Any recent DAW comparisons?

[Frank Carvalho]

Ardour for me, 110%. It is sort of similar to ProTools, and as I work with recordings and microphones, and come from a tape machine tradition, there really is no other tool at the same level. It has a learning curve, but that is because it is such a comprehensive tool. Time spent learning Ardour is well spent.

/Frank

[lykwydchykyn]

So, I haven't used Ardour in years (and I really need to try it again), so this isn't a comparison, but I do use Qtractor.

I like qtractor because it reminds me of the older versions of Sonar or Cubase I used "back in the day", and because it's a straightforward design.

My only major gripe about it is that mixdown when you have multiple aux busses is a bit more convoluted than I'd like it to be, but eventually I worked out a method that does the job.

Qtractor would do what you need, but it's a question of whether it will do it in a way that you like. That's something only you can answer.

[Luc]

Just wanted to check out this new Tracktion thing from work by reading the docs, but it looks like you have to pay even for the manual:
https://leanpub.com/guide_to_tracktion_t7
That doesn't exactly tick a box here...

Paying for the manual is a bit of a turn-off, but come to think of it, Tracktion is both one of the best and cheapest DAWs available today. Getting it cheap and optionally paying for a manual (if the dozens of videos on Youtube aren't enough for you) is not too shabby as a trade-off. Arguably, they're shaving off the cost and time that would be spent on the manual, and letting someone else write the book and get justly paid for their effort.

By that measure and the application itself, it's clear that Tracktion has a knack for thinking outside the box.

[sysrqer]

As far as I remember that guide book is produced by a (kvr) forum member. Tracktion team didn't produce any manual after a certain version and that guy came along and started making videos and guides, and then the team decided to endorse it. I don't think it was something anticipated or designed, in defence of the Tracktion team.

[tavasti]

But its probably well worth trying to make a 30 second song or something in each and deciding which lends best for your workflow. If you do so it would be great if you could share your experience. I think part of the reason there aren't many reviews is because most folks are already decided and when you can try them all, hands on experience is much better than some random person's review.

I thinks similar way, except that I'm trying to push that work to someone else
Learning proper way to use some tool is not that fast, but on the other hand, if you create video showing you using some tool stupid way, in most cases you get really fast instructions how you should have done it

I tried to start reviewing DAW's and creating videos of it. Started with LMMS, which I know best. 1st try, made too much mistakes, so started over. 2nd ty, something strange happened on recording, both my mic and lmms output were plain white noise. Maybe I have to start making those videos on shorter runs, that in mistake won't loose whole session.

Edit: and maybe even doing desktop video with program sounds first, then add speech later. Better concentration to doing, and better speech.

[ssj71]

Wow you're doing it! Awesome!
Would it be good to do a task by task comparison? So 1 video to show how to edit out a bad note in each DAW. 1 video to show how to do a bus compression in each. Maybe that's more work, but I think it might make for short videos that would be hugely informative.

Anyhow, whatever you do, I'm sure it will be better than what we have now. Thanks!

[tnovelli]

I just started using Ardour (V4) again. It's pretty nice for audio recording once you get past the learning curve. Good defaults, quick setup, smooth workflow.

Qtractor is probably best for what you're doing, though, @tavasti. It has a better MIDI editor. I would use that for drums too. It doesn't do repeating patterns like a sequencer but I just set Snap=measure, copy-paste like crazy, and add variations.
It also crashes less than any other DAW I've used.
On the downside, it takes more time to set up for recording.

[tavasti]

Wow you're doing it! Awesome!

Don't be so happy right now. Today I had quite much time, but during normal week, no time, at least at such time of the day that I could talk & play in house. Maybe one video / month might be realistic. (And today, result was time spent, but 0s of audio & video material.)

Would it be good to do a task by task comparison? So 1 video to show how to edit out a bad note in each DAW.

That would require to know how to use all of those DAW's before first video. And decide what DAW's to pick.

My idea is to create one 'song' with each of daw. Song would have beat, chords synth, vst bass and real guitar, or something like that.
Edit: and recording midi notes, and add some automation. Would that be sufficient set for testing?

And right now, I cannot do that on any DAW, so there is some time to be spent before that happens.

I try to cover lmms, muse, qtractor, ardour (and maybe NON), and if I ever get that far, maybe something else, but right now, can't promise anything else that I'll try. With that one video/month would mean those videos out on september.

[lykwydchykyn]

it doesn't do repeating patterns like a sequencer but I just set Snap=measure, copy-paste like crazy, and add variations.

There was a very recent update that added a feature where you could shift-drag or ctrl-drag (can't remember which) on a clip and it would paste in copies. I haven't used it much, but it might be worth trying if you do a lot of copy & paste in your tracks.

[rncbc]

There was a very recent update that added a feature where you could shift-drag or ctrl-drag (can't remember which) on a clip and it would paste in copies. I haven't used it much, but it might be worth trying if you do a lot of copy & paste in your tracks.

aha few days before NYE, on qtractor 0.7.3 change-log :
- Ctrl+click and dragging the left or right edges of a clip will now make it spill over and replicate as many clip clones as it fits in the left or right horizontal extent.
aka. a Reaper-like feature
cheers

[ufug]

People here don't really talk about Mixbus very often, but it's worth your consideration.

It's very much like Ardour (heck, it's built on it) but somehow it is sooooo much easier for me to work with. I get hopelessly lost in Ardour for some reason but not at all in Mixbus. It's pretty cheap (as far as DAWs go) but if spending a little money saves me from confusion/futzing and gets me recording faster, I'm all in.

The support is good, the video tutorials are solid, and they are regularly adding useful features.

[tnovelli]

- Ctrl+click and dragging the left or right edges of a clip will now make it spill over and replicate as many clip clones as it fits in the left or right horizontal extent.

That's awesome

People here don't really talk about Mixbus very often, but it's worth your consideration. ....if spending a little money saves me from confusion/futzing and gets me recording faster, I'm all in.

Word. The $80 is no problem, I'm just trying to find the time

[tavasti]

People here don't really talk about Mixbus very often, but it's worth your consideration.

Yes, it's not a problems spend some relatively small amount of money, If you know what product to get.

EDIT: List of relevant DAW's

FREE: LMMS, MusE, Qtractor, Ardour4, Non-daw , others?

Commercial alternatives would be:
Tracktion, Renoise, Reaper, Mixbus, Bitwig, EnergyXT

[gimmeapill]

If if understand correctly, commercial alternatives would be:
Tracktion, Renoise, Reaper, Mixbus. Any others?

Bitwig, EnergyXT
No endorsement of any kind here, just adding to the list

[davephillips]

EDIT: List of relevant DAW's

FREE: LMMS, MusE, Qtractor, Ardour4, Non-daw , others?

Rosegarden http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
Radium http://users.notam02.no/~kjetism/radium/
ecasound http://nosignal.fi/ecasound/index.php
Frinika http://www.frinika.com/
MusiKernel https://github.com/j3ffhubb/musikernel
SunVox http://www.warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/
Wired https://sourceforge.net/projects/wired/

Other items such as CabbageHost (http://cabbageaudio.com/) and LNX Studio (http://lnxstudio.sourceforge.net/) could be considered DAWs as well.

Software from the Open Octave project (http://www.openoctave.org/) is apparently the basis for falkTX's Libre Open Octave codebase (https://github.com/falkTX/los), but as far as I know it's a MIDI-only project. The various offspring from seq24 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seq24) might also be considered MIDI-only DAWs (if there be such a beast). Helio (http://www.audiopluginsforfree.com/helio-workstation/) is another MIDI-only workstation.

HTH,

dp