What DAW are you using?

WiresDreamDisasters

Reaper, Studio One, Ableton Live, and Cubase 11 Pro.

Snap

Jimbro66 said:

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?

Cubasis is about the best for iOS, so says just about every authority going. I prefer having the significantly increased screen space of my desktop though (2 x 27" monitors), the ipad drives me nuts in this respect.

Philtre

Anybody using Propellerhead Reason? I used to use it loads about 20 years ago, and I updated to Reason 9 a few years ago but couldn't use it because the interface still required a fucking great big magnifying glass to see the tiny UI.

Jimbro66

Snap said:

Jimbro66 said:

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?

Cubasis is about the best for iOS, so says just about every authority going. I prefer having the significantly increased screen space of my desktop though (2 x 27" monitors), the ipad drives me nuts in this respect.

Thanks for that Snap. I take your point about iPad screen size but my intention was just to use my iPad as a mobile setup while away from home and then hopefully use the Cubasis Project Importer to import projects into Cubase on my home Win 10 desktop pc.

Has anyone done that and does it work fairly seamlessly?

Are there any better alternatives I should be looking at without spending an arm and a leg? The audio interface is a Steinberg UR44 which is iPad-friendly.

Jonathangus

I've just been using Audacity for roughing out arrangements - recording directly from my Vox Adio.  On recommendations here, I've just tried Cakewalk, and it's got some great features (including a built-in drum machine).  What I can't get to work, however, is the latency tool, so my recordings are all out of time.  Any ideas?

Nerine

I’m a Pro Tools and I’ve used it since PT8. 

Today, however, I decided to download Reaper and give it a try. 

How does one change the input monitor latency/buffer size? On my Mac based PT HD|Native system there’s very little latency. Down to completely negligible if LLM is turned on. 

On Reaper, no matter what settings I altered, it always felt like I had a minimum of 512 samples going on. I.e. unusable for direct monitoring of guitar. 

I’m assuming I overlooked something but I’ve been producing/engineering for 10-odd years now and I’ll be buggered if I could get it to be anything other than completely unusable. I googled for answers and stuff but nothing I tried seemed to work. I could monitor through hardware via my SSL, but it would mean completely re-rigging and re-wiring my setup to use that as monitor control, and my Dangerous D Box would become nearly redundant in that respect aside from additional analogue summing, which I don’t tend to use anymore. 

siremoon

Nerine said:

I’m a Pro Tools and I’ve used it since PT8. 

Today, however, I decided to download Reaper and give it a try. 

How does one change the input monitor latency/buffer size? On my Mac based PT HD|Native system there’s very little latency. Down to completely negligible if LLM is turned on. 

On Reaper, no matter what settings I altered, it always felt like I had a minimum of 512 samples going on. I.e. unusable for direct monitoring of guitar. 

I’m assuming I overlooked something but I’ve been producing/engineering for 10-odd years now and I’ll be buggered if I could get it to be anything other than completely unusable. I googled for answers and stuff but nothing I tried seemed to work. I could monitor through hardware via my SSL, but it would mean completely re-rigging and re-wiring my setup to use that as monitor control, and my Dangerous D Box would become nearly redundant in that respect aside from additional analogue summing, which I don’t tend to use anymore. 

It might be a mismatch between the interface sample rate and the Reaper project sample rate.   

Nerine

siremoon said:

Nerine said:

I’m a Pro Tools and I’ve used it since PT8. 

Today, however, I decided to download Reaper and give it a try. 

How does one change the input monitor latency/buffer size? On my Mac based PT HD|Native system there’s very little latency. Down to completely negligible if LLM is turned on. 

On Reaper, no matter what settings I altered, it always felt like I had a minimum of 512 samples going on. I.e. unusable for direct monitoring of guitar. 

I’m assuming I overlooked something but I’ve been producing/engineering for 10-odd years now and I’ll be buggered if I could get it to be anything other than completely unusable. I googled for answers and stuff but nothing I tried seemed to work. I could monitor through hardware via my SSL, but it would mean completely re-rigging and re-wiring my setup to use that as monitor control, and my Dangerous D Box would become nearly redundant in that respect aside from additional analogue summing, which I don’t tend to use anymore. 

It might be a mismatch between the interface sample rate and the Reaper project sample rate.   

I think both were set at 48k. 

joeW

Not a lot of love for Logic - I am going to start using a daw a lot more next year and looking at the comments, I may avoid logic rather than invest a lot of hours and find it’s not what I need 

TheBigDipper

joeW said:

Not a lot of love for Logic - I am going to start using a daw a lot more next year and looking at the comments, I may avoid logic rather than invest a lot of hours and find it’s not what I need 

Logic requires macOS. That's part of the reason, surely? Lots of people have never used it because they don't run the platform. Lot's of people have decided to be anti-Apple and that informs their comments. It won't be the best for everyone, but no DAW is - not even Reaper...  :-) 

If you've got a Mac then Logic s an awful lot of DAW for its one-off cost. 

octatonic

joeW said:

Not a lot of love for Logic - I am going to start using a daw a lot more next year and looking at the comments, I may avoid logic rather than invest a lot of hours and find it’s not what I need 

If you are on a Mac computer then this might be a mistake.
Logic is very user friendly if you aren't coming from another DAW.
A lot of people don't like Logic because they are already used to how another DAW works and switching is harder than learning it for the first time.

