Any recent DAW comparisons?

[chaocrator]

I really don't understand people coughing up hundreds of dollars for Ableton or Bitwig. But that's me.

bitwig is cool. (and i would buy it if i could afford)
my view is somewhat limited by the kind of music i'm making (various electronic club/dance styles), but anyway, it contains not only the DAW by itself, but also a set of plugins (including synths) that is absolutelly sufficient for the whole production cycle.
and what makes bitwig special is the ability of virtually any parameter to be modulated by virtually any other parameter. yes, i can do that with free stuff available on linux, but it takes a lot more time & effort.

[Brynildsen]

I really don't understand people coughing up hundreds of dollars for Ableton or Bitwig. But that's me.

For me it is not much different than buying a new instrument or a piece of hardware. When I buy I tend to use the stuff a LOT, several hours a day, day in and day out, for years and years. For me those money are actually well spend.

I think a lot of the free software are made by people that are great at writing code, and thinks like a programmer, NOT like a musician/artist, and this is why some of the commercial software in my case still wins. My approach on using linux as a studio environment is that I generally like the system and the stability of the OS. Not that it doesn't cost anything. But there are two sides of this, or rather of me. I have a curious geeky side, love messing around with my system, ricing and trying out new things, but the moment I pick up my guitar and are in the composing/idea/artistic/improvising groove, I enter a totally different state of mind. I only need very few distractions from stuff that doesn't work, or just have a weird un-intuitive workflow, before I start going nuts. (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Once you open up these creative channels and ideas start flowing, you kinda of have limited time before your brain shuts down (at least in my case), or it gets late and you need to go to bed.

Bitwig and Renoise, has been a major gamechanger for me, and gave me the possibility of moving 100% to linux. I have a couple of win vst's running, because no other alternatives offer the workflow I seek, and know is working for me. And once again I really don't mind paying for professional tools if they present something unique and good. I don't spend money on software that is just "old wine on new bottles", and I don't need the newest of the newest versions of everything.

When I edit videos I settle with opensource free alternatives on linux, and the big difference is that I don't do this very often, and here I don't understand why people spend so much money on Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere etc.. But if I where to do this on a daily basis and for a living I think that kdenlive and cinelerra etc would drive me absolutely nuts and make work take double time.

[bhilmers]

I really don't understand people coughing up hundreds of dollars for Ableton or Bitwig. But that's me.

Personally I have no reservations about spending money on good tools, mostly because I make money using them. Even with stuff that is free as in beer I wind up donating a percentage of my income back to those tools if I used them to make money. Ableton and Bitwig have great workflows for working producers that need to bang stuff out on a tight deadline. Sure I can do a lot of the same things of Ardour and Qtractor, but I can do them easier and faster in Ableton. This sounds like a weak argument for sure, but as someone with "media creation" as one of their revenue streams, this matters.

Also, self contained DAWs are great for collaborations. Linux is too modular and I would have a hard time sharing a session with another Linux user, and sharing on Win/MAC is basically impossible. Even exporting a project as stems limits what can be done in collaboration.

[Linuxmusician01]

Also, self contained DAWs are great for collaborations. Linux is too modular and I would have a hard time sharing a session with another Linux user, and sharing on Win/MAC is basically impossible. Even exporting a project as stems limits what can be done in collaboration.

I hear you. But that means you can only collaborate w/ people that use the same (expensive) software. They invented open source for that. Same discussion as MS Word versus LaTeX/LibreOffice.

Anyway, from the last replies I deduce that DAW's like Bitwig and Ableton actually do have added value over free DAW's. Since I'm a beginning amateur (like the majority of people who like making make music) I'm not even going to install a trial version of these DAW's. Nor am I going to dig into 200 page manuals to look for the needle in the haystack that is "that thing that Ableton does better and clearer than Ardour" and neither do I think that the average Linuxer should. No negativity intended. I just want to point out that the topic starter does not have to look far and hard for DAW's. They are there and there are but a few one should start out with: Ardour and Qtractor.

[bhilmers]

I hear you. But that means you can only collaborate w/ people that use the same (expensive) software.

