My Little DAW Fiasco

[mr echo]

Studio One V2. Not enough people even know about this little gem in my opinion. I've used more or less every DAW (except Logic) and just cannot leave S1. It's natural to feel like the grass is greener on the other side. They all do pretty much the same thing IMO but Studio One V2's workflow is just second to none. £337 for pro cannot be sniffed at either!

[alphacat]

Saying Reaper's workflow is too involved to learn after using it for 2 seconds - and then going on to say you wish you had Logic - makes no sense, as Logic has about the most unintuitive workflow I've seen next to ProTools.

[Ledger]

Alright, as I'm too lazy to quote everyone, and want to keep it a bit organized:

I didn't like Reaper, because it's just too dead to me, so to speak. Like, it's complex, but looks very simple, and the workflow when I used it was very confusing and the enemy, so to speak.

Now, at school earlier, I was looking into Studio One for a good 2-3 hours. It seems great, and I will more than likely try it out in the next day or so when I get some free time.

The reason why I said Ableton is just about my only other option, is because it just seems so smooth and perfect for me.

Also, FL Studio's workflow is just too awkward for me.

And I mainly want Logic for the stock plugins. I always have for the last few years. Unless someone can point me to a company/site where there are VSTs that are just as good, if not better, than the Logic stock plugins, for really cheap or free, than I will be chasing after Logic for years to come until I get the money.

But in the mean time, since I'm on a budget, I'd say I'm tied between Ableton Live 8, and Studio One (just at the moment).

If I missed anything, I will edit this. In the mean time, I like where this thread is going.

[charles1]

Unless someone can point me to a company/site where there are VSTs that are just as good, if not better, than the Logic stock plugins, for really cheap or free, than I will be chasing after Logic for years to come until I get the money.

http://thepiratebay.se/

JUST A JOKE!!!

But in all seriousness I love Live (and I paid for it, btw, but only for live, not suite). The only difference between Live and Suite (that I am aware of) is the content. Live only has 3 instruments - simpler, impulse, and instrument rack. Suite comes with those plus operator, collision, tension, analog, sampler, and electric. Suite also comes with a larger library of samples and other stuff that I would probably never use. I couldn't really tell you if those 6 instruments are worth it, but I'm getting by just fine without them. As far as I know, all of functions and effects are the same between Live and Suite.

I don't get why people say live isn't good for dubstep. The instruments it comes with aren't great for dubstep, but it's all about the VSTs anyway. Ableton's workflow is fantastic. I was able to fully figure out pretty much everything on my own. I've used logic briefly and recently downloaded the reaper 60 day trial. This was after learning live, so I was in a better state for figuring out DAWs because I had experience.

Reaper had/has me stumped because I can't figure out how to load external VSTs into the tracks. Other than that, it seems pretty smooth, but as one person said, there are a lot of excessive options and you need to use the menu bar for a lot of stuff.

Logic was a bit easier for me to figure out, but the workflow seemed cumbersome. There didn't seem to be many instruments either, but I only used it for about an hour. The midi is in a different view than the arrangement (I think it was in a popup), and it wasn't easy for me to switch between the views (in live you just hit tab).

Live also has an "Info View" on the side of the screen. It gives you a brief explanation for whichever feature you are hovering your mouse over. This helped/helps me tremendously. And I should add that you can get an educational discount for Live if you are a student. It dropped the price from like 449 to 269. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

[Ledger]

Alright. I spent hours on the demo of Studio One V2(.5), and I was very close to pulling my hair out. I know I said I could adapt to any workflow, but I don't think anyone can adapt to it unless they work with it for months and years.

[mr echo]

Alright. I spent hours on the demo of Studio One V2(.5), and I was very close to pulling my hair out. I know I said I could adapt to any workflow, but I don't think anyone can adapt to it unless they work with it for months and years.

I'm quite surprised at this! Can I ask what problems you faced? Perhaps I can help straighten some things out?

[Ledger]

Alright. I spent hours on the demo of Studio One V2(.5), and I was very close to pulling my hair out. I know I said I could adapt to any workflow, but I don't think anyone can adapt to it unless they work with it for months and years.

I'm quite surprised at this! Can I ask what problems you faced? Perhaps I can help straighten some things out?

Well, for a first, it came with no instruments, unless it automatically routed to the wrong folder(s) on it's own, and it wouldn't find Massive, which I'm sure is a quick fix. I also tried using audio clips, like my drums, and had no idea where the clips even were for a good 10 minutes.

Now, I understand it's a little more complex, but it felt like rocket science to me. The fact that hardly anything is labeled, or really just hardly noticeable, it's hard (for me) to get around.

Don't get me wrong, Studio One seems amazing, and looks amazing, but unless I can figure out how to even turn off quantization by the end of today, I think my quest for Studio One is over.

[AxeD]

Somewhere in this thread it says Ableton is underrated and it is not because it is overrated.

I'd say go with Ableton or FL. I use Reason, Logic and Pro Tools myself though.

[hasezwei]

Which functions do I like? Don't even know where to start!

Well does it do anything that was harder to do in other software? Does it have any unique features?

You came from Ableton, how did it compare? Have you used any other DAWs?

