what's you're favourite DAW?

    In the past I tried logic and cubase.Now I have trial versions of ableton,presonus one and bitwig.

    They all have their pro's and cons.

    With logic I had the problem that after an update to sierra logic 9 was not working anymore.

    Cubase is powerfull but very difficult.With Ableton I had problems downloading it and I'am afraid of buying it because of that.

    I have the free version of Presonus one 5 and it sounds the best,especially the Kemper via s/pdif.

    Bitwig seems to have a problem with s/pdif it sounds harsh like their is no proper conversion.

    I also have the Jamstik midi guitar and that works the best with Bitwig.

    So I'am looking for a DAW which has a good s/pdif handling good multi polyphonic expression handling and not to hard to understand.

    Quote from leo helm

    Why does it sound so different then?

    I don't know but I can tell you for sure that a DAW doesn't distinguish analog from any sort of digital channels of your audio interface. DAWs have no clue about coax S/PDIF, optical S/PDIF, ADAT, AES3, MADI, AVB, Dante, Ravenna or whatever other digital audio protocol you might know. That's all just in the audio interface (and its driver). Nothing to do with the DAW.

    Bang for the buck goes to Reaper. Ability to customize to your personal needs with layout etc. goes to Reaper. People often discount it for being so cost effective but if you really dive into it and learn about it and also what you really want and need you can get it with Reaper. They are always updating and upgrading things. They also have a wonderful community and are willing to help if you have questions and need advice/direction. I always say it is a worthy solution and deserving of a hard look for the reasons I mentioned alone. Free trial or 60 bucks (or something like that) for the license. Hard to pass at that price and with all the other perks.

    Most of the DAWS are quite capable. You really need to find the one that works best for you, how you think and work and operate. There is no BEST, only best for you personally. Again, with the customization aspect of Reaper, it is tough to beat IMO. YMMV

    The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.

    Although it's not the "in" thing to do, I've been using Cakewalk for about 20 years. Paid a bit of money for all the versions through the years but now it's free. So used to it and can work fast on it so It wouldn't make sense to change. They still upgrade and improve it constantly with free upgrades about as often as Kemper does. It is capable of many things like turning audio into midi and time stretching. Just because it's free doesn't mean it isn't good!

    I took a look at reaper, and at a 5 min overlook it seemed close to what Cakewalk looks like. I like the Skylight interface of Cake. It's not cutting edge now but the ability to jump between scenes and tab windows makes it fast. My normal template will load the tracks on one screen and Mixer and drums on separate tabs on the second. I have a scene that pulls down one screen and puts up rig manager. It's easy to bounce around on. It does so much stuff, that to learn everything that it can do (midi filters, drum maps, etc) would take some study but nothing like Logic was when I used it in around 2000. It had a huge learning curve. Now Logic looks way simpler. I had pro tools for a while too and it's super easy but I actually liked sonar4 better when I saw it.

    Been using Cubase for 30+ years. Would choose Reaper for sure if I had to start now.

    Kemper PowerRack |Kemper Stage| Rivera 4x12 V30 cab | Yamaha DXR10 pair | UA Apollo Twin Duo | Adam A7X | Cubase DAW
    Fender Telecaster 62 re-issue chambered mahogany | Kramer! (1988 or so...) | Gibson Les Paul R7 | Fender Stratocaster HBS-1 Classic Relic Custom Shop | LTD EC-1000 Evertune | 1988 Desert Yellow JEM

    I don't have experience with it but it gets highly recommended by people I respect a lot (Dan Worrall, Miami etc.)

    I do love that folder tracks become groups as well. Would love to see that in Cubase.

    Kemper PowerRack |Kemper Stage| Rivera 4x12 V30 cab | Yamaha DXR10 pair | UA Apollo Twin Duo | Adam A7X | Cubase DAW
    Fender Telecaster 62 re-issue chambered mahogany | Kramer! (1988 or so...) | Gibson Les Paul R7 | Fender Stratocaster HBS-1 Classic Relic Custom Shop | LTD EC-1000 Evertune | 1988 Desert Yellow JEM

    Quote from Dynochrome

    Although it's not the "in" thing to do, I've been using Cakewalk for about 20 years. Paid a bit of money for all the versions through the years but now it's free. So used to it and can work fast on it so It wouldn't make sense to change. They still upgrade and improve it constantly with free upgrades about as often as Kemper does. It is capable of many things like turning audio into midi and time stretching. Just because it's free doesn't mean it isn't good!

    I can relate to that. It wouldn't make sens to me either to change DAW. Cubase user since...can't remember. :rolleyes: Dead easy to use.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

    Quote from Edward Dixon

    Can Cakewalk do video yet? I haven't used Cakewalk for years so I really can't compare the 2 any more.

    I know you can put video in and have been able to for a long time, but I'm not sure about video editing capability. It's an audio workstation. If I was doing video, I would edit that in another program. I think it does do video but I never tried.

    Quote from GearJocke

    I can relate to that. It wouldn't make sens to me either to change DAW. Cubase user since...can't remember. :rolleyes: Dead easy to use.

    I believe you don't have to have the "latest greatest" as the software is like the puppet master for the hardware doing the A/D/A conversion. I'm sure some can "sound" different. but in reality, shouldn't. I strive to have my playback be exactly what I hear when tracking. If I can do that, I have full control. I'm guessing any workstation software should do that. I'm pretty old school. I understand (and know how to do)most of the complex editing that can be done, but when I record I actually don't use the weird manipulating that much. It is either good or bad. Now if I was recording someone and there was a track they loved but something like the timing was off, I'd dig into fixing it, but for me, I work like I'm on a Studer that rewinds instantly and punches predictably. I'm just happy to not have to cut tape.

    Quote from londonjeepster

    Pro Tools for me, very easy to use, but expensive maybe... cheers

    There used to be lower priced versions that were pretty good and real easy to use, but most DAW's nowadays are pretty easy to use. If you compared logic today with what it was 20 years ago It looks vastly different and and now is much more like what most of us are used to.

    I still like Cake as it's easy to understand with a little work and super customizable with loads of cool color templates for free. There is even a template editor that lets you design your own templates/colors if you are into that. (I'm not) Of course the midi editing is great but it's a small part of what I usually do.

    Quote from Dynochrome

    There used to be lower priced versions that were pretty good and real easy to use, but most DAW's nowadays are pretty easy to use.

    Simply becuase they more and more start to look the same. Well more or less. I demoed Cakewalk years ago and had gotten used to Cubase. It was very confusing and it made me to decide I will never switch to another daw. Not worth the time or the hassle learning doing it differently to have the same end result. Since then I have demoed all other daw for fun though. Except Logic since I'm on pc and not mac.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau