Comments on: What is a DAW and which one should I choose?

By: Nikman

Nikman — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:07:50 +0000

Gotta go with FL.STUDIO 9 or Ableton 8 foe show.

By: Adam Wolters

Adam Wolters — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:33:36 +0000

Nice site – well explained terms – but your preference of Cubase and Logic over Pro Tools and Sonar seems to be quite arbitrary.

I have taught all of these DAWs; And In my experience and that of many colleagues over recent years.

There is Major Convergent Evolution (they look and work very much the same)

The feature lists of all four titles are almost identical (except Logic has snappier names for the same features…. Automation Envelopes=Hyperdraw )

And I have found in my second job of troubleshooting IT in other Music departments that Sonar is more stable than Cubase on PC.

My major rules when deciding this are –
1) stability – no crashes, no funny timing errors, no loosing my audio.
2) Quick work-flow – can’t get in the way when I’m “on it”
3) compatibility – with other systems and Pluggins

So what were your reasons for saying:
“your best bet is Logic or Cubase.” Because though the rest of the page is good – this decision seems arbitrary.

By: M.S.Dhiab

M.S.Dhiab — Thu, 06 May 2010 07:43:42 +0000

what i ment in my previous comment is that a professional
music can be done with fl studio .
thanks for the nice article.

my best
m.dhiab

By: M.S.Dhiab

M.S.Dhiab — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:42:01 +0000

Hi .
i use fruityloops studio , but alot of my musician friends say that it is not very good program compared to
Cubase ,Reason , Ableton , Sonar … could i ask if this is true ?
thanks

M.S.Dhiab

By: Z

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:28:46 +0000

First I would like to confirm that Pro Tools 8 is available for Windows XP and Vista at least (sounds like Windows 7 will also be supported). See the page below.
http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=54&itemid=40359&langid=1

Secondly I want to say that I started out a couple months ago with Audacity because microphones and everything else for a drumset cost a lot of money (been playing for 19 years now and finally got mics, mixing board, etc., still need at least one more power amp and speakers… and a bass player)! I really enjoy using it but I think I might be outgrowing it and I’m going to give Kristal Sound Engine a try. I’ve downloaded and installed it but haven’t yet tried to record and manipulate anything. I’m planning on getting Sonar 7 soonish but will have to save up for it for a while.

Also, from what I’ve been reading, Pro Tools does seem to be fading from popularity and even its seat on the throne seems shaky. Probably due to prohibitive pricing, I would guess. But it really doesn’t matter much to me.

Thanks for the work you put into your site! People who are complaining about the inaccuracies have nothing better to do. I would certainly not reference wikipedia for anything serious, given the nature of that site. “If you saw it on the Internet it must be true” is not valid.

Thanks again and I hope your site takes off for you.

By: Marc Yao

Marc Yao — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:24:41 +0000

I believe you did a good my friend, for someone to spend his time writing a post like this for other people to read and learn from, I think you did a terrific work that needs to be appreciated. In fact as an electronic engineering Student, I understand hardware and software interfacing and for those who would really want to know, all… and I mean all DWA without exception work base upon the same basic technology for which IBM has the patent and that same technology is what made it possible for Microsoft to build it operating systems which are windows. in other word, all DWA are Software or programs that have an interface which is the part that the user see on his screen and a set of internal codes to the program that send information in the form of electrical signals to the processor or to the sound card and receives information from them too. I keep my explanation simple and I don’t mean to be technical here but I just want everybody to know that all Music recording programs work the same way. The only deference between them is how accurate the program was written, how fast the program sends and receives information and how user friendly the software is. If you’ve noticed, there are two basic types in this category of software which are:
the one that only do MIDI controlling and recording
and the ones that do audio recording and maybe a third type that could do both.
So if you have a good hardware configuration, I mean if you have a good computer with a motherboard that way build to be quiet and a good sound card, any music software with which you are comfortable should be fine as far as it fulfils your needs. No software will give you a better sound if you sound card is a lousy one.
Now I will give my own opinion about pro-tools. Pro-tools is a good Software but just like I said it earlier, it cannot be the best since they all use the same basic technology. It is probably the most used in music studios because in a way, pro-toll took off around the time people were out there for music software for PC’s. Pro-tool was then, the best design of Music software around that time so most recording studios got and now you must know it or you can not be useful in a music studio that has it. The big Problem is Prot-tools only works with interfaces or recording control surface built by degidesign in other words, if you have an external sound card or control surface build by other company; you cannot use it with protocols. Up to now, it worked but Degidesign need to know that the same weapon that help them make money is the same weapon that will destroy them and we can see it on the market today, Cubase seems to be the most used around this time simply because it is standard like few other software and can be used with any control surface or any external sound card

By: Chippa

Chippa — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:01:57 +0000

Live is the best especially for recording a full album.

By: SynthFan

SynthFan — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:54:02 +0000

When I started my synthesizer hobby last year I also came across this article and now that I saw it mentioned on the Ableton forum I suddenly realized I wanted to respond

However, I also don’t fully agree with your opinion about Live. While you’re right that it can excel in DJ’ing I think you also shouldn’t underestimate the possibilities when using their software instruments like Operator, Analog and Collision. Then adding some of their sound effects/filters like the multiband dynamics (3 band “compressor”), Limiter or even the Vocoder and you’ll get a more complete environment.

AND… Lets also not ignore Max for Live.

So summing up: compliments on your article. It really helped me to make a decision about a DAW last year (guess which one I got? ).

By: TYcoon

TYcoon — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:08:55 +0000

BTW i use a MACINTOSH…

By: Tycoon

Tycoon — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:01:29 +0000

If at all possible im very new to making music and producing when i bought all my equipment it came with cubase LE (which i here is very limited) i currently have a MPK49 w/mic and speakers. Cubase seems really user friendly but havent use any other program besides it, also i really want to get a fully functioning DAW. What should i purchase for liking i.e. hip hop, r&b, funk, jazz and techno tranz. Keep in mind that im all knew to everything any suggestion would be helpful?