I know this may sound like probably a stupid question as im certain the DAW is just a device for arranging/sequencing sound, the quality of the sound comes from the recording process and the plug-ins used on it but...

Ive been using ACid Pro 7 for years now (i know i know lol) and ive been recording a whole variety of singers and rappers over that time but Melodyne doesn't run well on Acid. I switched to Studio One II and i love it...great melodyne integration etc etc but to my ears when i record vocals they don't sound quite as good.

I have used the exact same plug-in chain i use on all my vocals (Melodyne/AutoTune > Waves Audio Track > Fab Filter EQ > Waves Truverb) i have matched the input gain/output gain etc so the whole recording process is duplicated but to my ears the Studio One vox just dont seem as lively. To get the same presence and clarity on Studio One as i had on Acid i have to really boost the highs...

Am i just going mad...

 

I don't have experience from a lot of DAWs so can't add any good insight here, but just wanna say that I think this is a great topic and looking forward to other replies.

Hey Xsze, where is the putting on glasses and lookin very curious smiley?

 

Part of the answer ....Look Here

 

Can't add anything further to help sorry, but i just wanted to say i use acid too, it's not very often i come across a fellow acid head, i've been with it since version 2

I love it, can't see there ever being an acid 8 though, which is strange cos they seem to bring out new versions of acid studio, but i'm happy with 7, does everything i ask of it

 

no you aint...DAW's DO have a sound!

S1 is harder to mix in because you have to hear into its sound to be able to set (spectral)levels properly...its engine is very high quality giving you endless headroom but the mids/high-mids seem scooped out(hollow/distant sounding as opposed to upfront/in your face) and you will try to compensate for that by adding highs...the remedy is to mix either at very high or very low levels and adjust balance and tone at the master bus...if you are used to work with a classic engine like Acid's the best practices you have learnt along the way wont translate exactly the same way to S1...you will have strange looking fader settings because of the headroom and you have to work with its type of precise sound(bass lower than expected, hh really low, kick relatively high, vocals way up, synth parts can be way up, ride cymbals not showing on meters etc)...reminds me a lot of GigaStudio which is still the best sounding software on any platform to date(soon discontinued by TASCAM after acquisition back in 2009)...the more ACID like sounding daws are ProTools HD 10(clean, detailed,mid rich, no harsh highs), Cubase Elements(like PT but highs less rounded), MULAB XT, Zynewave Podium etc...the upside of things is that no other daw that I know of lets you work in the all important mid section with so much space/room for clarity and detail as S1...

 

The answer to your question do different DAW's sound different is YES, they do.

If you can, you should compare the old cakewalk to Sonar 1 to Sonar X3, To Protools, to Cubase 5.9 to cubase 5SX. There are differences that are a result of how the sound engine is programmed.

But, having said that, one also need remember that a DAW is a systemic device ... there are many different parts that will also effect what you hear, and how it sounds.

A few:
1. Your sound interface.
2. The bit depth and resolution (Hz rate) you record at
3. The bit depth and resolution of different clips, loops, and even soft synths / instruments that you use
4. Also ... don't forget ...
your room colors your sound
the type, quality and set up of monitors you use color your sound
different brands / types of plugs color your sound
5. It is also a good idea to understand the composition and arrangement of same also can be a deal maker or breaker.
6. How well trained your ears are effects what you perceive.

So .. essentially, everything you do and everything you use colors your sound to a degree. Use your EARS ... there is no magic bullet, but if it sounds bad ... it probably is. If it sounds good ... yea!

Hope this helps you.

 

to me they start sounding different only when you mix atleast 30-40 tracks, ableton sounds a little bit saturated and Studio One a little bit boxed

 

or 64bit fl.p.

There was a test a while ago done with Live vs Logic, recording to samples in each daw, invert & cancel and there was silence, but I can't seem to find that page now. But I dd find this: http://tarekith.com/sound-quality-live-versus-logic/

 

No man, they shouldn't sound any different. The only difference can be in plugins used, pan laws and sample rate conversion, what RoBoT pointed out. Or maybe difference in gain? When you use gain staging [-18dB RMS on average for the loudest sounds] everything sounds the same in every DAW.

I personally still work a lot in EnergyXT which is a 2006 program, then I transfer into Reaper. It's all the same. If it's not then there must be something else that makes it sound different.

Zeros are zeros and ones are ones in digital. If that wasn't true it wouldn't work at all.

I've heard people claim rubbish like hard disks sounding different. I mean ?!

 

I gave Studio One a try

It give a very lame mastering chain, it's on by default, it could be this thing. Or some CPU saving features.

Don't laugh at hearing people hearing harddrives. I can hear my SCREEN (the hum loses a lot of treble when the screen is dark) in my onboard sound interface (Digi02 is sketchy on youtube and stuff, so i only use it with my DAW and audio player)

 

guys try this:

Bounce Steams of a projects with at least 35 tracks @ 32 bit wav

now import in differents Daws and bounce the mixdown without doing anything @ 32 bit wav

once you have your copies from different daws try to revert phase polarity

Crank the volume up, Do you ear something??

to me it's because every daw is obviuosly digital but they have internal summing alghorithms which are differents.