Was looking now myself - que interessante!
True! No i havent really thought about bitwig - wasnt there something about polyphonic automation?
+1 for Bitwig. Swapped over from Ableton earlier in the year. Love the interface and way it handles modulation etc. Suggest maybe trying the demo from their site to see how you get on with it.
It takes some afford, but you should try the demos and buy the one which you feel most comfortable with and offers the things you need.
Iāve tried a lot DAWs in the past years (Fruityloops/FLStudio, Studio One, Ableton Live, Propellerhead Reason, Renoise, Podium, Reaper, Ardour, Bitwigā¦). They all have strengths and weaknesses, itās all a matter of personal preference and use case. You may end up using two or more DAWs for different things.
I personally always end up with Ableton Live as main DAW and currently use the Intro version (sold Suite a good amount of time ago), because i donāt work much ITB anymore and donāt need all the stuff that the other versions have to offer. I just need a solid, fast recording and āfiddlingā environment which give me the, for me personal, most comfortable workflow. This is just me and you may hate the workflow of Ableton Live. Also, i guess, you have very different requirements.
I could tell you my personal pros and cons of all the DAWs with which iāve worked, but that wouldnāt help you anything. Gather suggestions from others, but donāt let yourself be influenced by any hypes or other opinions, try it yourself.
Says it all. Give yourself a time frame for downloading and testing and after that decide and move on for a year or 2 minimum.
Itās never the tools. (Have to remind myself too).
SO4 is my favorite, but Iāve only tried a handful.
All DAWs have pros and cons, I have licences for a number of popular DAW packagesā¦ but I think Studio One is under appreciated by many, it is very light weight and streamlined!
I would stick with the DAW you have and know well, focus on making music with what you haveā¦ more tools only make for more distractions, I know this from experience
It is quite streamlined. Having a larger/higher resolution monitor helps for its single window setup.
It is underappreciated because it started out mainly for audio track recording and composition with the Notation software. Only recently did they add upgraded MIDI features and things like beat/step sequencing windows, which is how so many home studio makers use their DAW. I for one always preferred the audio track drag/drop layout as opposed to step sequencing just because I like to look at the audio files and color code/pack them. Seeing all my tracks at the end is very sexy
And yes Iād also agree with @bradleyallen Iād take a look into the PreSonus ATOM if you want to stick with SOā¦ it was released recently and itās fantadtic for finger drumming and keeping your hands off the mouse. You can find it sometimes for $120-130.
So what Im actually in the process of is writing a long orchestral scoreā¦Im using a bunch of libraries (kontakt) and Im using an expressive e touche to write automation. The only real snag Im having is the touche spits out big data and Im getting some hickups when auto-saving. Also a bit of crashingā¦but Im unsure that comp/daw is the cause. See Ive been watching studio time with junkie xl haha (my soundtrack wont be THAT big), but i get curious/wanting of the stability and power of such a gargantuan set up. And yeah, ill demo - but time is so soulkillingly tight allready, that when i get to sit down i have to write write write. But Im hearing about cubase Ā«advanced midiĀ», Ā«best for midiĀ», but Im having trouble finding the real obvious lifesafers compared to S1ā¦
I think a better way of looking at it would be: What do you really miss? If you cannot answer that question, stop thinking about a new DAW and in stead focus on mastering Studio One.
Thanks for your input Dave, and off course you, and many others here are absolutely right - and its what Im going to do! By the way, its sweet seeing the DT just fill up tracks over OB:) Just to make the point though - studio one has features i had no idea i missed - scratchpad, track notes idk - and the workflow total is kind of like a lot of subtle things coming together, each of which could be described but their impact in context less so (and its subjective off course).
I just took ableton
Maybe not the best In everything and maybe another might fit a little better
But there is always something better
And this is definitely good enough
And I love making music
Selecting a daw feels like homework to me
If I were you, I would stick to studio 1