Came here to say this. I use and teach Ableton, Logic Pro, Pro Tools and Bitwig. All have their benefits and all do their job extremely well. The best one however is the one that is right for you at the time. Horses for courses and all that
@@TracingFlares I mean, you do you, but I can make music in any of the DAW's I mentioned no problem at all. What problems exactly can you solve in reaper that can't be done in Logic or the other DAW's I mentioned?
Sorry, but I cannot take this ranking seriously. Don't like the Cubase UI: rates it B. Don't like the Reaper UI but rates it S tier? I'm an audio engineer, not a coder. Most audio engineers just want to get on with the job in the most efficient manner possible. I wonder where the consistency is. Can't really record audio well in Ableton, but it's an A tier for an audio workstation? More like a composition tool. Samplitude (AFAIK) is the only one with region specific plugin and parameter editing, yet (because it's PC only) it's a D tier while Logic (Apple only) is a B tier? So far I have used Ableton, Reason, Reaper, ProTools, Cubase, Logic, FL Studio, Bitwig, Cakewalk and Samplitude in both professional and personal work. I can't comment on every DAW. A friendly tip is to come up with categories with a scoring system in each category: Ease of install, Ease of use, Reliability, Platform dispersion, Bundled plugins, Cost, Applicability of features per industry role, etc. Give each DAW a score based on these, then aveage and rank them then. The work you have done on compressors and EQs has been revelatory and exhaustive, and I thank you for that. If you apply the same rigour to a video aiming to reccomend the best DAW, then people will expect a more objective framework rather than personal opinion.
I mean objectively, cubase is just insanity, there is nothing you cannot do. It has an extremely steep learning curve, but it is a lot of fun and my hobby is learning mire and more about cubase pro. Recently I programmed a midi controller in the remote, so much fun
This, as AP Mastering, is a political/emotional opinion not a professional one. You are both reviewing AVID, not the DAW. I understand but it's a callow cliché in the light of reviewing the company compared to the actual applications and their usability.
470 CAD is expensive..wtf lolol, i just use Reaper, and i'm glad i did cuz it has more options than the other daws for what i'm doing which is video game music . we can integrate reaper with middleware
@ ha just because Ableton doesn’t have some file naming automations doesn’t mean you can’t mix or master with the software. Also you can batch export individual tracks by selection or all.
This type of videos should be called and titled: "I am in love with..". It is just an explanaition of why you do love the DAW you use. No reasonable comparision. So: This is just unprofessional - not the way a professional comparision is done.
@@basementdwellamusic1326 Ya, he definitely just brushed Luna and one or two others off. Definitely more of a "personal preference" video than a true "comparison". He seems like a pretty intelligent guy, but Reaper is more of a techie/tweaker kind of a DAW, which is great if you're into that. Also, he's all about Mastering, which is not my main thing - I write/arrange/record/mix on my DAW, but usually master outside my DAW.
I demoed Cubase. I REALLY wanted to like it. Zimmer and a few others in Hollywood have bucked the status quo and I like that. But I couldn't get it to recognize a lot of VST's I already had working in Studio One. (The irony that they are the creators of VST). I was in communication with support for over 1 week. I finally gave up. The other thing I don't care for is the black, red and white theme. (A little too close to 1930's Germany if you know what I mean). That plus the horribly thin font was an eyesore and hurt the heck out my eyes. Reminded me of a metal head's bedroom. To each his own. 🤷♂
Cubase had its time. Didnt invest in the same R&D space and moved in different directions in the late 90's early 2000's. Has always been a great daw but they shot themselves in the foot
This similar wat I used to think, but when I tried Reaper and could even do video edit and rendering and toooo many things that makes life easy and fun, then it relly matter what you use, you just think you are fine till you actually try something else. A Canoe is fine on water, you be like its working takes me from A to point B, you must have never owned a Yatch Boat, then after actually getting to try one, for a few weeks, you will realize you were just suffering yourself all along, refusing to try something new. Reaper is so amazing, We cant even count all the ease of use and you do now in a long winded way that its a finger snap in Reaper.
@@theministryofsound7448 you are right. The thing is there is objetively better DAWs depending on what you need. Even if they all can do what you need, there's still gonna be one that is more intuitive, has better workflow, better performance, etc.
