Do many of you seasoned producers stick to just one DAW for song writing/mixing/mastering or do you tend to use different DAWs for some of these steps? If so can you just list your reasoning and logic behind it. For myself I use FL studio because of its fast workflow and browser capabilities when I am searching for samples and different sounds. I also love the piano roll but every DAW has its strengths and weaknesses and was wondering if by maybe outsourcing to another DAW for a particular step I could be achieving better productions. Thanks again

 

I use Studio One 3 for creating everything and I use Cubase 6.5 for adding audio to video and using it for older projects. However, Studio One 3 is my go to

 

Not quite what youre asking, but related:
I produce and rap. For producing, it's Ableton Live all the way down. Fantastic midi handling, great brainstorming tool via the session view, I love it. Everything is so easy and straightforward. I bought the first Push and then the Second one. Couldn't be happier.

For recording and processing vocals, I use Studio One. I used to say that if Ableton wasn't so impractical for vocals (i.e. had loop record, layered tracks, take comping, etc.) that I'd use it for recording as well. Now I've changed my mind. Studio One is an absolutely brilliant program. Just a joy to use. The only thing about it I don't love is the fact that the undo button doesn't apply to a great many actions in the mixer and plugin parameters, so I had to learn to be more judicious about what I try out. But beyond that, Studio one is about as fast and enjoyable as it gets for working with audio.

 

Whatever workflow is the most optimized or easiest to work with, go with that, there is no hard and fast rules.Experiment. I personally use FL the whole way through. Back when i started i used to make a tune in FL then bounce out every element and just mix with the faders for levelling, but i got more used to doing things in iterations, i found it was easier/better for my workflow, and working like this helped me with allocating space in the frequency spectrum where necessary so that if i decide to add new elements, its an easy process which led me to just mixing everything inside the project because you can directly manipulate the root elements of each of your track rather then a consolidated WAV export of the stems.

If you know of some specific process that is easier/faster to do in a specific DAW then by all means use that, but the gap between DAW limitations closes really fast once you know about 3rd party plugins. An example would be FL Parametric EQ2 doesnt have mid side EQ as an example or any phasing options, so there may be a DAW that has that plugin/capability, but in this example, Pro Q2 (3rd party plugin) already provides this solution of mid-side EQ.

Also from the perspective of mentally mixing, there is some benefit to using just stems because you have effectively "committed" to mixing what you have as it is, so you cant keep added more ingredients to the mix. Also some people like a different looking GUI as it puts their mind in a different mode, similarly to how people enjoy the physically distinguishable barrier of a work environment in comparison to a home environment.

I've even seen a relatively big dnb producer use wavelab for one function which was to chop breaks because you can see the waveform in a super high resolution, with zero crossing and a lot of nice shortcut features like normalizing, pre slice allocation and a bunch of other features, just to make a rex file which could be put into their exs24 for logic.

 

Last edited: Feb 2, 2016

I use the front daw when I go to work, and the back daw when I want to chill in the garden. I cannot comment on the secret daw that goes down into the cellar


PS I am trapped in Reaper for everything.

 

It's basically as you say yourself: each and every DAW has its pros and cons. If the project at hand has lotsa MIDI-editing/stuff going on then my DAW of choice would be Samplitude/Sequoia because of the MIDI-workflow that I've come to learn & love in both applications. For the "average" wave-based project ... I don't really care and most of the time I whip out StudioOne. S1 pretty much gives me everything out of the box (excluding plugins) that I might need and it's kinda widespread in both worlds: Win & Mac. Always a nice go-to-option is Reaper ... Really like its flexibility and the small footprint in terms of system-load, plus: it's also a multi-platform-DAW (which is important for me as OS X and I are not the bestest of mates)

And then there's a myriad of other DAWs that I've worked with but rubbed me in the wrong spot or way. Fruity, Digital Performer, Sonar or ProTools ... nothing wrong with these, just not "my" DAWs - yay, it's all down to personal tastes and bias

 

Oh man that was corny. But you got me @Zenarcist

 

I know it was terrible but I couldn't resist

 

Logic in general, but for film/tv work Nuendo, for some reason I prefer Nuendo for that kind of work.

