Daw which one

So you need to decide if you want to start simple and expand little by little as you go, or invest in a bunch of extras up front.

We recommend different strategies depending on the DAW, so make sure to read our full reviews below. They're bits of software within your DAW that "plug-into" it so to speak. A plugin can be an effect like a special type of distortion, reverb or Auto-Tune, or an instrument like a synth or virtual piano.

Lots are available all over the Web as free downloads, but some of the higher quality ones need to be purchased. Unfortunately, plugins come in different formats which can be confusing.

If you're just starting out, don't worry about this too much, as most popular plugins can be used with most DAWs. You should worry about this only if you have a specific plugin in mind that you can't live without, and the DAW you choose doesn't support its format. Intangibles: There might be some reasons very personal to you as to why you should choose one DAW over another. Maybe as you were browsing Equipboard you noticed Mat Zo uses Ableton , so that's what you want to use.

The relationship between you and your DAW is important, and potentially long-term ; whether you're a hardcore music producer or casual hobbyist, the DAW is likely the first program you'll fire up, and inevitably you'll spend hours wrestling with issues or researching how to accomplish a certain task.

If you've got some crazy reason in your gut as to why you should pick a certain DAW, go for it! The important thing is that you enjoy it. This is an important question, since a buying guide is no good if you have no idea where the information came from.

A few times we say best DAW , but that's a little misleading, as it's very difficult to compare them feature by feature and come up with an absolute BEST. Best DAW for you would be a more appropriate way to think about it.

Having said that, some DAWs are thought to be better at some functions than others. To make this list, we crunched the data from tens of thousands of musicians on Equipboard who have indicated what DAW they use, and we looked at the top DAWs by their Equipboard Gear Score. We also employed experts - full-time music producers - who gave us a rundown of each DAW's ins and outs.

We put all this research together, and came up with a list of the top 5 DAWs which we feel like are absolutely stellar choices, no matter if you're a beginner, or advanced user looking to switch to a new one. While their starting price points can differ quite a bit, even if you go for the most basic i. The reason for this is that DAWs have been around for a long time - decades in some cases - and their makers have been improving the software with every version. For you, the good thing about getting into the DAW game now is that you're getting versions of these DAWs that are pretty fantastic, as they've have years to work through bugs and growing pains, and incorporating user feedback.

Suffice it to say getting the latest available version of your DAW ensures you're getting the best it has to offer. MIDI and Audio tasks are intuitive, and the built-in plugins are plentiful and stellar many famous producers have gotten very far with just stock Logic plugins. Recent updates include a more loop-based workflow catered to hip-hop and electronic musicians, and more of a focus on live performance which traditionally Ableton was known for.

Other benefits are:. It might come as a surprise to some folks that one of the most capable, full-featured DAWs is also one of the most reasonably priced. Even more surprising might be that it doesn't come from a dedicated audio company - it comes from the same people who make your computers and smartphones.

Apple's Logic Pro does not disappoint in the least; It's a powerful and feature-packed piece of software that can be configured to work with just about any setup, from the bedroom studio to a fully stocked production house. Furthermore, if you started out with GarageBand but are ready to move to something more professional, then Logic will make you feel right at home and you won't feel lost in the new environment.

Over the course of its existence, Logic has grown from a computer based MIDI sequencer to a full on multi-track production suite where you can record and edit audio, play virtual instruments, route sound through effects, and finally end up with a file ready for sharing or further refinement somewhere else.

Basically, Logic lets you go from blank slate to fully mastered final product completely within one piece of software. For recording and playing back audio, Logic will work with any audio interface that your computer supports. You can get by with just headphones and a laptop mic, or use an external interface. It's fairly simple to choose which inputs you want to record from and how you want to monitor everything.

This ends up being a really powerful feature that grows with you as a producer - you can set up to record a single track to get ideas going quickly, or configure your routing to allow for very complex multi-track setups with lots of live musicians, pre-recorded tracks coming from Logic itself, even separate output buses going out through physical hardware, then routed back into Logic if needed.