I was stuck Pro Tools until I realized Reaper was cheaper than another support ticket. I don't have the skills to explain in how many areas Reaper is superior.
This is why I hate this type of videos, the best DAW is always the daw that the person doing the video uses. At the end of the day, the best DAW is the one you are comfortable using as long as it works for the situation. This is why I use multiple daws.
I kind of get the appeal of using two DAWs for two different purposes.... for example reaper for mastering but then bitwig for composition and digital performer for scoring. I guess that's fine but for me that is too much friction in my workflow. I just want to simplify and use one piece of decent software that I can do everything in.
@@APMastering -- This is why, after experimenting with several other DAWs -- some of them actually quite decent -- I've chosen Reaper as my primary DAW. It does everything I need in one program.
This makes no sense. if someone is making a video about the best DAW then obviously the one that they are using is gonna be best to them. Why would it be any different? Why would someone be using Protools but think that cubase is the best Daw? why would they not just switch to cubase? PS. I used to use 2 DAWs. FL for making beats, and then Adobe Audition for recording and mixing. I switched daws a few times but nothing quite did the same thing that i could get from Adobe Audition. Now I have Reaper and It does everything. This is why I think Reaper is the best DAW. it does lack vst instruments and it could do a little better in the eye candy department, but it does all i need it to do
@@MrFattarot - It's not just about which ONE he likes best, it's about ranking them all according to their pros and cons as he perceives them. Indeed it would be pretty useless if he just said, 'I like Reaper best. The End." But he gave some thoughtful comments about each of the others he has encountered.
@@APMastering sure, but it's probably more fair to compare with the producer or signature edition since they only add more instruments etc, of which is a limited feature in Reaper iirc.
@APMastering FLStudio is 169€. You took the price of the full version + plugin bundle. That price is an absolute steal. Especially with the Lifetime Free Updates.
I'm slightly confused by your Cakewalk comments. Logic is Apple only and costs money. The latest version won't run on your old mac. Cakewalk is Windows only, is free (although Sonar, its version in development, is not), and it will run on your old pc. I use CW and Reaper. Most of what I actually want in Reaper is in CW and in some ways CW is better (not least of which are that its arranger tracks are better thought out than Reaper's regions and that it actually has an arranger - that actually works unlike the sws one for Reaper - and is integrated properly, so you can write an arrangement directly to an mp3 or wav for example). You can mix and master fine in CW. I generally use Reaper because of certain bugs in CW that annoy me but if they fixed those I would use it a lot more. Sonar's current subscription only model is a show stopper but I suspect they'll fix that.
he didnt say it openly, but clearly sounds like he hates windows and thinks you cant do professional work on something thats not a mac, he was mad because it wasnt on mac, not that it was "just on windows". if its just the mac then its fine
Well, not entirely true. I'm running a 2009 Mac pro and am using logic pro 11. Granted you need to run opencore but it's not really a big deal. I've only ever paid 2 times for logic. Once for 9 and once for 10. 11 was a free upgrade. So in 15 years logic has cost me about 2 dollars a month. I gave up on windows because it couldn't handle the latency, and wouldn't allocate enough RAM to individual programs I had that required heaps of power. All I remember doing on my PC was fucking around with settings instead of making music. Bought the mac pro and everything worked properly right away and there was no fucking around. And from what I understand, even though windows is obviously a lot better than it was, it's still not "plug and play" easy like Mac. People can poo poo apple all they want but it just works properly nearly all the time. And lifespans are not as bad as people make out.
I use Cubase pro (have been on Cubase since Atari ST) and Reaper. I love reaper for tracking but prefer Cubase for mixing. For MIDI, Cubase is the best.
Cubase is great for scoring/MIDI. This is Reaper's Achilles heel. But its getting better with every version. Like OP said, those changes are nuanced and tough to notice unless you're really paying close attention
Reaper : cheap, versatile, stable, light, tons of community stuffs and ultra customizable. And yeah they do listen to the customers ideas to improve it.
Cubase user here. The problem with people rating daw’s is that, they only know there daw of choice-is feature's and workflow well enough to be able to rate it. and are oblivious to all the other daws features and workflow. Don’t care how meny daws you’ve tried, cuz the daw you use wires your brain in that workflow, and then when you compare others daws to your’s, your battling it in your court. For example fl has a very specific work flow which other daw users just won’t understand and Vice versa, and that is the case with every daw. Also not everyone makes the same music, so you’ll have to make a very specific tier list for the. Production of a specific type of music, or diversity of prediction capabilities.
