TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Production Studio
-- Your DAW Strength / Weakness
Pages (2): [1] 2 »
Your DAW Strength / Weakness
Ive only ever really played about with reason for producing music as I just feel quite comfortable using, but inevatably I sometimes find myself wanting to do something that is a) not possible or b) very difficult to do - could be simplified by some little features etc...
So im just wondering what you lot find is good / bad about your DAW, for Example ;
Reason
+All-in-one, ready to go out the box
+.rns format allows for easy sharing / multi-person projects
-Sequencer could still do with some additional features
-No way to work directly with audio files (cant see actual waveform in sequencer etc...)
Maybe yours has a brilliant sequencer, good time stretching, or some other little tricks that arent avilable on another DAW, or at least not implemented as well / easy to use.
If this thread goes well, it would be good info to add to my DAW Guide thread (available via the sticky in this forum), if I ever got around to updating it since it's fallen behind.
from what i've found:
Ableton Pros:
- Awesome time stretching and audio manipulation
- Easy work flow
- fewer crashes then other DAW's i've used
- has become both my production sequencer and DJ tool
Cons:
- ships with weak built in instruments
- external device implementation still shotty
- no curved automation lines
- sound engine has some flaws
anyone else feel free to add to mine
Im one of ten trillion who use FL studio but heres my personal ones:-
Strengths:-
Great beginner tool
Some good built in instuments
Easy VSTi manipulation
Never crashes for me(execpt when i switch on my keyboard)
Ability to Automate anything in FL (other daw comparison N/A)
Easy 'link to controller' process
Weaknesses:-
The edison editor in which i record my SH-201 into can be a handfull to edit the sound , chiefly with removing the silence before the audio hits.
The automation points can be very fiddly
You get very worringly close to the limit of 64 channels in the mixer
Fl studio:
Pros:
Step Sequencer is really nice and easy to use.
Best piano roll i have used.
Great midi controller integration, you can move a knob on a soft synth and go assign to controller and just move something on your controller and it sets it.
Onboard effects are pretty useable.
Sytrus is a great synth, and 3xosc is cool.
Cons:
No Multi core support on effects.
Terrible when trying to use hardware. (don't know this from experience)
Cubase4:
Good points:
-Excellent packaged instruments and DSPs
-Can accommodate any setup
-excellent audio file manipulation and handling
-supremely customizable
-Applicable to any musical style: Acoustic, rock, dance music, etc
-Applicable to any audio work: Film scoring, classical composing, dance music, etc
-Good luck finding something you can't do. Limitations are scarce.
-Once mastered, nothing else will do.
Bad points:
-More difficult to learn.
-Less visually intuitive.
Here are my thoughts, just off the top of my head.
Cubase 4:
Pros:
Workflow - folders, groups, marker lanes, colours - makes it really easy to see instantly what's what, to solo or mute groups, all of that.
Routing - drag and drop to change effect ordering, route freely between audio channels/ groups.
Freeze - I rarely use this, but it's easy to save on CPU by rendering the track to audio. Unfreezing and refreezing is quick and easy.
MIDI/Audio manipulation - keyboard shortcuts to quickly duplicate sections, transpose MIDI,chop or timestretch MIDI or Audio.
Great for hardware - easy recording, easy to route audio through hardware effects units and use them like regular plugins.
Cons:
Not being able to rename MIDI CC lanes (I'd love to be wrong on this) - I'd like to set up templates for each of my hardware synths, so rather than "CC74" it would say "Filter 1 Cutoff".
There are some decent instruments and effects, but could always be better (especially a decent sampler in the standard package). Then again, I use mostly hardware instruments and my Waves gold bundle for effects.
Hmm...there are probably more cons, but I'm quite happy with Cubase...my history has been Trackers to FL to Reason to Live to Cubase (I still use Reason and Live, coming into Cubase) and I'm loving it. At some point I'd like to try a Mac and Logic for an extended period. I used logic this year for my music course, but it's different, using it at school as opposed to having it in my studio...
Live 5:
Pros:
Some excellent effects which aren't just the standard reverb-EQ-delay.
Easy to use for DJing as well as production.
Great for manipulating loops, chopping them.
