# What's your main DAW.



## DragonMusic

I like to know what kind of DAW you're using.

I'm a ProTools user for most of my times, but sometimes, when doing midi, I switch over to Cubase.

Multiple choices are allowed.


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## marco_ktl

I am a Digital Perfomer 6 heavy user!
Still searching for the strength and will to start using Pro Tools a little bit more...


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## immortalgropher

PT, it may have it's issues, but for me, it works great. I tried Reaper out and it was great too,
but I just feel comfortable with PT.

I like shaking my fist at avid though lol.


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## tjwheelinnj

In my home studio (small time budget) I use Adobe Audition. Its ability to rapidly change inputs/outputs and buses, as well as the compatibility with most plug-ins make it easy to use.


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## jonathanm

I've been a cubase user since before day 1 - I used it's predecessor Pro-24...

I also have Ableton and use it for writing and live sets. I have Reason too, but don't use it any more.

Even when I make something in Ableton or Reason, I normally bring it into Cubase to arrange and mix.

For fun, here's some screenshots of Pro 24 and early cubase -


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## immortalgropher

wow, that is the most disgusting GUI I have ever seen rofl.


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## maikol

I use Pyramix, which is not in your list! :rant:


Oh and I love it, of course!


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## eugovector

Been with Cool Edit pro since before they went to 4 tracks, so I'm Adobe Audition all the way.


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## jonathanm

Ahhh, didn't realize that's where Adobe Audition came from......


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## DragonMusic

jonathanm said:


> For fun, here's some screenshots of Pro 24 and early cubase -


Wow, good old days.

Used Cubase back in the days on an ATARI ST1040.
Nice pick, almost forgot how it looked.


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## jonathanm

I know! I only posted them because this post got me thinking about it - looked on wikipedia, and was blown away when i saw the screenshots.....Obv I was an Atari ST guy too...felt pretty good about my built in MIDI ports, but looking back those Amiga guys did pretty good with their trackers.....


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## spacedout

Cubase here, with occasional use of Reason - generally as a rack of synths rewired into Cubase 

I also use Wavelab a little for processing live stereo recordings and suchlike


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## ngarjuna

REAPER for me.


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## blessedfingas

I use Sonar 8.5 x64 edition. You can run lots of tracks and plugins with minimal cpu usage.


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## mbeckler

I use Logic 9! 

I loveeeee working in 64-bit, but most third party plugin's have yet the join the 64-bit bandwagon. :scratch:


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## jonathanm

ngarjuna said:


> REAPER for me.


Reaper is the first thing that has really made me think about changing away from Cubase. Anyone with experience of both care to comment on the strengths and weaknesses?


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## blessedfingas

64 bit is the best thing that ever happen in music production.


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## blessedfingas

reaper is nice also i have used it a few times.


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## d.bop

.


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## blessedfingas

All I know is sonar 8.5 is amazing. I use to use pro tools but my workflow is quicker in sonar


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## vmaxvmax

What happened to Logic Studio? - My:foottap: main DAW...http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/images/smilies/foottap.gif


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## DragonMusic

vmaxvmax said:


> What happened to Logic Studio? - My:foottap: main DAW...http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/images/smilies/foottap.gif


You're absolutely right.:T

You can vote now, it's fixed.


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## planetnine

REAPER user. I was first introduced to Steinberg's Pro-24 and built a Cubase setup on Atari 1040 (which I think I gave away) and ended up using Cubase VST on PC when it came out. Played about with early Cakewalk sequencers too.

Tried to use PTLE with the old 001 and borrowed a 002R, but couldn't get on with the track restrictions, etc (I think was 24-track max originally), looked at buying a TDM system and then HD when it arrived, but couldn't justify the cost for my small-time use. Bought a Traction-1 licence as it was compatible with my Mackie HD recorders, but couldn't get on with it. Tried REAPER after reading posts in the GS or SOS forums about it; I bought a commercial licence after a couple of months use and a couple of extra features were implemented, and it does everything I need. It's not as strong with MIDI as some other DAWs, although there are regular updates in this area (with an active forum community driving this) -it was originally an audio app with MIDI added later. I am primarily an audio-only mixing guy and mix live event recordings for video, Podcast, Demo, etc, with the occasional music release.

I use Focusrite Saffire interfaces, Octopres, Voice channels, Liquid Mix; Presonus Control Station, KRK Vxt-8 monitors.

I also have PA equipment and location recording setups with Mackie HD recorders.

>

Nathan.


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## Darnstrat

Pro Tools 8


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## jseitzbsu

I've worked in Pro Tools since the early days. 

Reaper looks interesting. Is anyone using this in MacOS?


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## BentRabbit

I've been a Sonar user since version 4 and now run 8.53.

