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DAW Discussion Thread


Will_

What DAW do you use?  

43 members have voted

  1. 1. What DAW do you use?

    • Pro Tools
      4
    • Logic
      13
    • Ableton
      7
    • Cubase/Nuendo
      8
    • FL Studio
      1
    • Reason
      1
    • Studio One
      1
    • Other
      8


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Yeah, Ableton seems to be used more for electronic type stuff rather than tracking? I've gotten that impression anyway. A couple of my friends at college have it, on first glance I thought it looked seriously cluttered, but they seem to think it's far better than Logic in terms of workflow..

I've been an Ableton user for a few years now and while I first used it for electronic music I now use it all the time for your standard guitar, bass, drums rock/ acoustic music/ stuff in general that's not electronic and I love the workflow.

 

The past year or so I've been trying to get into Protools (have to use it for university etc.) and while it has some cool features that Ableton doesn't, I find that Ableton's GUI is much easier to navigate around and it seems to do a lot of the simple things much better/ easier. For example; basic routing/ bussing/ grouping or even just inserting and using plug ins.

 

That being said, I would probably like to make the change to Protools sometime in the near future once I properly get the hang of it...

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This is one of my favourite things I've used Ableton for that just wouldn't have felt easy or natural to do in other DAWs:

nd6yk2fxSeM

 

This is awesome! How did the Wii controllers work?

 

I've been an Ableton user for a few years now and while I first used it for electronic music I now use it all the time for your standard guitar, bass, drums rock/ acoustic music/ stuff in general that's not electronic and I love the workflow.

 

The past year or so I've been trying to get into Protools (have to use it for university etc.) and while it has some cool features that Ableton doesn't, I find that Ableton's GUI is much easier to navigate around and it seems to do a lot of the simple things much better/ easier. For example; basic routing/ bussing/ grouping or even just inserting and using plug ins.

 

That being said, I would probably like to make the change to Protools sometime in the near future once I properly get the hang of it...

 

Oh really? Fair enough! I guess like with most things it just takes a while to get used to different interfaces/ways of working

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  • 3 weeks later...

I own Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton Live and Max.

 

Only keep Logic for film related stuff, otherwise it is mostly unusable. For traditional recording, PT is the only way to go, everything else, Ableton all the way. Logic sits somewhere between the two as a jack of all trades, but really is the master of nothing. Not used Cubase in years.

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I own Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton Live and Max.

 

Only keep Logic for film related stuff, otherwise it is mostly unusable. For traditional recording, PT is the only way to go, everything else, Ableton all the way. Logic sits somewhere between the two as a jack of all trades, but really is the master of nothing. Not used Cubase in years.

 

May I ask why PT is your go to DAW for traditional recording over the others?

Like I said earlier in the thread, I mainly use Ableton but have just recently started using ProTools and I'm just wondering what advantages PT actually has over it...

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May I ask why PT is your go to DAW for traditional recording over the others?

Like I said earlier in the thread, I mainly use Ableton but have just recently started using ProTools and I'm just wondering what advantages PT actually has over it...

 

Mostly the quality of its stock plugins, there are a couple of not so obvious technical things as well. Nothing wrong with Ableton, use it 90% of the time.

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I use Cubase 5 and ableton live and that's about it. Mostly because I've never really got on with Protools and have found my pc's onboard soundcard to be fine for 99% of things I want to do with it. I do have a protools compatible soundcard but I'm too lazy to set it up, if I'm honest.

 

Cubase is fine for recording/composition/film stuff, especially when you have a moody copy of all the waves plugins. :)

 

Ableton is fun for live stuff, I just wish you could drag clips onto the timeline and didn't have to 'record' them on.

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I use Reaper, mainly because the stock comp and EQ are good enough and really low CPU. (by good enough i mean if i can't get a good sound out of them is my fault or the source (sample, recording etc.) sucks and more frequently both combined with an untreated room and shitty monitors)

I use some Variety Of Sound stuff for grit but sometimes i wish i had the real thing.

