Just Curious....What DAW Do You Personally Use For Music?

jay_connor_prods

I just wanted to know what system people use just because there are so many out there and I personally use Studio One and Logic, but mainly Studio One. I really like the score/note editor and I can print an entire score with all the parts instead having to transfer to other applications. I'm sure other DAWs can do similar things, but either way, I'm curious to know what software you choose to use?

Honestly, I can't tell you if someone else has posted this before, but hey....

Aaron Moon

I use FL Studio. Granted I started with Hip-hop/Rap and Electronic based music, but I've been using it for over ten years and it works well for me.

Being able to better work with the score sheets in the DAW would be awesome though.

PeterRaymond

Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio

Taron

MuTool's MuLab, which is light weight, but also revolves around modular architecture, providing a great deal of freedom and ease. But it still has its kinks. I'm currently looking at Ableton again.

Big_Monday

I was inspired to take up production by Andrew Huang, so Ive been using Ableton Live for years now. I really love how the plugins are in that lower window so i can see them whenever I look at the track. Plus, I find it generally very user-friendly, which is one reason I haven't switched to the arguably more powerful Reaper.

Rabbit

Reaper. It’s cheap for personal/small business use and has a free trial which lasts for a few months (indefinitely if you’re naughty). It seems to have a very active community and offers lots of customisation options. It’s worked with everything I’ve tried to throw at it so far. I use it on windows 10.

calebjtoth

For more improv stuff, I work in Cakewalk by Bandlab, but for anything remotely complex, I'm currently using Dorico, a music notation software that both hosts VSTs and allows expression maps. It's such a blessing, because I'm a classically trained pianist and find it very hard to think harmonically with MIDI notation. (Technically Cakewalk has a score view, but once you hit about three or four instruments it's just hard switching back and forth between MIDI and standard notation and scrolling, scrolling, scrolling...)

The Pro version of Dorico is pricey - about 600 dollars - but if you're in school, an educational discount will bring it to somewhere between 350 and 400. (And if you aren't in school, pick up a couple of Thinkspace Education classes - I got a discount because of a couple of their Short Courses. Would you possibly end up spending the same amount? Maybe. Do you get some awesome software and awesome, useful instruction? Definitely!)

I have no affiliation with either company. I'm just very excited. 😆

billstokesmusic

I use Logic mostly. Used Reaper for a couple of years and yes, it's a great deal, especially if you have plenty of samples and instruments.

I work with notation a lot, and use Sibelius 7.5 and also MuseScore.

Russell

Pro Tools but in full disclosure I’m employed by Avid so I can’t beat the price😊

agejdos

I use Cubase Pro and ProTools mainly. I love the Cubase midi functionality as well as the Control Room. Although Studio One is terrific!

Kirill

Studio One, as it has the best sound processing imho. Would switch to Pro Tools or Logic, but I have neither Avid Hardware nor Mac. I use Sibelius for notations though.

Faces_do_Ego

I use Cakewalk by Bandelab for MIDI and Reaper as the main audio DAW on a PC with Win 10

VC2021

I have been using Reason up till lately and switched to Cubase just a few weeks ago.

Reason, in my opinion is the easiest DAW to work with and come up with some really high end stuff that it is impossible for other DAWs to achieve without going through headaches. It has endless capabilities and easy to work with. If they put some more attention into the midi and audio features, I’d even forget about anything else even Avid Pro Tools or Cubase combined.

Kris

Logic Pro 10.6 and Waveforms 11.5

Waveforms mostly for the built-in functionality arranging midi / audio files / stretching / pitching / sketching chords system built in. Waveforms is a very underestimated DAW. People should look more into it.

Keith Theodosiou

I got my first computer in 1991 and soon after found Cakewalk. Then it was just midi but soon after they released Cakewalk Pro Audio which I absolutely loved. Eventually they changed it all to Sonar which I didn't like so I tried Cubase xp and have used Cubase ever since.

Now I am on Cubase 11 Pro

MichaelS

I use 3 Daws: Samplitude Pro X6 Suite, Cubase Pro 11 and Maschine 2. The Daw I open depends on how I feel at that moment but I am partial to Samplitude (being a user for many years) But am currently learning building and starting new projects in the other 2 as well.

Cloudjump3r

I started our in Reason 2 or 3 back in the day. The about 9 year ago or so I switched to Ableton Live cause I bough a Push mk1 and was exploring ways to perform live...and I kinda stuck with Ableton since then. On occasion I used Cubase for a few projects, but recently sold it to try working just in Ableton and cause it kept getting buggier and buggier for some reason.

But now I am very much eyeing Studio One, cause I find working purely in Ableton to be a little cumbersome for scoring. I prefer Ableton for sketching, sound design and what I do in terms of pop, hip hop, electronic music and just sketching out ideas though. So for me it depends a little on what kind of writing I do.

Luke Wood

Pro Tools in my own studio, and a mixture of Pro Tools and Logic at work. Reaper is on the list of things to learn as I'm starting to see it more and more often now.