I've tinkered with Reaper and do see the appeal, but know Sonar in/out and that's kinda hard to walk away from


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## ggidluck

Samplitude user since 5.12. Starting to use Reaper a bit. 64-bit audio path and flexible routing are the main things that set it apart.


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## hendrikxix

I am a die-hard Sonar user. It mixes in 64 bits double precision so the actual mix engine is more accurate that most of the other contenders out there. It also ships with a fantastic array of great sounding plugins, pitch and formant correction, software synths, drum samplers, step sequencer and full MIDI implementation. It isn't the easiest application to use, but it can do more that just about anything out there. 

You can mix in the box without having to use a summing amp and have it sound great!

Hurray!


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## immortalgropher

BentRabbit said:


> I've been a Sonar user since version 4 and now run 8.53.
> 
> I've tinkered with Reaper and do see the appeal, but know Sonar in/out and that's kinda hard to walk away from


That's how I feel about switching from PT to Reaper lol.


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## maikol

d.bop said:


> I've been using REAPER since v2.52 and I absolutely love it. I came from SONAR (v6/v7) but I just couldn't get along with it. Adobe Audition 1.5-3.0 before that (college broadcasting classes.) And even before that, it was Acoustica Mixcraft 2.5. My first DAW!
> 
> 
> Right now I'm juggling between Pro Tools LE 8 and REAPER 3.4 working at a local venue. I think the owners are ready to make the switch to REAPER for live recording. The offline rendering + CD burning was the selling point for them. They like the idea of the bands getting a rough mix almost immediately after the show. Studio stuff will still be Pro Tools because the head engineer is more comfortable with it.
> 
> 
> I'd like to comment on Cubase vs REAPER workflows, but I just don't have the experience.
> 
> 
> Off-Topic:
> This is my first post. :wave:


Hey welcome here D.BOP! :T

I have to give Reaper a try! Looks promising!


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## immortalgropher

if there was a way to make PT export wav files as fast as reaper i'd be one happy camper.


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## bilco

Pro Tools Essential 8.0.3 with an M-Audio Fast Track USB Mk II for songwriting

Pro Tools LE 8.0.1 with an Mbox I for editing, tuning vocal with Melodyne, preliminary mixing

The simpler the tool, the better it works for me, which is why I really like PT E, very basic and stable with no distractions to pull me off the main goal of writing something new

bilco


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## d.bop

.


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## d.bop

.


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## los153

First DAW experience was with Syntrillium CoolEdit (edit: I was a Beta Tester for CE2000). Syntrillium was later bought out by Adobe and CE was spun very nicely into Adobe Audition. Also worked with CREAMWARE a little, but that one belonged to the studio.

Been on SONAR since v1. About to upgrade to SONAR 8.5 when I finish up with the i7 x64 build. I agree with everything already said about SONAR. It's a great platform, and comes already equipped with some powerful tools. Besides transparent mixing in-the-box, it also comes with nice mastering tools like pro-quality compression, limiting, and Pow-R dithering. And they have a very respectful copy-protection policy.

I've looked at Reaper for a potential laptop-based remote system. It's interesting, but also an issue of time & effort to learn Yet Another DAW.


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## los153

Nice to know about the REAPER forums being active. I should mention that the Cakewalk forums are also active and well-populated with friendly and knowledgable people (no affiliation here). Their devs often weight in as well.


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## tehguit

For what its worth, for those who don't like the amount of time it takes to bounce on pro tools, here's a little trick i use,

Send all your tracks to a stereo aux (for some reason you can't set your main outputs to an aux that i've been able to find) and then setup a stereo audio track and set the input to the aux. Record it every time you check your mix before bouncing and then when you have it all done and ready, guess what! Its bounced for you!!!

Some people also think that this is sonically superior. But that's purely subjective.


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## Peter Simonsen

I run both Nuendo 4.3 and Pro-Tools HD3...Love both platforms and can get pretty much what I want from both systems.

Kind regards

/Peter


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## DIGIT

I have to have the most commonly used DAWs for compatibility with projects coming in from other users so, I actually own Logic, Pro Tools and Cubase - however, I use only Cubase for my own production work.


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## DragonMusic

Most of us uses Cubase or Protools and no Logic. Thought that Logic would be right next to these two.


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## Rob61

Nuendo for years, from version 1 to version 4.


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## Fenderwim

Cubase 5.1 all the way.

Cheers

Wim


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## TCinGA

I tinker with Ableton Live and some Logic. Just learning.


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## keen

Adobe Audition (sinсe it was a Cool Edit). Very convenient for me. Had going to use another DAW,until it got support ASIO.