I totally agree that the ratings are highly subjective. This is just from my perspective as a mastering engineer. I agree that most people can't judge without fully getting into the workflow of another DAW. A good few on this list though I did fully get into the workflow, but I just didnt use them for many years. I've worked professionally in reaper, PT and logic. I made countless dnb tracks as a teenager in reason and fruity. I used cubase for a couple of years too. Well that's 6 that I did really get into. The others not so much / not at all. Also spent a while in Renoise. That's fun.
@@jorgedejesustejedavaldez5283 I wanted to keep it more general. nobody is going to be using wavelab for making music, its a niche product. same goes for all the other mastering focused daws
FL studio has a wet dry knob for all plugins as well. And the built in mono/stereo spreader in the mixer is something i haven't seen in any other DAW. But i do produce in FL and mix in Reaper for the most part
@APMastering FL Studio's width knob can increase or decrease width (100% side to 100% mid), but, as far as I know (I do use reaper), the default reaper width knob only decreases stereo width from the original stereo spread. However, I'm sure there's a way to achieve that in Reaper somehow, which is a great strength
@@APMastering but in all seriousness I would love to see a video on if mastering hardware is still necessary with how far the plugin equivalents have come.
@@APMasteringTHANK YOU!! I’ve been holding off purchasing any mastering hardware until you have a verdict on the differences. I’m looking for the least noisy monitor controller possible with at least 3 stereo inputs. If you know of anything please let me know. I’m looking at the Grace design of Crane Song but that seems overkill for my setup.
Nobody should get too upset here, this is just one man's opinion. My opinion is that Cubase is amazing... its so complete and used by so many professionals for a reason, including Hans Zimmer. So I don't understand the B rating at all. I'd give it an A minimum.
Tell me what "professional" capability is Ardour lacking. Every DAW has some minor features, other DAWs don't (yet) but assuming Ardour isn't for professional use just because it's open source is quite a statement. In fact, Ardour has some features that "the big ones" are lacking. So if you rate DAWs it would be suitable for your reputation if you AT LEAST tried the mentioned DAWs out BEFORE rating them.
I tried Cubase, Ableton & Reaper. Didn't get on with Ableton at all. Reaper was ok but clunky (I was coming from Studio One) and Cubase was what I chose. It has everything I wanted. Looks and feels pro and wasn't so much of a jump from Studo One. Reaper was ok though and it's cheap as chips.
i like cubase, but it has always felt very outdated, from the ui to the installation, and numerous other issues i've had to troubleshoot. You have to install like 10 things just to get cubase working, and it just doesn't feel like it's really made for windows users. I ended up switching to ableton and never looked back.
As odd as it sounds, as an old guy with 30+ years of experience who have already used everything to some extent (even '90s antics like SAW or Session16, not to mention C64 and Atari driven sequencers) being deep-knee in digital audio production for ages, I find this ranking surprisingly accurate. But seriously, no sarcasm. Great work, lad (y)
I switched to Cubase 4 years ago. No regrets. Best feature for me is MIDI remote, which has helped me utilize practically forgotten controllers I had laying around. The functionality is top notch, but I agree that the visual appearance is rather unimaginative. Would like to see some alternate skins. But this is a minor complaint. I'm giving it top tier.
As a former Studio One user, I loved how intuitive it is. Great for beginners and experts alike to just start it up and get shit done. To speak on your point about the 'project' layout - it's the kind of thing I would use to bring my already mastered tracks in to do a final layout adjustment for an entire album, and then do a final export, but yeah, it is a little limiting when it comes to what you can do with it to master multiple versions of a single song. The only reason I switched from Studio One to Reaper is the cost: 150 dollars every version vs. 60 dollars every 2 versions? No brainer to me. I've since fallen in love with the customization of controls and the awesome, free JS plugins, but I do sometimes miss how easy Studio One is to just pickup and use.
