Freesound Forums

Let the holy wars begin!
with the demise of cakewalk, i'm left out in the cold and am looking for a new environment after 20 years. do you guys have any opinions on the following;

bitwig
reaper
studio one
ableton
ardour

windows or linux; no mac.
I need the daw to be able to import OMF's.
I'd like to be able to do track to track sidechaining.
good vsti support..
good timing; cakewalk had crazy timing problems and i'm sick of that.

not interested in toys like fruity loops and i hate protools with a rage beget of having to support the freaking thing for years, so no on those.

Cubase 9 Pro perhaps? Can import .omf files. https://steinberg.help/cubase_pro_artist/v9/en/cubase_nuendo/topics/file_handling/file_handling_omf_files_exporting_and_importing_c.html
No timing issues afaik and good vsti support...
Also track to track sidechaining should be possible. Even FL Studio can do that (former Fruity Loops, which has grown to a very usable and versatile DAW over the years, btw)

Anyways...there are trail versions available of almost any DAW you mentioned. I would recommend to just give them all a try and coose the one that "feels" best.

I’m not sure why you “hate” Pro Tools, but it is a daw for any skill level.. An industry standard next to all the other great ones out there.
The “ trial” idea is your best bet until you find your own comfort level.

I am still loyal to my old Cubase 5. Tried FL Studio 12, and not a toy at all. Abletone, Reason. But Cubase 5 is....DAW

I used to a Reaper purist, but recently have taken up FL Studio. That one just suits my workflow better.

Toys like FL? OP obviously has no idea what he's talking about.

well, i suppose it's been a couple of years since i last saw FL/fruity loops, but at the time it was clearly a toy: more of a tracker from the 80's than a daw with stiff, tinny instruments and a simplistic interface. Presumably it's gotten better or it wouldn't be here. I did say let the holy wars begin, so feel free to support why you like it.

Any DAW in my opinion is just as good as any other. It's all about how you use it and what you understand about all the features inside of it. Producers like Deadmau5 I believe uses FL Studio and Abelton Live and that works for him. I have heard many great things about Bitwig but for me I have used FL Studio for years and I love it and I understand how to use it. It's simplistic, user friendly, and smooth. Some people would dis agree with me but I digress.. 😎

I agree with Erokia.
I used to use Fl together with Cubase. It was perfect for creating drum beats, synth and bass lines and generally, I used it for all kind of electronic music. But for recording live instruments and music like Rock, Metal etc, I prefer Cubase.

I like Reaper. The price is right: full version free to try for 30 days (but still fully functional after that) and as I recall $60 for a home license. Lots of features and frequently updated.

Reaper for mixing and the flexibility of working with audio. The routing is unbelievable. Cubase is still king for MIDI. It's simply more intuitive for clicking notes. Ableton has it's proponents, mainly in the EDM world, for it's loop-based workflow. You'll have to find what suits you for what you are doing.

My favorite daw for recording is Mixcraft (Windows only).
It's interface is very easy to understand and you can record multiple Audiotracks at once.
Unlike Cubase it has no artificial track limitations (exept the home studio version).
Its also very stable.

However im using FL Studio too because of its great Midi and Drumpattern Editor
and the Z Game Editor Visualizer.

LMMS is a free DAW wich tries to mimic FL Studio but its currently pretty unstable
and has no function to record audio.

With 48 tracks and 16 vst slots in Cubase, only the sky is the limit. But, if you want to record NY Philharmonic, which official number is 160 musicians including librarians, yes, there might be some minor issues.

I have used FL, and now Ableton & Logic Pro. FL is certainly not a toy but has a unique workflow, one which frustrated me. Ableton lacks easy group editing, but for sound design, and generating ideas, it is a pleasure to work with. Compared to Logic I find it simplistic in terms of its layout. Although technical (professional audio editing, or film stuff etc) work is possible, you might find it lacks customisation. It is not the best for catering to an individual's workflow, more the individual must learn to manipulate the way this program runs. In this sense it is incredibly powerful, and its limitations breeds innovation. I also love Logic for its being incredibly technical when you ask for it (I know you are not with Mac). These are my two cents - find something, use it, learn it, stick with it and keep an eye/ear out for developments in this tech which will help you create/control sound.

Adobe Audition anyone?

I am working with Adobe Audition since it was renamed from Cool Edit Pro ... it is my favorite program to work with field-recorded material as it supports a lot of waveform editing, a wide variety of effects and noise restoration capabilities.

Unfortunately Audition got rid of ReWire and MIDI Plug Ins after CS6 wich made it kind of obsolete for everything else but waveform editing.

I am using Ardour since more than a decade and it bcomes better and better over the time. At the current point of time I would consider it as excellent.

I find myself in the same boat as you. Wondering, is there any specific reason you don't want to continue with the Bandlab version of Cakewalk. Personally I'm afraid they just drop it as a loss at some point since they're giving it away for free, but I guess until then you could continue to use it?

I use Reason & couple that wuth Acid pro 9

I've been using Reaper for quite a while. However since I really don't compose per se, rather than record, edit/adjust and produce, I find that I use Audacity more and more

I definitely use Music Creator for Android and with Wavepad so I'm gonna go use FL Studio in the future :/