Best software/daw for music production?

Yumid said:
I dont want a DAW thats easier to use when Im starting out, because in a few years that won't matter. I want a DAW that gives me the ability and freedom to do WHATEVER I want when ONCE I know how to use it. You dont create a DAW to be user friendly. You get the user to know the DAW.
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I agree with that philosophy too, like look at Fruity Loops, it's geared towards the lowest common denominator, noobs who need to pencil shit into the piano roll more efficiently with an inefficient mouse because they aren't using a more efficient MIDI controller....I don't roll like that, I use MIDI controllers so to me it's more important to have the shit Fruity Loops doesn't have, but yeah if a noob were to demo Cubase and then demo FL Studio they are probably going to go with FL Studio because all they see is what is in front of them.....it's like they will look at Cubase as though it's a pile of un-assembled Lego and decide to play with some Fisher-Price shit instead because they can start playing without too much initial effort......so instead of building Helicopters and Moon-buggies they get stuck pushing the Pig goes "Oink" button.
 
bandcoach said:
don't do the jogwheel thing(can't no knob on my keyboard) but agree about adding, creating shortcuts for cubase or any other program - the limitation is never the daw but the user
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Well that would depend on if your DAW of choice allows you to create your own shortcuts, but yeah it's definitely more efficient to learn shortcuts Vs hunting for shit with the mouse.......you can definitely be creative in spite of certain limitations but the trick it to go with what's most important to you, for example, let's say you do a lot of scores, well it's better to be able to create custom shortcuts for the task than be stuck with something unsuited to the task.
 
Wow.Fl studio and ableton are arguably more difficult to use, especially if using a mouse is an option minus the step sequencer, that's dead simple.Not to mention it took a while to understand how to use both of those as well, fl's realtime automation is very confusing compared to the linear layout of a select few.
And dear god, if you even attempt to try to make multiple speeds in one song, you...you really can't do that in fl studio/ableton like that unless you move the patternmode out of the way and recorded to playlist as an audio clip.

Well, you could but the process of adjusting patternblocks is far more tedious than cubase/studio one/ reaper (protools knows how to lock their software so i wasnt able to demo the whole hole)because you essentially spend more time switching back and forth, adjusting patterns that do not flex unless you do workaround templates which sucks.Fl studio and ableton work well on the mouse but you start seeing the flaws immediately after getting just a small amount of hardware.And to top it all off, the linear daws actually work better with mice than software intended for use, with mice to bgein with :?
 
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Anyone curious about Ableton may find interest in this video -



Don't be confused by the Max for life feature, these are plugins created by users from within the Ableton community, just like any other plugin, but for use in Ableton. If your that way inclined you can attempt to build your own custom plugins.
 
Another good Simon Lyon (Ableton Certified Trainer) easy to follow video demo; this time, some clever audio to midi capabilities of Ableton live, that people might consider when choosing a suitable DAW.
 
Pherm B Leeva said:
Another good Simon Lyon (Ableton Certified Trainer) easy to follow video demo; this time, some clever audio to midi capabilities of Ableton live, that people might consider when choosing a suitable DAW.
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I was waiting for dude to pour a soda on the Push to demonstrate how absorbent it is............but he didn't :(
 
If you can get FL to sound like industry standard stuff, why stop using it? The learning curve kills the creativity buzz man. Unless you do lots of live instrument recordings than stick to what you're efficient with.

I'd say pro tools is my fav daw b/c I'm efficient with it. I actually started on FL studio, then got a roland fantom, now I use maschine w/ komplete and pro tools 11. But again, that's my optimal workflow. The only thing a daw like pro tools will give you over FL studio is it's expandable to where you can spend up to $100k on adding things to make it more useful and powerful, and it's the business standard for mixing and recording vocals.

All that being said, if you're just producing beats and you know how to mix well in FL, stick to what you know bro. You could spend better time learning to master a new instrument than thinking about DAWs.

Cheers!
 
jude_stylezz said:
If you can get FL to sound like industry standard stuff, why stop using it? The learning curve kills the creativity buzz man. Unless you do lots of live instrument recordings than stick to what you're efficient with.

I'd say pro tools is my fav daw b/c I'm efficient with it. I actually started on FL studio, then got a roland fantom, now I use maschine w/ komplete and pro tools 11. But again, that's my optimal workflow. The only thing a daw like pro tools will give you over FL studio is it's expandable to where you can spend up to $100k on adding things to make it more useful and powerful, and it's the business standard for mixing and recording vocals.

All that being said, if you're just producing beats and you know how to mix well in FL, stick to what you know bro. You could spend better time learning to master a new instrument than thinking about DAWs.

Cheers!
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Ya Pro Tools is pretty dry out of the box in regards to VSTS and effects. So for noobs that dont wanna spend more money I wouldnt get Pro Tools. But like you said, once you beef it up you're all set. I have an instrument expansion pack and I'm looking at either komplete or the air advanced production pack. Prob go with komplete, then ill be set for good.