I like Studio one alot and payed for the upgrade from 5 to 7.that was worth it I think. Not sure about the next upgrade. I also have a reaper license. Liking them both
10:56 there is a dry wet knob on every plugin in fl studio did you realy use that daw seriously ?? because it is one of the most advance daw you can find. you can literaly program you're own algorithm, and you have almost infite routings possibilites with patcher . the only downside i found in fl was for surround mixing .
Speaking of which, that DRY WET knob on the plugins is one of those things I immediately looked for when I got back into Cubase. "Cubase does not natively provide a dry/wet knob for each plugin in the mixer, unlike FL Studio. " FL Studio rules in some ways. Another way it outshines Reaper and Cubase, is the way it allows you to customize the way it scans for plugins, and the way it gives you the ability to edit your plugin library hierarchies externally, in Windows Explorer or the Apple equivalent. In FL Studio my plugin scans are a few minutes - yet occasionally Reaper and Cubase will bog down doing scanning (& Sometimes Reaper will do this when I haven't added anything) - in Reaper I can exclude folders from the scan, but then they get removed from the list of available plugins. In FL studio after a 2 minute scan (go to browser menu and select "fast scan") you can use your new plugin. The only caveat is you need additional steps if you think you'll make mistakes when you can't recall whether it's an instrument or effect plugin. I don't have that need really but full scans will fix it - at your next opportune time to full scan.
as a songwriter / musician making independent music; Logic is king. the software instruments are great (and vastly improved in Logic 11), the plugins are great, you have Apple Loops and a virtual drummer & bass player.... none of which come with Reaper. a one time payment for a lifetime of updates. now that we're moved away from physical media; mastering is within reach of the indie musician. Fab Filter Pro C2, Q3, MB & L2... those 4 plugs produce killer results.
I like it too for those reasons. One package that has everything and everything is good quality in spite of what some people would have you believe. I'm not a "pro". I just want shit to work properly and not have to waste time with settings. When I started on a windows system that was all I was doing. Switched to logic and apple and actually made music.
My man did Ardour a bit dirty... at least it deserves to be put a level above Mixbus (which is Ardour with proprietary overhaul), if not for current end-user features, then for the moral quality of being the only open source software of the bunch. Being open source means it potentially holds infinitely more value and ability to its user than any of the other software here, including Reaper with its scripting abilities. Also, a point worth a mention, you can install Ardour on Linux from a binary package same any other software, no need to compile it yourself. It's a "perk" you get if you are an open source software user. But also, holding it against them that they ask you to pay $1 to get the .exe of a full really capable DAW, in a world where people pay $200 for a limiter? I don't think that's fair.
@APMastering haha I mean you're not going to get more customization skin or theme-wise as you mentioned in reaper but the resolution was improved and the colors pop more and the dark mode looks better. It's a bit more like frooty loops colors. Way better than pro tools
@@ET2carbon does it have Clip launchers like Bitwig or ableton? (No). Does it support clap format? (No). Has it ever been fully rewritten so as not to lump along bloatcode from 1989? (AFAIK no). Can you lua code and hyper-personalize virtually every function like in Reaper? (No) Cubase user here for years. Great daw in many ways, and if that’s your choice: go for it. But objectively it does not have all the features mentioned here.
@@jeffreyhanc1711 they just did clip launching in the new update. Bloatware is installable by user in the options. No to the rest, I personally am not a programmer so that doesn't really pertain to me. I do wish they had a simplified option that looks like logic though logic looks great while tracking. I would just want the editing options in a kind of pro mode when tracking is done
Seems like a bit of a double standard to throw Windows-only DAWs in the D tier, but Logic is Mac-only and gets a B tier. I don't use those DAWs, just an observation. :P I'm on Studio One, moved over from Mixcraft in 2020. I'm still on version 4 and it's pretty broken, but I am excited to upgrade to the new version now that they only do the Pro version and the price dropped significantly. I'd say it's an exciting DAW, you can do just about anything in it and it's not very expensive anymore.
@@APMastering I'm using Cubase since the Ataris ST days, used Logic on the PC, Reaper and PT for some projects of friends. Feel free to dislike the Cubase desigm, I don't mind that, but please don't try to sell that Cubase is so ugly, that it slows you down - please.
