Which Daw do you use?

The DAW I use the most is Ableton Suite 10. I have everything there. But … to have multiple midi outputs in Ableton I have to use Element and loopmidi. Luckily I got (thanks to a rabbit composer :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:) a version of Reaper, which allows me to seamlessly route multiple tracks and MIDI inputs and outputs. It is very useful for me since later I export those midis to edit the scores. I also have Reason Intro. It’s fun and easy to use, but it also has problems with midi outputs. I use it as Vst in Ableton and Reaper

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I’m a Reaper man myself. I used Steinberg’s Pro24 and then Cubase back in the day but after a long hiatus I was looking for a DAW and Reaper’s free trial appealed to me and my pocket. I have no particular drum to beat but I find Reaper very intuitive to use, and it’s flexibility, continued development and a very supportive user community mean I feel no urge to transfer my loyalty. So far, I haven’t found anything I’ve not been able to do in Reaper.

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Ughh, finding right DAW is such a pain. In order of appearance on my hard drive: Garage Band, Reason, Ableton, Maschine, Reaper, FL Studio, Studio One. I guess FL Studio is the one that works for me the best. Still keeping Reason (because it’s just fun to play) and Ableton (for abondance of online tutorials :wink: ) .

I am Romanian and i saw you are interest for the Romanian Scores. You can search in Internet for “Manele”. Difficult to Play, Rhythmns are Mixed with Gypsy. I am a beginner and my husband need some Midi to Analyse this music. A lot of Influencers. And very special Limes to Play. At least i Like to Play something in Manele Style and experimenting than with new Sounds.

The same Balkan style i did not found in Scaler until now.

I use very often Plasmonic to make Sounds and can Not Play keyboard. For my Sounds i use Microtonality Scales and have arround 5000 Scales for world Instruments. IT helps to Play for example a 1500 years old flute used by Romanian sheppards.

Sorry do not speak english.

For the Moment i Work in a cover Version for a Tango. Integration of Scaler and Remidi (how to Route the Channels) is interesting because DaVinci is free.
DaVinci Studio have the most easy Workflow to produce Dolby Atmos Room Sound. You have to Play live.

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After getting back into music right before the whole corona thing started, I was using FlStudio.
It wasn’t bad, but was still a little costly for my wallet. Then I heard about Reaper. I started watching some of the videos on Youtube and saw that it was really customizable. So I downloaded it and found it had a fully functioning 60 day trial period which I found to be amazing. So I started watching more and more of the tutorial videos and really got into it. I finally made the plunge after about 90 days of using it. It was only $60. then I heard about Scaler, and after about 2 months of debating, I made the plunge on that as well. It was only about $50. So all in, it cost me about $110 and I feel I have an incredible studio setup on my laptop, that grows every day with all the free VST’s available to use in Reaper. I am glad I made the move.

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Hi Daniela @tocan

you didn’t find in Scaler because it doesn’t exist
:grinning:

I love Balkan and Roma music (and dances here with my teacher Daniel Sandu) and I just recognized that a rhythm jumped out by accident from my experiments was suitable, but the series of chords I used was Blues here
and Jazz here

In another case, I created a flamenco tune using a Hip-Hop series of chords…
:rofl:

The moral of my story with Scaler is that any series of chords can be used, even Metal, as far as the “anima” that you infuse using pattern, pauses, quantizations, and your bare hands on a keyboard is suitable for that style

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Personally i have been using Ableton Live for years and it fits perfect with my needs and my workflow. I tried out FL Studio recently and I admit it is a very good DAW and I might use it as well. And I would say that every (known) DAWs on the market are good pieces of software. But as I spent years to work with Ableton Live I am now very comfortable & efficient with it. So if I would switch to another DAW I guess it would be for very good reasons. You have to strongly assess the benefit of using a new DAW because you will have to get a big new piece of skills before to be as efficient as you are on your current DAW. It might be because the new one has a new feature that you are looking for for a long time, a workflow that seems to best fit to your way of working… but as stated previously… yes check it out with a real project

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Try focusing on Cherry Audio Voltage modular :wink:
Especially while all their things are on sale at PB
From what you described, I think you will like it.

Thats very cool. Those bass drums always land where I least expect them.

Lovely melodies and chord progression.

Anyway, the DAWs vs plugins debate often reminds me of a similar debate among photographers, i.e. bodies vs lenses, where professionals say lenses are more important, but the other 90% of users (me included up to a few years ago :crazy_face:) prefers collecting bodies
:rofl:

I’m a bit of a daw whore. I started with Sound Tracker on the Amiga early 1990s, then I got a Create Labs AWE32 and used Vienna SoundFont Studio and Midi Orchestrator then Fast Tracker on MS DOS in the mid 90s. Then Fruity Loops back in the late 90s (didn’t like it). I used to pay AU$20 per copy of Computer Music magazine at the news agencies in Australia until I finally got an iPad years later and got the digital subscription. This was quite a big influence. I bought Tracktion v1(I have the latest Tracktion Waveform now), I got Ableton v3, then upgraded to v6 with my APC40, then upgraded to v10. Not jumping to 11 just et. In the mean time I became a huge fan of Reaper - the swiss army knife of DAWs. I was always intrigued by Digital performer and did a bunch of research on it but never committed to it. I fell in love with Harrison Mixbus because of it’s modeled analogue circuitry emulation and direct access approach of it’s mixing console. I played with many demos of Reason but never got comfortable with it. I got Bitwig 2 and 3. Their renewal fee would cost me AU$250 which I think is too much. I got Studio ONE v4 with my presonus audio interface. I liked the hardware integration and made an effort to learn it. It’s paid off in spades. I bout the Pro version and upgraded when v5 came out. Studio ONE is now my goto when recording and mixing. It also is for creative tinkering and composing, I used to use Ableton for that (session view) but I think I am going to spend more time with Bitwig. I enjoy bitwig’s modulators, midi utilities (including routers), and I think I am only scratching the surface. I think of Bitwig as the most intelligent DAW.

I think Cubase would have easily been as good as Studio ONE, I just never chose to commit to it financially. I’m a bit dissapointed that Digital Performer seems to have stalled. I have no interest in pro-tools. I think it is over-priced and overrated. I installed it on my PC (decent specs) and it ran like a pig. They want too much money for their rental stuff. I think people use it because “everyone else uses it” - well thats not a good enough reason for me.

Oh yeah, I play around with cakewalk on and off. it has some seriously impressive and unique features it’s just that there is too much else to chosoe from. I also get band in a box recently and need to spend more quality time with it.

Right now I am spending time learning
EastWest Composer Cloud
Native Instruments Complete Ultimate Collectors
and Volatage Modular.

I’d like to earn a living mixing bands and also composing scores for documentaries, short films, and commercials.

I got some talented musician friends who I have recorded and produced for - nothing really commercial though.

My latest project is MusicMan.TV where we interview musicians and they perform on stage.

I do the recording and mixing. I also do the cameras and video edting… and the computer graphics. Yeah I pretty much do all the tech work on that project. No money in it yet. Still trying to solve that problem We’ll see…

It was nice reading all your experiences.

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that range of buttons and bolts is impressive :astonished:, but what I like more is the 1964 Hofner Verithin

BTW, what kind of music it was used for?

LOL never heard of a Veithin before. Did you mean a Theramin? (not sure how its spelt).

Yes my theramin is a modular oscilator with an LFO now.

Here’s me showing off my Studio ONE session for the TV show theme music I created based on a simple chord progression from my friend’s song. Show’n tell!
It’s a bit cheesy but thats the point. It’s supposed to trigger memories of the show when it gets popular one day :smiley:

The whole thing was programmed in midi but this video shows the session with most of the instruments baked into audio to concerve CPU performance.

Likely because you are very young
:grinning:

It was a Gibson ES335 lookalike made by Hofner https://www.hofner.com/ They have now re-introduced it…

For some reason, the mid 60’s ones like mine sell for crazy prices
verithin
Crappy bridge, works badly with the Bigsby, string height about 2cm at the 12th fret etc. When I bought a guitar again 45 years after my failed attempts to look cool for 15 year old girls watching the band I played in, I paid the same amount for a nice Japanese Ibanez with di Marzios. (sorry about the ‘axe speak’).

Claudio, was that you playing ??

What’s with the change of face ?

English poet Philip Larkin penned a verse in 1967 called Annus Mirabilis describing his early teenage years; verse one is

Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the “Chatterley” ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.

I was 16 - the key time of transition to manhood - in 1960, so before the sexual excesses of the ‘swinging sixties’ in London and “BB” - before the Beatles. So our band (then called a ‘group’) played largely rock / blues covers. I had another Hofner guitar before the Verithin which I bought towards the end of my playing days.

I had thought that being in a band might have helped on the dating scene, but sadly this was not the case, as Larkin’s verse sets out.

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That’s strange!
I learnt playing guitar and singing for the same reason, and it worked
:rofl:

I paid a lot of bucks for a musical teeth-piercing, as you can see making the picture bigger, and I wanted to share the artistic job
:tooth: :rofl:

I’ve used Digital Performer since the days when it was just Performer.

I’ve used other DAWs a bit. I recently did a stint with Logic Pro, and it has some good things going for it, especially in the audio & MIDI plugins, as well as the VI’s and loops. It has the worst, least helpful documentation I’ve ever seen. It’s also very weak when it comes to being able try new things with scales, transposition/harmonization, and quantizing to fun tuplets.

DP may have some weaknesses and some long-standing issues, but it is VERY strong when it comes to compositional tools and capabilities. Scales, quantize functions, and other MIDI/Audio processes are best-in-class. It is primarily a linear, non-realtime type of DAW, but MOTU recently added a loop player to the UI-- which I’ve not tried.

To me, DP seems very intuitive, flexible, and user-friendly. That said, there is a learning curve because it is a professional and deep DAW.