~Note: You can skip this part if you want, I basically put the important information below~
So I've been trying to make a final decision on what DAW to buy (my current DAW versions simply came bundled with some virtual singer software), and while there are a couple that I have very limited versions of, I never seem to be able to fully commit myself to dropping around $300 for the full version of that DAW with a student discount. I always backtrack and wonder, "Would this be a stupid investment? Perhaps there's a better choice.." For anyone wondering, I have Cubase AI and Studio One Artist right now. (both are up to date. I prefer Cubase since I feel my version of Studio One is very limited..) I've tried FL Studio also, and while I like the workflow, the mixer and stock sounds just feel pretty lack-luster. I need a DAW that has a lot of quality virtual instruments and plugins, since money is very tight for me, so I can't buy a bunch of fancy VSTs and such (and I really try to avoid pirating when I can, I find pirated software tends to not be reliable..).

My computer: Toshiba-Satellite-C75D-B7202 (link on amazon)
Specs:
Processor- 2 GHz
RAM- 6 GB SO-DIMM DDR3
Memory Speed- 1600 MHz
Hard Drive- 750 GB HDD 5400 rpm (current space: 488 GB free of 680 GB according to Windows Explorer)
Graphics Coprocessor Radeon
Card Description dedicated

My budget: $350 (the less money it costs the better of course)
Genres I wish to produce: Trance, Basic EDM (honestly I have no better title for that sort of thing), Dubstep, Drum and Bass.
My Equipment (I don't use them much): CAD u37 USB microphone w/ popfilter, Akai Mini 25 key keyboard controller
What I need/prefer this DAW to have:
Easy to Navigate Interface
Solid Mixer
Lots of good stock plugins, virtual instruments, synths, etc.
has a lot of online tutorials/support (this isn't too crucial though)
Windows Compatible
Offers a Student discount preferably

 

I would update the version of Studio one Artist you have. Will cost you $300 sharp. I feel the professional version has all those things you asked for. S1 is a great program for workflow. Has very solid stock effects plugins and good synths also. If you were on mac, that would be an easy suggestion as Logic has what you're looking for. On PC, I vote Studio One 3 Pro!

 

Sounds like Fl Studio to me, great DAW for learning the basics, I was able to learn other DAWS from what i'd learned within FL. Great native plugins, decent stock drums (easy to load free ones as well), TONS of online resource and perspective from people all around the world, and you'd be lucky to have someone like SeamlessR as a teacher (Youtube him), (lol who remembers Warbeats).

Either way, try test out a few demos and see how your PC handles em, I don't see an audio interface mentioned in your setup, so concentrate on getting one.

Good luck, it's a tough but rewarding journey

 

69EUR

 

The only way to find out the best DAW for you, is to try some out. All you're really going to get is people telling you which DAW they think is best.
It maybe best for them, but it doesn't mean it'll be best for you. You really won't know till you start to use them. Most daws should give you at least a trial period, and if they don't, don't bother with them.

 

What teknomage said. Most DAWs have trial version for you to check them out. If you are going to start from the scratch, check reaper, its cheap, powerful and very very....very very customizable.

 

Not even close...

 

@ xXDayDreamerXx,

'Native Instruments Komplete 10 Ultimate Educational Lab Additional Seat' (~ $225 or make 3 easy payments !)
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Komp10UltLabAd


Plug-in Library with 75 Virtual Instruments, Processors, and Effects - Mac/PC AAX Native, VST, RTAS, AU.


For the 'DAW' and as you prefer 'Cubase' over any other DAW, you could to download the Trial Version of 'Cubase Pro 8.5' which is limited to 30 days but without any limitations.

http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/cubase/trial.html
(Bottom of the page)

The trick to know is if you can simply re-install it (without hassles) after that period of 30 days, then continue to use it as is. I mean, to be able, among others, to recall your previous saved Settings and Projects,...

Then if one day (what I hope for you ! ) you may afford to buy the 'Full' Version (you can certainly find an 'Educational Version' less expensive), you'll get almost both the best DAW and Plugins Suite available in the market (in terms of quality).

By cons, for using this Trial Version of 'Cubase Pro 8.5', you'll absolutely need to have an 'USB-eLicenser' !

