Three Top DAW's

[prez]

All great advice even though Dryan stole my thunder. But it's all good. I'm a Cubase fan and ardent user. When I was looking for a DAW (after getting the preliminary things like a decent soundcard, making sure my PC would support it, etc.), I began to looking at the DAW that fit me. Downloaded demos of Logic, Sonar, Pro Tools and came to the conclusion they weren't for me. Especially Logic (nightmare!).Having said that, it may be the total opposite for you so I encourage you to take your time, figure out exactly what you're going to be doing with the DAW mostly (think about this long and hard and write it down if you have to), look ahead a bit and think about things you may do with it, then see which DAW comes closest to helping you accomplish those goals.And just to add more onto your plate , there's one more DAW that no one has mentioned that's insanely easy. FL Studio. And the price is reasonable. Jude 2

[hotjams]

good advice here...My 3 cents..that 2cents plus some inflation...If you are doing a ton of Midi, you might try Cubase or Sonar..if your doing alot of audio processing, Pro Tools. Now Pro Tools has upped their support for Midi, so it might be your best choice.Currently Im starting from scratch an putting a home/mobile studio together. Im going to go with Pro Tools LE, it comes with an interface I want, and overall it seems like the best choice. The other must have product, is Melodyne...after that...it's a matter of preference.I would be very interested in Mackie's Traction, but I dont have time to learn them all.

[edteja]

I want to toss in another vote for Kristal. It is not substantially different to use than SONAR or Cool Edit Pro (same principles), the price is right, and it works a treat. If you get heavily into recording, you can remix in another DAW without any major problems. I have imported all my ancient Cool Edit and Kristal files into SONAR 6--yes you need to redo the plugins, but that is one reason for upgrading anyway. Meantime, you get recording in a DAW situation without breaking the bank. And, most importantly, unless you are getting pretty sophisticated, there is no sacrifice in quality.Beyond that...what Matto said, except that I find SONAR more intuitive, probably because I started off with CAKEWALK years ago.

[mojobone]

I'm a dedicated Tracktioneer, and here's why; when I'm working, I spend zero time switching and resizing windows or scrolling through menus. I never needed to learn how to customize the program to fit my workflow; it already does.

[milfus]

I always weigh in for pro-tools on these things, just because, look up your local studios, 90% are pro-tools, which means if you master it, potential jobs out the ying yang, even if you just intern for free studio time, its a means for free studio time.

[mojobone]

Yep, to each his own; in my sitch, it's what makes sense for me. Plus I don't care to be saddled with proprietary interfaces and a hefty TDM surcharge on all the software I wanna buy. Now if I could just get the cat outta my lap when I'm tryin' to work.

[milfus]

nah, I rock it le, 8 core ya know, runs meaner than a low end tdm

[mojobone]

You can use native versions on an LE system? I did not know that.

[milfus]

aye, only thing locked out is the tdm plug ins, everything else runs fine

[gatorjj]

I gotta throw my semi-annual plug in this thread for Tracktion, though if I was intending to go beyond my own 4 walls I think ProTools would be my DAW of choice, just like Windows...I'm over fighting the man!