Good DAW for a Beginner

[dannyboyo22]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to switch from Audacity to a DAW. But, I am kinda iffy about going with the likes of Reaper n all. Which one is the easiest to use in terms of customisation and learning curve?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. x

 

[Defyantly]

Why are you iffy on Reaper? It is a solid beginners choice. What kind of computer do you have and are you thinking about using a free DAW or do you want to pay money for one?

 

[cwhitey2]

Are you scared of Reapers price?

I have been using Reaper for like 10 years I'm still using version 3.something.something

 

[trem licking]

There's really no easy DAW other than maybe garageband, but that's mac only obviously. I recommend cakewalk by bandlab... Free and full featured.

 

[mguilherme87]

Reaper is great. Easy transition to it from Audacity, and once you've mastered it, it will be easy to go to ProTools or something similar in the future.

 

[Descent]

Try Tracktion - they usually provide one version back for free. Very straight up and linear app to use.
Mixcraft is popular with beginners. There's also N-Track with versions for Android as well and Songtree collaboration site built-in.
I am on Studio One right now and that has been working great for me.

 

[Defyantly]

Try Tracktion - they usually provide one version back for free. Very straight up and linear app to use.
Mixcraft is popular with beginners. There's also N-Track with versions for Android as well and Songtree collaboration site built-in.
I am on Studio One right now and that has been working great for me.

I use Tracktion right now (their T7 version is the free one and waveform is there new flagship) and I love it! Super simple to use!

 

[will_shred]

Reaper.

 

[dannyboyo22]

Why are you iffy on Reaper? It is a solid beginners choice. What kind of computer do you have and are you thinking about using a free DAW or do you want to pay money for one?

Thanks for the reply. I have a Mac but I have heard that Reaper takes some time getting used to. Also, am looking at a free DAW right now. Again, Reaper is free after the trial period ends, right?

Alternately, T7 and GarageBand are also under consideration.

 

[Defyantly]

Thanks for the reply. I have a Mac but I have heard that Reaper takes some time getting used to. Also, am looking at a free DAW right now. Again, Reaper is free after the trial period ends, right?

Alternately, T7 and GarageBand are also under consideration.

Yes reaper is completely free during the trial period. The only real upsides to buying reaper is to support the company and get rid of the "still evaluating" pop up at the beginning. Just be aware that Reaper has not been updated to work with the new Mac OS 10.14 (I think). This may have been fixed already but I have not found the fix for myself which is why I moved over to Tracktion 7 (T7). Its a really intuitive DAW with a nice GUI and impressive workflow. Plus its free!! I would recommend, however, that you also download the guide to tracktion t7 pdf. It has helped me out many times when I'm lost on how to do something in the DAW.

I would also stay away from garageband. It may be nice and simple but after a couple days or so you will be wishing that you hadn't wasted your time with it.

 

[dannyboyo22]

Yes reaper is completely free during the trial period. The only real upsides to buying reaper is to support the company and get rid of the "still evaluating" pop up at the beginning. Just be aware that Reaper has not been updated to work with the new Mac OS 10.14 (I think). This may have been fixed already but I have not found the fix for myself which is why I moved over to Tracktion 7 (T7). Its a really intuitive DAW with a nice GUI and impressive workflow. Plus its free!! I would recommend, however, that you also download the guide to tracktion t7 pdf. It has helped me out many times when I'm lost on how to do something in the DAW.

I would also stay away from garageband. It may be nice and simple but after a couple days or so you will be wishing that you hadn't wasted your time with it.

You're the man, man. GarageBand does seem a bit easy to start with. But, I will check out T7 since you highly recommend using it. Also, what about the likes of Ardour and LMMS, yay or nay?

If I am correct, they are open-source DAWs too, right?

 

[Defyantly]

I am not familiar with either of those you mentions so I cant recommend either.

 

[Drew]

Yes reaper is completely free during the trial period. The only real upsides to buying reaper is to support the company and get rid of the "still evaluating" pop up at the beginning. Just be aware that Reaper has not been updated to work with the new Mac OS 10.14 (I think). This may have been fixed already but I have not found the fix for myself which is why I moved over to Tracktion 7 (T7). Its a really intuitive DAW with a nice GUI and impressive workflow. Plus its free!! I would recommend, however, that you also download the guide to tracktion t7 pdf. It has helped me out many times when I'm lost on how to do something in the DAW.

I would also stay away from garageband. It may be nice and simple but after a couple days or so you will be wishing that you hadn't wasted your time with it.

Reaper is updated every week or two, tops - if they haven't updated for the latest Mac OS, they will very shortly.