Easy automation with nice big circle points to grab and move around.
Cons:
Hardware, to my ears, doesn't sound as good coming in as it does into Cubase.
Like with Cubase, as at version 5 it didn't come with a really easy to use Sample player (for example, one which allows you to quickly cycle through kick samples while the song is playing).
Finicky, I know, but it's not as visually appealing as Reason's rack, or Cubase's mixing window (the one with all the big faders).
Reason 4:
Pros:
Great set of tools, has almost everything you need (which is important, since it's a closed system). Great samplers, drum machine, loop player, Thor synth.
Looks great.
Small file sizes.
Cons:
Moving around and working in the sequencer window is not intuitive.
Sometimes it would be handy to use external plugins (has anyone heard that one before???) - to bring in a decent frequency analyser, or some other great tools...but this is unlikely to happen, since Reason is nice and solid in it's present form, and can easily be rewired into other applications to get more out of it.
No audio tracks. Even without being able to record, it'd be great to see/ manipulate some waveforms, and play the WAV files from anywhere, rather than triggering a sample via MIDI and having to play the sample from the very start every time.
The cables at the back of the rack, while cool, are fiddly to plug around. In Cubase, to change the order of an effects chain, it's simply drag and drop. No plugging of cables.
FL Studio
Pros - It rocks, its awesome, its QUICK to make powerful sounds extremey quick. It also has the best piano roll compared to any other DAW. Nothing beats it.
Cons - Its never in any of the g/damn magazines, it rarely gets any attention it deserves, and its lay out makes it look like it was designed for a 7yr old with ADD. But I have a feeling if they made it look more professional and took dancing cartoons out of it I'd prob lose attention myself.
Ahh, I forgot about those in C4... Yeah, the free routing really is like a techy wet dream come true. And the audio engine is top notch.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by derail Workflow - folders, groups, marker lanes, colours - makes it really easy to see instantly what's what, to solo or mute groups, all of that. |
reason 4.0:
+ its so fucking easy to make trakcs in it, i just finished a track in 1,5 hour!
+ it never crashes, stabile as hell and cpu friendly.
+ easy filehandling (all in one file) and works easily in both mac and PC.
+ great instruments, almost all i need in there.
+ great overview, everythings clean and in order - no hidden shit.
+ cablefunction makes routing of efex extremly fun.
- no audiohandlig direclty in the sequencer, that must be there within a few upgrades - its useless for making vocal music!
- the new sequencer is abit ineffective compared to v.3 imo. some strange ways of doing stuff but its ok.
- i suspect the mixer/combining signal algorithme-code is abit weak. it gets muddy and flat very easily. just by exporting each channel to wav and put them in another sequencer made better results. hope this gets fixed sometime.
- i miss timestretching and bpm-sync in the samplers.
- i want better resolution on start/stop positions on samples loaded into redrum and nn-xt. also softer pitch.
- i want more and better eqs and compressors and another vocoder (or upgrade the one thats in there, it gets out of sync).
- a free hand LFO would be nice
- i miss mp3 rendering and mp3-samples-support
- moar analog
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DJ Robby Rox FL Studio Pros - It rocks, its awesome, its QUICK to make powerful sounds extremey quick. It also has the best piano roll compared to any other DAW. Nothing beats it. Cons - Its never in any of the g/damn magazines, it rarely gets any attention it deserves, and its lay out makes it look like it was designed for a 7yr old with ADD. But I have a feeling if they made it look more professional and took dancing cartoons out of it I'd prob lose attention myself. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by lenieNt Force Another con on FL: Extremely bad audio editing capabilities in the Playlist/Sequencer window. edit: and also the possibility to freeze tracks is not good enough. Although you can you 3rd party software for it like I do.. FX Freeze. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Stef I disagree, there are quite a few ways to edit the audio in the playlist window |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by lenieNt Force How? You cant even zoom in on sample level.. and you can not paint. |
lol
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Stef What do i win? |
no logic users?? 
i came from ableton, but switched over to logic about a month ago properly and havn't looked back...
pros:
-piano roll is awesome
-the FX and compressors that come with it are top-notch, and extremely numerous (5 types of reverb, all types of distortion, about 15-20 types of compression for different sounds)
-it might just be me, but i get a much more professional and deeper! sound out of logic
-automation is second to none
ableton's great for the beginning stages of a track, really quick easy interface, but once you start mastering, and properly sequencing etc logic is a million times better imo...
cons:
-can be a little sticky, and frustrating at times
logic's awesome, just comes with everything you would ever need. all the built-in things (from synths to FX) are amazing too, would be possible to work solely from logic with no other plugins, which couldn't be said about any other sequencer i don't think...
