DAW opinions/advice

[Bakersdozen]

Could be the reason for your mouse jitter

[McCreed]

Sound card and System Info:





I should just stick to building & playing guitars...

[king casey]

Focusrite Scarlett Solo should be taking out the sound card surely?

cheers, Mark.

[McCreed]

For PTF, have you checked for any program updates or issue tickets that could be something like a simple driver issue for your mouse or something like that. Try another mouse and see if the problem is still there? A fresh install? Google for similar fixes?

Have done exhaustive efforts before turning here.

I think I'll just f-off PTF and try Ableton, unless someone has other options for me.
At least I know the system reqs are met with that.

[Bakersdozen]

Give Ableton a go. Have a look on YouTube for simple recording in the arrangement view and how to setup your ins and outs etc. You can even get fancy with latency compensation etc. once you progress a little

[Twodogies]

I'm a Linux fan ..lmms is available on Windows but haven't seen it in a while.. I was using KXStudio. Will again once garage is converted to half guitar building half studio. . Best thing about Linux its all free lol ..and you can dual boot computer to run both Linux and Windows so you don't lose those Windows programs you paid for lol

[Simon Barden]

All the DAWS have pros and cons. Pro Tools has some benefits, but it's still clunky in others. And whilst its used by a lot of pros for basic recording, they often swap to something else for mixing.

There is no 'best' DAW, just the best one that suits your way of working. Reaper is cheap and probably the best choice for a slowish laptop like yours with a small amount of RAM (8GB is a decent amount for a DAW, I have 16GB in mine but generally only 8GB gets used). It's very configurable, but that does result in a rather steep initial learning curve. It doesn't take much memory up to run itself.

You'll need to select the ASIO driver for the Focusrite as the Audio input/output in PT, as Realtek is the built-in sound card. If you are only using the laptop as a DAW, then I'd disable the Realtek chip in the BIOS (if that's an option, as laptop BIOSes are normally quite limited in options).

An SSD will speed things up considerably, as laptop HDDs are generally slow. Also, for DAW use, you'll want to disable any power saving options as these can kill performance and introduce all sorts of pops and clicks.

Third party virus checkers etc. can also cause system slowdowns, so most people just use the standard Windows anti-virus software for their DAWs.

Also check for what programs run on start-up and remove any from the list that aren't necessary. Some will constantly try to check the web for updates - which all takes processing time.

Make sure the BIOS and drivers are all up to date. I normally download a free driver update checker program, update the drivers and then delete the checker. If the laptop is more than a few years old, the drivers probably won't be updated any more, so you only need to do it once.

Turning off WI-Fi can also help stop system slow-downs and clicks.

Don't forget to configure your audio buffer settings in your sound card driver. The bigger the buffer, the less work your processor has to do, but you get more latency. Not an issue when just mixing or straight recording, but it is if you are using the DAW to process an input signal (e.g. an amp sim) and hear that back whilst playing along to stuff already on the DAW. So don't be afraid to keep adjusting it to suit the situation. Too small a buffer for the laptop's processing capacity, and you'll get a whole load of clicks /pops/dropouts that are recorded as audio data is thrown away because it wasn't processed quickly enough.

Use the direct monitoring facility on the Focusrite wherever possible for latency-free monitoring when recording.

The more powerful your PC/laptop, the less the fine tuning matters, but even so, there are limits as to what even a fast processor can cope with if the wrong bit of software is hogging it.

[McCreed]

Thanks Simon.

I may be heading toward Reaper now.
I installed Ableton Live 10 Lite and it does seem to perform ok, but so far is proving to be challenging in that it does not seem as intuitive as others I've seen.
I know I said I've been using Audacity, but I do have second hand experience with Pro Tools and Cubase, which I found easier to wrap my head around.
I'll give Ableton another day and do some more research/tutorials with it. I've over-cooked my brain the past 48 hours

[Simon Barden]

Cubase Elements would probably provide you with more than enough to get going with and is easier to get into than Reaper and would be my choice for a basic DAW. Reaper is great but has all the bells and whistles, and sometimes not having too much choice is better. I started out with Cubasis in the early 2000s which I still think produced some of my best work (plus my ears worked pretty well in those days).

[SamSquare]

Might also want to look into Reason essentials. It’s interface and workflow has more of a hardware look and feel, and for that reason I’ve found it very intuitive (I’ve been a Reason user since V1 in 2001).

I must say, I think this is the first ‘which daw?’ Thread I’ve seen that hasn’t descended into a ‘my daw is better than yours’ debacle. We even missed an opportunity for a Mac vs Windows spat! Have I found the most civilised place on the internet??


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