Considering new DAW

[DankStar]

Might start with a freebie like waveform or cakewalk but open to under $200 for PC.

I’ve been using reaper for a long time but feel like I need a change and want some better in-the-box plug ins.

main wants: easy to use, nice plugins with some presets I can use as starting points; halfway decent midi editor for drums

thx

 

[Mincer]

I love Waveform, and have been using it since it was Tracktion. It looks great, super simple but very powerful.

 

[Securb]

I use Waveform on my Linux box. It is a great product.

 

[DankStar]

Awesome thank you guys - I’ll start with waveform

i do like the looks of cakewalk though, that traditional console feel

One thing I noticed on a waveform vid was that you can upload a track to their site and it automatically masters it for you. Not a bad trick, although it’s totally in the box/who knows what it’s doing kinda thing.

 

[DankStar]

I couldn't help it, I tried Cakewalk first, I wanted to see what the fx, drums and built-in amps sounded like.

First impressions:
- super crowded layout (so many tiny buttons, it's easy to get lost/confused)
- I was miffed that the free version didn't have the analog tape plugin (there are some I have that I like so no biggie)
- the bandlab assistant was eating up my CPU usage with like 5 instances running at once, but I think it was a carry over from the installation
- LOVE the built-in FX (reverb and delay sounded amazing with guitar), the pro channel (tons of presets and love the eq), the built in amps (I quickly dialed in a usable mesa sound), and the drums weren't bad either
- When I started dragging and dropping some beats, things got less user friendly. I could probably change some of the layout to make it easier, but I just didn't immediately like the feel of creating a drum section. Programming drums sucks anyway though, always tedious.

Gonna check waveform next...

 

[LLL]

been using reaper for a long time but feel like I need a change and want some better in-the-box plug ins.

?

Barring Pro Tools (has some really great included plugins, but expensive), most if not all budget DAWs include a rudimentary set of plugins.

What you do is build a library... there are literally bazillions of plugins that work with Reaper (and others), from cheap good stuff to expensive good stuff. And of course there's the crap too.

I hear Waves is priced well nowadays (they used to be uber expensive).

You should target the kinds of plugins you need for your projects, then start picking up some here and there.

After awhile you'll have a library of plugins to pull from.

 

[uOpt]

I use Harrison Mixbus and Reaper. Both are pretty straightforward and cheap.

 

[DankStar]

I definitely have a lot of plugins I use, but the last time I went to use Reaper, some of them weren't working anymore for some reason and I was like F-this, I want something with better ones tied to the DAW (I never liked reaper's JS series). EDIT: realized I don't have many of the plugins from the project on this laptop, that's why I couldn't use them *facepalm*

Some of the best mixes I ever did were on Logic Express, and I believe it was in part due to some of the in-the-box plugs that came with it (and maybe in the rendering?). But my mac is long gone and I'm trying to get back to that feeling of being excited about my DAW.

I do like the idea of buying some waves plugins now that they are reasonably priced/always on sale.

-----
Just tried Waveform - pretty interesting layout, I kinda like it

I LOVE the midi editor so far. I could go into it quickly and add and move around stuff, increase the window size easily, etc. This wasn't as intuitive in Cakewalk.

Kinda torn at this point, they are both cool in different ways.

------

Grabbed some Waves plugins during the sale: CLA-3A, CLA-76, J37 tape, and SSL EV2 channel. Most excited about the channel one. Dead duck's was fun, but this one has a ton more features.

 

[DankStar]

right back where I started lol

Waveform crashes just trying to do simple plugin stuff

Cakewalk crashed when I was only processing a few drum pieces with a channel strip plugin

Back to reaper which was handling things just fine during my tests, but have some new plugins to stimulate me. SSL EV2 is amazing btw, love it.

(I'd probably use cakewalk if my computer could handle it, but I do appreciate the layout of reaper now, not too crowded, but somewhat like a typical mixing desk)

 

[LLL]

right back where I started lol

Waveform crashes just trying to do simple plugin stuff

Cakewalk crashed when I was only processing a few drum pieces with a channel strip plugin

Back to reaper which was handling things just fine during my tests, but have some new plugins to stimulate me. SSL EV2 is amazing btw, love it.

(I'd probably use cakewalk if my computer could handle it, but I do appreciate the layout of reaper now, not too crowded, but somewhat like a typical mixing desk)

In its base form, Reaper most likely has the lowest computer requirements (processor, memory, HDD space, etc) of most, if not all, professional DAWs.

If there's a problem with Reaper, it's more likely a problem with 3rd party plugins which may be outdated.

BTW, you can run plugins in their own instances, etc to help with compatibility. Just right-click on the plugin in the list (for FX) and pick how you want to run it.

 

[Mincer]

Never had crashes with Waveform, so it might be the plugins.

 

[DankStar]

The computer is pretty old/not ideal for recording. But I bought some waves stuff and dammit I’m gonna use it lol:1:

 

[Mincer]

Funny, I use Waves with Waveform, too, so yeah, it might be the computer.

 

[Securb]

I'd probably use cakewalk if my computer could handle it

What are the specs on your computer? Do they align with the requirements of the software you are running?

 

[DankStar]

Update: my dad is sending me one of his laptops he used to use for work (he buys expensive stuff usually lol). Going to make a switch in the coming days hopefully

 

[LLL]

Update: my dad is sending me one of his laptops he used to use for work (he buys expensive stuff usually lol). Going to make a switch in the coming days hopefully

A mo' powaful computer will only help. Mo' is mo' (more is more).

 

[Securb]

Update: my dad is sending me one of his laptops he used to use for work (he buys expensive stuff usually lol). Going to make a switch in the coming days hopefully

Very cool. I would still look at the configuration of the computer and the requirements of the program. Make sure they align. If you do not have enough RAM that will definitely cause problems and crashes. In a lot of cases the Blue Screen of death. Music and video programs are RAM hungry. The good thing is most RAM is easy to replace and relatively cheap compared to buying a new machine. If it is a newer computer you should probably be good with processor speed. The other thing I would look at is the speed of the hard drive. If the hard drive can not read and write fast enough to keep up with the application that could also cause a crash. Once again easy enough to replace, hard drives are cheap these days. Plus music files are large so it may be an upgrade you would want to make anyway. Worst case scenario you could use an external drive if need be.

 

[dystrust]

The other thing I would look at is the speed of the hard drive. If the hard drive can not read and write fast enough to keep up with the application that could also cause a crash.

As cheap as SSDs are these days, there really isn't an excuse to not have one at least as a system drive. I made the switch about 10 years ago because honestly once you're used to the speed of an SSD, a mechanical disk feels glacially slow. I have a 1TB NVMe drive in my Windows 10 work machine, but you could probably get away with 500GB as long as you're not installing a lot of large software packages. I have 250GB SSDs in my Linux boxes because it's a less storage-intensive OS.

 

[Securb]

As cheap as SSDs are these days, there really isn't an excuse to not have one at least as a system drive.

I just bought a 3T WD I forgot what I paid for it but it was not much

 

[Securb]

I know a couple of people including Dystrust and Steve are developers. I have done some code analysis on Audacity, I am going to do Waveform next, just downloaded it from Github. I mapped out the cyclomatic types of files, critical cores, and other architectural attributes. If anyone is using the open-source code and wants a better view and understanding of the architecture or the dependency tree, let me know I have already done the work. At first blush, Audacity has large critical cores and a lot of cyclomatic dependencies.