Suggestions for DAW

K

KSJ

New member
A couple weeks ago I was pretty confident to get Ableton but after doing more research a lot of people had said that ableton is not the best daw for creating beats/the type of music I want to create.

Now I am not going to ask "what is the best DAW" instead I'm going to ask what DAW is the best for what I want to accomplish?

I am looking for a DAW that has:
Simple interface
capable of remixing
capable of sampling
capable of using midis
uses synths/beats very well
can produce electronic/hip hop beats well
VST
a good community (since I will be searching for a lot of tuts since I am a noob)

suggestions would greatly be appreciated. Please keep in mind that I do not have experience in this kind of hobby and I am trying to enter this world by learning and creating music.
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its really just a preference thing man download demo's and try them out

for me i prefer the look and feel of ableton and presonus studio one over logic or pro tools but you may be different.

so just go check them out and as far as community if you stick to any of the d.a.w.s discussed in this forum you can find out all you need to know here and also on youtube
 
I'd suggest FL Studio. There are a lot of options but this is what I use and gets the job done.

Interface: There are 4 main areaswhere you can get everything done from/utilize: The Step Sequencer which is linked with the piano roll and where a majority of the work in creating your beats will be done from.
The Mixer: Where you will do your editing (Edison) and mixing from i.e. adding effects like reverbs and delays
The Playlist: Where you will organize your patterns that make up the composition your working on.
The Browser: Where all you sounds, samples and effect or instrument prsets can be accesssed.

Capable of remixing: With the tap tempo function and a good variety of samplers (Edison) and other functions like Dump to score (getting midi from audio files i.e. converting the melody from an audio song into a midi file) this is more than capable.

Capable of sampling: FL shines in this area. There a good number of samplers that come with the program depending on which bundle you get (see the Imageline store). They include:
Edison: FLs Wav editing program where you can edit samples, reduce noise, record you midi patterns to audio and audio to midi (Dump to score)
SliceX: SliceX is aimed more at chopping beats which can be done automatically or manually
Fruity Slicer: Similar to SliceX but with less options for editing your slices
Directwave: Imagelines flagship sampler that allows for sampling other VSTIs as well as playing instruments from imagelines samplefusion line, Kontakt files, EXS24, Giga Studio and Battery files a real powerhouse.
FPC: A virtual MPC like sample player. great for organinzing your drum sounds and each pad can be routed to a different mixer channel. Best used with a midi controller but not necessary, you can use your computer key board to trigger the samples.

Capable of using Midis: FL can load midi files for sampling purposes and export midi files of you projects. FL also supports a number of midi controllers if you want a more hands on approach to making your compositions.

Use synth/beats very well: Yep. supports the use of hardware synths

Can produce electronic/hip-hop beats well: Yeah can produceany genre of music you want its all about you and your skills.

VST: Yeah just make sure your computer has enough processing power for some of the more CPU hungry synths.

Good Community: Yeah you'll be able to find people to help you on their boards and communicate with the developers directly.

I hope this helps.
 
You do sound like you want to use FL. It's probably the simplest, quickest way to make beats.
You could also check out BeatThang. I don't know too much about it.. (if it has VST support, etc), but it's worth taking a look. I hear it has great stock sounds.

And FYI... don't listen to people who tell you "this DAW isn't good for such n such type of music". They really don't know what they're talking about. For the most part.. all major DAWs do the same things.. just in different ways, w/ different workflows and different audio engines (you won't tell the difference unless ur a professional engineer). You can make any type of music with any DAW you choose... you just need to decide which one you want. Nobody can really do that for you, that's a personal decision based on trying out the demos.
In your case... u sound like u want something much more simple than a full-blown DAW... so FL might be your best bet like Sun 84 said.
 
Thanks for the replys.

The reason why I want a simple DAW is because I am a beginner in this area and I want to start off on a good beginner DAW and move up and try something more advanced.

So FL Studio is a good beginner DAW then?
 
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i suggest ableton live....

they have a fully functioning demo so u get to use everything for free for 14 days(except the essential instruments that come with teh boxed version)....

it was the first DAw i tried and im not curious about what the others can do....
 
Even though I don't like it for myself, I consider Ableton to be the king of remixing tracks.

But pretty much any d.a.w. can do what you want. I use Reason, ProTools, and FL Studio.
 
And as always, your best bet is to download the demo versions and see for yourself.

I would've recommended Live as well, in regards to that requirement list...
 
i would suggest Presonus Studio one...Its pretty new but very solid...Has a one screen interface with drag and drop capabilities...def worth checking out
 
Whatever happened to that program Tracktion? I don't even see people mention it anymore. And yeah, I think Studio One might be worth a look. I checked it out recently and it looks really simple though not particularly well-spec'd.
 
no...its a stripped down version u can use forever....use that for a lil bit...then get the demo after u get the basic feel for it so u can actually try to use some of the features....
 
ITs comparable to FL now that midi is up to par. I love reaper, that with a few vsti's your good to go. I recommend sample tank, sonik synth or something like that. For 200 you could have reaper, and sonik synth and stil have 40 left over!
 
If I remember correctly, Reaper needed more than midi tools. Last time I touched it, (about a year ago) it barely had any audio editing tools. FL is pretty strong in both of those areas. Maybe I need to go download another copy of Reaper to see all these changes.
 
Obitheincredible said:
ITs comparable to FL now that midi is up to par. I love reaper, that with a few vsti's your good to go. I recommend sample tank, sonik synth or something like that. For 200 you could have reaper, and sonik synth and stil have 40 left over!
Click to expand...

is reaper what you use? I might actually get reaper then. But kind of hesitant because I am a beginner and don't want to get ****ed over.
 
I suggest you go with Fruity as well. I guarentee 80% If not more bloggers on this site downloaded the demo at one point in the begginers quest to beat making. Good price as well as a full shelf of exactly what you want in your compositions. Me, I'm a propellerhead, but think reasonably before making your purchase. (pun intended)
 
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