Three Top DAW's

[weslong]

I don't mean to complicate things further but don't forget those two powerhouse DAWs- Samplitude and Seqouia. If you wonder why people don't mention them, take a look at the cost! Yikes. This is for high-level work, indeed.http://www.samplitude.com/eng/seq/

[weslong]

I prefer Logic, just for the record. I first used a 'light version' of Logic 4 that came with my Alesis QS-6 and the I bought the Logic 5 Big Box around 2002 only to be really pissed off a short few weeks later when Emagic announced that Logic had been sold to Mac. HA! No more PC updates or future version.Funny how things come full circle. I switched to Mac and have Logic again. Logic Express 8 whips the pants off of Logic 5 any old day.

[hummingbird]

Sept 23, 2008, 8:08pm, mojobone wrote:For the record, I'm also a Tracktion fan. I find the interface and built-in side-chaining capabilities to be superior to some feature-rich but clunky alternatives when tracking and mixing, which is most of what I use a DAW for. I was up and running with it in less than an hour and it was the first DAW that I could really get work done with-I did manage to record some stuff in Cubase after a couple days worth of head-scratching. I think Reaper behaves a little better for comping, but neither of the above have truly comprehensive MIDI editing, which could be a deal-breaker for some. (I believe billg is a fellow Tracktioneer, too)I use Tracktion too. I can sequence directly in Tracktion, use my midi keyboard, import midi from Finale or BiaB, run my orchestra programs, synths, percussion, loops, etc etc. I can even score to film. I recently downloaded a sample version of Sonar7... but I think I'd rather just stay with what I know. It's workin' for me so far.

[ibanez468]

Well, I will say that, for me, Sonar 7 has been quite a bit quirky. Alot of weird things have been happening ever since I made the upgrade to 7.0.2. If not for my familiarity with DAWs, I probably would've scrapped the thing by now, but so far I've managed to get past any problems that I've encountered. And I got a new computer and everything. Don't think it's the computer though, I think it's Sonar. I've been lucky enough to salvage 2 tunes now using Sonar 7. Something that I didn't have a problem with when I was using Sonar 5.0. Oh well, what're ya' gonna do? Press on, I suppose. I-468

[billg]

Sept 23, 2008, 8:08pm, mojobone wrote:For the record, I'm also a Tracktion fan. I find the interface and built-in side-chaining capabilities to be superior to some feature-rich but clunky alternatives when tracking and mixing, which is most of what I use a DAW for. I was up and running with it in less than an hour and it was the first DAW that I could really get work done with-I did manage to record some stuff in Cubase after a couple days worth of head-scratching. I think Reaper behaves a little better for comping, but neither of the above have truly comprehensive MIDI editing, which could be a deal-breaker for some. (I believe billg is a fellow Tracktioneer, too)Yup! I tried the others & got tired of spending hours & hours trying to "learn" what I thought I already knew. For me Tracktion is simple & powerful & I really have never heard anyone that's used it say it was lacking in anyway (compared to others). A lot of times I record my live stuff in a Fostex vf16 & then dump it into Tracktion. Doesn't get much simpler (or faster!). I think more of your actual sound quality is going to be determined by things such as mics, preamps, & recording techniques, etc.

[gatorjj]

Tracktion...represent! I think the bigger point is there's many many programs out there with capable audio and mixing engines, so find the one that fits best with what you are doing. I tried several, and Tracktion fit me best...your mileage may vary!J.J.

[robbylane]

You could do like I did. The online stores called Musicians Friend and Samash offer credit cards where you pay 0% interest for 15 months. I purchased a Pro Tools 003 LE Rack with Factory Bundle from one store and a desktop-style iMac with 20-inch screen from the other store. It also helps to invest in a Firewire-based external hard drive for your iMac. On the absolute flip-side of expense, you can go with a free online recording software called Audacity. Even the big names in music use Audacity to get their song ideas recorded quickly and you can have access to unlimited tracks for your music. If you want to be able to record multiple tracks while you are "on the road" you can get a Boss Micro Digital 4-track that offers incredible sound quality and features. I know all of this because I fell prey to Gear Acquisition Syndrome!

[che]

Just wanted to throw another online music shopping site into the fire. We use American Music Supply where you can do a 3 pay. We've recently used them to buy a mic, monitors, Pro Tools, M-Audio 410, etc.... Anything over 299 can be paid for in 3 installments using your creidt or debit card. That site has helped a lot when upgrading. They have a ton of stuff.