What preference do you have for DAWs?

Support & discussion regarding DAWs and MIDI sequencers.

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

folderol
Established Member
Posts: 2066
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 8:06 pm
Location: Here, of course!
Has thanked: 223 times
Been thanked: 398 times
Contact:

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by folderol »

Of what art thy DAW thou speakest of?
{from the guy who uses music production 'separates' the same way as he uses audio separates :lol:

The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
User avatar
GMaq
Established Member
Posts: 2768
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:42 pm
Has thanked: 518 times
Been thanked: 555 times

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by GMaq »

Kirtai wrote: Sun Aug 18, 2019 9:46 pm

And when would you use Non?

Never!

User avatar
milkii
Established Member
Posts: 477
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:08 am
Location: Edinburgh
Has thanked: 92 times
Been thanked: 91 times
Contact:

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by milkii »

DAWless, DAWless, DAWless...

they/them ta / libreav.org / wiki.thingsandstuff.org/Audio and related pages / gh

tavasti
Established Member
Posts: 2041
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 6:56 am
Location: Kangasala, Finland
Has thanked: 369 times
Been thanked: 207 times
Contact:

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by tavasti »

milkii wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 12:06 am

DAWless, DAWless, DAWless...

Oh no, I have to say I've been going to totally opposite direction, DAWmore :D LMMS, Mixbus, Waveform, Bitwig.All of them have something good, but I don't have time enough for music so that I would really use (and master) all of them. Mostly using Bitwig.

Linux veteran & Novice musician

Latest track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycVrgGtrBmM

User avatar
RyanH
Established Member
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2022 7:58 am
Has thanked: 131 times
Been thanked: 43 times

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by RyanH »

It might depend on what type of music you're making - specifically, whether you're playing it or programming it.

If I'm recording/working with MIDI, I'll use QTractor. If I'm recording live playing (i.e. synth, guitar, drums), I'll record the tracks in Audacity, do any cutting/pasting in Audacity, and then import them into QTractor for mixing, adding effects, etc. (Edit: to be clear, you can also use QTractor for audio recording and editing - this is just my method.)

I like that in Audacity, I can quickly record take after take, without having to give each take a name beforehand or select inputs/outputs, etc. It's as simple as pressing stop after recording the first take, rewind to the beginning, press record for the next take. You can name the tracks afterward. Then, I find it easy to cut out whatever sections I don't play well and mix the good sections into one or more solid tracks.

For all the other stuff, like mixing, effects, MIDI, etc., I like QTractor because it has an uncluttered interface with all the options I might need available.

Last edited by RyanH on Thu Apr 06, 2023 5:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
rncbc
Established Member
Posts: 1060
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:20 pm
Has thanked: 45 times
Been thanked: 256 times
Contact:

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by rncbc »

RyanH wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2023 5:58 am

If I'm recording/working with MIDI, I'll use QTractor. If I'm recording live playing (i.e. synth, guitar, drums), I'll record the tracks in Audacity, do any cutting/pasting in Audacity, and then import them into QTractor for mixing, adding effects, etc.

you know you could do it all recording in qtractor: not only MIDI but audio as well. don't you?

thanks

User avatar
peter.zenk
Established Member
Posts: 17
Joined: Thu Jun 11, 2020 1:15 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 4 times

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by peter.zenk »

Ardour
Audio recording, midi programming of drums and virtual instruments. Mixing

Save the planet - make music !
User avatar
RyanH
Established Member
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2022 7:58 am
Has thanked: 131 times
Been thanked: 43 times

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by RyanH »

rncbc wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2023 11:02 am

you know you could do it all recording in qtractor: not only MIDI but audio as well. don't you?

thanks

Sorry, I just re-read my post and can see that it comes across like QTractor can't record audio. I edited it to make that clearer.

I do sometimes record audio in QTractor, which has some definite advantages. I use Audacity when I want to record a bunch of audio tracks quickly, in a row, without having to create, name, and arm the tracks in advance. For example, I might record five takes of a bassline and only keep two. Or sometimes I might fire off a tonne of test tracks to compare different settings side-by-side. With QTractor (and Reaper, and I think Tracktion), I would have to then go delete the extra WAV files from the folder and re-name keepers, if I didn't name them in advance.

That's not a complaint, though - I recommend QTractor to everyone! I guess I could say QTractor is my preferred DAW and Audacity is something I use as a simple audio recorder.

Natelok
Established Member
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2019 7:18 pm
Location: Donnybrook Western Australia
Has thanked: 78 times
Been thanked: 14 times

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by Natelok »

Mixbus 8 for me. It's Ardour with extras. I particularly like the bus and channel EQ/Compression/etc features, but with a little bit of template building, you can get the same thing as Mixbus give or take.

I really like being able to work on EQ without popout windows. I use it on a Linux system at home and on a Win10 system at work.

I trained on ProTools and Cubase back in the 90s, and for me, Ardour just made sense but lacked a few handy extras. Mixbus was on sale, so I bought in on Mixbus 7, and the upgraded to 8 when it came on sale.

There aren't really any "bad" DAWs. There's just lots of ways to work. Mixbus suits my style, and I like the way it looks too.

I actually tried out Ableton Live 11 recently, and it has some nice features, but it's so ugly! It looks like it was made for Win 3.11!