 

Last edited: Jul 18, 2016

You have the right attitude with both wanting to settle with a daw and wanting to go legit. I can't go against those choices.
Two things though : it takes a while to really choose a daw, it takes knowledge on the daws themselves, on what you require from them, how you wish to accomplish it. So rushing to pick is a bad move imo. You're young, you don't have to rush to pick a daw or anything really. Evaluate your options and do it in depth.
It brings me to the second thing : using pirate softwares if it's for trying the softwares, really trying them sometimes further than the demo expiration date, isn't ideal but it's better than wasting your hard earned money.
Test drive a bit longer then you probably won't care about our opinions on the matter because you will know which daw(s) suits you.
Beside if you wait longer you might have more money, and thus more options (Ableton is probably something that would responds to most of your criteria : try the "unlocked" version).

 

The latest versions are Cubase Pro 8.5, Cubase Artist 8.5, Cubase Elements 8.

I found this one:
Cubase 7, Cubase Artist 7, Cubase Elements 7, Comparison Chart
http://www.steinberg.net/fileadmin/...ubase_7/Downloads/Cubase_Comparison_Chart.pdf

 

Alternatively you can get the full version of Cockos REAPER for 60 USD(not like the crippled versions available for other DAW's). It fulfill's all the requirements and needs you have asked for and much more(Easy interface, super solid mixer, Windows compatible,lots of online support and tutorials, a good set of plugins and super cheap for a fully featured DAW)

Only thing missing is a good sampler and synths(though it has a sampler and 2 synths they are very basic). But you can use the rest of your budget to buy a decent sampler and/or synths depending on your needs. Not to forget many many good samplers/synths/plugins which are totally free available on the web(there's a whole thread dedicated to that in this forum itself).

As mentioned earlier in the posts it takes a while to figure out but try the demos and test what works for you. Good luck

 

Ableton live is like $400+? which is a bit out of your price range. Really, any DAW which has instruments & is W32 could fit you. As you implied, you like a traditional DAW (a la cubendo)

You could try SONAR , you can buy it, or subscribe it. You'll prolly want the PRO version, as that has a decent selection of instruments https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions#ins

xXDayDreamerXx said: ↑
I need a DAW that has a lot of quality virtual instruments

MarianoNM said: ↑
reaper
Not even close...

Well, REAPER is possibly the cheapest @ $60, but another big relevant thing is with REAPER is that it only include about 2 builtin instruments, which might suck. Now before you go dismissing REAPER or hit the dislike button, keep in mind a few things:

• You're young, and might switch DAWs a few times. I've been DAWing for about 10 years, and I went from Garageband+Logic to Audition 3+5 to REAPER. Each switch, I lost some plugins/instruments, because they were DAW/platform-exclusive (a lot going from mac > PC). REAPER comes with not many instruments, which forced me to find my own. I've now built up a collection of VSTs, so if I do switch again (unlikely), I'll lose even less of my plugs. By Externalizing your instruments, you can avoid losing your plugins if you do switch DAWs (this applies to VST FX aswel).
  
• You're on Windows. There are A TON of FREE and good instruments you can downlord, especially free synths for EDＭ(what's less common is possibly drums tho). Our forum has a big thread of 11+ pages https://audiosex.pro/threads/best-free-software-for-making-music.14835/ . It took a while to collect a decent amout of free plugins, (but I do have also some commercial ones), but it's worth it (if you don't mind the time).
  
• REAPER is shareware, you can continue using after the trial period (with a time-nag). You don't have to pay.

Just a few things to think about. If you don't use REAPER or SONAR, that's ok too.

ED:Ｉｆ　ｙｏｕ　ｄｏｎ'ｔ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｔｈｅ　ＵＩ,　ｙｏｕ　ｃａｎ　ｓｋｉｎ　ｉｔ,　if　ｙｏｕ　ｗａｎｔ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｆｅａｔｕｒｅｓ,　ａｄｄ　ＳＷＳ or reascripts.

N: I see LEGEND has ALSO edited his post. Now the feedback is not representative of his current post (but mine is).

