How much do you think the "pros" know about their DAW?

[Domokun]

When I refer to the "pros" I'm referring to the successful mainstream producer/DJ's (ie. Afrojack, Aoki, Avicii, etc).

What I'm basically asking is: How well do you think these mainstream guys know their way around the DAW they use?

Example: I'm taking a very in depth online course regarding how to use everything Live has to offer.. and it seems like getting to the point of knowing every aspect of Live like the back of your hand could take years to grasp.

In your opinion based on their music, would you say they have the basic understanding of their DAW's down and are just very creative/marketable? Or are they so successful because they're THAT good and well versed in music production.

Keep in mind this is all for fun. I see these guys getting treated like Gods every time they come through a club, their latest tracks that they heavily promote seem a bit blehh at best.

What makes them so successful? Their music? The way they market themselves?

I think this subject would make for some great conversation and would love to hear the input of everyone's thoughts.

[Komodovaran]

I think they very well know their way around a DAW.

Some people have seemingly limitless creativity, and when you can tap into that with a DAW that has almost limitless possibilities... it just goes crazy.

I know that 'Airbase' does tutorials for Ableton, and does some pretty solid music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95-ftDriIQc

[cotdagoo]

There's definitely some out there who don't produce everything by themselves. I've seen a few studio videos where X big producer sits around with an engineer and throws out ideas and direction for the engineer and is basically a foreman. Pretty crappy way to call yourself a producer I'd say.

Probably similar to big producers using loops in their songs to speed up the creative process and not get bogged down with the intricacies of making everything from scratch.

These days I really don't think there's any excuse for not knowing your DAW/tools. It's never been easier to learn this stuff than it is now with all the tools/tutorials/courses available.

[login]

I think they know as far as they need to, enough and they continue learning everytime.

[Saxer]

you have to know all functions you need.
that doesn't mean you need all functions a daw offers.
often the limit opens creativity.
and the main thing is always the musical idea.

[Tarekith]

I think it's like anything, some know a lot, some know only what they need to for a very specific workflow that suits them.

Learning something like Live definitely takes time, but it's one of the easier DAWs so it could be worse. I know there's a lot of functions in Logic I'll never ever use, so there's a lot of things that after all these years I still don't know about that app.

[friend_kami]

if they are so successful how come i haven't heard any of their names?
then again, timbaland is called successful and he stole an entire song and pitched it down 4 cents, then claimed it as his own.
and long story short: i don't think they know shit. they could just as easily use ejay for all we know.

[Migra]

I think they know as far as they need to, enough and they continue learning everytime.

+ 1

I think there's no such thing as '100%', there will always be something to learn! something you didn't know!

[Komodovaran]

It's probably like this: You know how a delay effect works, you just don't know how it will sound when you fiddle around with all the parameters. Suddenly you happen to create something new and exciting.