I use major DAWs as well as DAWs that few people seem to use, but how many people use minor DAWs? Do you use more than one DAW? Do any of them include non-major DAWs?

 

I'm a Windows user and have tried and tested them all.
These are the ones that remain: Studio One, Sonar, FL Studio, Ableton, and Synapse Audio - Orion!

As a reminder, you can also use older 32-bit DAWs on 64-bit systems, for example, to have a DAW dedicated to older 32-bit plugins.
For example, I use Studio 7 for work and Studio One 2 (version 2.6.5 x86) in 32-bit for my old 32-bit favorites.

 

You should make a list of what you consider the "major DAWs". After that, all you need to do is make a list of the rest. The % of people who use "minor daws" is not a number you will get with any accuracy just asking on one site's forum. You would have to poll a bunch of them and use an average. I try to do everything I can in my "main daw", even though I always have more than one.

Why the survey?

 

I used Madtracker a lot back in the day. Nowadays Renoise as well. You could argue that it isn't a DAW though. Used a lot of Arguru's experimental trackers/DAW's as well. Major DAW's are Bitwig Studio, Cubase and sometimes Ableton.

 

The 15 most commonly known DAWs are:

1. ACID Pro
2. Ableton Live
3. Bitwig
4. Cubase
5. Digital Performer
6. FL Studio
7. Logic Pro
8. Mixbus
9. Mixcraft
10. Pro Tools
11. Reaper
12. Reason
13. Samplitude
14. Sonar / Cakewalk
15. Studio One

So maybe "minor DAWs" isn't exactly the right descriptor, and yes, of the 15 most commonly known, there are a few lesser known DAWs (to the general, civilian population).

For instance, a good number of Mastering (and some Mixing) engineers use Reaper these days, but in the mastering world, there are other DAWs purposely designed with Mastering engineers in mind. For instance:

• DSP-Quattro (https://www.dsp-quattro.com/dspquattro/Site/DSP-Quattro.html)
• Pyramix (https://www.merging.com/products/pyramix)
• SADiE (https://www.sadie.com/sadie_home.php)
• SAW Studio (https://www.rmllabs.com/MainSite/sawstudio.html)
• Sequoia (https://www.magix.com/us/music-editing/sequoia/)
• WaveLab (https://www.steinberg.net/wavelab/)

There are a few others discontinued now, but still in use, like soundBlade HD (https://sonicstudio.com/sonic/sbhd.php) from Sonic Studio.

Other digital audio editing software doesn't qualify as a DAW (i.e., no AU/VST/AAX support, no built-in virtual instruments or loop libraries - basically no overall, end-to-end in the box music making/mixing/mastering capability).

Some of those would be the Acon Digital Acoustica (https://acondigital.com/products/acoustica), SoundForge Pro (https://www.magix.com/us/music-editing/sound-forge/sound-forge-pro/), or the one I use for quick, nimble edits: WavePad (https://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/index.html)

Bottom line:

• The DAW I've been using these last 20 years is Logic Pro (since 1990 - NotatorSL days - we go back a long way).

• The lesser known DAW I've been using since 2009 I think is DSP-Quattro. Fabulous, rock solid, and super fast. Some virtual instruments which no longer run in Logic, run flawlessly in DSP-Quattro. It's a life saver. Also, it's a fabulously intuitive Mastering Grade DAW (just sayin').

• My (literally Swiss) Army knife audio editor is WavePad. It's my default (double-click) audio player/editor on my Mac.
  I use it to listen to audio, trim front and back end, normalize, create ring tones for my iPhone, batch conversions, etc.
  I reckon that's only 10% of what it can do.

 

Where is that list coming from Balisani?

I don't know anyone who uses ACID pro, and one would think Logic or FL or Reaper or s1 or PT, or hell, Audacity or Garage Band would be 'known' more then Digital Performer at this point... (and that's not showing disrespect for DP, I've used it, used it way back when, good for picture etc, and it's not a bad daw but again... I don't know many (or any actually right now) using it or it being spoken about on sites, whether it be here, sister site, all the other forums....

