Let’s settle this once and for all…
What is the community’s DAW of choice?
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0 voters
*Only supported host applications are listed
Hi. I use several DAW’s nowadays after getting burned when Gibson pulled the plug on Cakewalk after using it for 20 years. I got Studio One 4 Pro and MixBus 5 in addition to Cakewalk by BandLab.
I’m leaning slightly towards Studio One these days, due to HW integration/ MIDI learn being easier.
But coming from 20 years of Cakewalk, it’s hard to let go 
All the best.
But Cakewalk has reincarnated, no? And it is free now!
It has indeed, and I’ve had the latest version of SONAR (now Cakewalk by BandLAb) installed at all times.
I now want to have (at least) 2 DAW’s to choose from, just in case 
All the best.
I started with a very little known DAW called Musicator. Then I started using Acid 2.0. From there, I moved to Adobe Audition. I used that for quite a few years. I used to think that there was no other DAW that could do things Audition could not. That was so far from reality it’s crazy. Audition has virtually no real MIDI support at all. And zero VSTi support.
But I recorded albums 3-5 with it and they all turned out pretty good. The first one I did with it, Synthpops, actually did really well on sales for me.
But then I discovered Sonar X3 and discovered DAWs could be so much more. I stuck with Cakewalk until “The End.” When I heard about Gibson shutting it down, I switched to Studio One and loved it even more. The workflow was so much more logical, though it was (and still is) missing a few key elements that Cakewalk had. Then Bandlab resurrected Cakewalk. I still use both CW and Studio One today. SO4 has such a clean look and great workflow, but CW has great MIDI implementation. If they could somehow merge together, it would be amazing.
What is WaveLab doing in the list? 
Technically, it is a kind of DAW, but it’s not multitrack as others. Or, otherwise, it would be fair to add a ton of other audio editors.
don’t vote for it then… 
Ah! I’m sorry, I forgot that this is actually a list of the supported DAWs! 
Makes sense.
In my pro studio I have so far avoided the so-called upgrade to 64 bit. I wanted to retain my HD 192 cards and my Control 24. Neyrinck have made the Control 24 functional now in 64bit systems so that has been an enormous plus. Thank you Paul Neyrinck!!!
The HD cards are still extremely useful as back up grunt for simple processors such as EQ and Compression if I run out of grunt. Now, having said THAT, my DLS is also a life saver. So I currently have TDM plugs, my DSP Sound Grid plugs running, my native plugs, all on a 32 bit system that suffers not one iota in sound from 64 bit.
No point losing valuable capacity if you don’t have to. I also beta for Waves audio and have a second system that I use for testing new gen plugs so I’ve covered both my eventualities. It used to be much easier to test on my pro system but compromises had to be made.
I‘m using Cubase for several years now. Music is just a hobby for me and so my time is limited and it‘s hard to get to and keep a satisfying level of knowledge and routine using production tools and playing Instruments at all.
Therefore l‘m not trying to test and use more than one DAW.
Before using Cubase I had Logic on PC. When Logic was taken over by Apple I had to decide to change my DAW or my hardware. I had to spend pretty much to get back to the level in Cubase that I had before with Logic. And there was no easy way to transform my existing projects to Cubase. Hope this happens never again to me
I have used Pro Tool since 2005 and it has always been great. Of cause time to time the new releases has been a bit buggy, but I have returned back to the previous or the a version that has worked for me. Now it is a subscription like thing - you have to pay about 200 euros ($200 us) - to keep getting new releases. But personally it is worth it. If I was on Mac I would try Logic. Some of my friends have moves to Studio One, but I have been so long with PT that I feel at home using it. Giving up with it, it is like giving away my Waves plugins. I can not imaging that day. All my slots/tracks are filled with Waves: at least Rcomp, Req, C6 and for fx Doubler, Rverb, AR Chambers and Plates. And my favorite the H-Series, AR Collection.
LOL same thing happened to me. I been faithfully using Cakewalk since Sonar 2 for recording purposes. Actually, I had just purchased Sonar 2017 as my Christmas present to myself and not two months later it was free. Only thing about my situation is I didn’t get the chance to venture into other DAWs, Other then Reason & MPC Software which is what I mainly use to produce my tracks. I switched over to Cakewalk by BandLab and learned they are actually updating the software. So I’m grateful that Bandlab decided to purchase Cakewalk because I don’t think I have the patience to learn a new DAW.
For me I started with Digidesign Session8 and SoundForge. Then much later it was Fl Studio. These days it’s Reaper. The main reason I now have a huge Waves Plugin collection is that I couldn’t bring my Fl plugins to Reaper. The high value of the waves plugins and the portability of keeping licenses on a USB drive are excellent. Perhaps one day I can install the plugins themselves on the same USB stick my daw and licenses live on?!
I discovered something disturbing during two days of troubleshooting with WAVES tech support to get an Extreme WSG Server functioning with a Windows 10 machine. While it involved completely reinstalling Windows and all my other applications, a two-day process in itself, there remained one outstanding issue…Cakewalk by BandLab isn’t supported by the Extreme Server. There is a workaround, which involves preloading the plugins in SGS and inserting it as an FX plugin in Cakewalk, but it’s not an ideal situation. WAVES support couldn’t tell me why it’s not supported, other than saying it could be some sort of “political” issue between them and BandLab. I touched base with the BandLab folks, and they were totally unaware of any issues. It would be great if someone on either side of this issue would grab the bull by the horns and get it resolved. I don’t want to be caught in the middle of an issue where both parties involved can’t come to a resolution.
Hi @pghsteelman ,
Please provide me with your Waves login name or the email address associated with it, so that I’ll be able to search our database for the mentioned case, to better understand what exactly happened during the troubleshooting procedure.
I will then be able to provide you with more information on the subject.
You can send me the username / email address in private message.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Reaper is my DAW of choice in part because it seems to remain stable while using an unusual number of plugins. I believe the code is highly optimized, which lets me run more Waves plugins. =)
It may have a slightly higher learning curve than some other DAWs, but the SWS actions make it incredibly powerful… Sometimes in obvious ways, and other times for really obscure needs that another DAW might not be able to handle.
I also voted for Studio One because it’s my backup plan if I ever fall out of love with Reaper. The Sphere subscription gets plugins and samples continually added to it, so it has a very “live” feel, like you’re part of a community.
Finally, I voted for FL Studio as well. It has an unusual workflow, but it can be really fast for composition. Oddly, it still has the best midi editor of any DAW I’ve tried. It’s very strange that the midi editor in most DAWs feels a little bit lackluster in comparison.
@pghsteelman Thanks for the email - I have hid it so it is not public on the forum.
@Gurik will look in to your case, explain and clarify in person, and update here .
Thanks
Thanks, Yishai. I replied to Gurik through an email I received and thought it was going to him directly. I didn’t realize it was going to the forum and appreciate you catching it before my email address was out there for the spam scrapers to see…Jon
If you didn’t already get my email address, I’ll be happy to send it again via a PM.
The one current installed on my computer
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