DAW's

     On the subject of DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstations) I’ve been pondering the best way to discuss them and to describe why I use, what I use. This will not be a detailed review, but rather an observation. So here it goes. Reaper is my go-to recording and sequencing choice followed by Cubase 5, Logic Pro 8, and Sonar Producer_X2. For strictly audio editing purposes I use Adobe Audition 3 followed by Audacity.  I then save all tracks in .wav and .aif formats so they can be transferred to Pro Tools for compatibility with most studios and post production facilites. I also have Samplitude Producer as well as PreSonus Studio One Producer which I keep for cross compatibility with other musicians and producers. I must say at the outset that I own licenses for all the software in my studio and firmly believe that if we use it, we should buy it and support those who worked hard to provide it.  Now on to the reasons why I use certain software.

      First in the line-up is Reaper, a complete digital recording/sequencing solution available at http://www.reaper.fm/ for a very reasonable cost. The interface in Reaper is very accessible and easy to wrap my head around, while the program itself is easily the equal in power of other major work stations. One of the main considerations for choosing a DAW for me is in it’s ability to display video synced to audio/midi, either on the primary screen or on a separate monitor. Reaper does this quite smoothly and is compatible with most video formats. Most of what I do is soundtrack work and being able to view the on-screen video with a “window burn” of SMPTE time-code is essential. Beyond this the DAW must be quick, easy to use, and have deep editing capabilities while being very stable. Again Reaper lives up to these criteria with the added bonus of having a extremely customizable graphic user interface or “theme”.

Reaper Arrange Screen

Reaper Mixer Screen

     Next in line is Cubase 5 from Steinberg/Yamaha (I haven’t upgraded to 6.5 yet) and Logic Pro 8 from Apple. I have a long history with Cubase and began using it on the Atari platform when it first became available. At that time it was strictly a midi-sequencer with the added capability of printing simple music scores. It has since grown to be a most robust program and one by which many others are measured. I truly like this program, but it has become so feature-laden and complex as to be less user friendly for me to use as primary software, although it looks like Steinberg is trying to address those issues in Cubase 7. Aside from that it is a great program and has all of the video and editing capabilities that Reaper has. I likewise have a long history with Logic on the Atari platform and eventually on the Mac. Though different in the early days it is now very similar to Cubase in usage and capabilities but only available on the Mac platform. Cubase is available for both the PC and Mac. Logic’s included plug-ins are very good and have delivered excellent sonic results on projects I’ve used them on.

Cubase 5 Arrange Screen

Logic Pro 8 Arrange Screen

     Finally for this installment there is Sonar from Cakewalk/Roland. I’m using the newest version, Sonar Producer X2a. Sonar has come a long way from earlier days when it was called Cakewalk Pro Audio and had a more cumbersome interface and less accessible editing capabilities than it now has. The new interface introduced with Sonar X1 is more elegant to me and has a wonderful “Pro Channel” available for every track giving you quick access to EQ, FX, and Dynamics processing. All of the FX and Soft Instruments included with the program are extremely good and very usable. Like with Reaper and Cubase, it has the ability to display video while recording or editing.

SONAR X2 Producer

    Well that’s it for now. I’ll cover other programs and plug-ins I use in a future post. Also bear in mind that these are just my opinions and not to be considered particular endorsements or detailed critiques of the above mentioned products.