But I don't know, as don't follow 'known' or 'sales' lists whatever it's depending or based on or if it's some Acid Pro user forum etc lol...

Am I just out of it and Acid Pro is that popular?

 

• The list comes from SOS. When in doubt, go to the world's most foremost and respected audio technology magazine.
• Acid Pro is for loops - always has been - and guess how "House music" got its start? (with tape loops) - look no further.

• DP is used most in the US, and by some in Europe as well. Never saw it in use in Africa, Asia or South America.
• As you hinted, DP is popular with Hollywood Film Composers (several that I know personally, or we share the same piano tuner)
• DP is also the corner stone of dual-playback rigs for major tours. ProTools is often the first choice, but there are some "tour friendly" and "computer light show friendly" features that seemingly only DP offers the playback-rig touring community.

 

The users on the sister site posts of Motu Performer for Windows are funny. They all seem to agree, "F*ck ProTools!"

 

There seems to be a conflation of known with popular. Acid Pro is well known, if you know anything of the bedroom producer scene from the 00's (I MISS THE MONTHLY REMIX COMPETITION!), but in 2025 would it be in a list of currently popular DAWs? Not in my list, but even if it was, it would be near the bottom.

 

Hey, I hear you, and I'm certainly not trying to start an argument with you at all, lest you get what I mean.. ;)

SOS is a great magazine, I'll give you that for sure... but they are very European/UK centric for one... and while I am someone who spends as much time in Europe (there now!) as I do in the United States... and have done plenty of studio work in both... well, yeah, perhaps I'm a bit older and not hanging with the kids as much, but I remember ACID being cool as it did stuff in 1998 that wasn't easily done with most else, until Ableton and whatnot were established, and then other daws picked up on perhaps time and pitch shifting may be more important than they thought....

So yeah, Acid was great for loops back then.. no question. (and house music got it's start in Chicago for the most part, and it certainly wasn't on the back of Acid believe me, which I know you aren't saying, but it had more to do with certain instruments, tempos, a lifestyle thing, and certainly 'loops' or whatnot utilized, but hey, none of the grandfathers of 'house music' were using Acid, as well, it simply didn't exist, yet other means of implementing loops certainly existed...but yeah, upon it's release, Acid absolutely was a leg up on previous workflows)... and I certainly also agree to the fact that early in it's form, unless one had TimeBandit or earlier Recycle etc, or wanted to spend whole afternoons flipping a loop on your Akai or what have you, and even if, Acid was simply better (easier) at conforming loops to time etc... hell, I almost bought another whole system to run simply that at the time in that era...

But I still have yet to see it in a recording studio on both sides of the pond in the last 25 years (unless it was a sidecar to flip loops and back).

Performer was cool, and was pretty much neck and neck in the states with Opcodes Vision for midi sequencing via computer (I know uk/eu was more Atari ST/Logic etc at that time), but the advent Studio Vision beating them to the punch with digital audio and their deal with digidesign kinda pulled that horse forward for awhile, and Opcode did it better (at least imho).... But after Gibson f'd Opcode and StudioVision Pro as a consequence, Digital Performer absolutely had it's place... and I used it a lot for scoring to picture when I was doing so back 20 years ago or so...and was the middle ground when SVP was dropped until other things landed...

But again, it's weird, as I know many film/tv/advert composers, and none of them have stuck with DP to this point for one reason or another.. not for any negative reason or anything...( well, iirc, kinda, as it hasn't been that great with, or dropped off with AAF/OMF transfers, which is what those people live and die on...) But it's mostly composition in Logic/Cubase/Ableton etc etc before floating out to PT to better match/slide to picture and coordinate deliverables to a sound mix or client... But hey, I'm not saying it isn't used at all, as I'm sure (as you just attested) that there are plenty, and it's a viable platform absolutely... you just don't hear about it as much of late, and I'm not sure with current advancements in others daws where it's stronghold is, other than familiarity ....

