Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards What DAW are you using ?

Hi! i am new here and i have played mostly on my keyboard, but i am going to buy a digital piano in the fall. I am just wondering what DAW you guys are using? I have been using Cubase for years for my other project but i am interested to know if you feel that there is a DAW out there that is better and cheaper or more suitable for piano and classical music (perhaps you actually get the best plugin for the price, i dunno)

Are you looking for MIDI controlling/sequencing, or using software sounds (VSTs)? Cubase is great, but it depends what you want to do.

Since buying Cakewalk years ago, I've stuck with it. It's now up to version Sonar X2 or some such.

However, if I was starting over, I'd give some consideration to Reaper, which an open-source piece of free software. My production station (an Open Labs Neko XXL) came with it pre-loaded and it seems pretty impressive for something that's free. I keep saying I ought to learn it properly and maybe stop paying money to Cakewalk.

I have Reaper, Abelton Live, Cubase and Logic Pro but the one I use the most is Garageband.

+1
For quick recording of ideas and using loops its a great app with a dead simple interface.
And you can always transfer it to the big boys.

I'm just learning how to use Logic Pro myself. I have tried Reaper but I like how Logic looks a bit cleaner IMO. I used to use Cakewalk back in the day. Loved it!

I love simple but powerful tools - that's why I still use MS Paint
So Audacity for most users will be enough, it's free. For VST/MIDI I use Mulab, also free.

But of course pro tools is great

Just got my UR22 today which came with Cubase AI6; but I also purchased Mixcraft- had a ton of coupons and amex gift cards so paid around $80 for each item out of pocket

My first computer recorder was Cubase which I used a lot until version 2 point something. It was marvelous and, afaics, led the way for virtually all digital recorders that followed.

That was in about 1989. Since then there has been a 24 year hiatus. Partly this was because, once my 1 Megabyte Atari computer (a modern classic) broke down, there was nothing to record on. Switching to PC I've had terrible problems with Windows operating systems and audio recording - problems with mere MIDI recording, too. The whole idea of smoothly streaming data seems to have been anathema to the Windows developers - especially in the pro audio area. I'm now running the DAW on a 2 X 3.4GHz Xeon system with 8 GB RAM, no network, no clutter, new W7 o/s (this is like having eight thousand Atari ST computers linked together!) but latency and timing stability is still a problem, ladies and gentlemen. Though the end does seen to be in sight now.

(and I'm not even fussy - I don't mind putting up with a fair amount of crap and slop - and the odd 15ms lacuna here and there just has to be coped with by gritting your teeth. For example, I've just discovered that if I record incoming audio from the DP, the DAW slows down its playback rate unless I allow a 512 sample buffer, which causes a large latency problem - but only with the incoming audio data - the stuff in the computer - VSTi's - run fine at 128 or, with heavy use, 256 sample buffers. This means there will have to be a whole extra layer of latency compensation just for externally sourced material. This is before you even start worrying about music or sound quality! If you like this sort of thing - go for Windows. I love it.)

Anyway, my DAW is Reaper (which is not free, by the way - I paid €40 for it). It has a lot of online support and forum activity and constant fixes and updates (free, of course). It is not very easy or intuitive with midi recording, I don't think. There are lots of options and some of the defaults are strange.

But overall it's great - with a lot of work, I think you can do almost anything with it. There are lots of routing possibilities, ways of setting up the desk and plug-ins and editing suits etc and various export/mastering/rendering options beyond wave and mp3. Their business model seems healthy and based on sound thinking.

+1 for Reaper.

After being a long time Cubase user, I found Reaper a little strange to use at first, but soon realised that in Reaper, 'right clicking' is your best friend

Yes - right clicking is essential! You can also program your own keyboard instructions into it which can give you useful shortcuts. This is under Actions»Action list.

For what it's worth, I use Mixcraft for recording. I had terrible issues with Audacity as a recording vehicle, a lot of noise was being introduced on the track. With Mixcraft I get a very clean recording; and it's really easy to use.

I started off with Ableton Lite which came free with an M-Audio arranger keyboard. But I never really got Ito it. Running on a Windows PC it never really seemed to be happy.

Then I got a Mac which came with GarageBand. I thought I would learn GarageBand then move up to Logic Pro when I needed more features. But so far I haven't. GB does everything I need.

Edited to add: I've also tried Reaper, which I liked and found easy to use. If I didn't have GarageBand with the progression to Logic Pro, I would probably use Reaper.

I have Tracktion 4 which came free with my Mackie mixer. However I haven't used it yet. Eventually I will get brave and try this out. LOL

I haven't tried using Garage Band even though it came with my Mac. What can it do vs. Logic Pro?

It does a lot less than Logic Pro, as is to be expected in a free version compared to a full-price program. It is a simplified basic package which gives you enough to learn the principles of using a DAW.

The Mac version is a different beast altogether from the IPad app. The Mac looks and works more like a standard DAW and is well worth a look.

OK, thanks! Since I've already delved into logic though, I guess I'll keep doing that and learn GB later. Only so much techie stuff my brain can handle at once!

Yes, I would do exactly the same if I had a Mac. I had a version of Logic years ago - it was called Logic Audio Discovery. It never worked but that was a Windows problem, as outlined above. But it looked good.

Reaper may be easy to use in the main but I find it a bit fiddly. The cursor is always jumping to new location given half a chance (double click on the band sends it back to zero, though, which is handy). And midi tracks have to be laboriously set up (unlike vst or audio ones).

But I love its flexibility, price, attitude to development and sales.

I'm mainly a Logic user.. Although I am often forced into PT depending on who I'm working with. I've recently been playing with Reaper and Studio One and both have their advantages.

I use Reaper. Easy to use and not a bad price.