Best DAW Host program for NI product?

Howdy everybody!

I'm beginning to explore the production of Electronic Dance Music and, to start, am looking for the opinions of everyone on the best Digital Audio Workstation - Host program to start with. I am most interested in using NI produkts along with the Host to start with.

To start, what DAW program(s) do you use as Host? And which NI produkts do you use most? Do the Host and NI produkt work great together? If so, please tell. If not, please share. Why, or how, not?

I am on a mission to start this thing, and am seeking the shared knowledge of the community at large to help me find my way...


Thanks so much,

dubwolfen

 

First off, if you do a Google search, you will find that this question has been asked and answered a thousand times a thousand different ways. Second, there is no BEST of anything. Third, asking a general question like this is considered trolling. Research all the DAWs you know of, see if you can get a demo copy, test drive it, then decide which one YOU like. NI products will work in any DAW with the exception of Propellerhead Record which is proprietary and not considered a true DAW for that reason. Lastly, but not exhaustive, A DAW will record whatever genre of music you play. There is no such thing as a DAW for electronic dance music. Also, read the forum rules about multiple posts of the same subject.

 

Aside from the fact there is no "best DAW", just a matter of what you prefer and what fits your workflow, I guess all major daws will work nicely with NI products. However, I do my thing with:
DAW: Ableton Live
NI Products: Maschine and Kore both as plugins in Live

Step 1:
Live works excellent with maschine, having program changes in live trigger scene changes in maschine. I have two 23 inch screens and one shows maschine while the other shows live. Patterns in maschine trigger maschine sounds and patterns in live trigger VSTs in live.

Step 2:
When I’m pleased I export the midi patterns from maschine to live so live triggers sounds in maschine by using the functionality of external instruments in live. By this time I have all my midi patterns and audio loops in live, while still in the session view.

Step 3:
Next step after some playing around what patterns go best is to use lives arrangement view to sequence my patterns & audio in a linear way and add effects, envelopes and do the final mixing etc.

So the ability to work in pattern style (session view is great) as well as work in a linear way is why I’m sold on live.

There are many ways to go about it and you will have to find one that suits you best. Live may be a good choice for you as it seems many peeps with a dj background favor live as a daw. But download some daws and play around with them for a while, check vids on youtube etc. Good luck!

 

All major DAWs will work, but if you never had and/or never used a DAW-Host and maybe get into making music at all:
You dont have a workflow...and u dont know what you want at all from a DAW.

If you have ever worked with a (major)DAW before...stick with that.
(In a band we recorded in Cubase..was SX back then..but since that, Cubase makes me feel home)

When you are a beginner it makes no sense to install and test too much different host-soft, cause they are deep. Especially when you are new to Hosts at all. You cannot find out, what the best choice for the future-workflow will be. Cause you dont know what you want.

If the Host-gui makes logical sense to you...the Software is maybe something for you.
But if features are bad implemented in the context of your workflow is a question of the future.

Go to the websites of the major hosts and take a look.
------------------


-Cubase here.
-Kore2 i use the most atm....it's the Host in the Host.
-The Kore2-host works great with NI stuff. ..and Cubase32bit too.



----
edit: what i dont like is googeling around in the web..just to find posts, where someone says e.g. Cubase is getting old, the sidechaining is complicated and so on.
Then these guys use a SX version which is years old and several new Cubase-versions with a buttload of new features came out already...and all has changed...to their whish mostly.

So, your questions aint "bad".

 

+1 for Cubase.

You can get Reaper for about $50 I think, that would be where I'd start to learn what DAW's are before spending hundreds on other software.

 

If you have a Mac, it comes with GarageBand, which is a simplified version of Logic, but with the same sound engine and quality. It's a really great little DAW, with as much tracks as your computer can handle. You have EQ+analyzer and up to 4 effect plugins per each instrument or audio track, that's pretty good. Oh and NI stuff works very well in GarageBand.