As Big Dipper says, some people just don't like Apple.
Well, they didn't originally develop Logic, it was developed from the 80's until 2002 by Emagic.
Apple bought it in 2002 and developed it after that.
Many of the Emagic team went over and are still working there- I know this because I was part of the beta testing team until Apple bought them and when I worked for an audio manufacturer I was still chatting to several of the now-Apple employees who were part of the team at Emagic.

I think Logic is £199, but you get a lot of content, plugins and instruments for your money.
Logic updates are free- it has been years since they charged for an update, because largely the investment in Apple computer tech pays for the development.

If you are already own an Apple computer then it is IMHO a bit of a no-brainer.

'find it’s not what I need' - pretty unlikely, because there are very few things that one DAW can do that another cannot.
It is sometimes HOW that thing is achieved that is different.

For instance, auxes in Pro Tools work differently to in Logic.
In Logic when you create a sent it automatically creates a return.
In Pro Tools you have to create a send AND a return.

Playlists, Bussing, Groups all work slightly differently but you can largely achieve the same effect.
The problem for most people is once they learn one DAW it is comfortable to them.
Learning a new way in a new DAW butts up against their current knowledge and frustrates them.
This is where people get quite pissy complaining about the shortcomings of one DAW against another, but it is largely because they just don't have the knowledge in the new DAW to do it.

joeW

octatonic said:

This is where people get quite pissy complaining about the shortcomings of one DAW against another, but it is largely because they just don't have the knowledge in the new DAW to do it.

Thanks @TheBigDipper and @octatonic - I am fully invested in the apple ecosystem and have logic - that’s going to save me time and ££’s - a rare and pleasant surprise 

TheBigDipper

Unlike Octatonic, I'm no expert user. I barely scratch the surface of Logic, coming from using GarageBand and Multitrack DAW on iOS. But it's straightforward enough if I keep it simple. I use a MIDI keyboard with pads to drive the software instruments and pretty much treat it like a glorified Revox. Recently discovered Smart Tempo (I think that’s what it’s called) which is pretty useful if your music isn't fixed to one BPM and uses tempo as another dynamic. 

I'm not expressing a preference, more saying it's better than I am. 

LastMantra

Not actually used any for years but when I did it was the free trial version of Reaper.

andy_k

Reaper, for me is a no brainer.
The benefits of not being tied to an OS, or piece of hardware make the effort it takes to understand it easy to swallow.
A  license covers me for installations on 3 different machines, and in an emergency I can still work on any computer with the unlicensed version, takes seconds to DL and install.
The large community of users, makes problem solving easy, Kenny Gioia has probably done a short video explaining exactly how to achieve whatever it is you are trying to do.
A few times I accidentally open up a project in PT, and immediately remember what made me look for an alternative, and many times I have got to a point in Logic, with something like the newish sampler update, where I hit a problem, and after searching around for a bit, find that it is a known 'bug' or unwanted feature. Such a frustrating experience.
Not being able to change the order of channel strips in the mixer seems a bit of an intentional thing to make you work the way Apple wants you to  work, which seems a bit odd sometimes.
I have tried a few others, Ableton, Mixbus, Sonar, etc etc, all with their own quirks, and have found Reaper the easiest to get to grips with, and have yet to find anything I cannot do with it.
I have been doing some fairly massive projects with it, and with a bit of careful housekeeping it is running flawlessly on an older MBP.
No hesitation in making it my DAW of choice.

Yearofthegoat

I mainly use Reaper and FL Studio. The latter is great for EDM, synths/sound design, MIDI patterns i.e. knocking up tunes quickly, and Reaper takes care of recording and subsequent mixing etc. I've also used FL as a plugin in Reaper, which can work well with a bit of fiddling. I don't think there's much Reaper can't do if you include plugins/addons.

(But! Kenny Gioia's mid-sentence pauses drive me nuts. Just spit....  .... .....  it out Kenny!)

I also have Cubase LE and Ableton Live Lite from hardware purchases, but haven't put the time in with those so far.

Bod

Philtre said:

Anybody using Propellerhead Reason? I used to use it loads about 20 years ago, and I updated to Reason 9 a few years ago but couldn't use it because the interface still required a fucking great big magnifying glass to see the tiny UI.

I recently upgraded to version 12 and they've finally made the rack hidpi and zoomable, but those improvements haven't made it to the DAW elements yet. 

Since they released the rack as a VST, the standalone version hasn't received any attention.

Philtre

Bod said:

Philtre said:

Anybody using Propellerhead Reason? I used to use it loads about 20 years ago, and I updated to Reason 9 a few years ago but couldn't use it because the interface still required a fucking great big magnifying glass to see the tiny UI.

I recently upgraded to version 12 and they've finally made the rack hidpi and zoomable, but those improvements haven't made it to the DAW elements yet. 

Since they released the rack as a VST, the standalone version hasn't received any attention.

Propellerheads used to be quite a cool, small, funky company. Seems they recently pivoted to become a bunch of corporate cocksuckers.

duotone

equalsql said:

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

Cheers @equalsql ;
Just updated Reaper tonight, so will give that theme a try for a change.

Axe_meister

I first started on Cubase many many moons ago when the free version was actually quite good. Then I had a MBOX1 which came with pro-tools which I did not get on with. I discovered Reaper and ran that for a few years. Then tried Cakewalk which for a free DAW is bloody good.
However I have recently purchased a Presonus interface which came with Studio 1 and I really like it so will be driving that for the foreseeable future.