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## acousticignorant

Propellerheads Reason 6. Looking to upgrade my Ableton Live 5 to the next version as soon as they have ReWire 64bit support. Then I'll be able to use both at the same time again.


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## rcamprodon

Reaper. Super stable, powerful and well designed.


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## matula

I started back in 95 with Cool Edit Pro v1.2, a few years later,, when my career really took off, I switched to Nuendo. Right now i'm using version 4. When Cool Edit turned into Audition, it just wasn't stable enough on my system.


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## Andrey

Yes DAW is important. But only for workflow and results. PT and FLoops as seqvencer.


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## MusicalFreq

We have ProTools and Nuendo, I find that we use Nuendo more because it is more flexible and easier to use. We seem to get a better recording thru it also. ??


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## jlird808

Started on Cubase SE about 7 years ago, then SE3, Sx3, 5, and now 6

Ive also tried Ableton and, while it was fun and had its perks, I was just TOO used to Cubase.

On an added note, I probably woulda gone PT if they had a $100 entry level program at the time, it being the "industry standard"!! My friends older brother does post-production and he always sed to learn it....oh well lol.


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## Oktyabr

I dabble with any new one that comes along but have had FLstudio (Producer edition) the longest. I'm also an open source software advocate and find that LMMS is fun and offers actually quite a bit of functionality under both Windows and Linux (crossplatform is a :T in my case), especially considering it's free.

For serious work I really like the latest Ardour but that means rebooting into linux. :sweat:


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## boavida

I'm a Samplitude 11 user going to crossover to samplitude pro x as soon as I can.


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## sdfinley

Ha looks like I just broke the Cubase PT tie!


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## elbradamontes

Logic pro 9. And apparently I'm the only one. Logic comes with EVERYTHING. And man I mean everything. I've tinkered with all the plugins out there (the ones with demos) and I'll tell you I haven't found one that's not in logic, or one that is but is superior. Ok well I'm still not completely happy with their verbs and I'd kinda like an outboard compressor but I think that's typical. But if we all use third party plugins anyway, doesn't "good daw" mean sensible menus, window layout, and hot keys? Oh and let's not forget this: logic pro 9. $199.


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## beuoy

Logic Pro 9 & X


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## stiffandcold

In the past I experimented with cubase,PT,sonar and adobe audition but I use almost exclusively reaper now. Still sometimes need adobe audition for functions like noise reduction,vocal remove.

But since everything is set up to my liking in reaper, my workflow has just gotten so much faster. Love the ability to copy/paste fx chains, do splits on all tracks,customize shortcuts etc. With the SWS extension, the possibilities are ridiculous.

The crashes can be a pain sometimes though.


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## AudiocRaver

stiffandcold said:


> In the past I experimented with cubase,PT,sonar and adobe audition but I use almost exclusively reaper now. Still sometimes need adobe audition for functions like noise reduction,vocal remove.
> 
> But since everything is set up to my liking in reaper, my workflow has just gotten so much faster. Love the ability to copy/paste fx chains, do splits on all tracks,customize shortcuts etc. With the SWS extension, the possibilities are ridiculous.
> 
> The crashes can be a pain sometimes though.


I use Sonar X3 and Reaper, Reaper more and more for the same reasons you state, except I do not use the SWS extension. And I never have crashes, there are numerous possible reasons for this difference.


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## stiffandcold

AudiocRaver said:


> I use Sonar X3 and Reaper, Reaper more and more for the same reasons you state, except I do not use the SWS extension. And I never have crashes, there are numerous possible reasons for this difference.


Yeah, when I think about it, every time I had crashes I was loading way too many RAM eating-vst's at the time. So it's not so much a problem within the DAW. Also, the option to load the session with offline effects makes it easy to recover your session and remove the offending plugins.

An other very useful reaper feature : Automatic back ups, this has saved my life so much times ha!


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## AudiocRaver

stiffandcold said:


> Yeah, when I think about it, every time I had crashes I was loading way too many RAM eating-vst's at the time. So it's not so much a problem within the DAW. Also, the option to load the session with offline effects makes it easy to recover your session and remove the offending plugins.
> 
> An other very useful reaper feature : Automatic back ups, this has saved my life so much times ha!


