Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

At some point you might want to record some of the music you have been playing. Of course you can hold your phone next to your guitar and record, and at times you don’t need more than that. But what if you want to do a bit more, actually record a full song, or multiple layers of instruments. That’s when DAW’s come into play.

What are some of your favorites? What are the ones that in specific cases do a thing really good, but in other scenarios not so much.

  • arendleejessurun@kbin.earth
    1·
    2 days ago

    I have been using Reaper for the last 3 years after migrating from Logic. It works so well for my use case, and I love that it has enabled me to leave the Apple ecosystem and make music on Linux. Every now and then though, I get envious of what I see others do in Ableton and Bitwig, and while I can do most of the same stuff in Reaper, the workflow is different. I may one day dig into Bitwig and use it in tandem with Reaper. We’ll see.

  • Bluefruit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    I’m a huge fan of reaper. Very nice daw to work with and really reasonably priced for small business/personal use license of $60. Works on Linux, Mac, and Windows.

    Its pretty customizable and comes with intgrated plugins that are pretty powerful once you learn to use them. Like any daw, theres a bit of a learning curve and while its not as popular as some other daws, I highy recommend it. I have not found a daw that I like more.

  • R...@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    I have experience with the following DAW’s (disclaimer: I am not a recording engineer, i can do basic operations, and a bit of mixing)

    Reaper

    Starting with Reaper, the one i will recommend first to anybody starting out. It is not the easiest one, also not the prettiest one, but, you can use it for free! And a personal license is only $60 (you can keep using the free version, but it will throw a popup every now and then).

    So price is great! Next, it works cross platform, I run it as easy on a Linux machine, as well on Windows and Mac. Getting your audio devices working properly on Linux is a whole different topic!

    Currently, we work together with multiple people on demo material and preparation for in the studio, and using Google Drive (i know i know) to sync the files and easily work on top of each others work. I can load the files directly from the sync folder and save when done.

    Logic Pro

    If you have a mac, and Garaband doesn’t give you what you need anymore, Logic Pro is the next logical step. It works great within the Apple ecosystem, it looks nice, and works great. It will cost you $199,99 dollar though. And it only works on MacOS, so forget about easily sharing work files.

    Ableton

    Price: between 79 euro and 599 euro

    If you want the flexibility of using a DAW for live performances (or a non-linear approach) combined with a classic linear approach, Ableton is your go to! Focused more on live performances, solo artists, sampling, sound design etc it is still a very powerful candidate for recording instruments.

  • neidu2@feddit.nlEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Back in the day I used Sonar, but I didn’t like it after 5.0. It completely fucked up my workflow and made everything a lot more cumbersome.

    After a 10 year hiatus due to life happening I tried starting again. I gave Ardour a shot (I had migrated to linux), and while it worked well for multitrack recording, its lack of piano roll for editing midi made it impossible for me to use in the long run.

    I recently started using bitwig, and I love it