which is the best DAW?

davoxx

i have zero musical training, but want to 'mess' around with making music, what are the best DAW available? i probably don't want to invest a load of cash till i'm sure i'm not wasting my time, but the free ones seem too complicated to me.

has anyone had any success with the online offerings? they are a lot cheaper than standalone software and i'm wondering if i should approach it this way first? what do online DAW lack?

thanks!!

studiorat

Audacity - Free simple editor. Can't create sounds, for recording or editing only. Probably a good place to start learning.

Reaper - Free to download, very cheap fully functional Digital Audio Workstation. Can record or create sounds in it using virtual instrument plug-ins. Excellent multiple output and surround capabilities. I like it a lot.

ProTools - Quiet expensive fully functional DAW, excels at editing audio. Would be my weapon of choice if I was doing a session with microphones, ie not MIDI or samples etc.

Logic - Apples DAW, best value of the expensive ones IMO. Comes with very large sample library and instruments and effects. My weapon of choice when mixing sample based music with live music. Logic Express is also very good value and isn't much different.

Ardour - Infuriating Linux based oddity. Now available for Mac. It's free to download also.

Cubase/Nuendo - Been around for ever. I've forgotten how to use it! Very good by all accounts. People I know who use it make great records.

Sonar - Been around for years also. Very good DAW, excellent efficiency with regards to CPU usage with a seemingly excellent work flow. Has since been bought by Roland, not a good thing in my books.

Ableton - Slightly different DAW in terms of workflow. At a basic level it uses a pattern based paradigm instead of recording track after track. Obviously it can do both. Comes with a good library of samples and instruments to get you started.

There's also Vegas or whatever it's called now, Fruity loops, Acid and a few others...

Anything you install is going to have a difficult learning curve. With no help you may as well be looking into a ditch with most of these programs.

For someone with zero musical training I'd suggest downloading the Ableton demo and trying to load a few files into that. If you play an instrument I'd suggest looking at Logic or Reaper. If you want to record other people or bands perhaps Pro Tools. Whatever you choose you are going to have to eat manuals for breakfast, there's no other way.

Meanwhile you could try this > http://www.thunderbeat.net/

Never used it but it's free...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_sequencer#Free.2FOpen_Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_workstation

Personally they are much of a muchness I don't have a favorite as such. If I had to pick a favorite I'd say Logic even though I use Pro Tools every time!

I also have a soft spot for Reaper, I've used it for "Ambisonic" multiple output surround type performances and I've also found the company who make it "Cockos" really excellent to deal with.

Doge

What style of music would you like to create? Have you a background in DJ-ing?

wonski

I used Cubase, protools, and ableton live. Protools has great plug-ins, and is great product but not happy to work with my laptop, so if your plan is to work on slow pc, you can't go this route. Both Ableton and Cubase work well with slower, non-audio dedicated systems, but i would go towards Cubase for recording, and Ableton would be more for mixing, and musical experiments...
That is my view, but if you look online you may find it accurate enough.
Information about any audio interface you are running, or about to run would help to give an advice.

Download some trial version - Ableton, and Cubase are free to try, the rest may be too, and see what fits your needs. Have a fun!

davoxx

i guess the music i'm trying to make is called electronica, though i've never understood music genres ...

is there a good online daw? i'm thinking i want to have my music on the cloud so i can work on it when and from where i like ... i use more than 3 computers at 'home' and i'd like to be able to work on my music easily.

Neurojazz

davoxx wrote: »

i guess the music i'm trying to make is called electronica, though i've never understood music genres ...

is there a good online daw? i'm thinking i want to have my music on the cloud so i can work on it when and from where i like ... i use more than 3 computers at 'home' and i'd like to be able to work on my music easily.

Actually, check out Reason by propellerheads - very cpu light, has all the tools there and you can go crazy with no worries about hitting limits. It's also the most stable (designed with schools in mind) and can be installed on multiple units no problem.

The project files are tiny and if you wanted to work 'anywhere' you could save the files in something like a dropbox folder (so have dropbox installed on all the machines with the same mail address) and you can pick up where you left off.

powerplant

For electronica stuff yeh, Reason and Ableton are your best bet. Easy to pick up the basics and plenty of sounds.

studiorat

You could have a look a something like this http://www.audiotool.com/app/chrome

http://soundation.com/studio
Soundation is pretty impressive, I've only tried it on a really fast connection Though if you can have a Java applet work in a browser I see no reason why you couldn't have a Java sample player and sequencer.

I've a college friend who was developing online interaction with a synthesis program called Csound. Accessing the interface through a browser. The problem is if you think a week is a long time in politics, a couple of milliseconds is hell of a a long time in music.
A lot of these on line jamming programs calculate their buffers in musical measures to give the idea of seamless interaction. I don't think large sessions would be feasible yet.