after testing out practically all daws on the market past decade, I settled down on Reaper...
....which I primarily use for:
recording (rock-solid reliability, low resource requirements, multiplatform interoperability)
mixing (can handle way more tracks and plugins without loosing breath compared to any other daw)
mastering (because I literally don't master, so step above ;)
quick audio editing (loads faster than soundforge, audition or ocenaudio, so why not)

recently I started thinking about live gigging setup with various triggered virtual instruments, and to be honest Reaper doesn't seem to be suited for that, so I'm planning to give a try to Bitwig and Ableton during summer

 

For me, there's a difference between the DAW I think its best and the DAW I love the most.
I think Cubase is the best DAW, but I love (and hate at the same time) Logic.
There is something about DAWs which is beyond specs on plain paper, and that is the way DAW make you "feel it".
Like an instrument - the most expensive and the best guitar won't necessarily inspire you mostly.

Also, for example, I loooove the way Studio One works, it's workflow it's really straight forward and fast but since V3 it's interface just doesn't insipre me to be creative. Yes, I can be really productive with it if I know exactly what I want to do, but starting from "blank" screen I usually tend to layout similar things when in Studio One.
It simply feels dull and uninspiring to me (unfortunately).
Now, with Logic I feel opposite - when starting from blank screen I never know in which direction I will go, and that's what's fun about it, however it's workflow (especially with sample manipulation and automation handling and precision) is a bit of pain, even after 10+ years of using it (comparing to some other DAWs available today).
Now, Cubase feels very powerful and "professional" to me, but rather "straightforward" in similar fashion like S1, but with much nicer interface, colors and fonts. I find it the best for handling and overview of bigger projects, arrangement and automation.
Ableton Live - it's a special "beast" and I was user since V4, back in the days when it was considered to be a "childish" but cool and unique "tool", people used it much less to make a whole serious production with it, but more as a creative addition to "standard" DAWs like Cubase, Logic, PT in order to be more flexible with audio manipulation.
I used to love Ableton Live and everything about it until version 9, after I realized they won't really develope it in direction of fully fledged serious studio DAW, but more like a mix between performance oriented software with deep production capabilities but the problem is - it doesn't excel in neither area, though it's sufficient for most people to get the things done quickly enough and that's it's main strength, but it can be frustrating when dealing with bunch of data for studio work.
Version 10 fixed a situation with studio workflow a bit, but it's far from traditional DAWs especially when it comes to handle and navigate bigger projects. I still play with it, but I just feel somehow thrown away but it's massive popularity lately, especially considering it that every kid who consider him/herself dj/producer now has cracked version installed next to Photoshop and FL Studio by "default". I miss that "cool and unique" but also "rebellious" vibe about Live, but I guess that time will never come back again, now it's only appear as cool.
Feels like McDonald's of DAWs - massively (over)popular and although you secretly love to go there, but you feel slightly "disgusted" about it and what it stands for nowadays (aiming mostly at cheesy, so called, "EDM" crowd and thousands of new self-proclaimed youtube experts who are sharing videos about avicii, marshmello wannabe techniques and sidechaining tutorials). Funny enough, until few years ago, I think FL Studio used to be No1 DAW for that kind of a "beginner treatment" scene, but I think Live took over that status now (with FL being close second now). I also feel that Apple is trying to target the same audience with newer version of Logic by hiding "advanced" features and presenting Logic as a fun and light software to use.
That's why I respect Steinberg, MOTU and Avid for not giving a shit about "millennial bug" and making everything cool, easy and "intuitive". If you want to learn Cubase/Nuendo/PT/DP when you are starting with production, you need to sit down and learn it "hard", but proper way. Pro versions are not made to be tool for kids to play in bedroom making latest youtube hits but serious producers that need those specific "pro" features and that comes with cost. It used to be similar with Logic until version 10.
Cakwalk/Sonar always had unfair treatment as a copy of a bigger players. It was never marketed and targeted to be cool and modern, but rather as an Windows OS DAW for advanced musicians in a band. It actually almost always had all of features of major DAWs implemented in its own way, with slightly 90's approach philosophy which made it to position where it is today. Unfortunately it's hard to success today when you aren't marketing/targeting electronic music producers. (Project5 by Cakewalk was an amazing attempt but they gave up on it too early, today it would be Ableton killer)
That's how Bitwig came out. It's still way too early to have opinion about it, but I've noticed it has excellent potential to be what Live used to be, it's just tad overpriced for new player on DAW market, missing a lot of features and not very smooth graphically, but it's getting there IMHO.

That's about it in my experience. I've also tried Reaper, but like most of people gave up in first week, not because I find it hard but because I find that it's way more than I need, super-powerful and flexible but sometimes I like certain constraints and philosophy in workflow which could take years to (lose) develop my own style of working in Reaper - and that's it's biggest disadvantage and advantage at same time, depends how you look at it.
Whoever made it to the end, thank you for reading all this

 

Last edited: Apr 6, 2018

As many has already said, there are no "Best DAW". Just "Prefered DAW"
It is the same as asking "Who is the most beautiful girl"
We all have our own preferences and tastes and needs.

