What is your primary daw and how proficient are you with it?

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by jim1960

My Adobe CC subscription is the less expensive one since Photoshop is my only real need in their lineup. I didn't even know they made a daw.

Audition came from the old CoolEdit program (anyone remember that?) which I actually used back in the day. Adobe bought it and turned it into the audio editing tool for their suite. I think their focus on it is more of an adjunct to Premiere than as a standalone DAW. I've used it a bit and don't think I'd use it as my primary music recording tool. But if I were already in the Adobe ecosystem, especially editing audio for Premiere Pro videos, I'd use it.

Pro-Tools midi edit window. There's not enough contrast and it really strains my eyes

Customizability is one of the nice things about Reaper. It can be a bit daunting (sometimes you have to be kinda "techie" with Reaper) but you can create completely custom color pallets, colors for various interface parts, etc.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by jim1960

I'm guessing the Audition people were lured by the CC package rather than just the daw itself. That would make sense to me if I were using some of Adobe's other software.

I'm curious to know if the Logic Pro people started out using Garageband and saw Logic Pro as the next logical step.

As some of us Audition users have mentioned, it started in the 90s outside the Adobe universe as Cool Edit when there were fewer audio editing programs around. There was even a shareware "lite" version that was like Reaper sort of free to use though requesting a donation.

Cool Edit was used fairly widely in the radio production world as well as by home users. The media company I worked for was Pro Tools from the turn of the century (ending all their tape use, other than in the archives around 2001), but they had a small AM radio station that was all Cool Edit, and later they took over a national program out of Los Angeles that was Cool Edit then (we converted them partly to Pro Tools), and then later again we got another small AM station donated to us that was also Cool Edit.

Even in it's latest Adobe Audition version you can see the heritage of Cool Edit Pro circa late 1990s (in the same way that someone who used Pro Tools then wouldn't feel lost in current versions). One of the unusual features of Audition is that is is both a non-destructive multitrack editor/DAW and a stereo audio editor (kind of like Sound Forge used to be if you remember that.)

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

This is a very timely thread, as I'm just getting started with this stuff.

I'm glad you're finding it helpful. I got the idea for this thread from the conversation with Dave Hicks in the "Mechanical rights" thread. I thought it might be useful information to the people who are new to recording.

Originally Posted by Chipotle

Audition came from the old CoolEdit program...

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

As some of us Audition users have mentioned, it started in the 90s outside the Adobe universe as Cool Edit...

Thanks for the info, gents. I had no idea.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

This is a very timely thread, as I'm just getting started with this stuff.

I'm using Garageband, and rate myself as Rank Amateur, already thinking I need 'something better', for no real reason other than that I'm a guitar player, and don't we all do that all the time?

If I'm going to invest time learning something, I'd really rather only have to do it once, so I'll be re-reading this for hints as the thread progresses.

One question though - no love for Ableton Live around here? I got a 'lite' version with my FocusRite interface. I also have a very helpful friend who's something of an expert with it, so from that point of view, it would seem like a good choice.

I understand Ableton is a very, very capable DAW solution. I dunno first hand though since I haven’t had my hands on it since it came into existence. One of the reasons it may be less obvious and less talked about (and particularly for us older folk) is that software solution came into the world as strictly a “looper”. It remained as such for quite some time but as the software matured it morphed into a full featured DAW. For many however the original perception remains imbedded..

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

I understand Ableton is a very, very capable DAW solution. I dunno first hand though since I haven’t had my hands on it since it came into existence. One of the reasons it may be less obvious and less talked about (and particularly for us older folk) is that software solution came into the world as strictly a “looper”. It remained as such for quite some time but as the software matured it morphed into a full featured DAW. For many however the original perception remains imbedded..

Thanks, Joseph - I wasn't aware of that, even though I'm an 'older folk'

[Bob Womack]

The studio where I work settled on Nuendo in 2003 and we've been at it ever since. It is extremely flexible and a GREAT editing platform. I'll be recording music vocals for a soundtrack Monday and Wednesday this week. I'll mix and record a live broadcast on Tuesday morning and then switch over to editing a video in the afternoon. I'll pick up editing on that video on Thursday and Friday. These all require different feature sets and Nuendo covers them well.

Bob

[alohachris]

Aloha,

Nice thread Jim 1960! Thanks for all the background information RE: DAW's guys. Very informative.

Played on others' studio album's in the 60's & 70's. Went through 1/4" - 2" reel tape formats & Portastudiio cassettes in 70's. Then got into digital recorders in 1979. But the process & gear requirements were still way too expensive for this gigger here. At least with digital, we had no more expensive tape pancakes, tape hiss, or razor blades. Things were getting better for would-be acoustic home recordists. Still, we had to wait for something cheaper & better - DAW's.

I watched DAW's emerge in the '90's (talk about unintuitive - YIKES!!!). Then I took a bite & started out in 2004 on Avid's cheaper Pro Tools DAW - PTLE. I started out with the cheap PT because I could not afford the minimum $5K price of studio PT versions.

PTLE was an absolute nightmare in MS Windows! Crash Central! It was attached to Avid's inferior hardware dongles. And trying to get any support or solutions from Avid was absolutely impossible. They were belligerent. I crashed daily on PTLE for almost a year - the same as the many other PTLE users I connected with. Finally, I jettisoned that Loser DAW & company, & Avidly started over. New upgrades for everything in my simple signal chain, including switching to iMac's & Apogee. Great choices!

