For me, the big problem with on-screen knobs is that you have to click and drag them. With a physical synth, you can (depending on how tight the pot/encoder is) gently nudge the knob or give is a strong twist. But you always have to apply enough pressure to hold a mouse button down or keep click-to-drag active on a touchpad. I find it rapidly fatiguing. As a professional software guy, I’ve got to take care of my monemakers.
That said, lots of people successfully make music on extremely shitty computer hardware, endure hardships, etc. @Fin25 may derive great joy from the pain of a DAW based workflow.
Sitting on my synth desk right now, I’ve got
Lyra, 31 knobs, 15 toggle switches
Virus TI, 32 knobs lots of buttons
Eventide Space: 11 knobs
1202VLZ4 mixer: 65 knobs
My best MIDI controller is the 61SL Mk3, and it has 8 faders and 8 knobs.
The Audient ID interfaces are a great help with this, the large knob can be set to control whatever dial, slider or fader the mouse cursor is over. I’d miss that a ton from my id44, well, that and the audio loop-back feature.
That looks like a cool device - My Novation SL61 has similar capabilities, but with more knobs, faders and buttons. I’m genuinely curious to learn how a guy who jumped on the Pērkons like a rabid dog will react to the myriad controller options and their respective tradeoffs.
I’m a long time Mac user who recently switched to Windows - Windows 11 is much better than the 7/10, and I really need to use intel based VM’s for work stuff. I did try an M1 Pro, but it had to go back as the software world is still catching up to support the new architecture. I may go back to Mac in a few years when/if third-party support improves.
And I have yet to come across any audio software I used on Mac that doesn’t work as well, if not better on the new Windows laptop, but, I did spend significantly more than 600 for it!
You should definitely not buy Ableton, and by no means should you purchase the “Drone Lab” add-on and run the Harmonic Drone Generator through multiple bitcrushers, vocoders, etc to create ever-changing pulsating walls of noise. Also don’t read this interview with Ben Frost for additional tips: Sound advice with Ben Frost | Native Instruments Blog
Using a computer and a DAW have their important uses. I use both my hardware in my studio and also a couple of different DAW‘s on my laptop and on my desktop. There are some things I simply could not do without having a computer available. I also agree with others, hear that the portability of having such vast resources all on a laptop is pretty incredible. On the other hand, a DAW on a computer is a bit of an illusion in terms of Its hassle – free, go make some music. It seems like every time I get into my DAW, there are updates and other issues that I have to deal with or other distractions. They are mostly not related to the operating system. They are related to the VST’s themselves. It is easy to get lost in a black hole And end up spending most of your time fiddling around with software stuff and then not really making much music. I suppose this is more about my lack of self-discipline than anything. I just find that in terms of making sounds, I tend to do better being able to sit down with the hardware Box, or a couple of things connected outside of a computer and start pressing buttons, rather than getting into my DAW, and trying to use a controller to make sounds. I like having the option of both, but I would never think of choosing one over the other as the “be all end all” answer. This kind of thinking seems very likely to lead to disappointment. Since you’re not going to be spending a ton of money, it probably would be good to have the option of a laptop and a DAW. I wouldn’t be too quick to sell any of the hardware you have already accumulated, since you were probably likely to return to it after you realize the limitations of a DAW.
