DAW choice to use with Afx3

jimmynorrisjr

jimmynorrisjr

Experienced
I am planning on using my Af3 to do some recording at home, and to tinker with sequencing midi changes live. I have a Midas MR18 with USB streaming that could be fun. What is everyone using that they recommend for this? I am looking at Logic, since I have macbooks, but am open to suggestions.
 
Lots of people on here use Logic, Many use Reaper too. Cubase is also popular but depending on version can be expensive.

They all work great with Fractal's gear as far as I know. I use Cubase.
 
Ableton Live here. In my experience, DAWs are sort of a blondes/brunettes/redheads thing — they’ll all do well enough, but some appeal more than others. Let your workflow be your guide.
 
jimmynorrisjr said:
I am planning on using my Af3 to do some recording at home, and to tinker with sequencing midi changes live. I have a Midas MR18 with USB streaming that could be fun. What is everyone using that they recommend for this? I am looking at Logic, since I have macbooks, but am open to suggestions.
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If you're on a Mac, you can't go wrong with Logic. It's an incredible value, is easy to learn, and lacks very few features that you'd find in other DAW's.
 
I use Presonus Studio One. As others have said, they all seem OK, then you have to choose one and essentially stick with it. I fell out of love with Ableton Live pretty early on, but I'll bet it's better now than it was then. They are all good!

Liam
 
touch33 said:
DAWs are sort of a blondes/brunettes/redheads thing
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Yeah, that.

There are a handful of workflow things in each one that make people prefer their DAW of choice over the others because some specific thing that they need or want to do is easier (for them) on that one than on everything else. IMHO, the only ones that really stand on their own as being different from the others are Live and Bitwig.

That's really what it comes down to.

The only thing that I think really puts any one over the others if if you think you might switch between PC and Mac. If you're like me and have been doing that every few generations for what seems like forever....that's a good reason to not use things that are tied to one platform. That rules out Logic, Seqoia, Samplitude, Pyramix, SADiE, and Cakewalk/Sonar. Unless I'm mistaken, all the other big ones will run on both (some also on Linux if you want to deal with the can of worms that is running commercial plugins on Linux...or not running commercial plugins).

At any rate, the thing I always say is that you should look at some intro "how do I music in DAW" videos and pick the one that runs on the platform you prefer and seems to make at least some sense to you. None of the technical differences matter as much as feeling comfortable in the software.
 
Hi Jimmy,

Cubase is good. Like all DAWs though, they tend to want money once or twice a year so they spruce things up a little, add a couple of new features, and charge for the new version. I’ve been using it for many years, and, as others have said, they all mostly do the job, it’s just which one resonates with you. Logic may be good, however if you ever decide to migrate to pcs (you never know) in the future, you’ll be in trouble.

Let us know what you decide.

Thanks
Pauly
jimmynorrisjr said:
I am planning on using my Af3 to do some recording at home, and to tinker with sequencing midi changes live. I have a Midas MR18 with USB streaming that could be fun. What is everyone using that they recommend for this? I am looking at Logic, since I have macbooks, but am open to suggestions.
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Cubase Pro here, very powerful DAW, using it since 2008. I briefly went to Logic, but went back to Cubase and have no desire to move. The big brands, Protools, Logic, Presonus 1, Cubase, etc. Are all very good, just do a comparison and you will likely be drawn to one, and just run with it.
 
I have a few DAWs - Cubase, Logic, Luna and Samplitude. Samplitude is Windows only, Logic is Mac only and Cubase works on both. Luna is locked to Universal Audio hardware, and is still a work in progress.

I mainly use Samplitude on my Windows laptop since I don’t need a dongle for it and I can just use the Axe FXIII as an interface. On the Mac, I have juggled between Cubase and Logic, but have of late been messing with Luna, as it really works well with the hardware and allows you to load more plugins than either Cubase.

I haven’t been using Logic as much these days because I keep getting a “system doesn’t have enough memory” when trying to load plugins. But when it was working, Logic was just so easy to use and is very powerful.

Cubase is an old favourite and the DAW I started out with. I’m still on Version 11 though, and haven’t updated for some time now. It is definitely the best of all of them for midi programming.

Samplitude is my least favourite of the DAWs. Very buggy, and I’d say that it is at least one DAW that I can recommend you should not buy. But that’s just my experience, and tonnes of users swear by it, It has a tonne of cool features too, and the software comes with freebies such as Steinberg SpectraLayers, some plugins and a cab simulation.
 
I prefer Logic, but if you're just starting out, since you already have a mac, Garageband would be a great jumping off point. It's easy to transition to Logic once you've gotten some experience. The DAW interface is basically the same, with more advanced features in logic
 
They all work, but I like Reason.
Reaper is an unbeatable cross-platform value and GarageBand is also a great place to start.
 
nightlight said:
Samplitude is my least favourite of the DAWs. Very buggy, and I’d say that it is at least one DAW that I can recommend you should not buy.
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I'm not going to go as far as making a recommendation for or against, but I second the experience.

I tried it out when I was on Windows largely because so many mastering engineers swear by Sequoia...and while there isn't a demo of Sequoia available without a request and hard-pitch sales tactics, their mastering-related feature sets mostly overlap. And....yeah...I didn't like it. Everything took too many convoluted steps. It felt like going back in time compared to Wavelab.

As far as the audio stuff went...it was fine. Templates were a huge PITA, and changing audio configuration confused me for some reason. All of the non-audio tasks for mastering were just needlessly complex.

Most of the non-mastering people I know who really prefer it like it for a more tape-like workflow. But...I have yet to hear one of them describe how it's more like tape than using different scrub controls on basically anything. I really don't understand why it's preferable.
 
I use Pro Tools mostly (because it’s kind of the industry standard here), Cubase, Luna and some Logic.
To me, PT is the best audio editing/mixing, Cubase is great for building tracks/midi, Luna has been easy because of all the same pro tools shortcuts. Still waiting on hardware delay comp and a few other things - but the audio quantization is probably the best of the bunch. Logic is still a bit alien to me, but I know a lot of people that use it.
 
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