The expert conclusion in this matter is, "the DAW you use is the best, especially if you can take an idea from 0% to 100%, and a UA-camr telling you that the DAW he's mastered is the best is just fishing for views and useless debate in the comments!" Because as an FL user, I can guarantee you that mixing and mastering on it is very much possible at a pro level, and 450.00 isn't expensive. Lifetime upgrades, loads of pro level plugins, and probably the most tutorials online. Directwave alone is worth at least 100.00. Patcher, even more. Maximus is a powerful tool... dude, sytrus... smh, FL is a crazy program. Lol, most musicians want to make music, not learn code to make music.
As an owner of Pro Tools, S1, Ableton and Reaper, I must admit the speed of Logic when recording / producing a song from a scratch. Not ideal for mixing, but you CAN mix and then again that speed in midi, audio comping, tuning etc. - incredible! S1 comes close. Ableton is speedy too, but less for tracked music.
@@MrPanpanam Reaper records and arranges much better than logic. It just surpasses Logic in almost anything i know about recording and editing. I highly encourage anyone to at least make research and look deep into this.. as many of us will spend thousands and thousands hours producing... you better have a good tool that accomplishes in an unparalleled way.🖖
I comp drums (acoustic) in Studio One a lot. 14 mics on drums, so I group edit, and it's wild how much the audio will drop out and I have to stop and start again.
5 was the last one that I used before finally buying 10 after falling in love with the 2.5 demo that was free with a magazine back in the days when I was using Making Waves. I paid a random dude £15 for a Reason 5 CD-ROM(s) after seeing his free-ad in my local newspaper. I have Live 12 Suite, Bitwig 5.2, FL All Plugins and Samplitude, (which I've never actually used at all). 11 Suite was sweet while 12.5 added VST3 yet 13 is lacklustre. I'm trying to force myself to acknowledge that Reason is destined to fail, hence I should explore the avenues that DAWs that I've already paid for can provide but I'm comfortable with Reason 12.7 even though I know that there's so much more potential that my other licenses can provide. From 10 onwards, I have paid for 100% of what's on my SSDs. I'm transfixed by Reason. Propellerhead were the boss! Reason Studios is the low tier gangster who's missing a few fingers. I'm not sure that you needed to know all of this. haha.
Reaper's greatest secret weapon is, of course, the one and only Kenny Gioia and his incredible Reaper training videos. All on UA-cam. Any DAW feature is only of use if you know about it, you know what it does, why you'd want to use it, how to use it and best practices when using it. KG's videos make at least 80% of Reaper - an absolutely huge piece of software - acessible to everyone. The best DAW training manual out there. For free. An incredible piece of work.
I cut my teeth in digital 20 years ago with Samplitude. It was the most intuitive to me moving from analog and I used it in a hybrid setting before going full ITB. I moved on from semi-professional work and when I returned to hobbyist production I did a big survey on all the DAWS. I went with Reaper, its trial version, low cost and full features made it the choice and I'm happy with it. I would have been happy to pick up samplitude again but I can't justrify the price point.
@@urniurl I have used several versions of Samplitude, and it's not stable, and it doesn't improve. They have to rewrite a lot of code, but they dont. They just add on extra stuff like other daws, libraries and plugins that you really dont want.
Mixbus is just a reskinning of Ardour. In fact, if you install it, some of the folder names still say ardour because they didn't change them. I don't know if this is still true on the latest version but it was true a few years back when I tried it. And on top of that, there's tests done by people that show that the DAW itself doesn't introduce any kind of analog warmth. It's just from the plugins it comes with. So if you do want a more analog sound, you can get that on any DAW using plugins that colour the sound. I use Reaper and was thinking of running my audio through it to make it sound more coloured, but after I read this up, I wasn't sure it was worth the trouble. The worst part was that Mixbus is extremely crash prone. It was so buggy and despite having a license, I got rid of it and have no intention to ever use it again. I just use saturation plugins in Reaper. The crashing is a side effect of being based on Ardour which was also extremely buggy and crash prone then.