And I have done plenty of tours, and had many friends do them, and PT is usually (well, actually ~95%) of the playback whether it's Streisand or smaller indie bands ... outside of those who use Ableton or whatnot to change it up or whatnot...sometimes MainStage or Logic... and I can 'why' someone would use DP (I actually did for awhile in the early 00's as SVPro was gone, and it's chunks and playback and flexibility were better then Ableton's at the time, and didn't want straight playback like PT tends to lean best for...)

tl/dr, I'm certainly not dissing DP or Acid or anything, nor trying to start any argument with you of any meaningless context, I'm just curious... as I just simply haven't seen anyone using DP (or Acid) in 15+ years, but in saying that, I'm aware of it, and it is a good daw and has some strong features with chunks and whatnot that may benefit some.. but it just never comes up of late of the last few decades... so I don't know on what criteria SOS is making that claim, or would love to read their source on that, as it doesn't seem to correspond to the reality of those being "top 5" daws in the world I inhabit at least...

(which again, I'm just going on my experience and sample set, and found it interesting, and so to be clear, not trying to stir the pot with you or anyone else at all, I'm more interested to find out if I am missing something....;) )

 

Does Luna fall under the minor DAW classification?
Because only a few are using it at my place.
https://www.uaudio.com/luna.html

I personally use Cubase as my main DAW....... and Studio One + FL Studio as side DAWs.

 

Actually DP is probably more popular with Media Composers than just your average songwriter/recording engineer/electronic musician because it has a handful of features that is really useful for scoring. The UI and some other clunky aspects is why it is not more popular, and the fact that it runs like garbage on Windows.

 

Reason is getting to be a minority daw, a few of the big reason youtubers left for mainly ableton, and a lot of people aren't happy with reason 13's browser.

 

From the Vital discord, number of users:

Code:

2645 FL Studio
2078 Ableton Live
818  Reaper
499  Bitwig
471  Logic
244  Studio One
239  LMMS
227  Cubase
194  Cakewalk
173  Ardour
146  Reason
141  Tracktion
108  Pro Tools
53   Adobe Audition
25   Mixcraft
21   Mixbus
18   Qtractor
14   Acid Pro
11   Digital Performer
9    MuLab

 

i use reaper7-cubase14-nuendo14-live11

 

Well that makes more sense for a multitude of reasons, (from those that are on discord etc in that regard, available 'extended' trials' or ease of use in installing them, os base, etc etc..)

I failed to notice at first that the list provided by Balisani was simply the result of typing in "daw software" in the Sound on Sound search query, and it's alphabetical, and is not based on necessarily current relevance, usage base or popularity etc.... so a bit misleading...

 

I started with Steinberg Pro 24 in the Atari ST glorious days. Then Cubase and Cubase 2.0 also for Atari ST. On PC I used Cubase 3.0 and 5.0 and now 14 pro. Never used other DAWs.

By the way talking about minor plugins instead, I recommend this site full of excellent free instruments: https://agushardiman.tv/

 

I guess SOS made that list ages ago. Acid was a big thing in the late late 90ies, early 2000s. It was the first to implement loop-to-grid stretch. When Live came out less an less people used it. I don't know anyone nowadays who produces on Acid (the daw)

 

The KRISTAL Audio Engine (commonly referred to as KRISTAL or KAE) is a digital audio workstation for Microsoft Windows.
It is free for personal & educational use, with licensing options for commercial use. https://kreatives.org/kristal/

The successor to this product became what is now known as Studio One.

• 16 audio tracks
• 32 Bit floating point audio engine
• 44.1 to 192 kHz sample rate
• 3-band parametric EQ &
• 2 VST insert slots per channel
• 3 VST master effect slots
• ASIO low latency audio driver support
• 4 KRISTAL Plug-In slots

Real World Mixing In The Kristal Audio Engine

 

Yeay these were the days... Right, Pro24 came before cubase. It was a pita to get it to work with a parallel port midi interface on my Amiga. An then the timing was horrible. Thus my Amiga days were counted..
When I switched the platform Cubase was out, thank dark lord. Stuck with with it although I used to think the midi timing of emagics logic (wait... Notator? How was it called back then?) was better. After Steinberg came up with asio, vst and all the other stuff, and after Logic being swallowed by Apple I was happy to have made the right choice.