I tend to keep it pretty simple with plugins, although not opposed to "whatever it takes to get there" approach. Usually start with Reaper built-in plugins, which seem solid-reliable. Like Voxengo plugins (span, elephant), have a number of them and they are reliable. Also DDMF filters, a few Waves (silver package, I think) and Melda. The Cakewalk instruments with Sonar Producer, plus Melda and N.I. and Wusikstation all are reliable. Maybe I was just lucky in my choices, but I can't remember the last time a had a Reaper crash. Sonar, OTOH, between slow loading and starting, weighty footprint, bugs, and crashes, keeps pushing me toward Reaper - I like it when able to overlook those "minor" issues.:rolleyesno:


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## stiffandcold

AudiocRaver said:


> I tend to keep it pretty simple with plugins, although not opposed to "whatever it takes to get there" approach. Usually start with Reaper built-in plugins, which seem solid-reliable. Like Voxengo plugins (span, elephant), have a number of them and they are reliable. Also DDMF filters, a few Waves (silver package, I think) and Melda. The Cakewalk instruments with Sonar Producer, plus Melda and N.I. and Wusikstation all are reliable. Maybe I was just lucky in my choices, but I can't remember the last time a had a Reaper crash. Sonar, OTOH, between slow loading and starting, weighty footprint, bugs, and crashes, keeps pushing me toward Reaper - I like it when able to overlook those "minor" issues.:rolleyesno:



Yeah I try to keep it as simple as possible with plugins as well. When I started to learn mixing, I used to stack a LOT of them more for the sake of it than for an actual good reason. With time I learned how to dump the useless stuff. I think everyone follows that path in audio haha.

Some VSTI's and stacked guitar tracks that have amp/pedals sims,IR cabs are hard on the RAM.

But the main reason for all this lack of memory is that my main recording computer is running x86 OS so I'm limited to 3gb ram. I have to change that ASAP! But I mic stuff a lot as well and in these times I don't need demanding plugins and can stack a lot of tracks with many fx without problems.


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## AudiocRaver

stiffandcold said:


> Yeah I try to keep it as simple as possible with plugins as well. When I started to learn mixing, I used to stack a LOT of them more for the sake of it than for an actual good reason. With time I learned how to dump the useless stuff. I think everyone follows that path in audio haha.


So, so true.



> Some VSTI's and stacked guitar tracks that have amp/pedals sims,IR cabs are hard on the RAM.
> 
> But the main reason for all this lack of memory is that my main recording computer is running x86 OS so I'm limited to 3gb ram. I have to change that ASAP! But I mic stuff a lot as well and in these times I don't need demanding plugins and can stack a lot of tracks with many fx without problems.


TOTALLY understand. There are those who might ask why you have not upgraded to a 64-bit system already. With a DAW, major hardware or OS upgrades that require re-loading operating system and software packages are a BIG DEAL. Most who have not gone through that process would not appreciate how much work is involved in loading programs, effects, instruments, voices, presets, license numbers, etc. With a big setup it can take days or weeks, and remains an ongoing process for minor upgrades as they occur. Every SW supplier has their own approach, so it remains time-consuming at best and extremely painful at worst. Waves and Melda have figured out to make it pretty quick and painless for their products, but for most it remains very time-consuming.

I upgraded to Windows 7 five years ago. My hardware is still fairly fast, but I am now well behind the fastest hardware, and probably will not upgrade again for at lest another 2 or 3 years.


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## stiffandcold

AudiocRaver said:


> So, so true.
> 
> 
> 
> TOTALLY understand. There are those who might ask why you have not upgraded to a 64-bit system already. With a DAW, major hardware or OS upgrades that require re-loading operating system and software packages are a BIG DEAL. Most who have not gone through that process would not appreciate how much work is involved in loading programs, effects, instruments, voices, presets, license numbers, etc. With a big setup it can take days or weeks, and remains an ongoing process for minor upgrades as they occur. Every SW supplier has their own approach, so it remains time-consuming at best and extremely painful at worst. Waves and Melda have figured out to make it pretty quick and painless for their products, but for most it remains very time-consuming.
> 
> I upgraded to Windows 7 five years ago. My hardware is still fairly fast, but I am now well behind the fastest hardware, and probably will not upgrade again for at lest another 2 or 3 years.


Exactly why I haven't switched yet. Such a tedious and painful process. The kind of thing you avoid until it becomes a necessity.


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## Sangram

Adobe Audition (wait for it) 1.5 from 2003.

I can't upgrade because all my mixes are made with the inbuilt effects and a bunch of DirectX effects that don't seem to work with V3.0  I haven't tried later versions. Nor do my files open correctly, so I just went back.

OTOH, since I'm not a professional engineer nor plan to be one, this works just as well as anything else for me!


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## AudiocRaver

You can't argue with what works.


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## Gusss

Nuendo here - reaper looks interesting. use protool if required though.


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## PMTStudio

Pro_Tools no doubt ,been with it since 2006 thru versions 6.5,7.4,8.5.10.11.12.7 so functional yet instinctive gui and the guys working the back end are helpful and listen to users needs .


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## Mark Fuller

Sequoia. Samplitude is about the same app minus a few features.
Once used to the Object Editor workflow I cannot imagine working w/out it. Game changer in my opinion.


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