have some time.
FL now for 22 yearsā¦i bought it once 22 years ago and have free upgrades for life.
I was initially attracted to the step sequencer for the familiarity, but now the piano roll is essential to everything. To the point where i have a midi out assigned to every track of all 5 Elektron instruments i own, just for the ease and speed of getting notation and chord progressions recorded to the sequencers when needing to get copies of score across multiple devices.
Also the mixer is styled like an analog console so i feel familiarity when using it.
Iāve tried all other DAWs but they seem clumsy and unintuitive to me at least.
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Studio One is my favorite DAW. Overall, I like the workflow and interface, in addition to the various dedicated controllers. That said, Studio One is not the DAW I use for every situation. Digital Performer is my preferred DAW for film related efforts, and Reason for Techno.
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Howād you get started with it? I want to try a tracker again but Iām just so used to a Ableton like workflow
I donāt really remember. I think I just bought it and committed to it. Made a few stupid starter tracks- making bad music had never been so fun.
I guess exploring the basic sample editing feature with the included drum breaks was fun. From there I sequenced my VSTs.
I donāt know if that answers your question?
Nice to see some mentions of Opcode! Studio Vision was the first DAW I ever used (in college), and used after I graduated until Opcode was no more ā sadly another company bought and then allowed to die by Gibson. When I was looking for a replacement, MOTU Digital Performer was recommended to me, and Iāve been using it ever since (still on v 9). I donāt have a ton of exposure to other DAWs, but DP has served me quite well for a very long time.
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Studio One but it seems expensive lately to upgrade, Bitwig is the one I jump in to play with more often.
Ableton
Years ago I have used logic, reason, cubase and sonar. Other than sonar which is now discontinued Iām sure the other all have updated modern features, but Iām rapid with ableton. Iāve become so proficient with it that to invest time in something else whilst working full time is just not going to happen.
More than anything though I just love racks. Even the most minimal vst instrument can be duplicated and layered up, m4l steroids and all. Especially since the more interesting routing options that have become available since v10.
Also I have a bunch of fancy 3rd party stuff but I still find myself using the stock stuff 50% of the time. Though this excluded the flanger and phaser becauseā¦ well yuck. Sort it out! Otherwise though itās perfect.
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Started with Cubase way back on my Atari ST, continued with Cubase on my PCs, moved to Logic, bought Macs for Logic, saw someone using Ableton and loved the way you could work with plug-ins without having to open 1000 windows and finally settled with BitWig because of a few reasons:
- It has everything I love in Ableton
- It kicks Ableton in the *** when it comes to automation for external hardware
- I really really love the Modulation slots on EVERY Plug-in you add to a track
- The Grid is a really nice add on for exploration
- The idea of a full API for external controllers is really great
- It is a ālocalā company.
Bitwig. And the reason is almost entirely down to the Grid. The filters in there are fantastic, as are the various waveshapers, plus the way it handles phase and phase manipulation is excellent and all cables are stereo by default. Plus it can be as polyphonic as your CPU can handle with voice stacking features where each voice can be manipulated individually for panning etc. As for Bitwig in general, I love the stock EQ+ and Bit-8 plugins. I only have about five third-party FX plugins because everything else I need is there.