DAWs that few people use but it looks like still a list of popular DAWs...

Most likely an 'unusual DAW' will then be a sequencer or tracker...

One of my favorites is AXS... only 352 KB EXE, never crashes, can accept 16-24bit mono or stereo samples of any size-



Another is DreamStation1... Been freeware also for many years... It is different from the DXi Synth in that you load WAVs into the OSCs for the sampler portion, also makes a great MIDI Sound Module sync or not-


also Ultrano Dreamer which developer released free a couple years ago, very reason-like inspired but can use VSTi-VST plus make refills as well the Musashi Synth very potent 303-


H8 Tracker Beta - Never finished but fun to automate in as envelopes are front-center this sounds very good don't be fooled-


Skale Tracker very nice sounding I make my own akai instruments every semitone sampled sounds very good, better than renoise XRNI... Tracker is very nice & fast to work in-


DreamStation II which is quite a cadillac combo piano roller-tracker-


Protrekkr very nice tracker updated modern based off NoiseTrekker 2 code... I run it also into DreamStation 1 with MIDI sync-


Well, That's a start>>>

 

Amazing post! Thanks for sharing. I worked with AXS as well but under DOS - same counts for Dream Station I believe. skale tracker is ace too. As is Buzz-tracker for example. How do you run AXS these days?

 

Another great resource from back in the day: Welcome to MAZ home

 

OK... Thanks BTW... AXS was ported to windows & given out free back in 2001... pretty much runs on all windows I use mostly XP runs fine I have one windows 10 machine runs fine....

A few features didn't translate well from the DOS version but no showstoppers... I have an AXS thread over at the SunVox forum that has over 870,000 views, so much interest even nowadays but forum is down right now...

Anyone interested I suggest downloading my FullPack has AXS plus skins I made, tutorial GIFs, render video, song template starters, rendered songs I made in AXS (no post process), helper apps... This is on a friend's account on archive.org-

https://archive.org/download/TalkOrBell-Audio-Software-Archive/AXS-FullPack.rar

271 MB...

EDIT... Before anyone wastes time downloading note that in AXS there IS NO PANNING! The only thing that has pan is delay send, when you render out in AXS it is a uniform stereo waveform... Delay send is thusly used to make a sound fatter...

Here's a tune to listen how AXS sounds I did this 2 years ago... The vocal hits are dedicated to KVR member 'BONES' who at that point of composing tune told me "Tracker music has always been the worst" so I put in a few vocal hits & told him that inspired me so much I have a message right in this terrible tracker tune, yup, he's heard it..haHaw!

 

Last edited: Mar 24, 2025 at 9:40 PM

Since some like I guess I will continue... Here's an AXS Promo GIF I made about 1.5 years ago... Nothing has changed except AXS is still crash free after using several years now-




Another clever piece of code is BramBos Tuareg 2.5 FAT.... Except for the moonfish plugin I have them all now recently found the recorder plugin so Tuareg 2.5 FAT qualifies as a DAW-






Al BramBos Stuff has been free since 2010 i think Tuareg is the best & most clever it is the absolute 'KING' of bouncing tracks, that's how it works in totality...

One of the plugins, actually the best one is VSTSEQ where you lay out a piano roll pattern (poly too) then it renders it right down into Tuareg in stereo... It's pretty stout too here using Serum-





Arturia Storm dog-cussed by many I find that for those out there not great at music it's probably the best choice with the Kepler unit hooked into every instrument it's hard to be off key at all... Thank god though in version 3 they made it so you could disconnect the damn thing for more advanced users-




First version of SawCutter is cool only 258 kb EXE!... Does alot for 258 kb




Samplisizer is another cool one from the past plus a thing of beauty looking much better & having more character than all the black GUIs nowadays... The only real drawback is populating a library for it but once done fast composition>>>

https://archive.org/details/Samplisizer

Easier to see using lower resolutions-




Here's one that the further back you go the better it gets... Magix Music Maker Deluxe... it's been garbage really since 2009-2010 but back in 2004 was OK-




Another recently playing with is Benjamin Rosseaux's picaTune2... Has envelope drawing for everything practically!... modules stack upon for hookup... They sound pretty good just using single samples or generators...

Here I ran riff through a buncha the different filters this is just a single sample-

https://alonetone.com/TalkOrBell/tracks/picatune2-filter-test-tickle



picaTune2 is here-

https://blog.rosseaux.net/page/3ab0ca3a73a47c2f47bc3735fdc29794/Picatune_2

 

Last edited: Mar 24, 2025 at 11:06 PM

Thanks for mentioning this. I just got myself a copy plus their 1176 plugin for free. I never knew it existed. Can't wait to try it out with a new project.

 

Mixcraft (10.6 Pro) has become my main DAW after many years of Cubase. It's sometimes referred to in reviews as the Windows equivalent of Garage Band but it's way more powerful than that and a real delight to use.

 

never mind

 

You're welcome my friend.

Cool, that's a good thing. And worth trying.

Since last year in my place there are several music producers who discuss and try and even buy this DAW.
I'm also interested in just trying, but haven't had the chance yet.

Good luck my friend.