Plus you cant work in the studio side of the business without knowing Pro Tools. Thats just a fact regardless of what anyone says. I havent been in a lot of different ones, but every studio I have been in runs Pro Tools exclusively. Plus they are coming out with the real time session sharing soon. Thats gonna be crazy.
 
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If your a beatmaker you will never NEED pt.
This is because luckily .wav is the real standard, and every DAW will import wave files with ease, and quickness with no blow to the workflow of the engineer.

Example: Beatmaker who has never used PT walks into a studio, and is asked for his session files. The clueless beatmaker hands over a thumb drive with .wav stems all perfectly lined up.
The engineer loads them up one by one in about 90 seconds. A whopping 80 seconds longer than loading the session files.
The engineer grows agravated because his kurig coffee overflowed because loading the files took 30 seconds longer than making coffee, and it got all over his new Roland Fantom!
See the problems you can run into lol.

If your an engineer, sure get at least a cheap version just to know it, but for the guy making beats, no it's of no advantage. Send the wave files. They will deal with it. No good engineer will turn down wave files.
 
.wav can contain mp3 as the encoded audio, so, sorry wav is not the standard: Linear PCM files in either a .wav wrapper or AIFF wrapper is
 
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Mattman04 said:
If your a beatmaker you will never NEED pt.
This is because luckily .wav is the real standard, and every DAW will import wave files with ease, and quickness with no blow to the workflow of the engineer.

Example: Beatmaker who has never used PT walks into a studio, and is asked for his session files. The clueless beatmaker hands over a thumb drive with .wav stems all perfectly lined up.
The engineer loads them up one by one in about 90 seconds. A whopping 80 seconds longer than loading the session files.
The engineer grows agravated because his kurig coffee overflowed because loading the files took 30 seconds longer than making coffee, and it got all over his new Roland Fantom!
See the problems you can run into lol.

If your an engineer, sure get at least a cheap version just to know it, but for the guy making beats, no it's of no advantage. Send the wave files. They will deal with it. No good engineer will turn down wave files.
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Is this to me? I dont even know how to reply to this haha.

I dont think i ever implied you needed to be making stuff in pro tools. Im talking about working in a studio. Not watching someone else work.
 
bandcoach said:
.wav can contain mp3 as the encoded audio, so, sorry wav is not the standard: Linear PCM files in either a .wav wrapper or AIFF wrapper is
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Ok so I don't get it? If I sample vinyl. Save it as a wave file, and leave it a wave file during the project, and then save the results as .wav. I am guaranteed a perfect .wav.
Where do mp3's come in? Are you talking about sampling mp3's, and saving the result as .wav?
Either way no good engineer is turning away actual wave files.
He has a job, and dealing with wave files is the norm for pc users, and heck if it's not the norm they still won't turn them away.
 
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Mattman04 said:
Ok so I don't get it? If I sample vinyl. Save it as a wave file, and leave it a wave file during the project, and then save the results as .wav. I am guaranteed a perfect .wav.
Where do mp3's come in? Are you talking about sampling mp3's, and saving the result as .wav?
Either way no good engineer is turning away actual wave files.
He has a job, and dealing with wave files is the norm for pc users, and heck if it's not the norm they still won't turn them away.
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wav is a corrupted RIFF wrapper developed by M$ to compete with the AIFF wrapper of Apple.

The wav spec allows any audio file type to be embedded inside of it including Linear PCM, mp3's, wma, and other lossy compressed file types - this is why you need to be specific about what your audio is encoded as.

We recently had a huge debate as to whether or not mp3's could be larger than 320kbps caused by fl meshing ogg and mp3 parameters into the one interface - if you choose 450kbps, then your output is ogg, if you choose 320kbps then your output could be ogg or mp3 (you have to choose)

so being specific is important to understanding what you are working with.
 
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bandcoach said:
wav is a corrupted RIFF wrapper developed by M$ to compete with the AIFF wrapper of Apple.

The wav spec allows any audio file type to be embedded inside of it including Linear PCM, mp3's, wma, and other lossy compressed file types - this is why you need to be specific about what your audio is encoded as.

We recently had a huge debate as to whether or not mp3's could be larger than 320kbps caused by fl meshing ogg and mp3 parameters into the one interface - if you choose 450kbps, then your output is ogg, if you choose 320kbps then your output could be ogg or mp3 (you have to choose)

so being specific is important to understanding what you are working with.
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If you're tracking stems from a project to wav it will always be linear PCM, don't confuse ppl with unnecessary information. Obviously if you convert MP3 to wav it's still an MP3 but that doesn't apply here.
 
Hi Deimantas, it depends on what you want to do/achieve. My cousin, 11 years old, makes a lot of money (for his age of course) by creating music loops, sounds, intro's with FL Studio. I have never touched FL Studio, so I can't give you advice about that DAW. For me, as a Logic Pro X user, Logic is logic :) But, Pro Tools also rocks and PreSonus Studio One Professional is also installed on my MacBook Pro. These 3 DAW's Logic, Pro Tools, and Studio One are much alike. It is best to find out what you want do with it.
 
I'm a big fan of Studio One. Reasonably priced and has the features of more expensive DAWs. It's very keyboard friendly too.
 
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