next »

[PurpleCurse]

A quick question for all of you...

For three years now, I have been using Mixcraft as my DAW for my music. Now that I've been doing more complicated stuff, I'm finding a lot of faults and limitations in it. My plan right now is to buy Cubase, but after looking up a couple of tutorials, it looks pretty complicated. Have any of you had any experience with either of these programs?

Also, is there any other DAWs you would recommend? I've tried the demos of Reason, FL Studio, and Abelton. I didn't care for Reason, I HATED FL, but Abelton I thought was okay.

[Lauchsuppe]

I have no experience with Mixcraft, but I did use Cubase (3 SE) before I switched to Ableton.
Recently I got myself a copy of Cubase 6 LE and I can tell that the very core of this software hasn't changed much since then.
Cubase is a really powerful tool, but I thought it was rather hard to learn. It feels rather stiff compared to Ableton. You will want to learn many shortcuts to guarantee a fluent workflow and while it's basically not more or less complicated than any other comparable DAW, I found working with Ableton much more comfortable. But despite being complicated, Cubase surely has a well structured interface (once you get used to it) and it's capable of doing all its tasks perfectly fine.

However, the reason I switched to Ableton was its live performance and the more user friendly interface. (I got myself a new system and Cubase SE3 wasn't running properly on 64bit, so I was in need of a new DAW anyway and I just thought myself "why not try something new?") There is so much more to drag and drop in Ableton Live and a very big plus is the session view, where you can manage audio material without being bound to a horizontal timeline. This might be a key feature if you intend to perform live - its also suited for DJing.

But after all, it really is a personal choice. You will probably be able to achieve the same results with any of the DAWs you listed. Just go on and play around with several trial versions a bit more and you will find your personal favourite for sure.

[MoritzPGKatz]

Hello,

I'll pretty much just second what my fellow-countryman said.

I still use Logic for some things, e.g. when I need more RAM than I can access with Live, which is still 32-bit.
But then again, the current Beta introduces 64-Bit and Live 9 might be around the corner, so I'll probably switch over for good soon.

One other thing Live is missing is a good comping system, but even though you can't set your own key shortcuts like in Cubase or Logic my workflow in Live is much faster - and the warping algorithms are super useful for sound design.

You might also want to check out Reaper - I haven't tried it much myself, but colleagues tell me it's a very efficient and sturdy tool.

Cheers,
Moritz

[Ackter]

I have always hated Cubase, but with no good reason. I've just never got on with it.

[Audiosprite]

I've been using Cubase for the past two-three years and I've always found it super intuitive. From what I've used of Pro Tools (which is very little) the two seem pretty similar to me, if you have any experience with that.

[seagaia]

Reaper is super lightweight and free. It's pretty decent and has a lot of included plugins...I haven't used DAWs that cost money to say much about them - I used Ableton for a bit and really liked it (but don't have the money at the moment or feel like trying to obtain it through other methods...), but you might as well try Reaper if you're looking for something free for the time being.

[MoritzPGKatz]

Reaper is super lightweight and free.

 

No, it's not. You can freely evaluate it, but if you want to use it, you should at least buy the discounted license for $60 after 30 days of evaluation. If you use it commercially, buy the full license for $225.

http://www.reaper.fm/purchase.php

Stay fair to the devs, people!

[seagaia]

Reaper is super lightweight and free.

 

No, it's not. You can freely evaluate it, but if you want to use it, you should at least buy the discounted license for $60 after 30 days of evaluation. If you use it commercially, buy the full license for $225.

http://www.reaper.fm/purchase.php

Stay fair to the devs, people!

well, yes you should buy it

even better about Reaper is they don't cripple it in the trial version - you can try all the features.