DAWS ??? Amyone still use them ??

[Silly Moustache]

Hi, I saw another thread which mentioned them. Didn't want to hijack that one so thought I'd ask the question myself.
Reason being that I have a Yamaha AW1600 sitting in y office which has been used ONCE and I never really got to understand it. I'd quite like t get rid of it, so I'm wondering if they are still a preferred machine when so many people seem to be able to do everything on their Iphones or whatever.

Can you tell I'm an old fart?

[Doug Young]

People use the word DAW to mean any digital approach, could be Logic or Pro Tools or Cubase on a computer. But it sounds like you are asking about all-in-one hardware boxes. I had an AW1600 for a while, nice box. But limited by today's standards. 16 bits, if I recall. And only 16 channels, 8 of which you could see at a time. Limited disk space. With a computer based system, you can have as many channels as your computer can handle, incredible variety of plugins and processing options, nearly infinite routing capabilities, complete automation of every single parameter of every aspect, even the plugins, and so on. So I think these hardware units are a bit of dinosaur, personally. But some people like to have an all-in-one box that doesn't have all the maintenance issues of a computer, upgrades, and so on, so if it works for you, I'd keep using it!

[ukejon]

Doug, these independent units had no fans right? My constant gripe with my laptop DAW (MacBook) is the intermittent fan noise that can come on during recording. Would love to find a totally silent, fan free state-of-the-art device into which I could plug the Apogee Duet 2/mics. What Silly Moustache has is one solution, but as you say out of date in certain respects.

[Wengr]

Originally Posted by ukejon

Doug, these independent units had no fans right? My constant gripe with my laptop DAW (MacBook) is the intermittent fan noise that can come on during recording. Would love to find a totally silent, fan free state-of-the-art device into which I could plug the Apogee Duet 2/mics. What Silly Moustache has is one solution, but as you say out of date in certain respects.

That is what I want as well. The problem seems to be that x amount of processing power still requires a fan to run cool enough. Depending on what you want to do, it can be done. I am not a mac guy, but I bought an app called Auria that should run on my wife's Ipad. Have not tried it yet, but for recording one or two tracks at a time I don't see why it won't be fine. On the other hand, my daw of choice is Samplitude, and I don't think there is a fanless portable windows device that would be powerful to run it.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by ukejon

Doug, these independent units had no fans right? My constant gripe with my laptop DAW (MacBook) is the intermittent fan noise that can come on during recording. Would love to find a totally silent, fan free state-of-the-art device into which I could plug the Apogee Duet 2/mics. What Silly Moustache has is one solution, but as you say out of date in certain respects.

That is why I went this way. The desktop (well underneath actually) had noisy fans which I had to avoid. Having said that - this unit is now just taking up space in my tiny office.

[runamuck]

Computers are getting MUCH quieter. I'm building one right now with a fanless power supply and solid state drives that make no noise. I turned it on last night for the first time and was really amazed. Its like the difference in noise a regular car makes compared to a Prius.

Jim McCarthy

[RPK]

I don't know much about your Yamaha unit. I wanted to get a portable recorder unit but instead of one of the handheld rigs I opted for the Zoom R24 Not that much bigger and not much more expensive. It is pretty easy to use and dead silent. Even as an "old fart" I can make it work.

RPK

[MikeBmusic]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Hi, I saw another thread which mentioned them. Didn't want to hijack that one so thought I'd ask the question myself.
Reason being that I have a Yamaha AW1600 sitting in y office which has been used ONCE and I never really got to understand it. I'd quite like t get rid of it, so I'm wondering if they are still a preferred machine when so many people seem to be able to do everything on their Iphones or whatever.

Can you tell I'm an old fart?

Google shows one of those Yammies on ebay for $299, but in general people have gone away from stand-alone recorders. They're a great solution for someone wanting something portable, but Zoom has introduced recorders that work as both stand-alone and audio interfaces - these devices definitely have taken over the market for portables.
The issue wiht most stand-alone reocrders is eventually you have to get yoru tracks on a computer to get them mastered or burned to a CD, or even converted to MP3 and loaded onto a portable device or to the cloud.

[flagstaffcharli]

I had a Yamaha AW4416, which if I remember correctly was a 24 track unit. It had a fan. It was a noisy fan, and I remember there being online tutorials explaining how to disable it, which I never did do.

That wasn't a bad machine, though the preamps were pretty weak. I had a couple of AKG sdc mics (CS1000 maybe?) that were really difficult to use with it. I had to mic super close to my guitar and still struggled to get a good signal.