No matter how complicated, you'll be able to set Logic up to route your multi-track audio exactly how you want. Logic is already worth the price just using it like a digital tape recorder. Like any modern DAW, it of course supports 3rd party plugins, but part of what producers like the most about Logic is the variety and quality of the built-in plugins that come included.

So you've got your bread and butter sounds covered, but what really sets Logic apart is the level of detail you can go into editing these sounds. These aren't just stripped down versions of synths crammed into the software to tick a box claiming they have this functionality It covers a wide range of sample-based synthesis itself - from basic sampling with filters, envelopes, LFOs, fx, etc - to more experimental things like granular synthesis, spectral analysis, and resynthesis of pre-recorded audio.

This lets you take in any audio sample and mangle it in any number of ways, stretching time, changing pitch, jumping around in time - and this is just one built-in instrument. We seriously can't emphasize enough how good the stock Logic plugins are. Not just the synths and instruments, but the effects are also top-notch. You've got everything you need from delays, reverbs, compressors, distortions, amp simulators, equalizers, pitch correction and modulation type effects such as chorus and tremolo.

As with the included synths, nothing here really seems stripped down or sub-par - each effect is as tweakable as you'd expect, and most importantly, sounds great. Coupled with the bussing and aux-send capabilities, you can really configure your virtual studio to be almost anything you want. Live Loops is a perfect example of how Apple is keeping up not only with other leading DAWs mainly Ableton in this case , but also responding to the non-linear method in which some hip hop and EDM producers like to work.

When you find something that works, you can move it over into the traditional linear Tracks area and keep working on your piece. To really make this work well, pair it up with the Logic Remote app for iPad or iPhone. Or if you prefer, a Novation Launchpad is fully supported.

For audio, you've got independent control over timing and pitch of pre-recorded material, so fixing timing issues or even re-pitching out-of-tune notes is possible. As for MIDI editing, whether triggering external devices or internal instruments, there's an array of built-in functions for editing time, velocity, pitch, and one of the most comprehensive quantization editors we've ever seen.

You can record or program in notes as you wish, then make them sound as rigid or as varied and natural as you want. One caveat that you have to consider with Logic is the deep integration within the Apple ecosystem - it is a Mac only product, and it only supports plugins in Apple's Audio Unit format check if your favorite VSTs also have AU versions available - most should.

So while not compatible with all the plugins under the sun, this will only be an issue for a tiny percentage of users. Bottom Line: Logic is a traditional DAW in that it comes from the classical paradigm of a multi-track recording studio, but it has evolved with the times and continues to innovate with every release. It sits somewhere at the intersection of a lot of other DAWs - it can do linear recording, it can do pattern based beat-making, it can do wild audio manipulation, it can serve as a tool for live performance - and it does all these things well.

You've got the power to be as professional as you'd like, at a price point that is within reach of almost any budget. Unless you simply refuse to work on a Mac, it's really hard to not recommend Logic Pro. It's still the hallmark DAW for electronic musicians , and Live 11 brings just enough new features to make upgrading from Live 10 an intriguing proposition. Ableton's biggest flaw might be its initially complicated-looking interface, but after a few weeks of use it becomes second-nature to navigate.

Another drawback is the jump from the limited Intro edition to Standard or Suite is a steep price jump. However, as far as live performance functionalities Ableton is far and above its competitors. Ableton officially released their first revision of Live back in Embraced by the likes of Daft Punk , Aphex Twin and deadmau5 and even tipped early on to have huge potential by none other than Hans Zimmer , Ableton have gone on to become one of the most successful DAWs to date. Before we delve deep into what's new with Live 11 and whether it's worth the purchase or upgrade, here's a brief overview of notable points of Ableton's evolution to where it is now.

Unlike the pre-existing DAWS of the time, Ableton gained traction in the music-tech market by branding themselves as a live performance tool. They stood out from competing DAWs, which until recently mostly mimicked real-world mixers with too many faders for some click intense navigation.

Ableton has instead maximized screen real estate by presenting a fresh take on routing configurations, altering the way in which auxiliary, bus and send channels are presented How about a simple return track that automatically drops a send knob in each track?