RGallitan

Recently moved from SONAR X3 to Cubase 11. However, for newbies, "Cakewalk by Bandlab" (which is the now-discontinued SONAR repackaged as a free product) should not be underestimated. Its feature set is surprisingly complete, albeit a bit rough at the edges compared to the big names, and the UI is pretty. I especially miss the ProChannel - a default stack of commonly used effects built into every track with a tidy interface, including a fairly impressive EQ and console emulation. It doesn't seem to be getting much development, so eventually I suppose it's destined to slip into obsolescence. But that hasn't happened yet.

SonicByte

Only Reason

Donald

I started with Deluxe Music Construction Set and Master Tracks Pro in the late 1980's. Later, I moved to Digital Performer. I have been using Logic since around 2004.

qnebra

lmms, it is quite fun to create orchestral pieces in it. Both in terms of ease of use, and in terms of how theoretically non fitting this DAW was for this task.

Des

Hi

I'm a Reaper fan it comes stacked to the rafters with features and processors and is updated on a very regular basis. I also use the IOS AUM environment for some midi sequencing, processing naked stems and occasionally for mastering.

Jason_Webster32

Ok so I've tried FL studio, it's average, it is good for beat making, I didn't really find it that good to work clips, it's more for bass lovers and banging head music.

The DAW I'm using now, well I'm a very very very lucky man! Stienberg had an offer for Cubase last month, that If you own a copy of Cubase you can upgrade it to the next one up free of charge, so I had a few days left before this offer expired, I bought Cubase 11 Artist, I then upgraded to the pro version, their server shut down because of the volume of sales they had, it couldn't handle it all, made me chuckle.

Ok so Cubase 11 Pro what I'm using, it's basically the cream off a cake, it's exporting features are incredible, it's concidered to be the best DAW to write music to films or trailers, it has a live midi feature, it's so cool right... You can sing and it captures the midi notes and you could littrually write it while live, this feature alone is absolutely incredible, you don't even need to know how to play the piano lol, it's probably frowned apon but I could wack my keyboard like a monkey gone ape shit and make music like a world class pianist, even if you slip a key, it corrects it to the notes you need, even if it was a mistake, it'll sound decent regardless, you can stretch sounds, you can cut up a loop instantly and quickly fade a tiny bit and spread it on your keys and remix it, you can use the plugins to do some absolute amazing things, you can remove the vocals from a mix, you can harmonise a vocal to sound out of this world, you can combine sounds, you can you can you can, I want to say more but there's so much to learn, basically you can do anything and everything you can think of in cubase, I've made the right choice and I don't regret buying it, I've not even had much time to play on it because of family time, I value my family time more than trying to be the best, but I do spend my time at work learning more about Cubase (lunch time), you see information is very powerful once discovered.

It's absolutely mental, I've had Cubase for a month but I feel like I've been on it for years because of the tutorials.

Hans Zimmer gave the best advice any artist could hear the other day, he is not wrong either, your computer is your instrument, mine is abit broken but Beethoven had a broken metronome and was very successful.

I'm limited to how many voices I can have before my computer makes wierd noises and stops everything hitting Disk capacity and CPU lol, maybe this is a good thing because it stops me making my music into gravy, this is what Christian Henson reffers to when adding too many voices haha! 😂

Anyways I'm muttering on again!

I hope this will be helpful to you or anybody who has read it, if your poor like me, if you wait and pray long enough, things go on offer, black Friday is around the corner so keep your eyes peeled for cheap Daws, hopefully Stienberg do another generous deal, I'm so happy with my Cubase!

I probably won't be able to afford much on black Friday because I've spent everything, but if I do win any money again, I'm definitely going to take advantage of the deals swung around, keep your eyes peeled for Spitfire deals, they are so worth it.

OK I'm definitely going to leave it there now! I love this forum I could littrually get everything off my chest and leave happy knowing that I could of helped somebody, I want everybody to succeed because you are my family, my brothers and sisters, I love you all, keep up the good work and private message me if you ever need help, I'll do everything I can to help you.

Take care all! ❤️🙏❤️

System64

I use LMMS as it's the first one I discovered, it's easy to use, and it's free.

bass_oon

Used Cakewalk/Sonar since it first came out in 90's (version 2). Moved to Cubase when cakewalk went to bandlab a few years ago (2017?). Now using Cubase 11 Pro. I occasionally use Dorico.

Adam Roberts

Logic and Pro Tools. Tried Reaper...I saw the potential but couldn't get into a rhythm on it.

matt_mahaffey_01

100% Pro Tools over here.

Edward

GUESS.

mark5009

On a Mac, now an M1 mini, and it's Logic, mostly. I want to like Reaper and I keep stumbling. Reason is lots of fun and the fact their instruments can now be used in other DAWs makes it a no-brainer for me. I've also used, and have a licence for, Studio One, but they lost me with the ver5 upgrade--they decided to go after Ableton and I have no interest in that--and their handling of video is not at all good. So it goes.

Scoring I now use Notion for quick and dirty stuff and Lilypond when it all gets serious :-)

nestrai

fl studio