I've been researching into getting a new DAW (it should be stated at this point that I'm on an Intel Macbook)... and I'm a little amazed by the level of animosity between users of different DAW's, the range of opinions on pretty much all that I've come across and the rather scary amount of information being thrown at me.
The last DAW I used was Cakewalk Pro Audio 8... so things have stepped up a gear a little since then! I suppose I primarily want something strong in Audio manipulation and synthesis. Logic Pro seems to be a powerful option but I'm a little lost in all honesty.
Anyway, I respect the opinions of these board members, so what DAW's are you using and are you happy?
Thanks

quote:

and I'm a little amazed by the level of animosity between users of different DAW's

Yeah, it's silly ain't it?

They all do more or less the same thing. Some do MIDI better, some do other things better. Some people prefer this feature or that, but in the end, it doesn't really matter.

I think the thing to do is just demo a bunch and find one that feels intuative to you. Soliciting opinions on specific DAWs will just give you a whole bunch of different opinions which won't really clarify anything.

But of course people will always be glad to leap in and tell you why THEIR choice is the best one.

Chris

I run pro tools on a TDM mix system with 888/24 interfaces. I have no problem with mine and I am happy with it.

The Thing with DAWs is the are all pretty good. None of them would be a big mistake. They all have pros and cons:

Pro Tools: Industry stanard and pretty easy to use. Bad thing is that you are tied to Digidesign hardware. MIDI is pretty basic.

Logic: Advanced MIDI and the fact that it is owned by Apple means it should have good incompatibly with Macs. Integrated notation and you can use it with a wide range of interfaces. Down side is that it can get pretty confusing and on the audio end of things simple things can be more difficult then they need to.

Digital Performer: Most people I know using DP are doing so because they are composer and like the integrated MIDI and Notation.

I do not know much about PC stuff these days.

You can make great music/recordings with any of them. Its just a matter of getting one and really learning it.

I agree with Bandini - you just have to take the time to try out several and see which best fits your work flow.

I use a program called n-Track Studio and I can recommend that you at least give it a whirl. You can download the demo for free. It has pretty much all the features of the heavily advertised programs but the layout is very straightforward and it only costs $80. I've looked at three or four other programs and this one fits what I do the best.

Another low cost program to check out is Reaper. This DAW proggy is getting a lot of good feedback from users. I've checked it out and it has some interesting features, particularly it's routing capabilities, but I couldn't see a large advantage over n-Track which I've come to be pretty proficient at.

(edit) I just realized you are running on a Mac and these two programs are PC based.

Samplitude 8 ... Steinberg pissed me off so bad with SX in the beginning...Having to pay for the upgrade to 2.0 just to get fixes that should have been in 1.0...Steinberg blows IMHO ... Samplitude isn't perfect, but I'll NEVER go to anything else unless I get rich and can afford ProFools...even then maybe not...

I use samplitude too...

Odd as it sounds, I'm using AcidPro 6. I'm using a kind of hybrid setup - everything is tracked through analog outboard to a Radar24. After that, a decision is made to either mix out of the box on the Radar with an analog console, or, fly the recorded tracks into AcidPro as WAV files.

I've also done several projects now that use both environments - I'll create a music bed with samples in AcidPro, route that as a stereo mix to the Radar via S/PDIF, then layer additional live instrument tracks on top of that through the analog chain into the Radar.

I haven't used any of the other DAW apps, but I'd agree with Bandini's original thought that it's pretty silly for people to slag each other because of their DAW choice. Whichever method or application it takes to bring your vision to life is the best one.

Akai DPS24. Occasional tweaks in Nuendo or WaveLab. I use DP3 as my MIDI sequencer.

I would love to consolidate the two computers (Mac G3/Win P4ht) into one Mac to run Logic to handle all the functions, but I can't justify spending the money. The computer(s) get used for managing backups of the Akai, softsampler(Gigastudio), and DP3 for MIDI. they get used as web portal/mp3 conveters for the studio as well.

As a previous user of cakewalk pro audio I've got to say it's gonna be not easy to find a DAW that will satisfy you. Sonar - the biggest mistake of Cakewalk IMO. I'm on Nuendo now & I honestly don't like the way MIDI & single audio track editing works, but on the other hand I think Nuendo is the most complete DAW in the market, I'll be hard pressed to find anything that it won't do. CPA had way better user interface IMO & built in Sound Forge integration was awesome. If I ever switch again that will most likely be Acid as soon as they overcome some problems they have with midi & VTSi & a few other silly things, overall way easier to work with & a lot faster if you use sound EFXs & stuff often. I like the way Acid sounds - I know it sounds crazy, but it does sound cleaner to my ear.
Can't say anything about Mac platform.
Just try them out. Depending on your workflow you will find one better than the other.

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I think Nuendo is the most complete DAW in the market, I'll be hard pressed to find anything that it won't do.

