Ableton Forum

I kept Sonar 8 PE on my old PC just in case I wanted to work in a more traditional DAW. I've been thinking about upgrading to X3, but I thought I would try something different this time. I'm just looking for some alternatives. What are you guys using and why?

[Please don't say Bitwig. There's enough Bitwig threads on this forum as it is.]

Studio one. I tried a couple of the more traditional daws and studio one just felt the most natural to me. Reaper always felt like a giant cluttered mess. Sonar I just could never get into, I actually own the full sonar x3 after getting the base for cheap and a super cheap upgrade deal but could never clicked with it

Studio one on the other hand just felt very much like the ableton of traditional daws. Everything just made sense to me when it came to routing, editing, etc. Theres plenty about it I do sometimes still get confused with only because I dont use it too often, but when i do I still find myself actually having fun with it. It's also fairly minimal compared to a lot of daws, again similar to ableton, in look and feel and interaction which I think helps when you just want to get down to business

Cubase.

Excellent sample editing, built-in "auto tune", SysEx, VST3 support, solid bundled plugins.

Actually I use Cubase for most serious projects, because of the above. I use Live more for experimentation and making tutorials/presentations.

Pro Tools for mixing. Tbh I need to keep in practice with it because we use it at work but otherwise I probably wouldn't bother. Avid and their policy of no legacy support for older versions of MacOS puts a lot of people off and the (annual) upgrade price is horrendous on both Mac and PC. The MIDI is still pretty horrible but it's pretty much the best audio editing and mixing software out there.

Tried Harrison Mixbus. Sorry, but what a piece of crap. Terrible interface and crashed all the time on PC. Still have a copy of Sonar 8 but never use it any more.

The only reason I'm even contemplating another DAW is the PDC issue. It's about the only issue I have with Ableton that there isn't a fairly easy workaround for.

None. Used to export stems from Live into Sonar for mixing and mastering. I've been resisting Cakewalk's weekly emails for a $49 upgrade to X3 because I won't use it. Don't want to clog up my hard drive with something I'll never use.

Why? Because there isn't anything I used to do in Sonar that I can't do in Live. When I'm ready to mix, I expand the meters in session as big as they can go. That's a good enough console view for me. I used to really like the built in EQs on Sonar's channel strip. Don't even miss them any more even though when mixing I typically will load an eq plug on every single track. Little things like that don't feel like they interrupt my workflow at all

ezelkow1 wrote:Studio one. I tried a couple of the more traditional daws and studio one just felt the most natural to me. Reaper always felt like a giant cluttered mess. Sonar I just could never get into, I actually own the full sonar x3 after getting the base for cheap and a super cheap upgrade deal but could never clicked with it

Studio one on the other hand just felt very much like the ableton of traditional daws. Everything just made sense to me when it came to routing, editing, etc. Theres plenty about it I do sometimes still get confused with only because I dont use it too often, but when i do I still find myself actually having fun with it. It's also fairly minimal compared to a lot of daws, again similar to ableton, in look and feel and interaction which I think helps when you just want to get down to business

I've actually been doing a lot of research in to Studio One, and so far I like what I see. I think I may download the free version and try it out.

ezelkow1 wrote:Reaper always felt like a giant cluttered mess.

Yes by default its a mess, but actually it can be VERY minimal and organized if you want. You can rename, delete, add and reorganize every item in menu and context menu, remove elements from GUI etc etc...Yes its not for everyone, but it can be anything like you want...

Not Windows user, but my dinosaur DAW of choice got ported to PC last year Digital Performer.
It will fuck your head up compared to Live, but IMO that's the point of owning two different DAWs that they're completely different.

Reports are very polarized on it's stability, it seems to me that certain configurations of PCs are giving it problems? because the people who report it stable, report it rock solid.

Reasons to use it instead of, or in conjunction with Live include:

Multiple songs in one open project.

Multiple mixes, with their own plug ins even, in one open song.

Multiple automation styles.

SysEx full support.

about 30% more CPU overhead.

