Looking for a beginner friendly DAW

[beaubrummels]

Hey, thank you for your reply, is this same thing that you have shared? Will it works? Have you ever tried it yourself?

That's the idea. I haven't used Oracle's VM. You just need some virtual machine for your version of Windows that can install MacOS.

 

[uOpt]

macOS as a VM guest on x86 is pretty much dead. Next version will drop x86 support.

 

[playas]

This is very true. I came from the days of cassette based four track recording. Cubase made a lot of sense to me. But I certainly had several times when nothing worked and I needed to go to the forums to ask for help.

I recorded this album on Cubase —

I found cubase very confusing as a beginner.

Audacity is easy to something recorded, but it's pretty basic.

Although I don't have much experience with it, Reaper seems a better option as it should allow you to learn and continue on the same platform... Waveform sounds like it has potential too.

 

[Chistopher]

Learn on Audacity so you will be able to appreciate a real DAW more. It's similar to the idea of learning hand tools so you can appreciate and understand power tools

 

[Securb]

As you can see DAW software is a crowded space with a lot of competition. For this reason, most of them have a 7-day free trial. Download some and play around with them. See what you are most comfortable with. There is no wrong or right choice; it is about what you can navigate with the least friction.

 

[Standalone]

Still it gets the job done? Nice! I think basic tools same in all the DAWs, final output is depends on the producer's creativity, isn't it?

Yes. It was an upgrade from my old “LE” — better reverbs, compressors, and a lot of nice keyboard sounds etc. that o don’t really use. I added Ozone for mastering (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) and that’s about it.

 

[Standalone]

I found cubase very confusing as a beginner.

Audacity is easy to something recorded, but it's pretty basic.

Although I don't have much experience with it, Reaper seems a better option as it should allow you to learn and continue on the same platform... Waveform sounds like it has potential too.

Reaper and my old Cubase LE seemed very similar to me back in 2008 or 2009 when I downloaded reaper and tried it. They may have developed in different directions.

I think DAW recommendations are always so individualized, as our own initial experiences color our perceptions so much

 

[GuitarStv]

I started out doing computer recording waaaay back in the day with Cool Edit Pro. It worked great and was easy to use, but was later bought by Adobe and renamed Adobe audition . . . and they initially wanted too much money for it (although I see the price has dropped an awful lot on the product since) so I switched to Audacity. I found Audacity pretty easy to use as well, so started recording with it for a while. The more I used it though, the more I found certain things about it annoying.

I dunno if it was something specific to my setup, but Audacity would occasionally crash. There's nothing more annoying than unreliable software when you're trying to write/record a song. I tend to record a grab bag of stuff - guitar (electric and acoustic), bass, vocals, hand drums, percussion, mandolin, harmonica, etc. Usually just using one or two mics but occasionally three or four at a time. I found multitrack recording was always kind of clunky in Audacity. There are a limited number of tracks that it supports, although for basic rock recordings I never ran into problems with the limit. Waaaay worse than that was adding/previewing effects when mixing. The preview was very slow to operate and made it annoying and difficult to get the perfect settings you want for a particular sound. Audacity doesn't support VST instruments (or at least didn't when I was using it). So if you want to add some cool pads to a song or a little background riff with a cheap MIDI controller you're out of luck. In general, MIDI support in audacity kinda sucks.

So I ended up with Reaper. Reaper is powerful and flexible, but occasionally very annoying. I had to sit down for a few days and go through tutorials to get comfortable doing basic recording stuff. Once it's all set up and running though, it's much nicer to use. It was easy to integrate my midi controller for doing basic things starting/stopping/looping recordings, undoing stuff, etc. It was generally straightforward to use my virtual instrument libraries and get them working with midi. Multitrack recording is easy. It's easy to apply and tweak VST effects. Doing complicated sends/returns to outboard compressors/EQs is pretty easy. It's very solid/stable and I've never really had problems with crashing. Pretty much any setting I want can be quickly made part of my workflow and saved. It's a very efficient environment for working in, and I feel like I'll never need a different DAW. Everything I've tried to do has been possible (although often requires that I look up a tutorial). But there is an up front cost to learning it that was kinda painful at the start. After using the demo version of Reaper for a couple years, I actually felt it was worth shelling out the few bucks to buy it.

