What DAW are you using?

digitalkettle

Bod said:

digitalkettle said:

Jalapeno said:

Studio One looks great, but I'm averse to the rental model for something I'll only use occasionally.

Doesn't have to be via subscription.

I tried a trial subscription while I waited to upgrade to v5 at a discounted price last Black Friday.  It's OK, and I really liked the exclusive video content, but I prefer to buy outright.  I own Komplete Ultimate so I wasn't fussed with the additional packs and content that the sub offers.

I did a 'crossgrade' offer from Ableton Live for an outright purchase of Studio One Professional.

Keefy

Philtre said:

I've been using Cubase since prehistoric times and the last version I updated was Cubase 7 in 2012. I'm considering updating to Cubase 11 (and with the grace period I'd get C12 for free). But before I do that just wondering if anyone has any opinions on Cubase these days or whether there's a better option such as Reaper or Studio 1?

The best DAW is the one you have learned to use. Unless there is some compelling reason to ditch your current DAW (e.g. becoming too costly, won't let you do something you desperately want to do), I would stick with it.

Personally I use Reaper because it is inexpensive and comes with a load of free stuff, but if you changed over to Reaper now you would most likely hit a very steep learning curve and spend a lot of time un-learning your current workflow.

Snap

If you are a hobbyist, and new to the whole DAW thing, I think the only two to consider are Reaper and Cakewalk. Why- because they are free/cheap and well kitted out. I can't find any good reason for shelling out significant money if you are doing it for fun.

If you want free, easy to use and learn, and hi spec, then Cakewalk is the only way to go. Unless you are using a Mac of course, then it would be Reaper.

Both are studio grade as well, should you want to get deep into them

TheBigDipper

GarageBand on macOS or iOS is free and would probably do what most people want to do if they're already on those platforms. But why change if you like it and know it? 

McSwaggerty

Been using Cakewalk for years....at first by Sonar, now by Bandlab.
its great
Absolutely no reason for me  to switch to anything else. 

Winny_Pooh

Pro Tools 12.5 but switching to Reaper at present.

Philtre

Well, an update to my OP...

I upgraded to Cubase Pro 11 for £136. Reasons being I know Cubase, I get a free upgrade to Cubase 12 next year and they're doing away with the dongle.

My problem now is I haven't used Cubase for some years now and I'm going to have to RTFM... ;-)

thecolourbox

thecolourbox said:

I use Cubase because I've always used Cubase, and I find Reaper really difficult to look at and the icons are not very intuitive as to what they do. I technically have Cubase Artist 11 but I tend to use Elements 8 because 11 requires the dongle to run and I can't be bothered to plug it in. Apart from a load of virtual instruments included in Artist I've not really noticed any difference between the two to be honest, for my use case. The instruments also seem to need my external hard drive plugged in which is annoying on a laptop, then if I try to move the instrument libraries around to the C drive it just cacks up and tells me it can't find them again

I find it's an infuriating piece of software that seems to cack up every time there's a Windows update but to be honest, I find a lot of software quite frustrating so I'm not sure too much can be read into me finding it annoying. 

The midi instrument inputting etc is pretty good on Cubase, I've never been bothered to try and use Reaper for that as it seems to be more effort than its worth when Cubase already works. 

Bang on cue mine has cut out, stays in initialising when booting it and now I've unistalled it, it has been initialising the installer for an hour. Yay

PolarityMan

reaper obvs

icu81b4

Musicwolf said:

Coming from Cubase I found Cakewalk to be more intuitive than Reaper.  The only problem was that you need an internet connection which was a pain for location recording.

I don’t think that’s correct that you need an internet connection for Cakewalk, I use mine standalone. 

I have Studio One as well but prefer Cakewalk by Bandlab, regularly updated it gets better and better, and it’s free. 

Musicwolf

icu81b4 said:

Musicwolf said:

Coming from Cubase I found Cakewalk to be more intuitive than Reaper.  The only problem was that you need an internet connection which was a pain for location recording.

I don’t think that’s correct that you need an internet connection for Cakewalk, I use mine standalone. 

I have Studio One as well but prefer Cakewalk by Bandlab, regularly updated it gets better and better, and it’s free. 

@icu81b4 ; Good to know.  I may give it a try again sometime but, for now, I'm able to do what I need to do with Reaper and Cantabile.  Cubase remains my go to DAW as I've so many years experience with it.

Fez

Reaper

duotone

Reaper, works great for me

spark240

Studio One….Ive just got used to it now…

Danny1969

I use Reaper for some stuff but still use Protools for any work that involves live drums.
For tracking live bands I'm only really using the built in multitrack recorder in the desk. 

equalsql

Another Reaper devotee here. Does everything I need. I use the Pro X-Tools Gold Edition v3.2.1 (dark) theme which looks gorgeous too.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=166697

Fretwired

Cubase 11 Pro.

Haych

"Using" is a very loose term these days, but I own Logic Pro.

Habanero

I started with Garageband at the beginning of 2020, and it's been quite adequate for my use. Then I bought a plugin and discovered that the midi abilities are limited. So I subsequently bought Logic and am now ploughing through a tutorial book, thinking that it's way more powerful than I need!

Jimbro66

Being fairly new to DAWs I'm looking at Cubasis in preference to Garageband for recording to an iPAD. How many of the other DAWs mentioned in this thread will run on an iOS device? Any thoughts on what does that best?