Just curious - what DAW do you use? ...and why do you like it for guitar recording, mixing, etc?

FPFL

FPFL

Experienced
Just curious what people use for audio editing, mixing, etc and why they prefer it.
No agenda. I am a DAW slut and bounce around a bit. Always curious what might spark creativity.
So many good choices these days, even shareware / free stuff.

I often use Reaper for audio, Reason for beats and synths and dabble with Logic Pro but never gelled with it.
 
I use Logic Pro. I am not a pro but dangerous enough to get something sounding decent when mixing.

I find it that a clean UI helps. Some DAWs are too distracting for me. I bought ALL the Apple Pro apps for my son which is $200 total at educational pricing.

I’ve wanted to try out the Live Loops Grid when tracking ideas but have stuck to Tracks for now. I like the Session Drummers which helps me get initial beats down for a general feel quickly.

Recording is straight forward.

If you’re new to the recording space any app should be good to start. I think once you get more advanced is when you start to look else where to test the waters.

Apple has some decent loops they include as well.

As long as you’re happy with what you’re creating it really doesn’t matter.
 
I use Logic for recording and producing but since the M1 transition I have experienced so many bugs and would like to get away from it. I’m fluent with ableton too as I run playback for an artist, but I don’t like recording with it due to the lack of features like bounce in place for multiple tracks. I would like to switch to studio one which is cross platform but relearning everything is so slow and frustrating.
 
I cut my teeth on Cakewalk back in the day, but I use Reaper because it's flexible, cheap, very stable, and frequently updated. Pretty much all modern DAWs are more than capable so it mostly comes down to price, features, and personal preference. As with any complex piece of software, they all have their quirks and learning curve.
 
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As I almost never record, I should be the last to reply...

I will eventually buy Reaper probably (learned about it here), but I still miss the days I learned the very basics on a cracked Cubase some 25 years ago... ;) That UI kind of stuck with me as the one to have (but heard many bad things about Cubase, so would never buy).
The Cubase they sometimes give for free with some purchases would be enough for me anyway.

Maybe Reaper has some skins that will appeal more to me than the default -- maybe even a Cubase one...?

My recording memories are mostly from the hard disk days. How fun it must be with SSDs and Fractals now. I will get into it more eventually.
 
My biggest pain point is I go into recording with the intention to work on something specific, then I don't get to it at all because I "noodle" then get distracted. Here's one of my distractions. I used presets 182 DynamoFlanger, 183 Stereo Tape Delays, 268 Proggy Plex Filter (for what sounds like a synth), and I have one of Leon's presets with this 1969 Plexi.

I like with Apple that they include a Mastering plugin, so I can waste even more time unnecessarily polishing whatever it is I have going. The drums are cheese, and levels are a bit off, but I'm happy with it as a concept. Again, just something for me until I give it to our drummer to make it real, then I re-track with a serious hat on.

What should be considered is are there any workflows you need to recreate with each session and does your DAW support that so you don't have to manually set it up each time. For me, it's basic where I have a template and for each guitar I track I use 2 tracks (one for DI). That template has a few tracks stubbed out but I wish I could say "Create 2 tracks" with specific INs/OUTs for each. Maybe you can and I haven't found it yet.

 
I use MOTU Digital Performer. Mostly because it is what I learned on a long, long time ago. It is great, and I do find it easy to use. I am running several updates behind, but it works for what I do, so I really don't see much reason to upgrade. The studio I do most of my mixing at uses Reaper, and it seems pretty cool too.
 
I use Cakewalk by Bandlab. In the 90s I started out on Cakewalk for Windows for composing/MIDI sequencing, upgraded to SONAR when I started recording, and then ended up with Cakewalk by Bandlab. It's free, it works, and I'm familiar with it. I can write music using traditional notation and link that to virtual instruments, lay in live tracks, etc.
 
FPFL said:
Just curious what people use for audio editing, mixing, etc and why they prefer it.
No agenda. I am a DAW slut and bounce around a bit. Always curious what might spark creativity.
So many good choices these days, even shareware / free stuff.

I often use Reaper for audio, Reason for beats and synths and dabble with Logic Pro but never gelled with it.
Click to expand...
Presonus Studio One 6.5 and FL Studio 2024 (Also have Cakewalk, but using that very rare). (Dimension Pro, Rapture Session etc plugs.)
For video capture, editing etc. I use OBS Studio (recording), Davinci Resolve 20 and CapCut for Editing etc.)

All of those I mentioned are good for me and they have a lot of different features and they are good quality DAWs / programs (I'm just the weakest link :D )
 
First serious one was Studio Vision Pro, until Gibson bought and killed it, grrrr.

Then Ensoniq PARIS, which i still have a bunch of hardware for, but it doesn't run on anything like modern hardware or os.

These days Studio One. I like it. Full featured and still reasonably intuitive. Not recording really at all these days though, not even slightly fluent with it.
 
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