I can tell you some things it deosn't do WELL...does that count? (as of v2 at least) It's delay compensation is often wrong, shifting the phase of multimic'd drums in a very unpleasant way, and creating a lot of slop in the mix. Also, if you've ever used it's "split at hitpoint/quantize events" (ala beat detective) to quantize audio, I can make my P4 2.6ht CPU CRAWL with one track playing all spliced and quantized until I render it as solid audio. it's MIDI timing was also unusable and RANDOM the two systems I tested on.

Not ragging it in particular. They all do that to some extent-advertise a feature that doesn't really work properly, but sounds like a good idea...I've just spent more time in it than others. i should be a professional bug tester. Just saying that in a way they all "do the same things" but in another--they all do different things better.

I'd still rather use Logic for MIDI than my current DP3. It makes more sense to me. I went from MastertraxPro to Performer4 to 5...then to Logic on windows...then back to DP3. I missed a bunch of Performer revisions, and they'd REALLY changed the way things worked too much for me.

quote:

Just saying that in a way they all "do the same things" but in another--they all do different things better.

Couldn't agree more.

I believe most if not all of the things you have mentioned have been fixed in v3. Although I don't do much within DAW these days, I took myself out of the stage of being DAW engineer, I focus on overall sound instead of little things that don't matter. That's actually one of the reasons I don't like Nuendo too much, as it's pretty complicated & for someone who starts with it it can easily translate their sound engineering day to software digging.

I use Sonar 6 and am pretty happy with it, but like what was said, all the new platforms are pretty good, you just need to demo them and find the one that is easiest for you to understand. There is a learning curve on all of them. Im also a big fan of samplitude but chose Sonar because it was more "user friendly" for me and did the things I need quite well.

"Pro Tools: Industry stanard and pretty easy to use. Bad thing is that you are tied to Digidesign hardware. MIDI is pretty basic."

Say, what does that last sentence really mean, anyway?

that the MIDI implementation will do what 80% of people want it to...but, pale in comparison to MIDI sequencing features in apps like Logic and Cubase.

If you're looking to use a few soft synths...record some backing tracks to live band stuff and fix a few flaws, PT has plenty of MIDI. If you're looking to have heavy MIDI orchestration with lots of controller editing and custom MIDI transforms--along side your audio with both changing tempo with each other--you need something more on par with Logic.

I think you'll find around here that people don't give a flying hoot what DAW you use. Though I do think on some of the DAW-specific forums you'll sometimes find more of a cult following. Fact is, they really aren't all that different.

I use Nuendo on a G4. Been rock solid for almost three years. I also use SAW Studio on PC in another studio.

I'm not sure, but I think being on a Intel Macbook at this point is going to limit your choices, unless you get Windows versions and run under Bootcamp XP. Logic would probably be the most logical choice at this point, since it's designed to run on the new Apple/Intel computers.

Looks like Cubase 4 is ready to roll on Intel Macs. Nuendo 4 will have a version released Q3 of 2007.

http://knowledgebase.steinberg.de/94_1.html

I use Sonar and Pro Tools with m-audio. I like em both but i'm more comfortable with sonar and i think you get more bang for your buck with sonar or cubase than with pro tools LE/MP.

quote:

Originally posted by Popmann:
that the MIDI implementation will do what 80% of people want it to...but, pale in comparison to MIDI sequencing features in apps like Logic and Cubase.

If you're looking to use a few soft synths...record some backing tracks to live band stuff and fix a few flaws, PT has plenty of MIDI. If you're looking to have heavy MIDI orchestration with lots of controller editing and custom MIDI transforms--along side your audio with both changing tempo with each other--you need something more on par with Logic.

Thanks for saving me the typing.

I use PT LE on a Mac, mostly because I really want to be able to open the sessions in studios that use PT and I am too lazy to export the wave files or whatever it is I would need to do to open the songs in a different DAW.

My favorite DAW ever - Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, I really miss it. It was intuitive and laid out like a Portastudio. I don't really like the Sonar interface as much. I liked Cool Edit Pro a lot too, since I don't do MIDI. I like Audacity for its simplicity, uncluttered layout and because it is free. n-Track is a great idea and I like Flavio for his committment, but I never got the hang of it and it was not that stable on the PC that I had it on.

Cakewalk had a demo software ap called Cakewalk Gold, I think, that came with certain audio cards. The interface was exactly like Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 except that it only let you record 2 channels of audio. Soundforge only let you record 2 channels of audio. That's really what I need to have to keep me from overproducing!!

bilco

I use Nuendo, Logic Pro and recently, PT HD.

I prefer Nuendo (I don't do much midi), used to really dislike Logic, namely b/c it just does things differently than other DAWs, but am actually starting to appreciate it a bit more. I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of the native stuff in Logic. By far the best equipped from the get go...But I find Nuendo to be the most intuitive of the lot, by far, so with Cubase, you're in the same ballpark..

I'd like to play with Tracktion one day too

I use Logic and I absolutely despise anyone that uses anything else