DAW opinions/advice

[jugglindan]

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

I spent ages a couple of years ago trying to get an old laptop running Ubuntu Studio to work nicely with my THR10C via USB. After a lot of configuration I got the THR editor working through Wine, but it was still flaky.

[Simon Barden]

Early on in DAWs, they were a lot more specialised, with meany feature sets specific to a single DAW. ProTools ran on specific hardware and only did audio, Cubase was great for MIDI, Logic was more like a computer based ProTools with better audio features than Cubase, but worse MIDI. etc. But these days, they've generally incorporated all the good features from the other DAWs, so they can pretty much all do what you want, so it's then a question of how they present themselves to the user. I've had a go at Logic and everything seems to be in the wrong place for me. I still mainly use Cubase 8.5, because although I've got 9.5, they went and changed a lot of things round and it just didn't click for me. So no point upgrading to 10.5.

A lot of people have changed to using Studio One, but I really don't want to start learning a new DAW just to do the same things that I can do in Cubase.

[blinddrew]

Was going to chip in but I think Simon's covered 95% of it.
I'm a Reaper user and probably the only other thing I'd add is that the frequency of updates and enhancements can be a real plus. Bugs are rare but fixed really quickly.
Oh yes, and if you've got any old plugins, it'll handle 32 bit stuff seamlessly.

[PJSprog]

I've been using Reaper for awhile now, and I didn't think the learning curve was all that steep. One nice benefit they have is the incredible amount of video education available on their website. There is virtually nothing about that program that they don't have a video explaining. It's very friendly to new users, which was why I went with it. It's also affordable, and very light on resource usage. You can run it efficiently on pretty much any modern laptop or desktop.

Give it a look. You can download it and use it for 30 days for free. After that, it's only $60 for a personal license. They never actually make you pay for it, and none of the features get disabled if you don't, you'll just get a pop-up every time you open it reminding you that you haven't paid for the license. Of course, an honest person will pay for it, and it's worth far more than the $60. More features than you'll likely ever use as a home recording artist.

[JimC]

I use Cakewalk. The trouble I have is that large chunks of the interface are really not very intuitive, and if I put it down for 3 months its quite a struggle getting back up to speed. Mind you I have Cubase for a while and found that even worse...

[dave.king1]

PJSprog and Simon have covered it nicely.

I started with Cakewalk many years ago ( long before the Bandlab days ) and never got to love it, then spent some time with Cubase and Son's Of Poppa Browne was recorded in Cubase but I edited, mixed and mastered in Reaper which I have now been using for around 10 years, best $60.00 I ever spent

The $60.00 for Reaper get you two full releases, R4.xx & R5.xx then another $60.00 for R6.xx & then R7 when it eventually comes along.

All DAWs have a fairly steep learning curve and in reality aren't all that different in what they do it's more differing workflows.

Everything we have done since Poppa Browne in 2009 has been recorded in Reaper.

I had a lovely little Peavey USB mixer that the internal power supply fritzed in and then a Behringer Xenyx U502 mixer that Ch1 became noisy in and now a Scarlett Solo II, we only record one track at a time so the Solo more than meets our needs.

The VST & JS plugins that come native with Reaper will do anything you need once you look beyond the defaults but we all go looking for that secret sauce so buy plugins galore.

There are no VSTi's in Reaper but there are plenty of free ones that are more than acceptable and many of the commercial ones appear on special or free on a reasonably regular basis

[FrankenWashie]

I love reading through threads that just go completely over my head, it’s a pointed reminder that there is so much I don’t know about a great many things.

[McCreed]

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.

I love reading through threads that just go completely over my head, it’s a pointed reminder that there is so much I don’t know about a great many things.

Both of these comments made me LOL!

[McCreed]

Okay... after a few days of driving my self crazy, I've think I've settled on Reaper.

I've downloaded the new 6.1 with a 30 day trial, and after recording and overdubbing a few tracks it seems to perform well with my system. Whilst there are heaps of unknowns still, the basic stuff was reasonably intuitive.
It played nice with the Scarlett Solo and no deep diving for latency compensation, so very positive all around.

Thanks to everyone for their input. I appreciate it very much.
Now I have some light reading ahead and 29 days to decide if it's a keeper!

Cheers,
Mick

[dave.king1]

It played nice with the Scarlett Solo and no deep diving for latency compensation, so very positive all around.

Now I have some light reading ahead and 29 days to decide if it's a keeper!

Cheers,
Mick

I reckon you will run with it, I guess you have downloaded the latest Focusrite drivers for it and also make sure to grab the Red EQ & Comp that are also free, they are quite nice and simple to use.

I also use Kuassa Vermillion for my virtual amps & cabs, not free but also not expensive