Fretboard's DAW of choice is......

Musicwolf · May 2020

octatonic said:

That was C-Lab notator for me.
I was 16, my school had an Atari, C-lab and a Roland sample based synth module.
At the time I thought it was the most amazing thing ever.

C-Lab Creator for me running on an Atari 520 ST. Linked to a Fostex R8 by means of a JL Cooper PPS-1 FSK box (Frequency-Shift Keying).

I recall boosting the Atari to 1040 and adding an additional MIDI port to give me 32 MIDI channels.

7 tracks of audio (lost one to the timecode), 32 channels of MIDI, a Studiomaster 16-4-8-2 desk, no pitch correction or copy / paste editing, mixing to DAT then making copies for the band on good old cassette tape. Happy days

octatonic · May 2020

Musicwolf said:

octatonic said:

That was C-Lab notator for me.
I was 16, my school had an Atari, C-lab and a Roland sample based synth module.
At the time I thought it was the most amazing thing ever.

C-Lab Creator for me running on an Atari 520 ST. Linked to a Fostex R8 by means of a JL Cooper PPS-1 FSK box (Frequency-Shift Keying).

I recall boosting the Atari to 1040 and adding an additional MIDI port to give me 32 MIDI channels.

7 tracks of audio (lost one to the timecode), 32 channels of MIDI, a Studiomaster 16-4-8-2 desk, no pitch correction or copy / paste editing, mixing to DAT then making copies for the band on good old cassette tape. Happy days

Yes, actually it was Creator, not Notator.

PolarityMan · May 2020

Danny1969 said:

Cakewalk was the first music application I ever used ... back in the very early nineties. PC's never had soundcards by default then ... you had to add one in the ISA slot. I used it to make midi files which were then used to provide backing in a duo I was in
It only did midi back then, you couldn't record audio but still seemed amazing compared to the basic sequencers built into keyboards.

I actually started on Impulse Tracker and then move to a graphical tracker like program with some proprietary softsynth/plugin capability called "Buzz Tracker". When I finally got a DAW (I think it was Cubase VST) the workflow was like a revelation.

Previously all my audio I recorded first in cool edit then trimmed and triggered in the tracker.

Musicwolf · May 2020

And before anyone else says it. Yes, there were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road

Jalapeno · May 2020

Cardboard box ? You were lucky !

paulmapp8306 · May 2020

I started with Pro tools LE, and really liked it. Suited my workflow and I didnt need the bells and whistles of full Pro Tools rigs. Then my PC went bang - and the LE/MBox wernt compatible with the new laptop.

At this point I went to reaper - for cost, and because it is quite similar to how PT works in workflow. Used it for a few years.

Then last summer, I finally bought a decent spec tower (for music, games and general use) built to last years. I tried a few DAWS (light versions) Id accumulated with gear purchases, and ended up buying and now use Studio One 4 (the full fat version). I really like it I find it easier to work with compared to Reaper, and looks nicer as well (superficial but it does help). More than happy with SO.

darius · May 2020

OP ICYMI - Reaper is currently on a full free no strings licence to July for the lockdown. Don't see Avid or Apple offering much up to the public. I've recently got myself an interface (SSL) and moved off garageband. I demo'd ProToolsFirst assuming I would be hooked after a few goes, but while the software is very very good, the hoop jumping support system is a total mess. No way would i pay for full ProTools now, not for what I'm doing.

I would def consider full Logic £300? but needs a machine upgrade. So no brainer Reaper for me. Works on my shit system, is more capable than me, does everything a home user needs, and i will happily pay the fair price when requested after July. Also a million HowTo videos and a really really well written user guide.

So in a nutshell, just demo them all, you cant lose.

rico · May 2020

@darius Reaper is free indefinitely.

Also i'm pretty sure that Apple are doing Logic free for 90 days.

Jalapeno · May 2020

darius said:

I would def consider full Logic £300?

£199 I believe (certainly is with a new machine).

Also, I'm not an Apple fanboi, but Garageband is already free not sure how Apple could do more ?

oaf · May 2020

rico said:

@darius Reaper is free indefinitely.

It's not, you have to pay once you've evaluated it.

PolarityMan · May 2020

oaf said:

rico said:

@darius Reaper is free indefinitely.

It's not, you have to pay once you've evaluated it.

Yeah after 8000 hours I thought they had earned their $60 and stumped up

octatonic · May 2020

Jalapeno said:

darius said:

I would def consider full Logic £300?

£199 I believe (certainly is with a new machine).

Also, I'm not an Apple fanboi, but Garageband is already free not sure how Apple could do more ?

Logic is insanely cheap for what it is.
You get a hell of a lot more instruments than you do with Reaper and many more plugins.
Obviously you have to have Mac to go with it.

Logic used to cost up around a grand and you had to buy the instruments separately.
Unlike Pro Tools you can install it on multiple machines without any hassle.

oaf · May 2020

octatonic said:

Logic is insanely cheap for what it is.
You get a hell of a lot more instruments than you do with Reaper and many more plugins.

Yes, agreed. It compares quite well vs other DAWs. I imagine it's viewed almost as a loss leader because...

Obviously you have to have Mac to go with it.

...which typically aren't insanely cheap

TheBigDipper · May 2020

Any discussion about Logic (being macOS only) and its merits/demerits against other DAWs often seems to quickly degenerate into Apple vs non-Apple rather than the DAW itself. It's a bit like Conservative vs non-Conservative - an identity politics/tribal sort of thing that throws rational discussion out of the window.

It's a bit like me defending my choice of BMW motorcycles with someone who wouldn't identify at all with a BMW and therefore takes the opposite position - whatever the facts actually are.

