Daw Study Series Pt6 - Conclusion
The perfect DAW, is there one?
That’s a question that has a very complex answer. The thing about a DAW is that it’s as subjective as your taste in music and like music, it can be genre specific too.
First your platform and budget.
If you are a Mac user then the strongest contenders are Logic and Pro Tools and to a somewhat lesser extent Garageband. If you’re a PC user then Cakewalk’s Sonar, which is solely manufactured for Windows, would be top of the list followed by the others. Yes there is indeed some cross-platform DAW’s most notably Cubase, and new boy Studio One for both OS users to choose from but then it all boils down to cost.
How much you have to spend.
For Mac user’s Garageband comes free with Apple’s OS and it’s a great place to start but it does have limitations. For a no holds barred application it’s got to be Logic Pro for Mac users for its price and features it can’t be beaten. For PC it’s got to be Cakewalk Sonar again. They now have fully featured versions to suit everyone’s pocket and even offer a monthly subscription if you can’t fork out the money all in one go. Studio One is also pushing it's way in for both OS users.
Genre of music you want to create
Thirdly we have the specific musical genre you want to create. No doubt some DAW’s are better suited for particular types of music than others. If you’re into beat making and EDM then it can all come down to packaged loops. Some of the biggest loop libraries are shipped with Magix Music Maker, nearly 7000 to be exact and Logic Pro and Studio One are no light weights either in this department. You may also want to take a look at the number of virtual instruments that come with them if you’re going to be creating, programming and playing with midi. If tracking a band playing live or recording real instrumentation is more your thing, then something more feature rich in supplied plugins, strong editing, mixing and even mastering functions might be better suited. Any of the main popular DAW’s will have you covered.
Home or Pro Studio user
Where you will be recording is another consideration. Let’s be honest if you are tracking in the corner of your kitchen and struggling to walk around a dining table, kid’s toys and dirty dishes, a Pro Tools HD rig might not be for you. You may only have access to a low powered laptop or desktop PC and so it would make sense to aim more at what is truly achievable than watching the Pro Mixers on Youtube, sitting at 100’s of thousands of dollars of equipment, on Pro Tools usually, the industry standard, and trying to mimic them.
Ease of use and workflow
A much overlooked consideration is how easy it is to be creative. I for one don’t want to get hung up on my DAW. After all it’s only a means to record my musical creativity and nothing should get in the way of that. I see so many getting strung out on what plugins, what DAW sounds best, what bitrates, what outboard gear, what audio interface and so on and so on. It’s about making music, not about software or gear.
I like simplicity, I don’t want to have to have a long learning curve or a PhD to get things done, I want to hit record and go. For that I do love Pro Tool's two screen UI, one for editing and tracking and the other a mixing console but then cost and home recording means a cut down version of it and it’s lack of vst support is frustrating. Studio One is bumping its way into the hearts of both Mac & PC uses for doing what Pro Tools can’t, for the Home Studio user, and looks set to rise to the top. I have long, being a PC user, been an advocate of Cakewalk Sonar but the many screens of Skylight UI can be overwhelming and needlessly required for the majority of users.
Editing is something that should be done with ease and speed and again Pro Tools, Sonar and others have an intuitive smart tool. It knows when to change function when it automatically detects what you are wanting to do. This is great for workflow, no need to click and change manually. This for me is a let-down in Studio One, although they are getting there, currently two commands can be selected with left or right clicks, but a smart tool is essential. My message to all manufactures keep it simple, we need two screens, editor, mixer, super-fast audio and midi editing, that’s the basic requirements.
Conclusion
With so many things to consider and the wealth of programs claiming, they are what you need, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed in deciding what’s right for you. All of the above will most certainly record, edit and mix your creations, but it’s what suits you, and you alone, that really counts.
Here is the golden rule that I myself had to learn through much anguish, trial and error, frustration and tears, ignore what others say, find a DAW that suits you, learn it inside and out and then completely ignore it, and get on with what is the most important thing of all, creating music.
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