What is the best DAW and why?

[russwest0]

I need to learn one but don't want to waste time learning a shit one.

Pro Tools, FL Studio, Reason, Ableton Live, Cubase, Magix...

Which one should I learn?

[russwest0]

FYI im going to mostly be making alt rock music with some electronic music

[KevinNYC]

FYI im going to mostly be making alt rock music with some electronic music
Reaper
Bitwig

[russwest0]

Reaper
Bitwig

repped for naming two i havent even heard of.

going to look into them right now. thanks man

[KingPush]

Reason is sick. Too bad you cant pirate any version past 5.


I actually was gonna pay for Reason 8 today because i thought there would be a deal for black friday :(

I think if youre making Rock music you should just get pro tools though.

[russwest0]

Reason is sick. Too bad you cant pirate any version past 5.


I actually was gonna pay for Reason 8 today because i thought there would be a deal for black friday :(

I think if youre making Rock music you should just get pro tools though.

this shit sucks because daw's can be so expensive and they constantly upgrade costing more. and in protools case not every audio interface even works with them.

looking into reaper and bitwig right now. reaper looks pretty sick and easy to learn. might just start off on that instead of spending a bunch of time trying to figure out which one to learn.

[KingPush]

this shit sucks because daw's can be so expensive and they constantly upgrade costing more. and in protools case not every audio interface even works with them.

looking into reaper and bitwig right now. reaper looks pretty sick and easy to learn. might just start off on that instead of spending a bunch of time trying to figure out which one to learn.
i think theres demos for every software out right now.
I been using the Reason 8 demo for like a month. Only thing is you cant open saved tracks :lol

[Kblaze8855]

Every engineer I know( which is...a good number actually) scoffs inside when someone mentiones fruity loops.

[ace23]

Every engineer I know( which is...a good number actually) scoffs inside when someone mentiones fruity loops.
You ever used FL?

[m00qi]

I personally prefer Presonus Studio One but use Reaper for humanizing drum loops because the humanizing feature in Studio One sucks IMO. Reaper has all the features you need and you can customize it (themes, etc.) to your liking. Pricing is also very good


$225: full commercial license.
$60: discounted license.

You may use the discounted license if any of the following is true:

You are an individual, using REAPER only for personal use.
You are an individual or business, using REAPER for commercial use, and the yearly gross revenue does not exceed USD $20,000.
You are an educational or non-profit organization.

I'm guessing the discount price applies to you (?).

[andgar923]

They all have their pros and cons.

Try them out and see which one you prefer, they all offer free demos.

If you have a Mac it should already come with GarageBand, try using that until you feel you need something more advanced. GarageBand is great as a writing tool to record basic ideas. Paired up with its iOS partner and you have a great writing tool at your disposal no matter where you are.

After that it comes down to your needs and workflow preference, as workflow is very important for the creative process. It doesn't matter if a DAW has tons of great features if it stumps your creative workflow.

[CAAIDN]

I personally prefer Presonus Studio One but use Reaper for humanizing drum loops because the humanizing feature in Studio One sucks IMO. Reaper has all the features you need and you can customize it (themes, etc.) to your liking. Pricing is also very good

You can humanize drums in any DAW. Use quality drums to begin with and then EQ, layer to your liking.

[m00qi]

You can humanize drums in any DAW. Use quality drums to begin with and then EQ, layer to your liking.

Yeah. What I meant was humanizing by randomizing the velocity / timing of certain drums parts. I don't feel like doing everything manually. In reaper there's a cool feature where I can randomize the velocity / timing of certain parts by x%.

[CAAIDN]

Every engineer I know( which is...a good number actually) scoffs inside when someone mentiones fruity loops.

I know quite a few engineers myself since im also a producer and everyone told me the same thing. In pretty much every DAW you can make a hit song or a crappy one. FL gets much backlash cause it has a simple interface and has the easiest learning curve but if you stick with it you can make some dope stuff. Although as far as mixing and mastering goes it comes a bit short especially for vocals. But when i make a beat i send it to an engineer and he takes care of that.

[CAAIDN]

Yeah. What I meant was humanizing by randomizing the velocity / timing of certain drums parts. I don't feel like doing everything manually. In reaper there's a cool feature where I can randomize the velocity / timing of certain parts by x%.

Changing the velocity and timing of each an every drum part is easy as pie in FL. Literally just a few clicks.

[KevinNYC]

Every engineer I know( which is...a good number actually) scoffs inside when someone mentiones fruity loops.

Apparently it has come a long way. Fruity Loops is no longer even the name.

[Swaggin916]

FL studio is fine. Years ago people people just like to say that it sucked for some reason if you were wanting to "professional". Like someone else said though I just wouldn't mix vocals on there... You could mix everything else on there if you wanted to. The old logic was just to mix it in pro tools though or just give it to an engineer if you have some money and a plan. It's all easy to learn though and get used to if you are motivated and you can get a professional sound with any of them. All the demos are mixed using those programs and they sound professional so if you are willing to learn then it's no problem. I used to sit for hours watching youtube tutorials... just don't care to do it anymore but that;s all you have to do and and also have an understand of sound and how to manipulate it.

[eriX]

FL studio is going to be the future when all the upcoming producers are all using FL to start off with.

Mixing and mastering these days can all be done with plugins, you just need knowledge on how to mix and master properly. Get yourselves a set of iZoptope plugins, you're are set to produce commercially viable tracks, given you know how to mix and master a track properly and not just compress and pump up the gains.

There are obviously much more details in learning how to mix and master properly but in the end the crowd won't hear the difference unless you are playing it on speakers to hundreds of thousands of people, I've played my demo tracks in clubs that are barely mastered and it sounded fine, but until you make it big, there's no point.

[KingPush]

FL studio is going to be the future when all the upcoming producers are all using FL to start off with.

Mixing and mastering these days can all be done with plugins, you just need knowledge on how to mix and master properly. Get yourselves a set of iZoptope plugins, you're are set to produce commercially viable tracks, given you know how to mix and master a track properly and not just compress and pump up the gains.

There are obviously much more details in learning how to mix and master properly but in the end the crowd won't hear the difference unless you are playing it on speakers to hundreds of thousands of people, I've played my demo tracks in clubs that are barely mastered and it sounded fine, but until you make it big, there's no point.
Nah I think everyone is hopping on the Ableton bandwagon now. I might also eventually lol