Which DAW do you use?

[audio_jungle]

Which Digital Audio Workstation do you use and why?

I am particularly interested in anyone doing podcasts and/or audio journalism.

Thanks,

Audio Jungle

[Bob Bickerton]

Logic.

It’s the first DAW I started to use back in the mid 1990’s and I haven’t seen reason to change.

Bob

[Sam Spoons]

Reaper, I used a dodgy version of Cubase back in my impoverished days. Then I spent a few years using hardware before I got a Mac and went back, partly at least, in the box. I chose Reaper as I was, effectively, starting from scratch, it was well regarded on these pages and partly because buying a licence was not a 'second mortgage' event.

[Dave B]

My primary DAW is Logic. I used to be a long time Cubase user, but switched as I wasn't happy with the company - product is fine, just certain attitudes jarred with my sensibilities. Logic is what it is and has many handy features for dealing with writing and mixing.

My secondary DAW is Harrison Mixbus and I'd be tempted to steer you towards that. It is quite simple to use and isn't cluttered with lots of things that you will probably never use. And the sound of the Harrison eq / dynamics is very good. They regularly have price reductions, so I'd keep an eye out for these and get it at a bargain price. It's well worth it.

[Jumpeyspyder]

Sonar user here.

Been with it since Cakewalk Pro Audio days. (1997 ish)

Did a test on most of the current DAWs a couple of years ago and decided to stick due to:-
a/ I found it easiest to integrate my hardware synths.
b/ I didn't want the hassle of learning a new DAW

Sonar was bought by Bandlab and is now free !

[Brian M Rose]

Just to be 'different' Adobe Audition.
It seems to be aimed squarely at film/TV/Radio post production, rather than music.
It's very powerful and has some excellent noise reduction facilities etc
It's quite easy to use, very intuitive and therefore fast.
I use it for producing radio interviews, speech podcasts etc.
The downside is that it's rather expensive - especially as it's now subscription only,

[John Willett]

Sequoia (the pro version of Samplitude).

Why - because of non-destructive object based editing, 4-point editing, the ability to change edit slopes to many different styles to get the perfect edit, the ability to copy/paste for easy correction of a mistake, the ability to make a DDP directly in the software, the ability to burn a CD directly from the program, the ability to add CD text, the ability to include ISRC does, etc., etc...

[Ariosto]

Which Digital Audio Workstation do you use and why?

I am particularly interested in anyone doing podcasts and/or audio journalism.

Thanks,

Audio Jungle

I think many, if not all DAW's, would work well. I do audiobooks and use Reaper, which is pretty cheap, and works well for music and speech. But there are many more critical issues apart from a DAW which need to be addressed such as room acoustics (room treatment), mic and pre-amp used, and mic technique as well as good editing skills. You need a very low noise floor for good spoken voice recordings. (i.e. signal to noise ratio). Using a LUFs meter is pretty important too, otherwise work may be rejected.

[John Egan]

Which Digital Audio Workstation do you use and why?

I am particularly interested in anyone doing podcasts and/or audio journalism.

Thanks,

Audio Jungle

I switched to Reason from Sonar around 10 years ago and have stuck with it ever since, but mainly for my own Blues/ Country/ Rock/ Pop songs.

Regards, John

[Hugh Robjohns]

Sequoia (the pro version of Samplitude).

Why - because of non-destructive object based editing, 4-point editing, the ability to change edit slopes to many different styles to get the perfect edit, the ability to copy/paste for easy correction of a mistake, the ability to make a DDP directly in the software, the ability to burn a CD directly from the program, the ability to add CD text, the ability to include ISRC does, etc., etc...

I use SADiE 6 for exactly the same reasons... but I also use Reaper quite a lot for bigger multitrack and MIDI jobs, and both Adobe Audition and iZotope's RX6 for little top & tail and file-tweaking jobs.

[muzines]

Broadly speaking, it doesn't matter which you use, they all do more or less the same things and only differ in details.