 

Last edited: Jul 18, 2016

People presented some really excellent solutions here for you DayDreamer. I'm also trying to be as objective as I can when recommending things to people, and assuming I accurately guessed your taste it's probably best to try to acquire Cubase + NI Komplete combination for you. NI Komplete is an incredible package of VST instruments and FX. Simply incredible and "komplete" indeed. It's worth far more than $225, but thankfully you can get it for just $225. I think NI Komplete is a must, and then see what you can do about the DAW, and don't forget a good audio interface with a solid ASIO driver. The cheapest audio interface I can recommend is Focusrite 2i4, but RME Babyface is the best quality affordable solution.

If you get NI Komplete with all those absolutely great VSTi and VST FX + NI sample libraries, you can choose pretty much any DAW to work with. You might like Reaper then, but you can also get Cubase educational license for about $250, too. Yes, it's almost $500 for both but you get so much for that kind of money.

However, [here goes my subjective opinion] I'd get Reaper, NI Komplete, and save a few hundred $ for something else: better audio interface, some additional plugins or sample libraries, or some nice piece of audio hardware.

I think ToneBoosters plugins could complement NI Komplete nicely and for not much money. You get a nice limiter and metering plugins, plus interesting creative plugins, and some really good "workhorse" plugins.

Cheers!

 

Last edited: Jul 18, 2016

Wow a lot of exactly what you weren't looking for. Reaper is your program. You make set it up to act like any daw pro-tools, alberton ect. And it's only like 50-60 bucks.

 

as for Komplete... Only some of it is worth the price. Kontakt, massive, absynth and the kontakt libraries it comes with. In all the genre's I write and produce I haven't found much use for the rest of Komplete. Not to mention I'd never use a factory kontakt. Get cracked Kontakt, get dl the base library just use kontakt for most everything except synths, then its massive. All in all the Komplete set is not worth it. I use the pre amp scarbee bass that comes with it sometimes but as a whole...

 

bar mitzvah
A Jewish religious ceremony held on a boy’s or girl's thirteenth birthday, after which he is considered to be an adult in his religious life.

Perhaps he's not been bar mitzvahed or something like that yet.

 

@ xXDayDreamerXx,

After reading again the exhaustive description of your equipment/material, and according to the great observation of 'Nimbuss' :

Here could be the first step in acquiring your wished 'Music Production Set'...

I can suppose that you use your 'CAD u37 USB Microphone' directly via an USB Port available in your Laptop, isn't ?
Then, if you also use an 'AKAI Mini 25 Key Keyboard Controller', you have at least an external 'MIDI Interface' to be able to send 'MIDI Messages' to your used DAWs, isn't ?

Hence the suggestion, if you still don't have one (of course !), to first get a pretty decent external 'Audio Interface' (I mean 'external', because in most of the cases, it will sound far better than the 'in-board' sound card included within the Motherboard of your Laptop).

A (personal) suggestion :

'Tascam US-366'
http://www.woodbrass.com/en/product_info.php?calculport_country_id=222&products_id=158756&

http://tascam.com/product/us-366/

Really not so bad for an external Audio/Sound Interface (USB powered) due to its category, and above all, its price...
Its 'Specifications/Features' are rather pretty good for begin...
I own one myself, and when you're working with a Laptop, it's very useful to have such small piece of gear beside it.


P.S: As wisely mentioned by some Members above my comment, 'Reaper' (by 'Cockos') is also a Great choice to get a really 'professional' DAW at a price... almost ridiculous for the Features/Options and Workflow provided !

 

Last edited: Jul 18, 2016

FL studio is calling your name. Though I would also have a look into:
Cockos Reaper ($60-$225)
Presonus Studio One
MuLab (as previously mentioned).

 

My first thought was also FL Studio because it is EDM oriented and has great bundle of VST instruments and FX, but he doesn't seem to like it. It would be the best cheapest solution. Or also get additional DAW like Reaper or Cubase and use the great FL instruments and FX with it. Maybe add that ToneBoosters bundle to it, too, but we shouldn't forget that Cockos has great [best of all free package of essential FX with all the essential tools here so there's no need for many additional VST plugins for mixing.

 

A growing teen needs a full cubase pro,to maintain healthy bone growth and become a successful producer.
It even has a Charlie Sheen seal of approval.