Very extensive movie editing support.

Things like comping that Sonar etc. also do. Some things that are hard to explain, like what Chunks are and how they make life better etc. etc.

30 Day demo.
http://www.motu.com/products/software/dp

Studio one. I have reaper (not currently use it but a dandy program) and FL studio (don't like it) and sonar x2 (will never use it again)

Live get's 70% of the work and S1 about 30. That's how I roll.

Reason 7.1 (New update just came out today). I've been using Reason since version 1. I recently started using Live 9 Lite back in December and eventually upgraded to Suite. I actually now prefer Live 9 for Live Performance but I still use Reason for ideas and some of the instruments and Rack Extensions I have. I sometimes Rewire Reason into Live so it makes the best of both worlds. I couldn't ever see myself using Reason over Live or vice versa but if the two were to get together and have a baby it was be the most awesome DAW ever!

Studio One. And it looks as if I'll be using it a lot more because Live has become way too crashy of late.

ilya.soloviev wrote:

ezelkow1 wrote:Reaper always felt like a giant cluttered mess.

Yes by default its a mess, but actually it can be VERY minimal and organized if you want. You can rename, delete, add and reorganize every item in menu and context menu, remove elements from GUI etc etc...Yes its not for everyone, but it can be anything like you want...

Yea Im aware of that, and started to try to do my own organization, but that just leads to hours and hours of tinkering and setup. I tried using some of the prebuilt layouts out there and they all felt too cluttered as well. In the end it just wasnt for me, but I definitely see the value in it dont get me wrong

I did also forget about fl and reason. Had FL for a long time, another one I could just never click with the workflow, but thats what I usually hear about it is it either works for you or it doesnt. Reason I keep around as an interesting play ground, I just dont play with it enough but i like the newer stuff in it like gator and the new effect that came out today

Machinesworking wrote:Not Windows user, but my dinosaur DAW of choice got ported to PC last year Digital Performer.
It will fuck your head up compared to Live, but IMO that's the point of owning two different DAWs that they're completely different.

Reports are very polarized on it's stability, it seems to me that certain configurations of PCs are giving it problems? because the people who report it stable, report it rock solid.

Reasons to use it instead of, or in conjunction with Live include:

Multiple songs in one open project.

Multiple mixes, with their own plug ins even, in one open song.

Multiple automation styles.

SysEx full support.

about 30% more CPU overhead.

Very extensive movie editing support.

Things like comping that Sonar etc. also do. Some things that are hard to explain, like what Chunks are and how they make life better etc. etc.

30 Day demo.
http://www.motu.com/products/software/dp

I've always liked DP's gui. I think it's the cleanest and best looking out of all the DAW's. When I first heard that it was now available for pc, that really got my attention. There just doesn't seem to be as many user videos online showing how people are actually using it for me to get a good feel for it. I'll definitely continue to research it, and maybe when I get the time, I'll download it and give it a try. Do you know of any good videos that show someone making a song from start to finish in DP?

BTW if your thinking about studio one a kvr seller is selling producer edition for 100$ right now (though i would ask and make sure that its V2 since they dont specify). Thats the usual sale price (which you just missed their last sale). Usually producer is good enough if you dont need all the mastering tools, but you can upgrade later for ~100 I believe during their sales if you do need them

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 3&t=408714

kb420 wrote: I've always liked DP's gui. I think it's the cleanest and best looking out of all the DAW's. When I first heard that it was now available for pc, that really got my attention. There just doesn't seem to be as many user videos online showing how people are actually using it for me to get a good feel for it. I'll definitely continue to research it, and maybe when I get the time, I'll download it and give it a try. Do you know of any good videos that show someone making a song from start to finish in DP?

Agreed on the GUI, and almost everything is hide able if you want. It's where I wish Live went, still mostly 2D but not all the same looking parts wise.

Don't know about start to finish? but MOTU have posted a ton of videos on various features, including the unique things DP does like Chunks.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... vC-CjtB6vf