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Learning another daw...
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damnuok
hey, what if we want to learn another daw to work with it...like
from ableton to cubase, or cubase to logic, or reason to ableton...

how long it usually takes? 'cause you already have the knowledge about daws, how they work etc...with few tuts help, and after 2-3 weeks u'd be able to do on ur new daw what u could do ur previous daw...?:o
echosystm
I think the first time you switch to another daw, it takes about a week. Now that I've used every daw briefly, I think I could learn each one reasonably well in a day. They all do the same stuff anyway... Just different buttons etc. :)
Subtle
Its hard when your new DAW has a whole different way of doing certain things than your used to on a previous one.
zodiac9
I'm a Fruity Loops user. I tried to learn cubase several times over the years, and I just don't get it. The layout is complete different than fruity loops, and not only that, cubase is just not intuitive at all, so I gave up it on it.

A buddy of mine who uses Cubase, is trying to learn Fruity Loops so he can mix my tracks down, and also so we can collab. It's been weeks now, and I don't think he's even close to understanding it. I'm trying to help him best I can, and he's watching the tutorial videos. He's still having a hard time wrapping his head around it. I feel it's going to be months before he can find his way around enough to be able to mix my tracks.

It does seem that if you know what you want to do with a daw, enter notes on the piano roll, automate parameters, add effects, ect, it shouldn't take that long to learn. There's something about completely changing methods of doing things that throws you off. One day I'm going to seriously try to learn another daw, like Logic for instance. I just have to do it to prove that I can.

What if one day your favorite DAW was discontinued? I guarantee you'd learn to use another one.
OceanState
I have used many DAW's. I started on Reason then wanted to use VST's so I switched to Sonar and used that for quite a while. Then I went to Cubase which I learned fairly quick after using Sonar. I then switched to Ableton Live which I currently use. I don't know everything about Live but I was up and running and making music with it the first day I installed it. I used some of the tutorials but my past DAW experience helped a lot. I am really happy with Live. I use it rewired with Reason.
zodiac9
quote:
Originally posted by OceanState
I have used many DAW's. I started on Reason then wanted to use VST's so I switched to Sonar and used that for quite a while. Then I went to Cubase which I learned fairly quick after using Sonar. I then switched to Ableton Live which I currently use. I don't know everything about Live but I was up and running and making music with it the first day I installed it. I used some of the tutorials but my past DAW experience helped a lot. I am really happy with Live. I use it rewired with Reason.


Wow, that's encouraging that you were making music with Ableton Live the first day you started with it. If I ever try another DAW it will be Sonar. What may bother me most about switching DAWS, is getting used to the effects for a different one. The layout for the delay plugins, ect, are going to be a lot different I'm sure. With Cubase, I couldn't even find the effects, LOL! All I had was the Cubase demo. I've heard if you have the tutorial videos it helps a lot.
OceanState
quote:
Originally posted by zodiac9
Wow, that's encouraging that you were making music with Ableton Live the first day you started with it. If I ever try another DAW it will be Sonar. What may bother me most about switching DAWS, is getting used to the effects for a different one. The layout for the delay plugins, ect, are going to be a lot different I'm sure. With Cubase, I couldn't even find the effects, LOL! All I had was the Cubase demo. I've heard if you have the tutorial videos it helps a lot.


I was surprised I was up and going so quick but Live's tutorials are great and I really think it is a very intuitive program like Reason. I learned both of them quick. Cubase and Sonar took me longer and I found them more involved.
Magnus
Went from Reason to Cubase a few years ago. Was hard at first, but I did find that a lot of things transferred over so all that time using Reason was helpful and was a good starting base for me. Once I got the hang of Cubase though, I could never imagine going back. I now use Cubase with Ableton as a slave, my favorite combo as they both compliment each other nicely IMO.
soundrush
quote:
Originally posted by damnuok
with few tuts help, and after 2-3 weeks u'd be able to do on ur new daw what u could do ur previous daw...?:o


depends on how smart you are
MERiDiAN5i2
I recommend training videos for whatever DAW you wish to learn. It's a frustrating process to fumble through a new GUI, and equally frustrating to read the documentation for hours on end. There are training videos for just about every major DAW package out there. Sit back, crack open a beer, and watch as someone who's familiar with said DAW explores the program.

Usually after you've watched the first few hours of the videos you have enough basic knowledge of how the program operates (and how it expects you to think) to figure out stuff a lot easier. By that time you're bored of watching and ready to play around a bit.

Storyteller
I've used (in this order) Scream Track 3.02, Impulse tracker 2.14, Buzz, Renoise, Cubase/Nuendo, Reason, Fruity, Ableton.

At school I mainly use Cubase/Nuendo. I use it mainly for (video) mixing purposes, not so much the production process itself. I've also been using fruity with some simple production classes. It's an easy to grasp piece of software :). Also a friend whom I'm composing with uses fruity, so I come across it every once in a while.

At home I've been using Renoise mainly. Nearly every released track I've made is done with Renoise. Last year I finished my first track in Ableton Live (with Tasadi) within 2 weeks. If you're aware of what the basics are any DAW should be to get down the important basics with within a few days. It should be enough to almost equal the level of your productions in general.

For me there's one exception. Reason. I just hate it. It's interface, the sound in general. I don't know how to get the quality out of it which I want. As said, I don't like it, it just doesn't allow me to come up with results that are up to par within a decent ammount of time. However such things are very personal of course.

I've mainly learnt to work with all these DAW's by just using them. I didn't need any tutorials because the basics are very much alike. It's just a matter of finding the correct tools and then you can get it down asap without too much of a hassle in most cases :).

IMO, it should be possible to get a good groove or synthline with potential going in 1 working day (8hrs) even if you've never seen/heard of/used the sequencer before.
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