I got some FMR RNP's to use with it, and that was a significant upgrade for me. Those made my recording life much, much easier because those preamps had much more gain.

[louparte]

I'm of the opinion ALL software DAW's have become to complex for most end users. I've been doing MIDI since the 1980's. It was easy back then. But now, companies have made MIDI so complicated - it's useless.

Right now, SONAR is about the easiest for MIDI. But it comes with its own issues. I use it grudgingly for MIDI sequencing and use Auria for my digital audio DAW. I still use SONY Soundforge too.

Personally, I'd love to see a consumer boycott of ALL DAW's. They need to get back to simplicity.

[KevWind]

Actually to clear things up a little DAW is nothing more that an acronym for Digital Audio Workstation. Which for example in wikipedia is defined as .
"A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electric or electronic device, or computer software application for recording, editing and producing audio files."

Which includes standalone all in one devices such as the multi track digital workstation like the afore mentioned Yamaha AW1600, to the new handheld units like the Zoom etc. As well all the current digital software programs for audio.

Now days the term is more often used in referring to the particular computer software program used. Such as the ones used in professional audio as well as most private use, like --- Logic, ProTools, CueBase, Reaper, MOTU, Ableton Live, Reason, Fl Studio, Sonar, and Studio One being probably the most popular. Among these you sometimes have several versions with varying feature sets. And there are some other that are free software DAW's as well.

Given that with rare exception virtually all Professional Audio businesses use a computer based DAW, either exclusively or in some combination with analog units , often referred to as Hybrid . Given that most computer DAW's will work very well for everything from the simplest recording needs of a few tracks to the most complex pro needs with up to hundreds of tracks for sound and sound synced to video. I would say that computer DAWs are not only here to stay, but are in fact becoming more the norm not less.

That most full featured DAWS are complex goes with out saying, but the beauty of them is once past the initial learning curve required to accomplish the basic task of recording a track, performing basic editing, and outputting to a desired format with that particular DAW. Those additional feature sets often future proofs that DAW for the user , and allows the use of the same DAW to grow with ones knowledge skill and desired uses.
So in answer to the OP's question the answer is yes..... BUT sales in stand alone all in one multi track mixing units is declining, while sales in the more portable hand held units and computer based DAW software is expanding

[RustyAxe]

I record on a Tascam DP-24. No mechanical parts except the internal CD player/burner ... it records to SDHC cards. I prefer it to computer based recording as the workflow doesn't get in the way of the performance. I use a pedal for start/stop, punch in/out, etc. Editing is easier on the computer, though, so I move files back and forth as needed.

[Ty Ford]

I reviewed the AW1600. What a weird box.

It was as if the recording, editing, CD burning teams were sent of to three distant locations to create their works and then all of it was tossed into a box with little or know thought of integration.

I think it took 7 button pushes to playback a file that you had just recorded.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[tbeltrans]

To me, most anything is good enough for home recording. If I were to want to make a commercial quality CD, I would hire a studio. In that situation, you are really paying for the engineer's skill, which really is a "hardy" skill not to be taken lightly. From my dabbling with recording, it quickly became apparent that to learn to make decent quality recordings would take as much effort as learning to play the instrument to make the music I want to record. So I decided that I didn't really NEED to sink all that money into something approaching pro quality for a computer-based DAW because I know that I will not be spending the time and effort to learn the art of recording. Personally, I think that decision comes well before diving into whatever one decides is a suitable home recording studio. So, to me, these little handheld recorders are wonderful tools for the musician who wishes to occasional recording and as a part of one's musical practice.

That said, I do own a really nice handheld - the Sony PCM-D100, mostly because of its playback capabilities which make it quite literally a "Swiss Army Knife" for the practicing musician so you don't have to fire up the computer to do transcribing or recording your practice sessions. Beyond that, a professional recording engineer is where I would put my money.

Tony

[Trevor B.]

Hey Tony, Just wondering if you've ever found yourself frustrated by the inability of "downtown studios" to capture the real sound of your acoustic guitar. I most definitely have. Most big studios, for the obvious reason, gravitate to the musical genres that will earn them the most money. Acoustic guitar music, whether played on steel strings or nylon is not one of those, so the knowledge of our instrument and how to record it is sadly lacking. There are several examples on this very forum of acoustic guitarists getting far better acoustic guitar recordings than any major studios I'm aware of. It is for this reason that I've jumped into the home recording option with both feet. I'm finding the learning curve really steep but fascinating as well. With every article I read, video I watch and recording experiment I do I get closer to the real sound of my instruments.