Best DAW for EDM

AndyDD_UK

New member
Hi

I'm a newbie wanting to buy laptop/mac and music production/DAW software.

Want to produce music like Disciples, Calvin Harris etc...EDM with vocals

I've heard plus/minus about a few DAWS - eg FL great, but not so good with audio...but can anyone advise me on :
1) whether mac or laptop? and best ones?
2) suggestions for DAW?

Doesn't have to be 'budget'

Many thanks

Andy
 
1) I think it's purely subjective these days. The best bang for the buck from a pure horsepower perspective is to build a tower PC - on the other hand, you can take a Macbook out of the shiny box and be up and running in no time and unless you know you're going to do super demanding projects, you'll probably be just fine with it even if it isn't that powerful spec-wise (you'll probably end up reading benchmarks where someone's running 250 heavy reverb plugins on their beast of a machine, but who needs that in the real world?). So basically it's a choice whether or not you need to be able to move around with your setup, and then choosing which OS platform you're most comfortable with.

I'm personally a Mac guy, but as said it's mostly out of comfort - all my work machines for the past 15 years have been Macs, and most of the time at home as well. Then again, before that I've got another 15 years as a PC guy. I didn't hate that, I just like Macs a bit more.

2) I could just say "get Ableton Live" and be done with it (since it's probably the most popular platform for all kinds of electronic music these days and I've used it since 2003), but I guess if you want to make an informed choice, the best thing is to download trial versions of a bunch of DAWs and try them out & have at least a few days to play around with each.
 
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AfroJack, Deadmau5, BT, and a number of others use or have used FL Studio. I'd say start there with a decent PC.
 
I never noticed FLstudio was bad with audio if you crank up the settings. Perfectly fine choice.

Personally I'm a big fan of the NI Maschine right now. I've been doing it over 12 years, but I can see it's a great beginner's device as well.
The software isn't quite as fully featured as a DAW, but that means it doesn't get in the way and you don't get distracted by advanced features you don't really need.
Once you do need a step up, get any of the regular DAWs like Ableton, Logic, Reaper or Fruity and it'll slot right in... meaning you can keep working a familiar workflow,
even carry over your projects and such.

But it'll be a while before you do. When I got mine, I decided to ditch my DAW at least for a while and see what I could do with just the Maschine, as an experiment.
So far, I'm still doing that and having more fun with my music than I've had for a long time. I don't really miss the features it supposedly lacks, and they're adding new stuff in all the time.
 
They all work, and if you notice there are going to be opinions all over, but certain DAW names will pop up.
Don't pay attention to much to the people that answer with absolute certainty.
Any music can be made on any DAW. Familiarity is going to be the driving reason a certain DAW will be their favorite in many cases.
Some are better out of the box due to built in synths, samplers, and what not. So if you need built in instruments your field is narrowed.
However you could also use a bare bones DAW with separate vst instruments, and then the field is unlimited.

Every daw works a little different from the next. Find one that works the way you think, so you're not spending too much time thinking about how to make it work.
 
It really is based on preference.
I started out using FL studio for lots of years, and then transitioned to Ableton Live.
I'm producing trap, with a few characteristics from the dubstep and future bass genre. I really like ableton because the workflow is so great. Another thing that I like in Ableton is its stock plugins.
I have more than 10K worth of plugins, including the full wave mercury package, fabfilter bundle, etc. And I still find myself using the glue compressor, or ableton stock distortion and OTT for some things.

Also the warp mode in Ableton is superior, if you like vocal slices/chops.
I think FL Studio could get quite confusing, where Ableton assigns each track to its own channel. Also the automation is superior. In FL Studio it's external.
This means that in EDM where automation is a big part, there will be like hundred of tracks with pure automation. Where in Ableton and Logic the automation is within the track itself.

Hope this helps ya.
 
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