So yeah, especially if you're recording a lot of audio tracks, I'd suggest giving Ardour a go, and if it suits, consider buying Mixbus when it's on sale. It's getting better and better at midi too, I've been tracking synths as both audio and midi at the same time and experimenting with some software synths and samplers, and I've come up with some pretty cool stuff.

Nate!

Music Nerd, Guitarist, Fixer of Things, DJ, currently employed by Donnybrook Balingup Community Radio (Station Manager & Drive Time DJ, Recording Engineer for a small attached studio for local artists)

DAW: Mixbus at home, Mixbus32C at work
User avatar
rncbc
Established Member
Posts: 1060
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:20 pm
Has thanked: 45 times
Been thanked: 256 times
Contact:

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by rncbc »

artix_linux_user wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 9:48 am

Only general problem is the scanning of plugins which might take some hours depending on the number of plugins and the jack audio buffer size.

hours???
it should be about minutes at least, in the worst case, unless you have thousands of vst2/3 in there, which I'm sure you won't need 1% of them anyhow, and to make things worse, they are (ya)bridged from winblows? :(~

ok, I hear you: good news are things might just go better on the qtractor case: the plugin cache-invalidation pseudo-algorithm just got a boost (qtractor >= 0.9.33.9); however, it won't help on a first full-scan, just better on the next ones for sure.

byee

User avatar
rncbc
Established Member
Posts: 1060
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:20 pm
Has thanked: 45 times
Been thanked: 256 times
Contact:

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by rncbc »

artix_linux_user wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 9:13 pm

Yeah - a new boost for the scanning process - thats great.
The installed plugins count here lies between 2000-4000 depending on the machine...
With normal buffersizes and latencies like n2 p128, scanning is fast in maybe some minutes,..when running at -n1 -p16 which I do now, the scanning takes long.
yeah, I know no buffersizes belowe 128 or no support of common pro audio software (as I remember it).

though, the whole business is entirely and completely independent to buffer-size
you ought to know that, if not, then you know now, believe me ;)

cheers

User avatar
rncbc
Established Member
Posts: 1060
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:20 pm
Has thanked: 45 times
Been thanked: 256 times
Contact:

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by rncbc »

artix_linux_user wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 4:39 pm

I surely believe that, but it really appears to me that small buffersizes are making the scanning longer.
Maybe I am wrong, I will test that again...

you might not be completely wrong about that: small buffer-sizes may cause higher cpu load (mainly due to more frequent context-switching) so that it may well take a bit longer to process and scan an extremely large plugin base... or anything else and the kitchen sink for that matter :)

User avatar
rncbc
Established Member
Posts: 1060
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:20 pm
Has thanked: 45 times
Been thanked: 256 times
Contact:

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by rncbc »

artix_linux_user wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:00 pm

when using qjackctl the ffado performance here is amanzing with -n1 -p16: no xruns, cpu usage at 10% and jack server is at 20%.
When selecting other higher latencies and buffersizes, it gets allways worser instead of better - thats crazy or?

that's question to the ffado devs. I'm sure

gabtram
Established Member
Posts: 38
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2022 12:01 pm
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: What preference do you have for DAWs?

Post by gabtram »

Hi to all,

i was opening a new topic about Daws when i realised about this one!
So thanks for sharing your ideas.
Since i'm not a musician, i'm a fan and geek about this world. I started 20 years ago using fruity loops, reason, cubase, working occasionaly with some friends to create some base track with analog sampler and something else.
Then after some years i returned using ableton in windows, but have also problems with asio drivers. I hate you have to use windows or mac with only sound cards that can work with with same configuration and never change some settings.
After Ableton i started to working directly recording with audacity using virtual cables in windows using vsthost and then Carla. Carla open my new world. I disocverd finally how to work with lv2 LADSPA. Gere i understand that linux is the future to make music. You can have good law latency sound without messing with asio or buying some expensive mac. I think you can also procuce great music with great sound using linux. The learning curve is different so i took some months for basic understanding. And i'm not feeling i reach the basic understang but almost i passed the starting point.

After some months i configured almost my woirkstation (i lack info's about two sound cards simoultaneously and some annoyng problem with wireplumber sessions manager for pipewire).
I 'm on the last stable arch. I tested calf plufgins and some synths with Carla. I'm using pipewire with a Q gui for pipewire. It works ok also from different sources.
I have several aims:
1) Produce my own music. It could be authorial music made with insutrments and voice (i play guitar, bass and piano) with some synth and two mics for the voice. I recorded my first 8 tracks recording directly sound from audacity. But it was strong. (i had to record single instrument than playback wht created on my earphones with my phone and then record the guitar to stay on tempo). I want to use multiple soundcard to use two for inputs (the external usb cards) and the integrated for output with two monitors or with my old 5.1
2) Producing a podcast with some music from youtube, some music live that i sound and two mics
3) Mount video and mixing with audio

I read all this topic and something else.
Ardour seems to be the standard de facto in linux. But i'm also interesting in zrythm (i like very much the gui) and in Radium a free project but aid for commercial use also if they share the source.

I am starting to think about creating the following architecture

Daw (Ardour, zrythm, Radium) -> Carla or Cardinal rack to mount some vst or lv2 plugins, Hydrogen fro drums, lilypond for music notation.

Last do you aware if exist some libs that generate notations from wav files?
I wrote all my music on sublime text editor, i inserted only the base chords but i never have my solos :).

Thanks so much,

Post Reply