This will turn into (and already becoming) one of these tens boring, useless and never ending "Which is the best (sounding) DAW?" threads. Congrats. Last edited: May 25, 2016
I'm just gonna suggest you give Bitwig Studio a try, won't be disappointed mate. Switched from fl and never looked back.
An average of less than 30 tracks with about 10 VST instruments +10 VST fx and less than 10 sample libs. All at the same time.
I've been using Studio One Pro since version 1, and never had an issue with CPU usage, and that includes when I ran it on an old Dell Optiplex 745 with 6GB of RAM.
Is making music a hobby or are u serious and it will be a profession u make money with ? Hobby: Ableton for EDM, Reaper for handmade music Pro in Europe : Cubase (if you own Apple hardware and all your friends have Apples LOGIC) You don't want to start over and over learning a new DAW cuz u made wrong decision. If you are serious and wanna do a finished product and even Master it yourself , go Cubase. I have 35 years experience in Audio and Studios.
That is still a rather normal project,nothing big or extraordinary hence why you may not feel anything. Doing bigger projects can be a pita with S1.
> in cubase clip-based midi automation is grid based, and creates many steps/curve points you cannot conveniently alter (except drawing a completely new curve). i use a lot of clip based automation, so this again is important for me. This depends on grid settings. It feels very convenient for me, to draw curves in 16th steps and then alter this relatively less points with the pen tool, or the scale vertically function/handle. An advantage of Cubase is, that you can use repeated/cloned parts of a dedicated automation/midi track in realtime updated. This means you can draw automations accross a whole track or freely marked cycle, painting only in one bar while playing back, for example. This even non-linear, with empty parts/clips in between (one painting location > multiple, independent song positions). Another advantage over Ableton is the ability to draw automations per note (Expressions). With tools like BC Patchwork even for 'non-midi-learn-ware'. If i want real curves drawn with splines, I use MidiShaper. Both, Ableton and Cubase are a bit limited when it comes to curves. All in all, I would say automation and midi editing in general are way better solved in Cubase 8.5. then in Ableton 9.x. This was one of many reasons, why I flipped back from Ableotn to Cubase- since it has non-linear approaches for arrangements too. PS: First I thought I would hardly miss the rack mentality of Ableton. But in real, with the XML-archiv-tracks and track presets, I get the same in a less weird way. No more endless horizontal scrolling to find the right peace. A slot is a slot, is a slot- and no obscene cascading click path. Last edited: May 26, 2016
Live is my go-to, I find it just excellent for sketching out ideas and expanding them fluidly. There are many things that could be done better, and for this reason I'm dabbling in Bitwig. Live still has the edge in my view, but both are perfectly suited for electronic music. I've tried Cubase, but found it convoluted and unintuitive. I'm sure it has a superior feature set (truth be told I didn't spend that much time with it). However, workflow fluidity and ease of use of the available features is far more important to me than the sheer number of features. A DAW has to inspire creativity, kinda like a musical instrument. Give Live a try... even if you don't love it, I doubt you'll be disappointed. Last edited: May 26, 2016
I agree with that. Ableton can have an advantage especially for beginners in the session view. But it's a bit like learning car driving in a FIAT UNO instead of a Porsche Spider 918. At the end, if you are really passionate- you always want the Porsche. And then you have to pay twice- and a doubled learning curve. Worth to mention: Ableton was never meant to be a big studio production suite. It's a live performance tool. This is the main difference between Ableton and Cubase. Both play in there own league. Last edited: May 26, 2016
I propose the mods should create a sticky post that lists all DAWs with links to their demo versions and the clear statement: There is no best DAW. Those threads about pros and cons doesn't help at all, because we are all individuals, and so we all need to find our individual DAW. That also means, most people answering will just tell about the DAW that is the best for them. And forget that this doesn't mean it's the best DAW. I work with Reaper and Reason. So what would I recommend? Harrison Mixbus 3? Or take the car comparisons. Porsche wow - Kia, Lada, Fiat Uargh. Well, here's the catch. Using a Porsche for your daily shopping is pretty stupid. A Kia Rio will be much more suited for that task. I won't continue with more examples, you get the point.
AL & FL have their own slightly special workflows, but CUbendo & REAPER are traditionalish DAWs. Both PT & Cubendo have dongs for protection - not nice. Cubendo has loooooooot of settings, there's project & then global. You could spend hours customising them. That's bot a goot & a bad thing. You can do surround in above 2 + REAPER. REAPER needs a bit of help with 3d pty plugins to do surround, , because there's no builtin surround panner. But there's 5.1 & one 7.1(6.0) panner, all free. If you want to go above, you can write your own pretty easily (I wrote my own 14.2 ambisonics decoder). Nuendo does do AURO 9.1 panning, but it'f you're doing AURO you might as well be forking over big money to buy their proprietary stuff. Video is done via directshow &/ FFMPEG. I regularly sidechain surround with stereo (or surround, so that's 6-10ch per track) with custom FX IO routing. REAPER makes makes complex shit a breeze, with loadable, user-made FX chain presets. MIDI is sorta a weak ponit of REAPER, cubendo apparently has better MIDI tools. REAPER has a very basic piano roll + notation editor (new in 5.2). That aside, I've used MIDI in REAPER many times. There's also the question of interop, as had been said before. Consider what other people who you will be working with use. Last edited: May 26, 2016
It's not. I usually work with an average of around 60/70 tracks with LOADS of instruments and effects and I have never encountered problems. Anyway audio tracks don't weight that much on the cpu but rather on the RAM/HD. The only problem would be caused by loads of instruments and effects and to me it has never been a problem. Doing drum and bass I often have to process stuff a lot and I usually dont even export/resample and just keep chaining stuff. Also, if you are so passionate about it and you own Cubase why don't you put the whole thing to test and replicate the same project in both cubase and studio one?
Try the Fl Studio Demo (cost 80 - 200 $/€ depend which version) or Reaper (60 $ and Only 9 MB size, the Demo is without restrictions)... this are the Cheapest and easyest DAWs for me... these other DAWs like Cubase are too complex and took a lot of time to understand! and these are to expensive! I use Reaper a lot for recording, and Fl for producing Hip Hop/Rap Beats... Try it... Last edited: May 26, 2016
Well, if you think the creative process of song writing and production is like a shopping tour, you are right. Therefore it needs no status. Last edited: May 26, 2016
You are personally attached to your daw and feel offended when someone points out the obvious. S1 is among the worst when it comes to cpu handling,that is common knowledge. Have you fully tested both daws?I did. Unless you did or you own 8.5 pro you cant have an opinion because unlike other daws its not cracked,people compare it to something they have no idea what its capable of.