I think Reaper is awesome, personally - it's no harder to learn than any other DAW, and unlike most it's infinitely customizable so if after getting used to it there's some stuff that bothers you, you can dig in a bit and figure out how to change it. It's stable, it's efficient, it has incredibly active manufacturer support, a huge and helpful user community, and extremely good routing flexibility. I started using Reaper for the price years ago, and at a point in my life where I could afford to work on pretty much any platform I want to, I haven't had any reason to change.

 

[Defyantly]

Reaper is updated every week or two, tops - if they haven't updated for the latest Mac OS, they will very shortly.

I think Reaper is awesome, personally - it's no harder to learn than any other DAW, and unlike most it's infinitely customizable so if after getting used to it there's some stuff that bothers you, you can dig in a bit and figure out how to change it. It's stable, it's efficient, it has incredibly active manufacturer support, a huge and helpful user community, and extremely good routing flexibility. I started using Reaper for the price years ago, and at a point in my life where I could afford to work on pretty much any platform I want to, I haven't had any reason to change.

I agree whole heartedly. I just haven't worked to try and fix my reaper because I have found a groove with T7 and don't want to go back just yet. but like I said earlier bother DAWs are excellent options.

 

[dannyboyo22]

Alright. Going by the number of recommendations for Reaper, I'll give it a try too.

 

[will_shred]

Reaper is updated every week or two, tops - if they haven't updated for the latest Mac OS, they will very shortly.

I think Reaper is awesome, personally - it's no harder to learn than any other DAW, and unlike most it's infinitely customizable so if after getting used to it there's some stuff that bothers you, you can dig in a bit and figure out how to change it. It's stable, it's efficient, it has incredibly active manufacturer support, a huge and helpful user community, and extremely good routing flexibility. I started using Reaper for the price years ago, and at a point in my life where I could afford to work on pretty much any platform I want to, I haven't had any reason to change.

^This x100

I actually use protools most of the time, but Reaper wins in the category of stability and efficiency. PT just does some things that make for a better work flow for me. My computer has 32gb of ram so efficiency isn't something I really worry about

 

[Descent]

Out of the free ones I've noticed that Tracktion seems to run best and has very low overhead on my system. I have T6 now. It is kinda poor on plugins (well just as poor as Reaper) but it works. I've had Tracktion 2 when it was under the Mackie umbrella and it had a lot more 3rd party goodies. Nothing that you can't supplement though and it is a great free palette to add freeware and paid vsts to it.

Another very worthy mention (why I forgot to mention first IDK) on here is Cakewalk by Bandlab which is absolutely free:
https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk

I have that installed and it comes with somewhat limited version of Overloud TH3 guitar and bass plugins which is a fantastic modeler, probably worth the whole price of admission. This one is probably the most robust suite out of everything mentioned so far. Cakewalk makes Reaper seem like a kid's toy. You get very robust built in suite of plugins, great multiband comperssion, reverbs, delay, etc. It runs a little sluggish on my hardware and wants to check for new versions on startup, which I am not always keen on, but probably best thing to install out of everything mentioned.

 

[Defyantly]

Out of the free ones I've noticed that Tracktion seems to run best and has very low overhead on my system. I have T6 now. It is kinda poor on plugins (well just as poor as Reaper) but it works. I've had Tracktion 2 when it was under the Mackie umbrella and it had a lot more 3rd party goodies. Nothing that you can't supplement though and it is a great free palette to add freeware and paid vsts to it.

Another very worthy mention (why I forgot to mention first IDK) on here is Cakewalk by Bandlab which is absolutely free:
https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk

I have that installed and it comes with somewhat limited version of Overloud TH3 guitar and bass plugins which is a fantastic modeler, probably worth the whole price of admission. This one is probably the most robust suite out of everything mentioned so far. Cakewalk makes Reaper seem like a kid's toy. You get very robust built in suite of plugins, great multiband comperssion, reverbs, delay, etc. It runs a little sluggish on my hardware and wants to check for new versions on startup, which I am not always keen on, but probably best thing to install out of everything mentioned.

Cakewalk would be a great suggestion. Except for OP has a Mac. Unless he decides to dual boot Windows it wont work for him. I have also considered Cakewalk but I have the same dilemma.

 

[Descent]

Ouch...yeah, don't know why I didn't read that he's a on a Mac. Tracktion it is then

or might try this Beta port of Cakewalk:
https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR-Mac-Prototype

 

[HungryGuitarStudent]

I started with Reaper and I did not find it hard to use. You might not use 100% of its features on day 1, but you can manage to record tracks, edit them and use plugins pretty rapidly.