Your favorite Daw

Chewie5150

Chewie5150

Fractal Fanatic
I've been a long time Cubase user mainly because that was the first one I started with. I have always been aware of other Daws but due to mainly being a creature of habit I just kept sticking with Cubase. I like Cubase but I never allowed myself to see the strengths of other Daws until recently. Started messing around with Ableton Live lite as I was doing a lot more synth work and using of VST's quickly realizing how simple and powerful Ableton Live is to host all my VST synths etc for well 'live' performance. Imagine that. I came from using standalone hardware synth workstations to all VST based using Midi controllers. I recently upgraded to Ableton Live Standard. What I love most about it: how fast I can get things going/setup to just create. to play. It's a paradigm shift for me. With cubase and perhaps other similar daws I kept getting locked up in the para aspects of music. The settings and technical side of things whereas now I'm more focused on quick music creation. Ableton really facilitates that for me which is worth its weight in gold. I'll still use Cubase for the actual recording of the ideas I generate In AL. I was always a 'one DAW user' now I see that was just limiting myself. Just ordered an Akai APC40MKII also to work with Ableton.

So, what are your favorite DAWS? and why
 
I prefer and use Ableton Live 10 (home studio) and Live 11 (work - Church music director) for the very reasons you mentioned; extremely easy to set up and use. MIDI implementation is a breeze as well. Haven't had any issues with any VSTs or plugins that I experienced with Cubase, Studio One or Audacity. In the other DAWs, some VSTs like EZDrummer would need to be reloaded when opening a previous project and more configurations were necessary for some plugins. Ableton seems to be more 'plug and play' than any of the other DAWs I've tried.

I typically used the trial, free or lite versions of most DAWs but I liked Ableton Live Lite so much I decided to purchase the Standard versions. I'm a recording novice at best, so it's very possible I'm missing something when setting up the other DAWs. Ableton Live has just made life easier, it's an all-in-one DAW for me when it comes to performing with tracks, recording and mastering.
 
Pro Tools. Have been on it since version 4.X and it just works for me. I have tried pretty much every other DAW and none are better for my workflow. Will very rarely use Reaper just to capture tracks during live performances. That said, AVID as a company absolutely sucks...hard.
 
I started with MOTU Performer 3.1 running on a Macintosh Plus locked to SMPTE on a 16 track which was pre-DAW. (I'm old enough to have been using hardware sequencing slaved to tape before Performer.) When the DAW thing first started I beta-tested Digital Performer but it just took too long for MOTU to get the audio side caught up to the MIDI side.

My favorite DAW is still my first stable DAW which was Opcode's Studio Vision Pro. I got really good with that software It was remarkably stable at a time when that was a rarity. It was a MIDI powerhouse and also had an integrated synth librarian/editor (Galaxy) which just felt like the future back before anyone had heard of a VI. SVP controlled my entire studio using MIDI in a way that nothing has ever come close to since.

When Opcode went belly up, I continued to use an unsupported license of SVP while I desperately tried, literally, every other DAW on the market including Cubase, DP, Pro Tools, Metro, Logic and a few I've forgotten. Frankly all of them felt like a step backwards compared to where SVP had ended. I finally settled on Logic Pro right around when Apple purchased Emagic. (It just seemed like a safe bet after being burned by Opcode.)

These days I use Logic Pro 90% of the time. It's not so much that I love Logic as the fact that I know it so well that I can get around on it in my sleep. I also stay up to date with Cubase (I do some work for folks who use Nuendo so I need compatibility). I actually like Cubase better for mixing but I have yet to feel as comfortable there as good old Logic Pro. I also feel like Logic Pro is the most stable VI host I own. The other DAWs I keep installed and updated are Live (really great scratchpad but it's actually harder for me to get to a finished product) and Pro Tools (great for tracking audio but MIDI still doesn't feel fully baked) and Reason (I used to love it for what it was but I'm not sure where they are trying to go these days).