 

Sonar 8.53 x64 (if x64 is your thing)

 

It's impossible to say what's best; it's all in what works best for you.
Myself, with my NI stuff I use Sonar and Live.

ew

 

You should look at your options. For me (tho I mostly try to produce hip-hop) it has been FLS. http://flstudio.image-line.com/

Get at least the Producer Edition (many features including audio clips). Plus it seems that a lot of the ppl in their forums make dance/trance/electronica/dnb

Check it out.

sb

 

Logic

 

Reaper

a lot of people think it is a toy,
cause it doesnt cost so muhc like the "major" DAWs.

but it works fast, efficient and runs absolutely stable,
something you cannot say about the big players.

i have had logic, cubase and live...thats my experience

 

Having just installed everything by NI from scratch on a new Windows 7 x64 laptop I have to say Reaper is the one programme I am not having problems with straight out of the box. For some reason I'm having serious problems with Sonar 8 and Kore 2 on this system (it's not recording automation properly - think it might be the bridge). Reaper is so stable and simple to get up and running with straight away and yet it has the depth too if you need it..

 

It’s hard to say what would be best for you. Yeah, there is no best DAW out there as each has their ups and downs. However, some are MILES better than others. But it really depends what genera’s you’d like to make and if this is just a home studio.

Myself, I started producing my own stuff with Acid in 2000. That basic and crappy program got me introduced to production, creating envelopes, and over mastering tracks (lolz). If I were to start off today, I would most likely use Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio 7. That’s the same concept, simple layout and real basic production. But at least Cakewalk SONAR Home Studio 7 allows for VSTs. Garage Band for Mac (I feel) is of the same caliber, simple and basic.

I didn’t learn about fruity loops till I had already bought Cubase for myself in 2003. I don’t really like fruity loops but I wasn’t really creating electronic music back then. Four years later I discovered that I liked Sonar Producer via a friend who ran it in his studio so I bought that. Of course I discovered Ableton Live about this time but I had just bought myself Sonar Producer 7. A buddy of mine who recently moved out of state had Ableton Live at his home studio. we seemed to work much faster at his house than we did here. I guess I didn’t understand that Ableton was speeding up my workflow faster than I worked with Sonar. Now that he’s gone and now that I basically don’t even touch Sonar, I bought myself Ableton Live 8. Once I got Maschine (and after 1.5 was released) I was able to speed up my workflow 10 fold. Sold my MPC a few months ago because I don’t really need it anymore. Point being is that it took me 10 years of trial and error to find something I liked.

Renoise is a viable solution as well as Reaper (both cost less than most DAWs). I’d use either of them over Fruity Loops, Pro Tools, Sonar, and Reason any day. Most companies have trials available so download them and see which one suits you best.

 

I\m also ' Fairly' new to producing. I've picked up on Renoise Tracker, what i like about it is that it's really accessible even for people who aren't quite sure what knobs to twiddle and what keys to hit. It's less fidley with all sorts of screens and it has excellent support for any vsts i've used so far. (Massive being the only one from NI ive used so far though)

also when you're getting more into production rewire in renoise lets you sync the programm with applicatins like Cubase if you want specific sounds only that engine can produce.

Renoise opened the world of electronical music for me, but other DAWs are getting more accessible aswell with all the information availible online.

As for performance i thik most daws ae fairly leveled out. people who perfer certain DAWs usually have a certain sound they can best create with that DAW, for a beginner i would say easy is better than good since it's a steap learning curve at the start.

good luck, just my 2 cents

 

No two DAWs can be absolutely the same quality or performance. Therefore there must be an absolute best.

Ever heard of the saying "you get what you pay for"? Look it up, its usually in 99% of cases true. If you want the best you spend 20 grand on a Pro Tools HD system. Simple as that.

Since when is asking a question trolling? Wow, the instant someone claims that is the instant i wanna stick my head in the toilet to experience a lower level of nausea rather than reading that response.

 

+1 Reaper

Like the others above have stated, it will come down to a matter of taste and your personal needs for this project.

I am in love with Reaper. It doesn't come with the price tag of a lot of the other DAWs, but is completely fully featured, rock solid, and fast.

The user forum is really very friendly and informative, which is especially useful.

I use a lot of Battery (usually 2 instances), Guitar Rig (many instances because I'm a guitar prima donna ), Kontakt, and I'm starting to use Massive, and things have worked really well for me. My background is in experimental rock, so I am not able to say if it's the perfect tool for dance or hip-hop.

In any case - look around and hopefully you'll find the right thing for you!
Cheers.