So, my mid-2012 Macbook Pro has (so far) lasted me for 5 years from new and is still going strong. Yes, it was more expensive than the HP laptop my wife bought at the same time - but she's just about to buy a third machine to replace the second one that replaced the HP. I'm ahead. I bought a copy of Logic for £150 in 2016 and it gets updated for free with new features, new instruments all the time.

It's true that the cost of entry into owning a Mac can look expensive. After a few years you start to realise the cost of ownership is actually quite reasonable. When I look at how much time my wife spends waiting for Win 10 updates to finish loading... strewth! ;-)

And now, back to DAWs! :-)

darius · May 2020

My Mac is 2008. Runs stuff that shouldn’t work. As bigdipper says, I’m well ahead. Would def like to get logic but would not trust the 08 Mac so would need a newer old MacBook. No dosh to spare on non essential stuff right now. In another parallel universe 2020 where the aviation industry was still an industry I would go Logic on a 2015 MacBook Pro.

McSwaggerty · May 2020

siremoon said:

Snap said:

I'll chip in my usual plug for Cakewalk by Bandlab. I don't know why it doesn't get much love around here, but I think it's down to familiarity and that it's PC only.

Why Cakewalk? Cos it's free, fully supported and is more or less the same as Sonar Platinum which was 400 notes untl Bandlab tokk it over and made it free, amazingly. Very much worth a look. Loads of online support and community. Hard to fault for a freebie. Very much studio grade too.

I don't think it's that - I think its still tainted by its previous life. I have no idea what it is like now but before it was taken over it got a reputation for being buggy and glitchy and having poor support. As a result many dropped it and went with something else. Those, like me, who are happy with their chosen alternative are unlikely to change back or to have fond memories of it.

Been using Cakewalk for years with no problems whatsoever..... I have had lots of success with it.
And as Snap says... Its free... Hard to argue.

Bod · May 2020

I used Cubase from v2 when it was MIDI-only, then moved onto Reaper after SX4 because I got tired of the unreliability and being expected to pay to receive bug-fixes (if the fixes ever came, which they mostly didn't).

Reaper was great for me for many years. I have a huge soft spot for it, but I grew weary of a small group of power users driving the direction of development and was really disappointed with the v6 release, so thought I'd dabble elsewhere just to see what else was out there.

I was then tempted back to Cubase 10 during the 50% sale last year, and I was astounded to see it's still a bug-ridden dinosaur with infrequent updates and simple bugs unaddressed after several full version updates. Seriously, it has some great features, but it's really best avoided IMO. The audio engine is awful - the audio interrupts when adding even the simplest plugin during playback, which I initially thought was a problem with my system until someone on the Steinberg forum confirmed it was standard behaviour.

So, I decided to have a look at Studio One Pro and I think it's wonderful. Clean, simple, really well thought out, regularly updated for free (take note Steinberg!) and performs perfectly. It is disappointing that the Artist version doesn't include VST support without spending extra for an addon though, because I'd probably recommend it otherwise.

FarleyUK · May 2020

Bod said:

I used Cubase from v2 when it was MIDI-only, then moved onto Reaper after SX4 because I got tired of the unreliability and being expected to pay to receive bug-fixes (if the fixes ever came, which they mostly didn't).

Reaper was great for me for many years. I have a huge soft spot for it, but I grew weary of a small group of power users driving the direction of development and was really disappointed with the v6 release, so thought I'd dabble elsewhere just to see what else was out there.

I was then tempted back to Cubase 10 during the 50% sale last year, and I was astounded to see it's still a bug-ridden dinosaur with infrequent updates and simple bugs unaddressed after several full version updates. Seriously, it has some great features, but it's really best avoided IMO. The audio engine is awful - the audio interrupts when adding even the simplest plugin during playback, which I initially thought was a problem with my system until someone on the Steinberg forum confirmed it was standard behaviour.

So, I decided to have a look at Studio One Pro and I think it's wonderful. Clean, simple, really well thought out, regularly updated for free (take note Steinberg!) and performs perfectly. It is disappointing that the Artist version doesn't include VST support without spending extra for an addon though, because I'd probably recommend it otherwise.

I just took a look at Studio One Artist, and am very impressed - so much so I purchased a license.

...and then discovered I already had a license from November 2019 due to a cheap interface I’d purchased! Balls.

Dopesick · May 2020

Anybody know of any good DAWs for the iPad other than GarageBand? I’m still what you would call a beginner but I’ve pretty much mastered the beat sequencer creating my own drum patterns for song ideas and then recording over with guitar. Just wondering if there were any others I should take note of? I’ve noticed Cubasis but don’t really want to spend fifty quid on that just yet,

spark240 · May 2020

Bod said:

So, I decided to have a look at Studio One Pro and I think it's wonderful. Clean, simple, really well thought out, regularly updated for free (take note Steinberg!) and performs perfectly. It is disappointing that the Artist version doesn't include VST support without spending extra for an addon though, because I'd probably recommend it otherwise.

The vst support thing is an ongoing discussion on the S1 users forum, personally I cant see why they need to charge for it, but that said, I think Studio One is fast becoming the only real contender for PT, so essentially moving into Pro DAW territory, so the taster versions will just become exactly that...if you like it...you upgrade like most of us here .

Ive used S1 for years now and whilst it still has some quirks it seems pretty stable and works well.

Old School will always be PT...they just know it too well, and its clearly a very capable DAW, but home studio is a massive market now, and the influx of £100 interfaces have bought in loads of potential new users for the competition.

Just my opinion of course..;-)

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Fretboard's DAW of choice is......

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