Tidy "groups" within groups that enable even more free space?? Classically, Live's interface has always been a clean and minimalistic one, though if new or migrating from an alternate no doubt can still look daunting.

However, rest assured the learning curve need not be steep, the best way to approach it is to hover your mouse over the various buttons because a description of what they do will appear in the bottom left-hand corner.

Live is comprised of a session view geared toward live performance and an arrangement view for creating fully fledged tracks , and it's easy to switch between the two. The session view is comprised of multiple little rectangles these are the aforementioned clips , which can be used for triggering midi, audio and automation variations - add a MIDI controller - an Akai APC40 , Ableton Push or a Novation Launchpad - and get ready to take on the world.

Its efficient bit internal audio processing engine supports media in almost format at any bit depth and sample rate. There are no operating system limitations with Reaper as there are with Cakewalk.

One of the biggest advantages Logic Pro has over others is a massive built-in virtual instrument and audio loop library and excellent MIDI capabilities. If you lean more towards the creative side of music production rather than technical, Logic is an obvious choice. It has an intuitive, attractive interface as well, which is a factor when searching for your first DAW. Logic is a great all-around DAW though it leans toward music production and songwriting.

The included Drummer instrument for example, which automatically grooves along to your song, is designed to help write music efficiently. Its cost is attractive as well, particularly for what you get in stock plugins and instruments.

But have you ever wondered why and how it actually became — in fact — the industry standard? But all this really means is that no DAW is perfect, and each one has both its stronger and weaker points. So is Pro Tools right for everyone? Of course not. Currently, there are 3 versions of Pro Tools available :. Essentially all commercial studios and established industry players as well as people who want to get used to — you guessed it — the industry standard.

I recommend starting with the regular version of Pro Tools if you can afford it. And if not, use Pro Tools First instead. And the first version was released in , which makes it one of the youngest DAWs around….

And therefore a much more unknown one to the public too. And the producers that use it essentially all praise it for the same reasons:. So a bit more about the modulator :. Imagine you call up a VST, route it to the modulator and then tweak it ANY way you want, applying modulation effects to it directly. To sum up modulation, you could say it is the best way to make electronic music sound more human and more unique. Probably the most weird-looking and confusing DAW out there….

And the reason for this choice is because Renoise is actually a tracker. When highly skilled coders with zero musical knowledge understood they needed some way to create music to accompany their graphic creations. It ended up being used for specific types of music such as jungle, EDM or anything with highly chopped samples. Without getting into too much details, Renoise is all in all a much more convenient and easy to use tracker.

Essentially, it is a hardware tracker, half-way between a synthetiser and a DAW — or maybe more like a hybrid of the two. My first time took me a full two days of work before finally getting things working. Yes some are better for a given music genre, yes some might be better for live music but it really comes down to personal preference. And as the options continually improve, the debate rages on. My answer would have been very simple: No. Well, for those reasons essentially: Unlimited tracks — unlike other free DAWs with limited track count, Cakewalk has unlimited tracks.

Check it out here Next up… Audacity How not to include Audacity in this article, right? The open-source DAW has been leading the charts for over 20 years now, and for a very good reason: It is so freaking simple to use. Next up… Limited vs. Studio One 5 works well in many applications, but it excels with arrangement and composition with its powerful ability to turn MIDI data into sheet notation.

Studio One may seem like a bit of an underdog, but that gives it a lot of space to innovate and the results are impressive. Bitwig Studio was launched in by a group of former Ableton developers after an extensive testing period. In its newest iteration,Bitwig Studio 4 delivers expressive MIDI support, better audio editing and a handful of new plugins and software instruments.

Unique modulation options, strong hardware integration, and songwriting-friendly tools make Bitwig a solid option for any creator. Audacity was released in as a completely free recording software. Pro Tools is the industry-standard DAW. Pro Tools was designed for traditional recording in a studio setting and it excels at every part of that process.

Pro Tools was designed for traditional recording in a studio setting and it excels at every aspect of that process. Pro Tools comes in several configurations including the free, introductory edition Pro Tools First which is limited to 16 tracks.