Ableton
PROS
Easy to warp audio
Intuitive
can perform live
easy midi mapping
CONS
Poor quality warping algorithm
poor audio editing
no crossfades on a single channel (ala protools)
can be unstable
Poor automation drawing
No LFOs on automation
No track folders
Hard to keep a project organised and neat
I'll think of more
Reason 4
-It's got basically everything I need in quality, no worrying about next upgrade(well except for sound banks) or if different stuff would be better.
-Malstrom for bloody powerful synthesis, which I have yet to master
-Thor. Great sounding filters, can have dedicated thors for lfos/global envelope so I can get an extra 4 global envelopes or lfos. Very flexible fm synthesis. Set an lfo to lowest setting+random waveform+route to oscilatter=analog drift, the amount determines how old sounding it sounds, the fact you can have different amount for different oscilatters=very interesting pads possible.
-Subtractor sounds like those really mean late 90s digital synths, great for fat n nasty full on psy basslines, I'll probably find more uses for as well.
-Do not have to deal with crashes on general vst registration problems or anything, also can collab with most anyone with the same sequencer because they will have the same synths.
-Really easy to understand for me, I've messed around with cubase 4... and it took me an hour just to work out how to insert a sample, let alone work out why no sound was coming out myseteriously.
-cons: Have to go out of sequencer to edit audio
-Could care less about vsts, but it probably wouldn't work with analog synths either 
Logic 8
Pros
-Way better than anything else I've ever used.
-The instruments and fx are great and very useable.
Cons
-I had to buy a mac.
Ableton 7
Pros
-Very easy to use
-easy to get a song quickly sketched out
-Can DJ with it
-Can do a live PA
Cons
-I hate the sound of the instruments and FX it comes with
-Terrible for mixdowns
Sonar 8 Producer
Pros:
- highly configurable/customizable GUI
- excellent bundled plugins (effects and synths)
- unparalleled support for external hardware devices (synths, effects)
- step sequencer - makes drum programming a breeze
- sidechaining
- the best customer support (company and peer-to-peer) of any DAW I've ever used
- supports DXi
Cons:
- not the most intuitive DAW
- could use some huge improvements in the way it handles automation/envelopes
- step sequencer is very nice, but has a LOT of room for improvement
There are many more pros and cons, but these are the major ones for me.
Project5 v2.5
Pros:
- very quick and easy to use (a poor man's Ableton)
- cheap
- excellent MIDI support
- decent support for external synths
- excellent bundled plugins
- the Groove Matrix is very cool for arranging on the fly
Cons:
- its future is uncertain and Cakewalk's way of dealing with it has been pretty horrendous; promised an upgrade over a year ago, then have been completely silent on it ever since
- hideous GUI - too much white and other light colors; eye-strainer for those of us who work in a dark environment
- no multi-core support (but that was promised in the upgrade)
- doesn't handle audio very well
Pro Tools 7.4LE w/MBox2 Mini
Pros:
- cheap
Cons:
- almost too many to mention, but here are some of the biggies for me:
- terrible bundled plugins (most are just limited edition teasers of much more expensive plugins)
- sound quality of anything recorded through an MBox is pretty bad, especially for a product whose platform is regarded as the "industry standard"
- MIDI implementation is a joke
- hideous GUI
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Zild Logic 8 Pros -Way better than anything else I've ever used. -The instruments and fx are great and very useable. Cons -I had to buy a mac. |
Is there stuff cubase completely doesnt have compared to some other sequencers?
| quote: |
| Originally posted by gr8ape Is there stuff cubase completely doesnt have compared to some other sequencers? |
sounds like reason is full of cons
Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.