I think you are on to something. One of the cool things about having all these options is that I give myself much more freedom with regard to happy accidents when I'm not sure what something does or how to do a given task and I'm willing to approach music like a child again.
 
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Shout-out to Studio Vision Pro! It was super amazing at that time, and there are features it had that nothing else has picked up even now, far as I know. And for the record, Gibson can suck it, for the long list of cool products they've bought and killed. Lucky I don't really want a Les Paul.

I've been using Studio One for a fair while now, and I like it. However, my music computer is ancient and slow and can't upgrade past Win 7, but I'm doing so little recording and sequencing these days, that I haven't fixed that, or updated S1 for a while.

Enjoying the simple life! I play guitar! Yay!
 
OMG That's right! I'd forgotten how Opcode met their bitter end. Gibson had the weirdest aspirations for prosumer electronics (USB ports on a guitar?) at the time.

Kudos to the developers at Opcode for putting up a website to allow downloading the final license-free version of SVP after Gibson killed it.
 
Apple Logic Pro here. It was the most logical pivot from Garage Band and have just stuck with it.
 
Cakewalk (by Bandlab). Why? I started in the earlies 2000s with a cracked version of Sonar Cakewalk and liked it. I haven't tried anything else though. A few years ago i found out it was made freely available by Bandlab and it is still maintained as we speak. I just loaded in a 26 track recording from a gig i played last weekend... i am not a professional but i love to play and learn and it helps me a lot to 'fit in the mix' with my guitarparts. If you are interested in the DAW, i recommend this Creative Sauce YouTube Channel.

Oh, i forgot to mention that during the lockdowns my band was using the Bandlab online platform to keep working on songs. There is a little integration with the offline Cakewalk software, but Bandlab itself offers a browserbased multitrack editor which at least make it easy to upload tracks from different bandmembers in the same place and to practice with. I have no idea if other DAWs have that kind of online workspace but it helped us to get through the pandemic :)
 
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Yeah, Apple's upgrade cycle is why I built my first hackintosh in 2009. I tend to standardize on a given build and software and then "freeze" my production Mac as long as possible. I had my doubts at first but these machines have been as stable as any of my actual Macs and way, way cheaper and they work with all my old MOTU hardware.

Last year I built my third and likely final hackintosh (unless Apple changes course with Intel) which is happily running Apple's latest and greatest as I type which will get me past retirement.
 
Cakewalk since the 90's. Now Cakewalk by Bandlab....Much overlooked. I have tried Studio One, Cubase and Reaper. Always stayed with Cakewalk. I do keep an up to date license of reaper, so I have it if needed.
Not to mention it's free now. Wasn't when I started.
 
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At this point, I'd use Reaper if I needed to record or mix again. I'd still use Live if I went back to making dance music.

For mastering, I really like Wavelab.
 
Cakewalk for 20+ years. When Gibson bought - and dumped - them I thought the DAW would die. But it hasn’t. Cakewalk by Bandlab has continued updating (was monthly until recently as they hired a lot of the original dev’s).


Plus Cakewalk works well with Acustica Audio plugs. I use them for mixing and a lot of DAWs seem to have trouble with them as they are incredibly resource heavy.
 
I started using Cubase on Windows last June and am liking it. Prior to that, I used Digital Performer for a couple of years. I switched to Cubase because I thought I’d like the workflow better, turns out I do.

Before then ...

My first recording software was Quad from Turtle Beach, worked well with their Tahiti sound card. As you might guess by the name, Quad recorded up to 4 audio tracks, no MIDI. I added Cakewalk from Twelve Tone Systems (only capable of MIDI back then) and synced to Quad. Switched from Quad to Software Audio Workshop (SAW) and that worked really well, for the time; also synced to Cakewalk for MIDI.

I switched to Cakewalk Pro Audio and used all the versions through Sonar. Until it was bought by Gibson(?) and was concerned about continued support. So, started shopping for a replacement that was “pro”. I did use Cakewalk from Bandlab and thought they were doing a good job with it - especially for free software.

I’d like to try Logic, but not ready to switch from Windows to Mac.
 
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