But I voted for Sonar because Cakewalk was the first one that I used and it also was one of the first (the only one besides cubase) back then.
I have tried many others through the years and always prefered and kept using Cakewalk.

I'm happy they are back !

 

Reason ??? Logic pro ??? the best are missing

 

Who's got the best tape machine, tape-op and splicing blocks? All questions I've asked... and all questions that EVERY program on this list made redundant.

Who's got the best talent???

 

Who has the most VST instruments?

 

Who has the MOST wavetable presets?

Surely he (she) MUST be the win!

 

LIKELY ANSWER:
The best DAW is the one which has the shortest learning curve with the most amount of features for the individual.
That could be different for everyone.
The most widely used DAW for sessions, major studios, films, jingles,documentaries and more seems to be ProTools.
In saying the above, each DAW has its own unique offerings:-
-Audition is aimed at film sound post editing.
-Logic came from Notator by EMAGIC and was the first to use pitch editing over time
-Cubase was one of the first to combine scoring tools with audio and still is one of the best integrated DAW's
-ProTools has the most seamless time detection and correction tools
-Ableton has some of most feature packed across-the-board features
- FLStudio was one of the first to integrate similar features to reason in a full DAW [Reason is now a DAW as well]
- Sonar and Cakewalk were originally based on the same engine by Roland, with Cakewalk being too under featured initially
- Reaper has a reputation as having the shortest learning curve and light on the operating system.

"One mans meat is another mans poison"
- Lucretius

 

~cough~

...but your budget DAW is perfectly nice too.

 

Zactly!

And damn... that dark jazz lightning work station would be creepy. I'd pay money to not use it.

 

'Best' is determined by popular opinion. Except that the internet was the revolution that gave every single person a voice. The result which are seeing now, is not that the popular becomes more popular, but there is more segmentation and divisions of opinion, with un-knowns becoming very popular in 'niches' of popularity. How many likes, subs and followers does it take to call someone or something popular on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter? And does this popularity determine 'best'? Facebook Top two: 1) (footballer) Christiano Ronaldo (122 million followers), 2) Coca-Cola (106 million followers). How is it possible that the world has determined that Coke is the 'best' drink? You would surely assume the best drink to be water, wouldn't you?

 

You guys are crazy funny. This is why I love this forum hahaha.

Much love my friends and colleagues.

 

A lot of people (and the more and more,as what I read here and there ) maintain Reaper is the St Graal of the DAWs,while I have never been attracted by it.
Maybe I should persevere with Reaper so.

But definetly nobody can argue that one DAW is the best.
Some people will emphasis the fact of the workflow speed,when others on the audio tools,and others on stock plugins,etc...

At the end they all do the job.

The best one is the one you like.

 

Novation Circuit for me * + Ableton Live & Logic Pro

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 10, 2019

Cubase 9.5 pro have some great stock plugins. I think if you work with midi, cubase is one of the best when it comes to midi and with 9.5 update i think cubase is doing really good. Cubase update all his plugins to a better and modern stock plugins.

 

it's continuously becoming better, I started using it around version 5.30 in early 2017, previous versions lacked functionality I needed,
vst3 and video support added in 5.0, notation editor was added in 5.20, automation items (not lanes) introduced in 5.50....

I think most appealing is the fact grace period is 60 days without any functional limitations, no account/licensing needed, and after 60 days it keeps working (just a brief popup about purchase appears at launch for 5 seconds) and the purchase is 60 bucks

 

Also - One feature not often mentioned if someone is a professional musician that is important is the exporting features.
A DAW that has the facility to export with zero alignment and marker issues across platforms and to other proprietary DAW's is always a good choice. This so useful if the musician wants to add at home and take into any studio that might not have the identical DAW.
Most plugins these days can be loaded by all DAW's without only working with only one type of DAW. Even ProTools realised they needed to make the hardware options more user friendly.
So nowadays it is truly "pick the one that works best for you".

 

I'm glad you mentioned "One mans meat is another mans poison" at the end, cause "learning curve" is as objective as music taste lol. It all depends subjectively on the user and his background/experience with past other DAWs and what exactly he defines as "shortest learning curve". Some people might call a DAW "X" having the shortest learning curve for them, others are saying the same thing about the "Y" DAW. Others would disagree with some and some would disagree with others. At the end of the day, the best daw is the one that suits the creativity, productivity and work ethic of an individual.

I personally find Ableton Live as the most suitable for me on the writing/production side, while i'm exporting everything at the end and do the serious side of mixing in Studio One. They complement eachother on what i need to get done.

@foster911 , DAW stands for Digital-Audio-Workstation (which you already know), so basically you end up as an hypocrite by saying "DAWs have been developed with the engineering concerns in mind not musicians" because the last 2 words in the "DAW" abbreviation applies (literaly) to both sides of the sound professionals, both engineers and musicians. Audio is for any type of sound related professional, while Workstation -> well.. you work with and on it to get something done that's audio related in this case. Some DAWs are better on the creative/production side. Some are better on the mixing side. But generalizing the "DAWs" as being intended for a particular type of professionals that would've meant that there would be no "famous DJs" or tunes printed off a computer, we'd still be in the Reel2Reel era by now.

Evorax

 

Last edited: Apr 6, 2018