well, nowadays it's really a choice between Reaper and Bitwig, research and you'll understand

 

Nope, it's not.
Why everything turns into Reaper now? For me Reaper is shit. Pure poop.
And Bitwig is pretty strange stuff(Live still better)

 

because Reaper is most reliable and performance efficient DAW right now (which cannot be said about industry standard called ProTools), only crashes I experienced were caused by sh!tty plugins such as Kontakt or Ozone, can withstand even more plugins than any other DAW, there are no limitations on amount of tracks or FX,
Bitwig is strange stuff, but freshly coded with brains used, taking good from Ableton and improving the rest - perhaps Live is still better overall but if anyone seeks for alternative, then Bitwig is closest

 

bitwig sucks end of,

 

Double post.

 

Reaper. I prefer stability, built-in bridging, customizing, performance, often huge updates OVER marketing hype, instability, more crashes, problems with plugins etc.
RX for restore/fix/improve recorded or rendered tracks and samples. Editing etc.

 

I personally use both: Live for beats and creative stuff, Studio One mostly for mixing, mastering and automations

 

I find FL Studio and Ableton very inspiring for composition.
BUT i would NEVER make a "symphonic eletro metal" track with 32 tracks on any of them ;)
And even less MIX this 32 tracks project on them ...

8 tracks for drums, 2 tracks for rhythm guitar, 2 tracks for guitar solos, 1 bass track, 3 vocal tracks, 10 electo tracks ... 16 orchestral tracks.
A total nightmare on FL and Ableton.

Studio One come into composition too (less "inspiring" than FL or Ableton), but mixing and mastering complex projects is a breeze compared to both others.

My DAWs categories :
-live DAWs (Usine, Live, Bitwig...)
-all rounder (apart live use) : Logic, Cubase, S1, Reaper...
-mixing/recording daws : protools, samplitude...

There is a "gray" zone : DAWs ppl find inspiring. Some ppl will say Ableton, FL Studio, Logic...Cubase.
And on this side, ppl will always disagree ;)

BUT on technical usage, S1 is more "all rounder" than Live. But less "insipring" (to me) and not "live" at all.
You don't have to trust me : make a 32 tracks symphonic electro metal track on Ableton from scratch, and you will see what i mean ;)

 

Bitwig has one of the best workflow IMHO. This DAW is new and well thought. Bitwig has all the plus points of Ableton Live. Bitwig's update to v2.3 is the best update it ever had. Now it is complete. Still Ableton's Simpler/Sampler and Drum machine is superior to Bitwig's. Reaper is King of customization and scripts. Ableton is concentrating on being as simple as possible so that average user can easily get things done, which makes sense. But I prefer Bitwig because I love Reaper and Bitwig gives me options more than Ableton. I don't get confused with options and ability to customize. Downside of Bitwig is it's user interface which is too much colorful, sometimes my eyes start to bleed. I don't think Bitwig will improve their GUI sooner. But Live 10's GUI is shifted towards Bitwig.
Studio One is another beast. You can compare it with Cubase or Logic or Reaper. Ableton and Studio One are different worlds. I prefer Ableton over Studio One because I don't need extra stuff that Studio One can do.
All DAWs are different, nothing is better. They are just tools. Give me Cubase, Logic, Reaper, Bitwig or Live. My production result would be same. DAWs does not improve your production skills. You have to make things possible using what DAW you are using. Skrillex use Ableton Live and Infected Mushroom use Cubase. I love music from both of them.

 

You mean, Waves alternative... Yes?
What I would keep from Waves is the C1 & Renaissance series. Still evaluating the Scheps Omni Channel.

Look at the offerings from:
Plugin Alliance (Brainworx, Lindell, Millennia, Elysia, Noveltech, SPL, etc...)
TBPro Audio
ToneBoosters
Acustica/CDSoundMasters Aqua series
Overloud GEM series

Just a few choices.

Also, stay with Studio One and wait for the revamp of Acid Pro (mid year??).

 

I love both, Studio One and Live. Studio one is great for a linear workflow and in particular audio recording (I don't think Ableton's Arrangement view is very good). However, when it comes to inspiration and messing about with loop based ideas, nothing beats Live's Session view. And if you double down on Live and get a Push 2 with it, it's the BOMB for creative work, experimentation, and on-the-fly composition.

When it comes to polishing ideas into a complete track with a beginning, a middle and an end, I feel that Ableton falls a bit short due to the feel (and to some extend limitations when compared to S1 or Logic) of its Arrangement view. This is much easier to achieve on a linear workflow (e.g. Studio One) for me, especially if I come to the DAW with an idea of what a track should sound and progress like.

One really cool feature that was unique to Studio One till now is the native low latency recording feature. In a nutshell, if you have a compatible audio interface, Studio One can record audio with low latency through the DAW (so NOT direct monitoring through your interface). What this means is that you can use many of your native plugins in real-time on the signal coming in, i.e.you can put a reverb into your recording chain and your singer can hear him/herself back through the reverb without any audible latency. Pretty awesome. I have a UAD Apollo and therefore can use UAD plugs on my recording chain through its Console and DSP, so S1's low latency feature is not a must have for me. But it's still really cool to be able to e.g. use a Valhalla reverb in my vocal chain going in without any audible latency!

I think that Ableton has introduced a similar feature (low latency recording) in Live 10, but I don't know how well it works.

Lastly, I have to say that for me -- out of Studio One, Live, and Logic -- S1 crashes most often by far. Logic is most stable, closely followed by Live. It's never disrupted me significantly till now though, more an annoyance than a real problem (thanks to autosave etc).

If I'd have to recommend you something based on my experience, it would be as follows:

- Do you track audio a lot and like a linear workflow (i.e. usually know what you want to do by the time you hit the DAW)? Get Studio One.
- Do you work a lot with VSTs and do you like using your DAW to come up with music (rather than just capture music)? Then get Live.
- Do you have lots of money and time to spare and are the type that just can't decide? Then get Studio One, Live, Logic and Harrison Mixbus...yep it's awesome

Hope this helps.

 

@hausland you are totally right about composition "linearity"
When i tried Ableton first, i was "forced" to use Session View because i was coming from a linear DAW . And Arrangement view was not up to the task. So i was totally stuck trying to be "linear" as usual. After some time, i realized Ableton was not really good at that... point.

FL Studio arrangement view is very good. S1 too, like most "all rounder" classic DAWs.

Same thing about MIDI : Ableton is supposed to be for electronic music... but MIDI tools are really minimal.
FL Studio and Cubase are my references in this domain ;)

So, as usual :
-it is always a personal choice
-no DAW is perfect

Two solution : choose one wisely, according to personal preferences OR buy and learn several

 

Cubase and Pro Tools are my main DAWS.
Pro Tools is mainly for the clients who need it.
It's not my goto DAW creatively. That's Cubase.

These days they're all good. Live, Logic, Reaper, Reason and Studio One.
Actually, I've gotten and get great results from all of them.
Which comes to mind the old adage, that it's not a tool
but the carpenter that wields it.

So, test thoroughly and find the app(s) that are most conducive
to your workflow and use them to your will. Period.
Maybe it'll be one app. Sometimes, it's a combination.
Hell, that was one reasons for the REWIRE protocol.

No DAW is perfect but with some thorough testing,
I'm sure you'll find which one is fundamentally conducive to your workflow.
Grab some demos and go crazy.