@@APMastering Yeah, they forked it because they're not going to release any of their plugins as open source. But the fact remains that the code base was largely not their own. What's hilarious is that Harrison released the 32c channel strip EQ, which was stated to be yet another "analog colour" EQ, yet Dan Worrall demoed it and found it nulls perfectly with the ReaEQ. Harrison responded to him, and he responded back. ua-cam.com/video/RSHexh1yNoc/v-deo.html
I use both Reaper and Ableton Live, and when it comes to mastering the two are functionally identical (edit: just noticed your comment below about the rendering matrix in Reaper, I do find this a very useful feature for rendering different groups of stems for albums or if you're sending off different versions for vinyl mastering etc). I mix/master using Live's arrangement view, which gives the same horizontal track view as Reaper. In fact, I find Live's plug-in's along the bottom of the screen easier to work with than Reapers at the top of each mixer track. (I use TDR mastering plug-ins, which of course you can use in any DAW) One feature I love in Live is the warp mode. Having the ability to quickly modify clips to nudge audio around to fix timing issues, or apply a quick envelope is a real time-saver. Ultimately, the 'best' DAW is the one you're using right now. Learn one DAW and stick with it, rather than changing DAWs and going through a learning curve every time is laborious.
Generally speaking I agree that almost all DAWs are going to be identical in terms of your ability to simply process audio with plugins but it's the rendering and project setup which is totally different for professional mastering. That's why there is a demand for dedicated mastering DAWs and most standard music DAWs are not up to the task for the needs of professional mastering engineers
No, its not true learn one DAW and stick with its a very lazy and naive mindset, you know what people of mind just knowing Reaper can do video, yes basic but more ythan enough for UA-cam etc. why would I use anything else. Well I wont convince people, people are hard to change even if they been in a bad situation they just get used to something and hate change, its like Church people love the same seat even though are almost all the same, then I realize that people hate or fear change een if its a good change. So they in one religion and they will never change if there is a better one or better alternative, even their is some what diabolic, they sill will stick. This is why system succedds at programming mass of people, from young age. Because they will stick and never change.
Wish I could still use it. It’s great! I still have the VS-700C Console for it, mint condition. Are you using it on an old windows system or have you found some way to use it with new systems
@ I run it with the latest version of Windows 10. I was able to download and install it through the Bandlab Assistant. I still have the AIR Music bundle and Bluefish audio bundles too.
@ I run it with the latest version of Windows 10. I was able to download and install it through the Bandlab Assistant. I still have the AIR Music bundle and Bluefish audio bundles too.
@@willmcelroy6376 Works great on Windows 10, been using it for 35 years. $500 top of the range software (when sold by Roland) available now for FREE, because of bad sales policies of Roland and Gibson!
@@RolandDeschain1 I loved Cubase (9.5) but stepped over to Reaper due more efficient rendering (cpu), record to flac, mono recording to stereo tracks, and render matrix. Indeed clunky, but solid and stable.
Studio One gets a B? That's kinda ridiculous. And no one uses Mixbus for the features or the interface, which kinda suck. They use it for the warm sound. I hate the look of it, and the UI would drive me absolutely insane, but love the sound of mixes that come from it.
@@APMastering You should rate it based on its features, ease of use, and workflow. Your review amounted to "It has pretty much everything you'd expect in a DAW, but I didn't like the way the Mastering section looked, so I'm giving it a B." That's some odd criteria. It's your video, so of course you can use whatever criteria you want, but giving a professional product like that a B instead of an A makes it seem like it's missing important features or has workflow problems that hinder professional use.
I never understand why Mixcraft is never included in any vido like this. It has been my number one choice of DAW for the past 10 years and every time I try something else I always go back to it as it is so intuitive compared to everything else.
Welp to be fair themes changes the outer shell of Reaper not the insides, when you dive into the different dockers, you realize it's still the ugly default Reaper interface we all know, in Mac is not a problem, but as Windows user is just ugly af, the midi editor for example is just impossible to use too much visual noise. It would be cool if they could change their graphics engine and do huge a UX/UI work/effort redesign, because I think it is kinda clunky and not very beginner-friendly. It's just a matter of time, as a Reaper fangirl I know some day they will implement it and they going to start to rule the "battle of the DAWs" 🤭
@@sickmessiah That's not what I wrote, is it? But if you're too pressed for time you can't spend 10 minutes changing a theme, you probably don't have time to make comments on UA-cam.
Reaper can install on a portable flash drive. You can even have a separate install for every song you're working on, in its own folder. It's only about a 15MB download, and the nag screen is 5 seconds, so you can use it without restrictions.
