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Soon I may be upgrading to the modern world. I have to start investigating this DAW business. I know nothing about it. I am truly ignorant. I would be embarrassed to ask the questions I will have to know the answers to. Some of the things I do not know, which are a piece of cake to you, would stagger you. Yes, what I do not know, is staggering. My ignorance is a rare champion.So in order not to ask thise really bad questions right now, I just want to ask all you folks in the know this:What are the three top DAW's in your opinion and why? If I am to buy only one, which should it be?

The ones you read about are Logic, Pro Tools, CuBase, Sonar, Cakewalk & Garageband.However, I urge those with no recording experience to consider MacKie's Tracktion3 (Mac or PC). It's very user friendly and if you buy the complete version (not the demo) it comes with a slew of plug-ins, including Garritan orchestra. A friend of mine who just joined Taxi tried demos of Pro-Tools & CuBase & Tracktion and settled on Tracktion because it seemed more accessible & he was already working with the demo the same day he downloaded it. http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion3/You can also download demos of other software & try it out. Just google "softwarename+demo"HTHHummin'bird

I'm probably the only other Tracktion user on here but I fully agree with the Hummin'bird and will post right after her to make it look like we are a force It turned out to be the best program for me...and the fact it was $99 had no bearing on that!I'm a former Cubase user...fine program but I always got lost in the pop-up windows, especially when trying to finish a mix. But tons of powerful features.ProTools is your best bet if you want to do some work in a big studio, and some at home. Every time I go to a ProTools presentation they seem to be getting a new feature that's been available elsewhere for some time though. I don't think there's anything magical about it other than the portability.Bottom line we all work differently and have different needs...download every demo you can get your hands on (including Mackie Tracktion!) and see what fits you best horacejesse!Cheers,J.J.

On the PC, the top three are Cubase, Protools and (Cakewalk) Sonar.If you're mostly going to be working on acoustic recording with a possible smattering of midi embellishments (and are new to computer recording), I would probably recommend Protools.If you're mostly going to be working with midi/virtual instruments with a smattering of acoustic recording, I'd go with Cubase or Sonar (personally I'd go with Cubase but that's because it's what I'm used to ).All of these have inexpensive or even free entry level versions, so you can get started with a very minor cash layout. Then, if you need extra bells and whistles, you can move on up...matto

All of the mentioned DAW's will do the job. I'm a Sonar man myself so that's my choice. I didn't choose PT's because I didn't want to be constrained by having to buy dedicated hardware and plug-ins. I'd better duck now! the hardcore PT's guys will be mad and sad. Seriously though, PT's is the industry standard because it was the most stable and advanced "at the time" big studios started incorporating DAWS into their studios. I remember using the first free PT's DAW. Things have changed with technology however and the PT's format portability issue is steadily becoming a non- issue these days, so it really depends on which one looks and feels right for you and how deep you want to get into it all.Greg.

Or, if you want to get your toes wet with absolutely no cash outlay, got to kreatives.org and download Kristal. It's insanely easy to use--I learned it at the same time I was learning to use a computer. The basics are there, and it's easy to springboard to a bigger and more versatile program. I went on to dabble in Reaper, Live, and Cubase before settling on SONAR. I recorded my first CD with Kristal, and still use it for recording when quick and easy are the order of the day.

Quote:Or, if you want to get your toes wet with absolutely no cash outlay, got to kreatives.org and download Kristal. It's insanely easy to use--I learned it at the same time I was learning to use a computer. The basics are there, and it's easy to springboard to a bigger and more versatile program. I went on to dabble in Reaper, Live, and Cubase before settling on SONAR. I recorded my first CD with Kristal, and still use it for recording when quick and easy are the order of the day. Me too!!!! My stable now includes Kristal Audio Engine, Band in a Box, Jammer, Melody Assistant, Finale, Tracktion, EWQLSO Silver & Gold Bundles... and will soon include Stylus RMX --- but I started with Kristal, a mic pre amp & a Shure SM57. I still use Kristal all the time.

Quote:A way to deal with this would be to bounce tracks with your plug ins and also bounce the sub groups, etc. But also include the raw original tracks, merged so they are contiguous from time zero to the end. Also include a mix. This way, the engineer at the studio you are taking the tracks to has a reference of what you were thinking when you were doing your sessions at home.It may seem like a lot of work but if you're going to a studio with a fat Pro Tools setup, you are going there to use all the great stuff (plug ins, speakers, compressors, engineers,etc.) they have that you don't. Otherwise, why go? Right?Mazz RIGHT!

The issue with portability as I understand it is this: You've worked on a song at your home in your Pro Tools rig. Now you take your hard drive to the big studio with the mondo Pro Tools rig and they load it up and you hear it and go "Holy Crap, what happened to that cool echo effect on the vocals?" Well, turns out, the mondo studio doesn't own the same echo plug in you do for some strange reason.Or the other way around. You work in a big studio on their Pro Tools rig and you decide to take the piece and work on it at home on your rig. Well, you load up the session and it doesn't sound right because you haven't spent 10s of thousands on having every plug in ever made. I'm not sure if the session will even load up!! At one point I'd heard of this happening (ProTools gurus will chastise me heavily here, I'm sure! ).Hope this helps a little bit.Mazz

What Mazz says is true, I'll put it a slightly different way. If you have ProTools and they have ProTools, you can bring the whole project with you on a drive/DVD or whatever. When they load up the project, all the tracks should be right where you left them, mixed them, panned them etc. (Replace ProTools with Cubase, Logic, Sonar, Tracktion, etc. and the same applies)If a few plugins are different, then a few things need replacing but that's about it. If you're using a different DAW than the studio, then you lose all of the "mix" stuff when you export the tracks. This is not that big a deal if all you are doing is purely tracking and then handing it off to be mixed. But if you're booking time in different studios along the way, this "portability" will become a lot more important to you. Not to mention time is money in the studio, so the quicker your project is up on the board the better!I don't use ProTools but I've heard the same thing Mazz is referring to, I think it has to do with recording with TDM (the high end version) and loading up on an M-Powered or LE version. I think they are generally compatible, but there's things you could do in TDM (higher sample rates, more tracks) that would not work if you took the project to a lower end version. I'll leave that question for somebody who knows!