Which DAW for sketching out ideas fast (and easy)

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Benedict wrote: Mon May 20, 2019 7:44 am The horror! You must be ashamed of yourself*

I am a very Linear man myself. I loathe loops and blocks.
:-)
:D
BONES wrote: Mon May 20, 2019 8:18 am Repetition is sublime.
:D :D :D :D :D :D
CrimsonWarlock aka TechnoGremlin, using Reaper and a fine selection of freeware plugins.

Ragnarök VST-synthesizer co-creator with Full Bucket

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BONES wrote: Mon May 20, 2019 8:18 am Repetition is sublime.
There ya go, I sublimed you
:hihi:

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In sum: "Which DAW"? Any of them if you'll create a template for 'sketching'. Beyond that you may have a preference for clips or through-composing or linear flow.

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I use Reason for everything so I call Reason - and linear :arrow:

Bones uses Orion for everything (or at least he used to) and loves to, to, to, to, to, t, t, oooooooooo :borg:

Otherwise, there is Tracktion/Waves, MuLab in the lower end and Ableton, Bitwig in the higher end of costs/complexity/power.

Or of course you already say you like Reaper :nutter: so you could simply simplify in that.

:-)

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Hi

Being an 'EX' Orion, Energy XT and Logic (PC) user I have settled down with Mixcraft V8:

https://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/

I have looked at lots of other stuff (and have other DAW's), but this is the one I use and find it pretty intuitive to do most things, lightweight and quite robust.

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Give Orion a second chance, i launched it last night and it is just the way i love to work :love:
Everything is there, right at your fingertips !
Image

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I think I will never understand why they give up Orion. It was really UNIQUE and so easy to use (for the kind of workflow I like). If they dont have time to devellop and make their money with their synths they could at least make it free/opensource, whatever. Thats really a pity.

I am still searching, Mulab and Waveform are my go-tos but the problem is really while they are similiar in what is one of my most important points (use evrything, midi, vsti, vst on one track without any in-and-out hassle) they both have severe problems (waveform plugin compatibility and general stability is going worse with evry new version, with mulab I have audiodriver and cpu problems) and the knwoledge now is kind of divided (50 % missing here and 50 % missing there, for example simple things like randomize or limit velocity on a midi track works with two clicks in waveform, it will work in Mulab too but I just have not figured out how).

I have updated my Studio One to 4 now but there is the main problem that it needs this in-and-out, whats doubles up the needed tracks.....Sigh......dont think I will ever find THE Solution. So: its not the target, its the way that counts :lol:

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original flipper
I have settled down with Mixcraft V8
:

Could you tell me how Mixcraft works in case of Midi VST/Instruments/Effects, can you put all simply on one Track like with Mulab, Waveform or do you need different tracks with in-out (if it works at all with midi vst/arps etc.) ?

I just remember that I had an older version lying round somewhere and the upgrade prize is a steal. And I remember it was relatively simple to use.

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tatanka wrote: Tue May 21, 2019 8:45 am I think I will never understand why they give up Orion. It was really UNIQUE and so easy to use (for the kind of workflow I like). If they dont have time to devellop and make their money with their synths they could at least make it free/opensource, whatever. Thats really a pity.
What Rich said was that it was taking up far too much of his time for the comparatively small number of people actually using it in comparison to the DUNE user base and he felt that was unfair to his DUNE customers. I get it, it's just a two man operation and they need to eat and keep a roof over their heads. It's a pity but that's the simple reality of it.

What I know I will miss most isn't Orion itself, it's Wasp. I haven't found another soft synth that can come close to what we do with it. The best I can manage is actually a hardware synth - Waldorf's Rocket.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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Orion is my fastest because I have the most songs in it. Its not the most flexible but with the right VSTs its dope. Besides Orion, Ive been using Reaper to mix. Its my combo punch, Orion & Reaper... 1 new, 1 old. (If I need that kind of pattern workflow in Reaper, I just use the discontinued Phrazor as a MIDI sequencer plugin).

I think with so many DAWs available, its best to find your own combination that works. I keep trying others, but Im pretty satisfied with the results I have so far. I use Reason Lite for experimentation (and making rex loops), but the other DAWs I have gets no quality time (Cakewalk, MPC, FL Studio). Mostly cause my time is short. I dont have time or $$ to keep relearning & updating DAWs and instruments. I just stick to what I know and make it work.
I read more than post = I listen more than I talk

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Man, I remember Energy XT, way ahead of it's time, despite any possible pitfalls one might run into.........

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Once upon a time I liked using Studio One because of the scratch pads, nice way to store linear sketches. However, I didn't like the the way S1 handled instruments as independent of your track.

Now, I would never use anything other than Ableton session view. One of the biggest reasons actually is instrument racks - I find them great for auditioning alternate vsts and patches for the same track. I can even map the macros to see how the same automation works in each VST.

Session view is also great - just duplicate your scene and start experimenting.

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Saukar30 wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 1:48 am... its best to find your own combination that works.
My problem here is that I don't see how a combination can possibly work as well as finding one application that does an OK job across the board. Once I complete the move to Cubase, I won't ever use Orion again. In fact, I'll probably uninstall it just to get back some precious drive space.
generaldiomedes wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 3:17 amI didn't like the the way S1 handled instruments as independent of your track.

Now, I would never use anything other than Ableton session view. One of the biggest reasons actually is instrument racks - I find them great for auditioning alternate vsts and patches for the same track
How are these two things different? If S1 handles instruments independently of the tracks, wouldn't that also make it really easy to preview different instruments/patches?
Session view is also great - just duplicate your scene and start experimenting.
Or just press save in any host.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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reggie1979 wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 2:01 am Man, I remember Energy XT, way ahead of it's time, despite any possible pitfalls one might run into.........
XT2 is about the fastest thing there is. It takes about 2 seconds to fully load. No other program in Windows can do this. None.

Steve Duda was talking about how he likes to use FLStudio because it starts up super fast. True. It does. But XT loads twice as fast again.

It doesn't scan VST directories, so is ideal for testing new VSTs. I can dl a new VST from the net and have it loaded live within 20 seconds in XT. No other program can do this. AS fast.

Because I have shortcuts mapped to the keyboard via the .ini file (just in case it gets deleted) I can then render out a 4 bar loop in about 30 seconds after that. No other program comes close. Tap tap tap. Rendered.

It's not for everyone. But it works.

FLStudio would be the next fastest thing. But it takes twice as long to load and the rendering is a bit more convoluted. Just my understanding, maybe others get it to work differently.

XT is old and dead in the water now. But you can pick up a license for next to nothing. It's also a good chainer for VSTs depending on how you use it/load it. The VSTi version which you could use in other hosts is very old now and has not been updated (2.54 was it? from memory).

The fact it loads so quickly on the machine, coupled with the fact it does not scan VST directories makes it the most blazing fast host out there bar none.

It's pretty stable too. It rarely crashes. But there are some VSTs it does not get on with. Image-Line stuff can be problematic, but still works quite well.

It's still a superb piece of software.

The crying over it has come and gone. It is what it is. Use it or don't use it.

It's about 15 quid last time I looked. And you can get some pretty nifty 'themes' for it too if you know where to look!

:-)

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