best value DAW

[operative451]

As a completely upside-down version of the idea... If you like Garageband: I got fed up with the amount of faffery trying to get things to work in windows and bought a reconditioned 8-9 year old macbook for £200.  You have to download garageband, but that's easy enough and then it 'just works'...

'course, i do now use Reaper on it for recording, but hey..

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, Skol303 said:

Regarding Ableton... ...

... @Leonard Smalls of this parish uses it to great effect, for example.

...I have the ‘light’ version myself and it’s very good indeed - and very different to other DAWs (in a good/interesting way). 

...It’s the world’s most popular DAW for a reason.

Thanks Skol. Those are 3 VERY positive comments about Ableton. 

The other BIG point that a 'trusted' fellow BCer made recently was about "Session View" which he felt was a standout feature: "Workflows change slightly from one DAW to another but they all basically work in the same linear left to right fashion. The session view does away with that linear mindset in a way that took my creativity to a whole new level!"

So I'm seriously tempted, particularly as the only negative point about Ableton (other than that its full fat version is a lot more expensive than e.g. Reaper) is that that it is 'perceived' to be more geared to live electronica. 

Time to get off the pot, methinks  

[Skol303]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

So I'm seriously tempted, particularly as the only negative point about Ableton (other than that its full fat version is a lot more expensive than e.g. Reaper) is that that it is 'perceived' to be more geared to live electronica. 

Time to get off the pot, methinks  

Demo it first... always try the demo before taking the plunge! 😉 I think the Ableton demo is 30 days last time I checked, which should be sufficient time for you to love it or loathe it. YouTube tutorials are ideal for learning the basics.

4 hours ago, operative451 said:

As a completely upside-down version of the idea... Garageband

Another great suggestion! GarageBand is often overlooked a being “a bit of a toy”, but it’s a really good DAW: one of the easiest to use and capable of producing music as good as any other (just with limited functionality).

If you own a Mac it’s defintely the place to start and offers an easy progression to Logic is you need more tools at your disposal.

[Sibob]

Quite honestly, I don’t think Ableton is for you, you would be paying more money for a huge amount of features that you won’t need. As said, whilst it’s more than capable as acting as a ‘normal’ DAW, it’s very much geared towards one-shot (sample) based music, loops, electronic music and live use. As mentioned, you’d likely is it in Session view, which in itself is a little odd at first as it’s the mirror of other DAWs.

If you’re a Mac user, GarageBand is free, Cubase LE has a free 30 day trial, as does Ableton Live Lite. Reaper is free indefinitely with pop-ups reminding you to purchase a license (unless that’s changed recently), because it’s good to support what you use.

So there’s no need to make a commitment before you’ve tried most of them IMO

Si

[xgsjx]

I agree with Sibob about Ableton probably not being the best value for your needs.  Though I have a friend who doesn't play electronic stuff & uses Ableton as a DAW with great results.

I used to use Cubase, Reason & Reaper.  All great in their own ways.  I'm now a Logic user & love it, but I'm tempted to give Ableton a blast.

[Al Krow]

The other point to be aware of is that Ableton Live 10 Lite is bundled with some Focusrite products eg their Scarlett range, and is not time limited. 

[SH73]

On 12/01/2019 at 12:31, xgsjx said:

I agree with Sibob about Ableton probably not being the best value for your needs.  Though I have a friend who doesn't play electronic stuff & uses Ableton as a DAW with great results.

I used to use Cubase, Reason & Reaper.  All great in their own ways.  I'm now a Logic user & love it, but I'm tempted to give Ableton a blast.

I use Ableton recording mostly metal, even though it's created for electronic music ? I mic up amps, play throughVSTs, DI , whatever I throw at it ; works. Although it has crashed on me before.

[Al Krow]

On 29/12/2017 at 19:51, Crawford13 said:

Bit late to the party here, but as a first DAW it’s worth looking at Mixcraft if your running Windows. It’s got a very easy learning curve and is fully featured. Plus it doesn’t cost a lot.

Better late than never (btw - that applies to me more than anyone else) 😁

Are you still a fan? - I think Mixcraft has evolved (now on ver 9 from ver 6(?) back then) and become ever more popular since your post a couple of years back.

Quite a few positive comments about Cakewalk Sonar on this thread.

From what I've gleaned it seems that Cakewalk Sonar is an easy to use more intuitive version of Cubase, which is popular with pros, and Mixcraft seems to follow in Cakewalk's footsteps, but also adds in decent video editing capability so you're not needing to use two separate bits of software for video and audio (a little annoying given a recent investment in Adobe Premiere Elements!). This would be just the ticket for beginners who are also wanting to do YouTube videos.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/MixCraft-may-as-well-be-Sonar-m3694340.aspx

[Crawford13]

4 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Are you still a fan? - I think Mixcraft has evolved (now on ver 9 from ver 6(?) back then) and become ever more popular since your post a couple of years back

The last mix craft I used was 8 pro, and for the price it was great.

I have since moved in to using Logic as I got a Mac. The rest of my band use logic so it was a no brainier for us all to use the same DAW, and we can just share project files.

I would still recommend mix craft for a windows user, though from opinions posted on this thread and numerous others it does seem that reaper would be the one to beat.

[Al Krow]

12 hours ago, Crawford13 said:

The last mix craft I used was 8 pro, and for the price it was great.

I have since moved in to using Logic as I got a Mac. The rest of my band use logic so it was a no brainier for us all to use the same DAW, and we can just share project files.

I would still recommend mix craft for a windows user, though from opinions posted on this thread and numerous others it does seem that reaper would be the one to beat.