So what? So I only get to collaborate with a million people who use Ableton instead of the handful that might use the same Linux DAW setup I have? There are costs to everything. Owning a computer is a cost. Electricity to power it is a cost. Time invested in learning Linux or any DAW is a cost. I don't see the point. If you are really concerned about open source and free prices, why not only use web applications that you can access at the library for free? Makes no sense to me.

[Linuxmusician01]

I hear you. But that means you can only collaborate w/ people that use the same (expensive) software.

So what? So I only get to collaborate with a million people who use Ableton instead of the handful that might use the same Linux DAW setup I have? There are costs to everything. Owning a computer is a cost. Electricity to power it is a cost. Time invested in learning Linux or any DAW is a cost. I don't see the point. If you are really concerned about open source and free prices, why not only use web applications that you can access at the library for free? Makes no sense to me.

Touchy, touchy. Another million people use Bitwig, Cubase or Reaper. You'll miss out on collaborating with them too. Just like I do when I use Qtractor. So for collaboration reasons: no need to buy a (popular) DAW. If there were an open format we all wouldn't have to miss out of cooperation. That's the point, the point is not the costs.

[GordonS]

Maybe you can find this useful

Hmm, for me it seems reliably to give no content.

Possibly something to do with my anti-tracking strategy as I find Google often gets caught by it.

[GordonS]

I really don't understand people coughing up hundreds of dollars for Ableton or Bitwig. But that's me.

I agree, but there are commercial tools that are reasonably priced, sensible and effective, like Mixbus, Renoise and Reaper, for example.

Maybe now is a time to remind us that we can't have it both ways. We can't complain about lack of commercial products for our chosen platform if we're not prepared to put our hands in our pockets occasionally when a company produces a tool that's good for us, especially when the prices are sane.

(Ah yes ..... No, I don't have any connection with any of those companies, though I did buy and do use two of the three products I mention).

[tavasti]

I wouldn't waste my time on looking for a DAW comparison on Linux.

Sure, everyone who knows what suits best for own use does not need any comparison. However, specially a newbie (like me when starting this thread) needs.

There are only two "real" Linux DAW's: Ardour and Qtractor. The others are for Windows and/or stupendously intelligence insultingly expen$ive.

That is only your opinnion. This thread would not be this long if that would be accepted as truth by majority of forum members

[glowrak guy]

Reaper is $60 for semi-pro/hobbyist, Mixbus is $80 when not on sale
for $30, and Bitwig comes with extra instruments and audio content
the others lack, to add value to it's higher prices. These three products actually
compliment each other quite well. For $500, you could have all three,
and have a great and diverse set of tools, from first scratch,
to mastered CD.

Over a two year period, that's $.70 cents a day, to have really great
audio production tools. Someone mentioned 'stupendously expensive' earlier

Choose your priorities wisely, young grasshoppers...

[Linuxmusician01]

I wouldn't waste my time on looking for a DAW comparison on Linux.

Sure, everyone who knows what suits best for own use does not need any comparison. However, specially a newbie (like me when starting this thread) needs.

See this topic about some Qtractor tutorials on Youtube: https://www.linuxmusicians.com/viewtopi ... =1&t=17658

First vid: https://youtu.be/jpwGsNMUmQ8

Hope it helps to make a choice and to compare.

P.S. About my remark that I personally would never pay for a DAW: would someone like to start a separate topic about that? I respect all your opinions and even agree w/ some of them. But I personally don't care about following a discussion about that. I am, however, interested in the topic about tutorials. So I'm in doubt about unsubscribing from this topic.

[sadko4u]

Sorry for posting not in the proper thread. Is it possible to get native linux reaper demo from somewhere?

[ubuntuuser]

Sorry for posting not in the proper thread. Is it possible to get native linux reaper demo from somewhere?

Do you mean the Reaper Linux betas?

If so, just do a search for reaper beta.

[Jack Winter]

Sorry for posting not in the proper thread. Is it possible to get native linux reaper demo from somewhere?

I've tried to put most of the needed info here: https://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/REAPER_for_Linux

[sadko4u]

Sorry for posting not in the proper thread. Is it possible to get native linux reaper demo from somewhere?

I've tried to put most of the needed info here: https://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/REAPER_for_Linux

Thanks. Downloaded it and launched.
But it doesn't find any VST plugins except out-of-the-box plugins. I've specified a path to /usr/local/lib/vst and /usr/lib/vst then launched rescan but that didn't help.