Moving to a new DAW - please, share your suggestions.

[MetaDronos]

Hello!

I'm considering moving from my rusty Audition 3 to something new. I'm interested
in some non-bloated linear DAW. I have few targets on my mind, but I want to
listen to your opinions.

I plan to make intensive use of VST FX, including chains. I don't plan to make
often use of VSTi instruments (as I said, I prepare my "ingredient" tracks in advance),
but I want to have such feature in reserve.

All my work in such DAW will be ambient-related and under idea of "home studio",
so percussive patterns or live performance functions are out of my interest.

Describing my idea in one sentence could be "extensive multitrack mixing with use of fx chains
and sporadical use of VSTi tracks". "Multitrack" means "can be more than 16 tracks"

My target Windows operating system could be both 32 and 64 bit.

I'm very interested in opinion of more experienced AO members

[CrystalWizard]

i think that Reaper would be suitable for what you need.

[GaryG]

I'm a Reaper user too, certainly has very flexible routing if you're into more traditional methodologies.

You may want to have a look at Tracktion for comparison. Much simpler feature set but if you really just want to import sounds then pile fx on them then it has great workflow, all the fx visible at once on the right and freely draggable where ever you want. Automation is lacking though imho.

Strangely enough, I've been playing with Audition a lot recently. Not sure I'd use it for all my work but a lot to like about it.

[Duckett]

Yep, Reaper certainly seems to fit the bill very well for your needs IMO.

[CrystalWizard]

i use Audition for editing and for cleaning up files and samples. i still use Cool Edit Pro actually on some of my older machines. i use Ableton Live for live performance and Reaper to record multitrak. but for the OP i think Reaper is a good solution.

[manducator]

Wow, I didn't realise there were so many reaper users here.

I'm a reaper user too, so I would advice to give it a go indeed.

Take a look at this youtube-channel to get some tuts:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TutorialsForReaper/videos

[Thought Experiment]

I'd also recommend Reaper totally without reservation - at $60 for a non-commercial license it's an absolute steal (heck even the commercial license is a bargain too), in addition to which it's totally bloat-free so it loads up in a flash and, more importantly, leaves more processing power for your instruments/fx. As an illustration, before I switched from Sonar to Reaper I could just barely run one instance of Alchemy in an empty project. I switched to Reaper and found I could comfortably run four or five instances in an empty project - I actually got back some RAM by switching my DAW. Some of the 'bread-and-butter' built-in fx like EQ and compression (particularly the multiband compressor) are outstanding too. You get 60 days hassle-free trial period so give it a test drive

[robojam]

However, if you opt for one of the more full featured DAWs you get a lot of extra stuff too.

Why not just see which ones have demos and try them all?

I tried Reaper for a while and just didn't like it that much. Easy to use for the most part, but it seemed kind of clunky in places.

[Ciberithm]

I think Presonus Studio One is worth a look. Of all the DAWs that I've tried, it has the best workflow (at least for me) and its single window interface is much easier to use on a laptop. The MIDI routing is somewhat limited, but I don't find that to be a problem with ambient music. I've seen the Professional version go for $200 or less on KVR.

[MetaDronos]

Reaper has many votes here

I noticed also Tracktion and Presonus Studio One. I will check them out soon.

[MetaDronos]

I'm shocked: I see no "single track edit mode" in REAPER!

In Cool Edit/Audition I have clear and elegant single track edit mode available
next to multitrack mode.
REAPER forum recommends using shortcuts or scripting to emulate this feature.
Did I miss something?

Edit: Apparently I didn't. No single track edit mode :(

[manducator]

However, if you opt for one of the more full featured DAWs you get a lot of extra stuff too.

although I love reaper, it's true, it doesn't have built-in synths. Ableton or some other daw's (like logic) are full packages. You can start producing with them without extra plugins. Without extra plugins you won't get far with reaper.

[MetaDronos]

However, if you opt for one of the more full featured DAWs you get a lot of extra stuff too.

All I need besides DAW itself is external: a bunch of VSTs and few standalone tools.
Now I need a good DAW to integrate and chain all those VSTs and process things in multitrack and single track mode.

[phoenstorm]

I think Manducator is right...some of the stuff, for example in Ableton is very unobtrusive - like the ping-pong-delay - but very very practical. but then, I really like the idea of reaper, and of course, I hope I'm not rubbing anyone the wrong way here, it's entirely possible to create wonderful, wonderful music without paying any money for vsts...there's so many great free options available. Just think of the U-He freebies, or Bazille in Beta. I guess my point is, even though I currently don't use Reaper, I think you could still just get started. The friendly people in this forum will probably come up with a bazillion recommendations for free vsts in a heartbeat

[MetaDronos]

I does not understand entirely what is single track mode.

See here: http://tinyurl.com/cuznp7s