Cubase is A, instead Logic. Logic has too many bug, so cant be A in 2024, but Ableton definitely an A, Bitwig should be S. But Reason is seriously capable of torturing people, so its T, like Trash. Probably Pro Tools also underrated by people who doesnt record a lot. Reason is explicitly the antithesis of DAWs.
@@DJAdalaide I assumed you had some kind of argument to support why you think otherwise. I thought someone would finally tell me what the horrible Reason has going for it... but it seems I won't find out. In the meantime, since I only work for big companies and I'm not a wedding DJ, it's no surprise you haven't heard of my UA-cam username.
There's too many good things to say about Reaper, but my favorite thing, that has nothing to do with how powerful it is, is just the simplicity of the layout and the customization options. The "sterile" or "boring" aesthetic is a huge draw for me and makes it a joy to work in.
I use Nuendo and Bitwig and used to use Studio One when I switched from Cubase (wich at the time was'nt much to write home about). I noticed on Bitwig something strange happened when using my Roland D-50, causing the synth plugin I was using to just shut off all audio when the key was released. This is due to a bug in the D-50 that automatically sends out an all notes of MID message when releasing the keys. However, this didn't happen in Nuendo, the midi is automatically filtered there, without me having to do anything. When asking bitwig about this problem, and if it is possible to filter the incoming MIDI messages in som way, all I got was a short answer from them "it's not possible". It wouldn't really be a problem to include a MIDI filter in 2024 would it? And with all the other MIDI features in there, I would think that would be a small problem for them to fix. Besides, I think a lot of Bitwigs features are very confusing, I need more time to figure it out, but a I think haveing too much possibilities is some of a problem. For example, the The Grid in Bitwig, I don't really have a lot of patience to learn something like that. Else I think Bitwig as a company is kind of good, they often give away free gifts, like for example I got two free U-He synths from them, and now I got a great filter plugin the Hybrid Filter. In Nuendo, you have a lot of great processing plugins, you can actually mix in Nuendo without having to rely on plugins by other companys. There are pros and cons of all DAWs I guess. I didn't really know that Reaper is as good as you claim.
As others have said, the best DAW is the one you know best. That having been said, the new Cubase 14 is a game changer for me. The new features are mind blowing. As for the ability to write code in Reaper; I don’t know any professional composer that has the time or knowledge to begin to do that.
@@ElMarko2000 this is my issue as well. One needs to learn scripting, customisation and hunt for scripts and themes just to start using a DAW with basics and half decent looks is crazy.
@@ElMarko2000 I compose for a living and being able to set my own code completely customized to my workflow and making my DAW look exactly how I want has been extremely helpful to me.
Choosing which DAW I want to use really depends on the kind of work I’ll be doing, the size of the project, the timeline, etc.! I think it’s fairer to compare DAWs by asking: • Can they all do this task? • Which one does it best? • Which one can do it with the least number of clicks? At the end of the day, time is of the essence, right? For example: • I prefer Pro Tools for editing and mixing, especially when I need to do some complicated signal routing. • Wavelab Pro is my go-to for mastering. • Logic Pro X is perfect when I want to make a beat. It’s like how painters have different brushes, butchers have various blades, and programmers use different languages depending on what they’re trying to create! There’s no “one tool does it all the best”. Each DAWs has its strengths and weaknesses, and the best choice depends on the specific requirements of the job at hand.
It's weird because the comments are 2 fold. You have clearly people like me who are composers/producers who are commenting from that perspective. Then you have actual sound and mastering engineers pretty much agreeing with the list save maybe 1 or 2 DAWs. But for me the most interesting thing has been the most obvious things, when you're mastering, you look for completely different functions entirely. I had to ask myself outside of creating my templates, when was the last time I touched some of these features and I honestly can't remember if I have!
This guy understands distributions. Get a sample. Exclude the extremities, in this case the D tier. Rate everything else A/B/C. You would expect to find around half of your cases in the mid-tier, and not a ⅓ distribution all around. When done, focus on the top-tier, so you can pick a very limited number of S rated. In a sample of 11, more than two would be overkil. Cheers from a huge fan of statistics. I'm so sick of ratings and tier lists that try so hard to be equally distributed, whether that's applications, albums, movies, books, etc. The way you describe Digital Performer makes it sound more like an A-tier to me. You definitely give very solid points why a happy user of Tier B would want to check out Ableton or Bitwig, but very clear reasons as to why they would want to skip directly to Reaper.