I think the only non-free stuff i use is a reverb.

 

Sometimes i am thinking about DIYing stuff like a 1176 (this might eventually happen, i need something more usable than a 2 knob Boss comp) and a SSL master buss comp but i am not sure if they are still relevant in 2014.

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(by good enough i mean if i can't get a good sound out of them is my fault or the source (sample' date=' recording etc.) sucks and more frequently both combined with an untreated room and shitty monitors)[/quote']

 

I think that is true of pretty much true of any software EQ and compressor generally.

 

 

If you're looking for an 1176, have a look at the Warm Audio WA76, a third of the price as the UA one, but apparently just as good.

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I think that is true of pretty much true of any software EQ and compressor generally.

 

 

If you're looking for an 1176, have a look at the Warm Audio WA76, a third of the price as the UA one, but apparently just as good.

 

I am thinking about DIYing one and hopefully gain some more knowledge about compressors in the process, the amount of bullshit i can find about them is amazing.

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What are you trying to learn about them?

 

How a classic hardware comp alter the sound apart from messing with it's volume.

 

Sometimes when i see producers talking about their compressors it sounds like they are talking about EQs and saturators.

I've seen countless opinions like "software comps suck man" and i want to see what is the huge deal about hardware comps. Or threads on Gearslutz where half of the userbase thinks that the reason why a currently chart topping track sounds good is because it was processed through a Pultec tube EQ and SSL buss comps etc.

 

It sounds like bullshit to me but i'd rather hear it in real life.

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How a classic hardware comp alter the sound apart from messing with it's volume.

 

Sometimes when i see producers talking about their compressors it sounds like they are talking about EQs and saturators.

I've seen countless opinions like "software comps suck man" and i want to see what is the huge deal about hardware comps. Or threads on Gearslutz where half of the userbase thinks that the reason why a currently chart topping track sounds good is because it was processed through a Pultec tube EQ and SSL buss comps etc.

 

It sounds like bullshit to me but i'd rather hear it in real life.

 

A classic compressor will generally add saturation, the LA2A is particularly popular for vocal distortion (Think Jack White, Trent Reznor…).

 

A track doesn't sound great because of one particular EQ or compressor. It was quite strange to find that both Nevermind and In Utero were done on Neve mixing desks (Possibly the same model), I never liked the sound of Nevermind, yet love In Utero.

 

Software emulations in the past were not particularly powerful, so like Waves' V-EQ was pretty much just the curves of the 1073 EQ, whereas their latest version of it also emulates the saturation of the preamp, along with how the EQ alters the saturation, a far closer emulation to the original hardware.

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  • 3 weeks later...
educated opinion!

 

There is a significant branch of software development dedicated to user testing. This generally involves bringing in people who have never used the software before, as their opinions are free from bias, and often far more representative of how intuitive and well-designed a given piece of software is.

 

I am really interested to try out Pro Tools after getting used to Logic now. I think X is far better than Cubase too..

 

I found Pro Tools to be quite a pain in the backside. It took me several months to figure out how to use it properly, whereas so far I've managed to do almost all of the same stuff (and more) with Logic in just a few hours.

 

That said, PT was my first real DAW, and I had a not-so-legit copy which would crash several times an hour. :LOL:

 

YMMV of course.

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There is a significant branch of software development dedicated to user testing. This generally involves bringing in people who have never used the software before, as their opinions are free from bias, and often far more representative of how intuitive and well-designed a given piece of software is.

 

Logic is ok for getting you going I guess (Still slow compared to Ableton), start pushing it and you'll quickly start getting annoyed with it like the rest of us.

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There is a significant branch of software development dedicated to user testing. This generally involves bringing in people who have never used the software before, as their opinions are free from bias, and often far more representative of how intuitive and well-designed a given piece of software is.

 

clearly you have previous experience of PT and Cubase so you're not free from bias, therefore I have no idea what point you're trying to make

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