recommendations for DAW

[vac713]

I'm seeking some opinions on which DAW I should purchase. I'm a MAC user and am leaning towards Logic Pro X. Curious if anyone else is using this with Amplitube and any feedback would be appreciated. Curious about you opinions of other DAWs with Amplitube as well. Thankyou

[garfy]

Hey vac713.

Unfortunately, unless people are running multiple DAWs, you'll probably find we all recommend what we are using ourselves.

As a suggestion, most of the big DAW producers offer cut down demo versions to try before you buy. If you're interested in Logic (and how AT4 works within it) you'll find that Garageband is already installed on your Mac and offers an intro on what to expect in Logic Pro. To be honest, I know people that have produced work using GB without needing to get anything more in-depth.

Reaper offers a trial version which is itself the full version with nothing disabled and you are expected to buy a very reasonably priced licence to use it after a certain amount of time (60 days I think).

Other than that Cubase, Studio One and ProTools will give you pretty standard DAW tools. Reason and Ableton Live will give you a DAW but with slightly different work flows and outlook. I'm pretty sure there are demo versions of all of these available online.

Here's a link to Music Tech magazines rundown of the best DAWs of 2019, including links to their own reviews if you wanted something to read. https://www.musictech.net/features/awar ... -daw-2019/

Hope that helps.

[Peter_IK]

Very good post above, and yes people will most likely suggest that with which they are most familiar. For me that means Cubase 100% but I know it isn't for everybody. No DAW is. I've just been using it for years. Also, for me Pro Tools is a necessity only when working with people who use or require it. That is not as frequent these days as any mix material would typically be audio files to use in any DAW. I've gotten a little into Studio One because a frequent collaborator uses it and we can use Splice as a means for collaboration with Studio One.

I also enjoy Reaper and Harrison Mixbus 32C. Reaper is honestly more for testing or scratchpad work for me. Mixbus 32C is great for mixing because of the console-like workflow which I've very used to as I went to school for recording when computer recording was in its infancy (Pro Tools was Sound Tools my first year and was transitioning into Pro Tools at the time). During that time Cubase became my friend and confidante of DAWs and now I'm on 10.5. I usually upgrade to the .5 versions, though most recently I went from 9 straight to 10.5.

My main recording computers are Windows so I don't use Logic Pro X much, but when I have it really is quite good. And it is a steal at its price, in my opinion. I've also used Ableton Live and can see its use beyond the typical "that's just for electronic music" thing I hear sometimes, but I already have enough DAWs to keep me busy. IK does include Ableton Live Lite with some hardware if you have that it is worth a try. Also if you want to start down the path of Pro Tools you may want to try Pro Tools First first. First.

[dlgebert]

I'm seeking some opinions on which DAW I should purchase. I'm a MAC user

I'm on an iMac running MacOS Catalina and I've been using Studio One (Presonus) for quite a while now and I love it.

I started using DAWs since 1995 starting with Cakewalk Pro Audio 4 on a PC. I did that for about 20 years before switching to a Mac... I'll never go back... pun intended.

Dave

[carlaz]

First of all, it is probably true that ProTools remains the "industry standard", and I would even venture that the most common "pro" configuration perhaps remains ProTools on a Mac (albeit often a very old Mac, with very old ProTools, 'cause many pros don't like putting a stable system at risk!).

That said, there are also a sizeable number of "pros" who run Logic Pro X, and it may well be the case that pros who use a Mac and are not running ProTools are probably most likely running Logic.

I'm not a pro, just a hobbyist, so as a long-time Mac user, I started playing with GarageBand when it first came out, and I knew I would make the jump to Logic once I started to feel limited by GarageBand -- which I did, a few years back now. IMO, for someone like me, Logic is a no-brainer. In terms of "bang for buck", it's hard for a Mac user to beat Logic. The stock plugins are often great, the Drummer feature is more useful and powerful than many give it credit for, the built-in keyboard emulations are excellent .... And I don't really need to interoperate with things people have done with ProTools, but even if I did, we could always just swap audio stems, etc. and get things working.

[ammo]

I just received the AXE I/O which includes a few amp and effect simulations, and a license for the limited edition of Ableton Live 10. I like Ableton Live’s workflows - I got Live 8 bundled with a Novation 61 board, about 5 years ago. I am mainly a Mac user, and my 2011 MacBook Pro is quite capable (though an SSD drive would supercharge it), and bought Logic Pro 8 then, and found it opaque - hard to develop a workflow. I tried a number of others over the years - in 1990 I was a huge fan of Opcode Vision, which ran beautifully in 1 MB RAM. I’m planning to get a newer version of Logic, along with its live performance partner, Mainstage. I’m sure it will reward intensive study (I am taking a course in Udemy on it). Meanwhile, I’ll try out the new Ableton Live.
Ammo
BC< Canada