I only have experience with Logic and Ableton. I used to use Logic but I switched to Ableton for live performing and never looked back. I like how Abletonās interface is entirely 2D and consists of simple boxes. Thatās very intuitive to me. I like the session view for live performances and the arrangement view is like any other daw.
Another pro for Ableton is to be able to use Ableton Push. Although other DAWs can compare in their software capabilities, thereās no hardware that can compete with Push at the moment. If planning to use Push for live or making music, Ableton is a must.
Cons: It is expensive. The intro is around $90 and it is enough for me but it does not contain almost any of the great instruments and tools (such as guitar amps, various high quality instruments that can produce good key or string sounds, or utilities like EQ-8) that the higher packages have and the those are a steep hike in price.
your network: what are peopel around you working with?
portability of media and plugins: how easy it is to exhange project files, export/import/render/ā¦
UX and UI: the point @Majik made: intuitivity versus familiarity and the combination of both.
your own workflow continuity: what if your pc crashes; is it easy to install again, get your plugins going; get your projects working, how to do store your projects for later use?
supplier continuity: is it new, is the company in trouble?
I ONLY used built in and free plugins/vstās.
There is so much out there and you only need that little much to have some go-to workflows going. My ideal DAW can be grabbed by the folder and put elsewhere (new faster disk), can keep a library of free plugins and matches my preferences.
Iām going to try Ardour, thanks for the tip. Have been Reaper user but never digged so deep into DAWS. itās nice but simple stuff it lacks a bit in keeping simple things simple like splitting a stereo into 2 monoāsā¦;I use Audacity first. Noise removal, etcā¦ stuff I do in Audacity because it does it so well out-of the-box in 2 clicks
Iām a Photoshopper since 1997 and I tried the free Gimp.
When people say it āreplacesā Photoshop, I note :āit replaces photoshop for those who hvenāt used Photoshop beforeā. A free powerful tool; yes. Fun to use when you have a good section of Photoshopped baked in your muscle memory? not so much
I got my guitar into ableton and even found the tuner module which works really well Imo.
Managed to record a clip but not sure how. Why these things so complex, and I say that as a dimwitted software developer with 30 years experienceā¦ Haha
Ok after watching the beginning of a how to video I now have Ableton running an Addictive drums loop as a plugin, my Bias GF2 running for guitar , 2 audio sample layers and 2 midi layers ( synth chords and bass). All a bit triphop but its a groove haha. Making some sense now.
I think I am short some music theory fundamentals to push this tho
If you need any help, feel free to ask, although thereās a great community forum on the Ardour web site too.
I think a lot of DAWs wonāt have this as a simple function. I donāt think itās that common a requirement for normal DAW use.
I would be intrigued to know why you do this.
I look at Audacity as a sort of audio toolbox. Itās got some useful features and is great for audio file editing.
But itās not really a DAW. Having said that, it may be all that a user with simple requirements needs. And it does have some useful tools that are less common on full DAWs.
IMO you have to consider the whole workflow to work out if using a tool in Audacity in conjunction with a full DAW is worthwhile or not.
You can get pretty far in Ableton with a couple of vids and clicking around. I donāt build electronic music in it, but have used it to record to BTs, add reverb & compression to vocals, and that tuner is useful when singing to work out if youāre on key as well.
Iāve done even less with Reaper, so far it feels a lot more build-your-own than everything-built-in. But hey, still learning.
Audacity is a Swiss pocket knife that complements the workbench
I have some use cases on my Mod Dwarf where I record 2 signals mono into a stereorecorder. Itās handy to have the exact sam timing and length but I need to split them afterwards.
This makes two mono regions which will appear in the āsourcesā list. If you want them in tracks, you can create two mono tracks and drag the regions into them.
If you do this frequently, you could create a template with one stereo track and two mono tracks to streamline this. It may even be possible to script it if you have some Lua skills.
I think this probably only makes sense, over using Audacity, if you intend to do other work within the DAW.
I will probably test Ardour when I try to record something for my solo project.
Then I have an actual goal (and motivational driver) to spend time on it
Edit: I will add that, in Ardour, itās possible to add a post-processing command to an export profile which can be an application or script which does some additional post-processing to the exported audio. So you could, for instance, set up a script which automatically split an exported stereo audio mix into two mono tracks using SoX.
I suspect this wonāt be useful to your workflow, but I mention it in case it is somehow.
OK prompted by Ola Iāve now installed the bopen source neural amp modeler and a bunch of amp sims (Marshall, fender, vox, mesa etc) and cabs (a great celestion ir) , sounds great tbh. Plus some pedal models (klone etc)
I need to figure out how to add reverb to a track nowā¦
Iāve also built a simple shuffle blues backing track, drum loop and 12 bar bass line in E (easy to change).
Playing over this will take some effort, best in E Pent/blues I guess?