K-))

 

FL is ok IMO, I would learn Reaktor 6 Blocks (FX one if u don't want to build synths just fx units), so the middle user friendly layer of Reaktor to able to build custom fx units which possibility is missing from FL (Patcher can be used but the latest 1.1 Reaktor Blocks can use macros so it's much better than the FL one)

etc.

1.1

 

Last edited: Feb 2, 2016

Can you explain in Layman's terms?

 

u can use the freely assignable modulator ins of the devices to connect them to a knob(can be uni/bipolar)/switch so they can set together (can find the same concept in Ableton Live, Bitwig, Reason, S1, Renoise but was missed from Blocks 1.0 so was bit useless till now)

created a video about it

sry for the sound quality always struggle with recording under Cubase

--

in 1.0 was able to use the mod ins for envelopes, lfo etc. on.y but they were not user controllable

from 4.00

I know that FL also has Patcher/FlowStone but Reaktor Blocks is far more comfortable than those ones for creating devices quickly (and has a very deep Reaktor layer too in the same time to fully customization, there is a Reaktor Player too http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths/reaktor-6-player/ so these devices can be used anywhere)

 

Last edited: Feb 2, 2016

I used to solely produce in FL Studio, and mix in Cubase 5, until I came across studio one (Version 2 at the time). It was a small learning curve, and I still sometimes miss the midi editing and certain aspects of FL's browser. However, S1 meets all of my expectations and more (although it's not without fault).

I've been contemplating on going back to mixing in Cubase, or Samplitude, or Reaper. I've had the most experience in Cubase, used Samplitude awhile for recording clients and loved it (minus the serious asio issues I had with 3rd party plugins, making some projects unable to open...still havent figured that one out), and have mixed a couple songs in Reaper, which was fun, but I think I spent to little time with it to see its true power. Producing the Idea in one Daw, then moving the stems to a another (As @synth

 

I produce everything in Ableton 9 Suite then rewire all of the tracks into ProTools during the mixing process, it's incredibly simple to do.

For me Ableton is such a straightforward and flexible DAW that it doesn't stem my creative flow when I'm trying to get all of the tracks down. The audio routing, max4live, racks and automation make it a DAW that really fosters creativity.

ProTools has far better audio editing capabilities - clip silence, elastic audio, the waveforms are much larger and easier to read, has VST3 which helps with Waves InPhase when I'm trying to double check all my recordings.

The ReWire process allows me to record my tracks from Ableton directly into ProTools once I'm ready to migrate.

 

i use logic 9 mostly, but use ableton 9 and protools 10 on occasion

 

REAPER 4 for most stuff (fastest & most efficient), Audition 3 for inspecting older projects, Audition 5 for inspecting the mixes I Made in R4 (A5 has a nice, big FFT).

 

Been a cubase guy for years, back when i was on cubase 5, I also ran Reason and had them synced so cubase drove reason. but reason is outdated IMHO, it use to be great on Laptops. but now it just seems like a toy to me. Been playing round with Presonus Studio 1 but its too much like Cubase for me to changed Cubase i think sounds warmer lathe way through the complete process of making a song, they both are really good but I think it comes down to Asio implementation as well as VST S1 is close but not quite there

 

Generally speaking, different types of DAWs are better for different ways of working or styles of music. Speaking for myself, I like to mix it up a bit, force myself to think differently. I took Logic Pro X out in the backyard and cut out its tongue and stuffed it up its ass, because it kept pulling that "system overload" thing on me – but that freed me up to work more in Bitwig, Studio One 3, Reaper, Ardour, whatever. It's all different; it's all good. I even like me some Pro Tools, sometimes. Just no more Logic Pro X, whose dick I cut off and fed to my dog.