For what you want to do, podcast editing, recording, and polish, they are all pretty much equally sufficient and capable.

Pretty much all the Mac-based podcasters I know use Logic for podcast editing and output, but it's an Apple product so it's in some ways an solid, easy reliable choice (if you're not into the audio world), it's not expensive and contains everything most people need (unless you want to invest in something like iZotope RX for cleanup - which again, a lot of these people do.)

Podcast recording is more of a random grab bag, depending on need. Some podcasts are literally one or two guys in a room, in which case an audio interface and some software recorder or DAW is all you need. Those requirements get more complex when you start to have multiple people, local and remote, you're recording multiple mics locally, and you're recording from multiple apps, all to separate files and a backup recording of everything, and incorporating double-ended recording when podcast guests are also recording their own ends locally and sending the files afterwards, and you're feeding in audio clips from a sound board app, and/or other sources like YouTube, and whether you're also doing a video feed with switchers etc etc. The complexity rises with more complex needs, as you'd expect.

Personally for recording audio feeds from apps, I've used (and swear by) Audio Hijack and have used it forever, although virtual audio devices such as Soundflower (and Loopback) will also work, at the expense of being more complicated and fiddly to set up, but potentially more powerful if your needs are complex. Loopback is really designed for handling in-computer routing in relation to podcast recording, so should handle a lot of this stuff.

So what DAW do *I* use? I'm not sure why you want to know or why it matters, but if you hang out here and get to know us, you'll have those questions answered...

[Folderol]

What is this "DAW" of which thou speakest?

As I've said elsewhere I don't use such a thing, but the musicians equivalent of the HiFi audio separates - i.e. several quite separate bits all linked (both audio and MIDI) with the Jack Audio Connection Kit.

[James Perrett]

I started off with SAW (Software Audio Workshop) many years ago which was very idiosyncratic but amazing for what you could do on a 40MHz 386 computer. I later moved to Cool Edit Pro which was bought out by Adobe and renamed Adobe Audition. Audition went through a bit of a bad patch when they brought out version 2 which coincided with Reaper's ascendancy so I moved over to Reaper for multitrack work but still use an old copy of Audition for some things. I've also recently bought Izotope's RX which is useful for noise reduction and a few other editing functions but isn't a full DAW.

I also used Voyetra's Digital Orchestrator mainly for MIDI as I was a Sequencer Plus user for many years before DAW's arrived. I don't think anything has quite lived up to Sequencer Plus's legendary reliability (it never misbehaved in around 6 years of professional studio use) although Reaper has come closest (I had it crash in the past but I can't remember the last time it did).

I've tried a few others like Cakewalk (not compatible with my mixing desk) and Traktion (too different from anything else - I could never remember how to use it). I also bought Cubase in its very early days on the PC and found it very unreliable (and the company were arrogant and unhelpful).

[MarkOne]

Another Logic user here.

Started off with Steinberg Pro24 on an Atari (Well I actually STARTED by saving up and clubbing together with other band members when we could afford it and going to a studio that had 8 track tape and an ex-BBC console - because well, computers weren't something ordinary people had then! )

Later when I had my first PC I got an early version of Logic back in the E-Magic days (This was before it had audio capability!)

A friend at the time got me using Cubase around the Cubase SX days, which I stuck with for a number of years, but found myself using a mac for work and got one for home use, so jumped back onto Logic (which was like finding an old friend) Been on Logic ever since.

I'm also using DSP Quatro, for mastering and CD authoring but I really have never got properly to grips with its workflow...

Interesting isn't it that nobody around here is using protools. - When so many of the interviews/articles in SOS feature producers using that. (I've been tempted to look at it a couple of times, but think I'm now too entrenched in my Logic workflow to change)

[The Elf]

Cubase user here. I'm lightning fast with it due to my familiarity - there's little point in me trying to become as familiar with any other DAW at this stage, though I often use Pro Tools (which I loathe) and Reaper (which I like a lot, but don't find as simple).