I auditioned EVERY available free online DAW sample - about 15 in all - taking time to find the right workflow & settled on Apple's Logic Pro 8.

Logic Pro was perfect for me. It provided the most stable pairing with my Apogee interfaces (never crashed), was intuitive to me, had incredible quality, onboard FX & EQ choices, & too much of everything else really to fully learn. But I found the perfect workflow AND QUALITY for me in Logic Pro X. It handled every external plug-in flawlessly, & helped me, along with Final Cut Pro & full Room Treatment to produce the best acoustic recordings of my life. It also captured the true sound & subtlties of my self-made guitars & the many high-end mic's I was addicted to - Ha!

In terms of my expertise in Logic Pro? Since I never wanted to be a pro engineer, but had knowledge & studio experience, I learned exactly what I needed in Logic to make satisfying acoustic recordings that pleased my very judgmental ears. And I skipped the 99% of the DAW I didn't need to learn. Had I started in my 20's, I'd have been more into mastering all of it. Just ran outta time. DAW's came too late in my musical life - Ha!

Logic Pro +1

I have some strong opinions RE: DAW choices. When I was auditioning them & researching, I found uneveness in the R&D capability of most DAW companies. How could you commit to them?

I came to the conclusion at the time that only Pro Tools & Logic Pro were the two fully-professional, full-featured DAW's out there w/ companies committed to improving & sustaining. That meant I could take a Logic track to an ME for mastering, which I did a few times at local studio's, & have my tracks be fully compatible with the DAW's found in most studio's - Logic & PT. Try taking Reaper or Ableton to a pro studio. Depends on your goals for recordings I guess.

Also, Apple offered its 'one-to-one' training program when I first got into Logic Pro. I received 60 individual training sessions from trained Logic guys at the Apple stores for a mere $99 in my first two years. That was an incredible value & also a big draw for me moving strongly & more confidently towards Logic Pro.

At $199, Logic Pro is a Real Bargain, even for beginners. Why get into bad habits on lesser, limited DAW's - like clunky Reaper - when you can step up to the big leagues in quality with a fully professional DAW at such a low price?!? AGF guys tend to stick with the DAW they start out with. I mean, why stick with Garageband when Logic Pro is available so cheaply, right? Start out on Logic Pro.

PT 10 is also a great DAW. But, as they've always shown, Avid is a S&C*%)#) company. That's another strong reason why I went with Logic Pro. Apple has the most successful business track record.

Whatever works, right? All I know is that DAW home recording gave us singer/guitar players a chance to finally produce pro-level audio home recordings for the first time at a relatively affordable price. DAW's are absolutely revolutionary.

Have fun recording guys!

alohachris

[agfsteve]

Mixcraft for me (Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio -- Oooh!) at the novice level.

[catdaddy]

FWIW- I found having worked first with Garageband made transitioning to Logic Pro fairly easy. If I'd have started with Logic Pro I think my learning curve may have been steeper and more painful.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by alohachris

have my tracks be fully compatible with the DAW's found in most studio's - Logic & PT. Try taking Reaper or Ableton to a pro studio. Depends on your goals for recordings I guess.

WAV stems ought to be compatible with pretty much anything. You may want "full" compatibility, same plugins etc. if working with a studio, but did you ever ask why studios use PT and Logic? I'd say it's more inertia and investment, rather than any particular advantage those two have over other full-featured DAWs these days. Professional studios used these, learned them, and invested in them, so they have no reason to change.

Pro Tools got an early start in the, well, pro market, back in the day (late '80s/early 90s) when only the pros could afford such systems, that required both hardware and software investments. Logic got bought by Apple in 2002 and gained its market share that way among the Mac crowd, cuz if you had an Apple, that's what you used in the relatively closed Apple ecosystem.

It's all about workflow now. If you're starting from scratch, find the DAW that works for you--if it's Logic or PT, great. And BTW, I've found that Reaper is well supported and constantly improving, with added features all the time.

[Brent Hahn]

ProTools since 1999. First DAW was the AMS AudioFile in 1991 or so, followed by the first two generations of Fairlight MFX3 around '95, then PT since '99.

As for the "how proficient" part, I use PT for the day job so I'm pretty proficient.

[KarenB]

I use Logic. I originally got it because it has decent scoring/notation. I actually started on it when Logic was owned by Emagic and was called Notator. There are periods of time when I didn't use it, and when I came back to it, I had to kind of start all over. I've been heavily into using it and learning the depths for about 6 months now. I belong to the Logic Pro Help forum, which I've found very helpful. I've also taken a couple of private lessons to get me over the parts that I just couldn't figure out.

[phcorrigan]

I use Studio One Pro. I started with Studio One Artist, but version 4 didn't support third-party VSTs. Studio One Artist 5 does support third-party VSTs, however.

Artist is included with Presonus interfaces, so get both the two-channel interface and Artist for a hundred bucks.

Reaper is also a good choice at $60, and you can try it for as long as you want before you decide to buy. I was considering Reaper when I decided to upgrade Studio One to the Pro version.

Cakewalk is now free, so it's worth trying.

As far as proficiency goes, I've been doing this off and on for a couple of years, and the deeper I get into it the more I like Studio One.

BTW, no DAW has what I would consider to be an intuitive interface, so you'll find all of them have fairly steep learning curves.

[unimogbert]

..........

[RodB]

I should mention that Waveform 11 that I use is free having upgraded from Tracktion7. It does all I need and much more. Basic Pro version is $119 but offers come along from time to time, and other more expensive versions have a lot bundled in.