 

[Standalone]

Are you still using the Cubase? I've heard that Cubase has a one-time purchase system so if they update the software then you'll get the benefit or not?

I am still using Cubase. There is a prorated system of upgrade costs. It seems reasonable to me.

I have an old Win7 tower and am still running Cubase 8.5. When I upgrade everything in the next year or so, I will go with the current version of Cubase at the time. It is a good company, in use around the industry, it’s good software that feels mostly intuitive to me, and I get good music out of it.

 

[uOpt]

To be honest, all the DAWs are a bit annoying for the most basic things when you come in fresh.

 

[Wattage]

Cakewalk Sonar
It's free

And this guy is great for learning how to use it

Creative Sauce

Creative Sauce wants to help you on your home recording journey! We believe that you can get professional, releasable results with the right know-how. While recording at home can get those results, the home studio has special considerations. Less time, less space, less budget. It’s our strong...

www.youtube.com

 

[Aceman]

I am still miles away from maxing out on GarageBand. That said, I am also still miles aways from being even decent.
But I'm wondering...much as with the Flagship modeler platforms, what is it you really want / need to do?

If I ran out of sounds/presets etc on my POD Go, yeah, I'd probably upgrade. But for me - not gonna happen any time soon, if at all.
Same here: Consider what the relative power of event GarageBand or an Audacity free version really is, against what you are trying to do.

But, GarageBand, Audacity, and Reaper are the ones that I see constantly. I'm sure there is a bachelors degree worth of YouTube vids on all of them.

 

[Snake Aces]

Man. I've used Cubase, Audacity, Presonus Studio One, and one other one I can't even remember from about 21 years ago.

They all have learning curves. I liked a Presonus the most, but I haven't recorded anything since 2016.

Now? I want the most AI-assisted DAW out there. I haven't even begun to research them yet. I want one that can do a lot of the stuff for me, including adding drum tracks to my guitar/bass recordings. I think an AI-assisted recording setup would save me so much time and encourage me to record again.

 

[Mincer]

I haven't tried the Fender rebrand of Studio One...I think it has a lot of AI in there. With DAWs, I need to work really fast (or the ideas go faster than the workflow), so menu diving stops me dead in my tracks. I don't need AI in mine, as I try to do everything myself. The next big project is adding tracks to drums recorded in a studio, and also recording another ambient album.

 

[Snake Aces]

I haven't tried the Fender rebrand of Studio One...I think it has a lot of AI in there. With DAWs, I need to work really fast (or the ideas go faster than the workflow), so menu diving stops me dead in my tracks. I don't need AI in mine, as I try to do everything myself. The next big project is adding tracks to drums recorded in a studio, and also recording another ambient album.

I just want to see what AI can do for me so I can just lay tracks down. Who knows? Maybe I will hate it...

 

[Securb]

The AI in Studio One is powerful but not mandatory; it does not get in the way. You can do things like stem separation.

 

[GuitarStv]

I just want to see what AI can do for me so I can just lay tracks down. Who knows? Maybe I will hate it...

Save time, just have AI write and play the music for you too.

 

[Snake Aces]

Save time, just have AI write and play the music for you too.

No thanks. I will not be using AI to write my music ever. I just want to record my guitar and bass while taking advantage of AI for the things I don't do such as playing drums. I have not played drums since 2009 or so. If I ever meet a drummer again, then I won't need AI.

It's not really a big deal. No need to overreact.

 

[Securb]

Save time, just have AI write and play the music for you too.

It is not that kind of AI. Stem Separation is when you have already mixed a track down to stereo and want to extract an instrument later to use in another track.

 

[GuitarStv]

No thanks. I will not be using AI to write my music ever. I just want to record my guitar and bass while taking advantage of AI for the things I don't do such as playing drums. I have not played drums since 2009 or so. If I ever meet a drummer again, then I won't need AI.

It's not really a big deal. No need to overreact.

Don't kid yourself - if you're getting AI to write your drum parts, AI is writing your music.

I don't like the intrusion of AI into music. It's entirely trained on information stolen from other musicians without permission. No musician should be supporting it's use.