Big advantages of Cubase to me are VariAudio, which is Cubase's integrated pitch/timing editor, and the slickly powerful MIDI/audio editing features. The bussing and routing are pretty much top notch.

The bottom line is that pretty much all DAWs will get the job done in one way or another. After that it's just down to platform and personal preference.

[Forum Admin]

Which Digital Audio Workstation do you use and why?

I am particularly interested in anyone doing podcasts and/or audio journalism.

I do mainly music and use PreSonus Studio One Professional (on Mac) for mixing and composition. I also own Logic Pro X and keep it up-to-date, but S1 is my DAW of choice. Excellent mixing tools, native Virtual Instruments and Plug-ins, and the Pro version offers Project (its mastering screen for compiling songs/audio files) and its song composition tools (Arranger, Scratch Pad) are very fast and intuitive to use.

I also dabble in GarageBand, which comes free with every Mac. It's got a Podcasting template, and if you own a Mac is ideal to get you started. If it's of interest, take a watch of this YouTube podcasting tutorial -- which also puts across the typical scenario of how to build a podcast and would apply even if you use a PC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcUBZHOljzU

[Music Wolf]

The bottom line is that pretty much all DAWs will get the job done in one way or another. After that it's just down to platform and personal preference.

I agree. I'm also a Cubase user and have been since at least the launch of VST in the late 90s. I upgraded as far as SX but dropped off the upgrade path at Cubase 4.0 re-joining at 8.0. I got a free upgrade to 8.5 and I don't expect to upgrade again in the near future.

My abilities are definitely the limiting factor, not the DAW.

[Drew Stephenson]

My abilities are definitely the limiting factor, not the DAW.

This applies for me too but with Reaper rather than Cubase.

[Albatross]

Reaper 2.58. Does everything we need and never crashes.

[mrdavedog]

Another Studio One user here, though I use Pro Tools and Logic when asked to.

If you're just doing podcasting you probably don't need anything too heavy. Audacity which is cross platform, free and open source would probably have anything you need. I use it too when I'm just doing some quick editing.

-Dave

[mixedbymatty]

I was a longtime Pro Tools User. Got my first job in studios cause I knew how to use it. About 2-3 years ago I switched to Studio One. (even wrote a blog about it.https://mixandmastermysong.com/switched-pro-tools-studio-one-3/) It has all the features that I wanted in Pro Tools. You can drag and drop full channel strips, search plugins, and to be able to double-click a vocal and have Melodyne pop up is a gift from the gods. lol.

However, I still use Pro Tools a lot because many of my clients send mixes that way. Also, I must say I've been pretty un-impressed with studio one 4. I've had a good amount of latency issues. The new Pro Tools finally has search abilities which is great, and it's been rock solid as of late.
I guess the long-winded answer is I use both, I usually prefer to use Studio One.

[mixedbymatty]

h

[Logarhythm]

This week I've gone back to Cubase, having been on Reaper for the last few years.
Reaper is certainly very powerful and phenomenal value, but like several of the other posters I think it's a case of being most comfortable with the one that I have the longest history with, and I just never got quite as at ease with the MIDI side of it (the bit I use most) as I was with Cubase. The first computer-based sequencer I used was Cubase on an Atari, and from there through various of the PC iterations. Just made the jump to Cubase 9.5 having last use 6, and whilst there are quite a lot of changes it also still instantly feels "right" somehow.
Still have an older PC with the original "Cubase VST" on it too, specifically as it's all linked up to one particular instrument that would be a PITA to transfer onto something more modern.

[Zukan]

Puh, you're all so 80s. I'm notating with an Atari 520, storing stems on floppies and mixing to wax cylinders for added warmth.

I'm still waiting to be signed of course.

[Logarhythm]

Too mainstream Zuke - if you were authentic you'd make hip-hop using just manuscript paper and a quil