Yeah that does make it a no brainer to all be on just one platform. 

Agreed that Reaper is a very popular DAW with BCers, I suspect partly 'cos it's such good value for money and has had widespread 'community validation'.

Mixcraft is, from what I can tell, only recently starting to compete with the some of the better known brands and a couple of BC'ers I've asked had never come across it. Like Reaper, it's also at the budget end and has a very decent feature set including video editing and, on the surface, seems to have intuitive and easy to use work flow which for a beginner is going to be key.

How did you come across it and what persuaded you to jump in and not swim with the prevailing Reaper tide?

Edited April 14, 2020 by Al Krow

[Crawford13]

12 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Yeah that does make it a no brainer to all be on just one platform. 

Agreed that Reaper is a very popular DAW with BCers, I suspect partly 'cos it's such good value for money and has had widespread 'community validation'.

Mixcraft is, from what I can tell, only recently starting to compete with the some of the better known brands and a couple of BC'ers I've asked had never come across it. Like Reaper, it's also at the budget end and has a very decent feature set including video editing and, on the surface, seems to have intuitive and easy to use work flow which for a beginner is going to be key.

How did you come across it and what persuaded you to jump in and not swim with the prevailing Reaper tide?

Previous to using mix craft I had only used garage band, but at the time I didn’t have a Mac. I did a quick google search for DAW’s and a bunch of people said that mix craft 7 was about as close to garage band that you could get on PC.

So I downloaded it really liked it and almost instantly upgraded to 7 pro.

I don’t think I had heard to reaper at the time if I’m honest so I just jumped in and swam.

[51m0n]

Reaper does video too...

 

It's a tad basic but it works 

[Sibob]

I think ultimately it's difficult to argue against the value of Reaper for the feature-set, what with it essentially being free, and then only £60 should you choose to support them.
But I would stick with Logic being the best value with regards to feature-set and quality native plugins and massive amount of virtual instrument sounds, not to mention the drum-track designer.

Si

[skidder652003]

14 hours ago, 51m0n said:

Reaper does video too...

 

It's a tad basic but it works 

that's interesting, I didn't know that, will check it out thanks.

[songofthewind]

Logic Pro X is massive value for money. Slick user interface and good plugins.

[Al Krow]

2 minutes ago, songofthewind said:

Logic Pro X is massive value for money. Slick user interface and good plugins.

Just need the small item of a Mac and you're good to go! 😉

[songofthewind]

Shoulda read the OP😕. My bad.

[Al Krow]

So, perhaps the biggest dither in DAW-land over. I've decided the answer has gotta be whatever is going to make it easiest to collaborate with yer BC mates...

In my case that's going to be Cubase Elements £77 from Juno or £78 via Amazon. And apparently it's great. Can't wait! 

[Happy Jack]

No No No!!! You're buying the wrong thing!!!

😂😂😂

[Al Krow]

3 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

No No No!!! You're buying the wrong thing!!!

😂😂😂

But at least I've FINALLY got around to getting one! Must have bought and sold literally 100 pedals in the time it's taken me to decide which DAW to get!! I mean what was going on here?

I guess (more seriously) a DAW is not just for Christmas in the way a pedal can be: once you've invested the time getting to grips with it you're kinda committed; it's more of a serious relationship than a holiday romance. 

Well that's my excuse anyway! 😁

[xgsjx]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

But at least I've FINALLY got around to getting one! Must have bought and sold literally 100 pedals in the time it's taken me to decide which DAW to get!! I mean what was going on here?

I guess (more seriously) a DAW is not just for Christmas in the way a pedal can be: once you've invested the time getting to grips with it you're kinda committed; it's more of a serious relationship than a holiday romance. 

Well that's my excuse anyway! 😁

Nah. It’s more like a complete pedal board. If you change to another pedal board, you’ll find much of it is the same, just laid out a little different.  Some bits work better, other bits not as well. 

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, xgsjx said:

Nah. It’s more like a complete pedal board. If you change to another pedal board, you’ll find much of it is the same, just laid out a little different.  Some bits work better, other bits not as well. 

Now if that were only true for my pedalboards! 😁

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by Al Krow

[xgsjx]

7 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Pedal board Oct 2019 and then 10 months later...you were saying? 😁

Nice boards.

My point is that all pedal types have familiar controls to one another.  If you know how to use one dirt pedal’s controls, you can easily find your way around most others. Same goes for modulation, filter, compression etc.

[lowdown]

9 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

I guess (more seriously) a DAW is not just for Christmas in the way a pedal can be: once you've invested the time getting to grips with it you're kinda committed; it's more of a serious relationship than a holiday romance. 

Two resources (if you are not already aware of them):

 

1) The official Cubase site with a shed load of information and tips.

(27) Cubase - YouTube

 

2) One man and his songs:

This site for the Cubase Groove Agent Drum Sampler/player (which looks daunting at first). 24 short videos.

(27) Steinberg Groove Agent 5 Tutorial Ep #1 - Introduction - YouTube

 

Also this one from the same guy for Groove Agent 5.

(27) Groove Agents Tips Ep.01 - Choke Groups (or Pad Exclusive Groups) - YouTube

 

He also has practical tips on Cubase to get you up and running.

(27) Practical Cubase Guide Ep.01 - Introduction - YouTube

 

If you run into any brick walls with Cubase, there are a few users on here who should be able to help you out.

👍

 

 

[Spoombung]

I've used Logic since the C-Lab days on Atari and it's great, (especially with the updated samplers).

If you can afford the overpriced Mac you'll enjoy the underpriced DAW (£200)