Songwriters favourite DAW and why

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Mark Kaufman

I was hoping more people would chime in as to why the DAW is better from a songwriter's perspective...it just sounds like any other Favorite DAW thread.

Pretty much. You can't really expect that ...

1. Most here have actually used (not demoed but used) 3-6 different DAW's... or...

2. "Songwriting" isn't anything static that is the same for everyone. Some people write songs with music notation, others play every track in real time, record audio with no software instruments from 0:00 to 4:00 and some others click in 20,000 notes with a mouse and build songs one bar at a time.

Yeah... it's a favorite DAW thread. S1 is my favorite mostly because it stays out of the way more than the others I used previously.

[hendrik84]

Studio One.

I'm songwriter with not much patience for big learning curves. SO has been the easiest and simplest DAW I've ever used.

[muziekschuur]

Cakewalk Sonar X-1 for me.

[grayter1]

Like many have said already - long time Logic user (about 14 years), but I've really taken to Studio One V2. So much so, that I have most of my Logic stuff transferred over. I'm holding my breath to see what Logic X will bring, but so far, I'm sold on S1.

Quick, easy, and flowing...

tg

[themuzic]

As a former singer\songwriter I found Studio One to be simply the best tool for writing. I used Cubase from SX2 to C5 and never composed songs as quickly as I do in Studio One.

There's no thinking, no setup and everything is drag and drop. I agree that Studio One's stock Instruments are not that great but since I already use Sampletank, Omnisphere, battery and a few others it's no problem really.

Studio One is great on CPU and it's stock effect plugins are simply top notch and they are all I use now. I don't write anymore but working with clients has never been easier.

[dgkenney]

Studio One for composing, tracking and initial mix

Pro Tools for final mix and/or any complex editing

Studio One Professional for "mastering" The Project Page is brilliant!


Dan

[ooohhh2]

Holla to my Studio One fellas. Yes, as a songwriter i can say Studio One 2 is the most intuitive and best DAW for me. I just needed a couple of hours to figure almost everything out, even without any manual or tutorials.
I already had these DAWs:
Sonar 8.5, Tracktion, Cubase 6, and then found S1V2 at their release, and can't be happier than now. Since i switched over to 64 bit fully, with 8 GB RAM and Win7, i7, instability hasn't been an issue anymore. It runs rock solid, even with lots of jbridge.
It still has some disadvantadges, especially in Midi, when you compare it with Cubase 6 for instance, but i believe, it will be much better with time.

[jeffreyheart]

I use ableton Live. pretty much love it.

In general though, most songwriters just need left to right arrangement style view, but Live's session view can def change up the way you think about writing.

[NoHatNoSwim]

Cubase here too , though now that Live is out, some electro based projects start in live. after getting pretty good in cubase over the years, especially from an arrangement perspective, I do not like Live's arrangement window.

Live tends to be designed for live use - triggering blocks too and fro and manipulating those channels start and end points.

depends on what you are doing. I'm classically trained, and for example had a bluegrass/country artist in last week where we payed down a track in pristine shape in 2 hours.

Tracks done in live tend to take much longer ( in another electronic project I'm working on) where we can spend 6 or 7 sessions putting a track together. From a getting work completed perspective, Live has a lot of tweak ability and encourages having to reach a point where you need to make a decision and Move e project into an arranged format. That has pros and cons, The sounds we get out of live are excellent, and intricate, but as said above, it takes AGES playing with blocks - arguably similar to reason in that regard. Therefore, for recording performances and tracking in a daw format, Cubase wins for me. Pro tools and logic obviously are similar and each has a few things that are done better than the other. Not much logic experience here - ironically it was the first one I used about 12/13 years ago, but I've a fair bit of pro tools experience, and love the drag & drop plugs feature. that's about it though lol :-)

[Anthony Duran]

I used ProTools at a pro studio when I was an intern... being a programmer/arranger at the studio, I was a big MPC guy...
then got a copy of Cakewalk 9 from a friend after I moved... a year later got an Mbox w PT le ..

THEN...


After a fellow MPCist I respected told me he was using Ableton, & promised me that coming from a hardware background, I would Love it, I finally tried the free copy that came with some hardware I bought...

GOOD LORD I WAS MISSING OUT...
the way my brain works, Ableton was MADE 4 ME!!!!

Not for everyone, I know... but it is super intuitive for my creativeness. Period. NOTHING is like it. And I can complete my mixdowns on it too.