I'm just interested as a lot of people swear by Reaper. One thing I did like was the fact that you click on your Reaper icon - 2 seconds later the program is running! And it was only a few mb download - I'm a fan of efficient software!

the routing is insanely simple to understand and even more powerful. you can send everything to anything, do crazy multichannel stuff and the weirdest channel foldering and back-and-forth sending you can imagine with a couple mouse clicks.
i got so used to it that i often make up fx chains in my head that won't work with any other DAW, which makes switching to ableton seriously hard.
reaper's media browser is the tits, it's so simple it almost hurts. just like many things in reaper, they don't seem special until you see how badly other DAWs are doing it.
the ability to remap pretty much anything is nice, i've seen people having a dedicated midi controller for using the browser and inserting items to the selected channel plus channel selection and playhead controls but i simply use my laptop's keyboard for that.

i like the way working with samples and midi items in the sequencer works. once you got the shortcuts down it's simple and straightforward but allows you to work really precisely when needed.

the fact that it starts up really really fast is nice, and also the fact that there's no difference between midi and audio tracks. again, it's not a feature that makes you go WOW but it can save you so much time.

for me that's what reaper is all about. not making the mistakes other programs do. of course you'll need a fairly large arsenal of vst's to make up for the lack of proper bundled content (the bundled plugins all fall under "utility" for me) but the low price of reaper makes up for that fact.

that being said i'm still gonna switch to ableton cause reaper definetly isn't geared towards live performance which is the direction i wanna take artistically.

[Crimsonghost]

Well, for a first, it came with no instruments, unless it automatically routed to the wrong folder(s) on it's own, and it wouldn't find Massive, which I'm sure is a quick fix. I also tried using audio clips, like my drums, and had no idea where the clips even were for a good 10 minutes.

Now, I understand it's a little more complex, but it felt like rocket science to me. The fact that hardly anything is labeled, or really just hardly noticeable, it's hard (for me) to get around.

Don't get me wrong, Studio One seems amazing, and looks amazing, but unless I can figure out how to even turn off quantization by the end of today, I think my quest for Studio One is over.

Studio One does come with instruments. As soon as you start a track, on the right side of the screen there is 5 folders. Clearly labeled "INSTRUMENTS", "Effects", "sounds", "Files", and, "Pool". This is called the "Browse" section. Any tiem you need to get back to here just push the smal box on the bottom right of the screen that says browse.

Instruments will have S1 instruments in it as well as any 3rd party you installed. The first time you try to use any 3rd party, you might have to navigate to the folder where they are. But after that S1 will always remember that location.

Effects section; see above.

If you dont know where your plugins are installed, id recommend checking the manual.

The sounds section is where all of S1 own sounds and samples are. Theres some really cool stuff in there, as well as some midi tracks. All you have to do is open it up and browse.

Files; This is where you dig through your sample library or any other sound you want to import. Just like above, you MIGHT have to search for where your sounds are the first time around.

Pool is just the files that you have used during the song that youre working on.

Any plugin or sound that you want to use, after you find it, can just be dragged from the right side of the screen and dropped onto a track. Simple.

Hope this helps.

[Untitle]

I've worked with Reason, FL, but the best daw for me is ABLETON. I love the general feeling of working with it. Brillinat workflow, so fast, musical, unique. Reccomend it.

[Ledger]

Well, for a first, it came with no instruments, unless it automatically routed to the wrong folder(s) on it's own, and it wouldn't find Massive, which I'm sure is a quick fix. I also tried using audio clips, like my drums, and had no idea where the clips even were for a good 10 minutes.

Now, I understand it's a little more complex, but it felt like rocket science to me. The fact that hardly anything is labeled, or really just hardly noticeable, it's hard (for me) to get around.

Don't get me wrong, Studio One seems amazing, and looks amazing, but unless I can figure out how to even turn off quantization by the end of today, I think my quest for Studio One is over.

Studio One does come with instruments. As soon as you start a track, on the right side of the screen there is 5 folders. Clearly labeled "INSTRUMENTS", "Effects", "sounds", "Files", and, "Pool". This is called the "Browse" section. Any tiem you need to get back to here just push the smal box on the bottom right of the screen that says browse.

Instruments will have S1 instruments in it as well as any 3rd party you installed. The first time you try to use any 3rd party, you might have to navigate to the folder where they are. But after that S1 will always remember that location.

Effects section; see above.

If you dont know where your plugins are installed, id recommend checking the manual.

The sounds section is where all of S1 own sounds and samples are. Theres some really cool stuff in there, as well as some midi tracks. All you have to do is open it up and browse.

Files; This is where you dig through your sample library or any other sound you want to import. Just like above, you MIGHT have to search for where your sounds are the first time around.

Pool is just the files that you have used during the song that youre working on.

Any plugin or sound that you want to use, after you find it, can just be dragged from the right side of the screen and dropped onto a track. Simple.

Hope this helps.

I could only choose from "Effects" and some other folder to just search my computer in the browse tab.

[charles1]

Somewhere in this thread it says Ableton is underrated and it is not because it is overrated.

I think you're talking about me:

I don't get why people say live isn't good for dubstep. The instruments it comes with aren't great for dubstep, but it's all about the VSTs anyway.

I don't think it's underrated. just about every house/techno/trance/whatever-the-fuck-its-called producer in the world praises ableton as the best DAW (most likely because deadmau5, their hero, talks about it so much). but i have heard a lot of people say it isn't good for dubstep. i don't know what they are talking about. if you have an external VST with an LFO, you'll be fine for the typical dubstep wobble bass. other than that, you can make most sounds in ableton with the built in VSTs.

[AxeD]

[hasezwei]