Ive agreed with a lot of your list bro but theres no way Cubase is B tier, if we were in a pub and you said this to my face i`d have to ask you to step outside........🤣🤣. Great vid by the way, you need to do plugins next.
@@APMastering Cubase is S Tier bro. Ive used Logic back in 2010 even got my apple certification in it. Moved away from it because the way it handled audio loops and samples was terrible if you weren't using apple loops so they wouldn't sync to project while auditioning. Jumped to Ableton 9 and loved it but missed the Logic mixer and also I don't care what anybody says Ableton back then wasn't clear pristine audio without it even being stretched. Drag a vengeance kick into a blank project in to Ableton verses Logic and it always sounded cleaner no processing on either DAWS. So jumped on Studio One 3 and loved it but when I was composing trailer music with a massive 500 track plus template using Kontakt it was so slow so jumped to Cubase 13. My god once you get your head around it its the Maybach of DAWS. Small templates, large templates it just laughs and says bring it on even if you got a modest laptop or PC. The mixing window is pure salavation and just makes sense and the sound ( I don't care what anybody says about DAWS don't have a sound they all render the same zeros and ones blah blah blah) is clean and crisp. What plays in my project I get right back. Some DAWS don't do that and have weird artifacts in the rendering. So I respectfully request you put Cubase in S Tier. Why do you think Hans Zimmer and other massive composers use it. I rest my case :)
@@APMastering Cubase is S Tier bro. Ive used Logic back in 2010 even got my apple certification in it. Moved away from it because the way it handled audio loops and samples was terrible if you weren't using apple loops so they wouldn't sync to project while auditioning. Jumped to Ableton 9 and loved it but missed the Logic mixer and also I don't care what anybody says Ableton back then wasn't clear pristine audio without it even being stretched. Drag a vengeance kick into a blank project in to Ableton verses Logic and it always sounded cleaner no processing on either DAWS. So jumped on Studio One 3 and loved it but when I was composing trailer music with a massive 500 track plus template using Kontakt it was so slow so jumped to Cubase 13. My god once you get your head around it its the Maybach of DAWS. Small templates, large templates it just laughs and says bring it on even if you got a modest laptop or PC. The mixing window is pure salavation and just makes sense and the sound ( I don't care what anybody says about DAWS don't have a sound they all render the same zeros and ones blah blah blah) is clean and crisp. What plays in my project I get right back. Some DAWS don't do that and have weird artifacts in the rendering. So I respectfully request you put Cubase in S Tier. Why do you think Hans Zimmer and other massive composers use it. I rest my case :)
@@APMastering Cubase is the OG of DAWs. It should be at least "A" tier. I'd personally say it's "S" tier. I'd also like to add that Cubase has the BEST stock plugins that I've ever come across.
@@APMastering yes Reason 13 is dope you can do everything inside Reason including mastering and it is a standalone DAW and a VST that can open up in any DAW
The best is the one that I create and produce the most finished tracks with. For me, having tried Reaper, Bitwig, FL, Cubase and Ableton, it was and still is, Ableton Live. I guess the workflow of Ableton just maps to my way of working best. For me, it's all about tinkering, experimenting, "what if I make a lead line out of the bass notes?", "what if I take this pad out in this section and move it to the intro?" and so on. I'm not a trained composer recording piano concertos, don't need 8 channels of recording (did use Cubase for that when in a band & recording all parts).Each DAW has it's identity, it's strengths & I find Ableton is great for creativity, using your imagination to try things fast. Not so good for mixing & mastering as said in the vid. Cubase better for band recordings and mixing. There are tracks with millions of streams made in all DAWS, so the DAW is never the reason you are not producing the music you would like.
I found Audicity back in the 90's and then boom! I was Reaperized! Never stopped learning and using Reaper since then, even when my uncle who is a renowned sound engineer tried to talk about protools bla bla bla. Nowdays he's the one asking me "how did you do this? How did you do that?!" The render and the endless pin connections makes Logic and Protools users dumb, they don't know what I'm talking about... anyway, you make me laugh and smile by the way you talk about the master Reaper. Thank you!!!
Hello i'm an italian music producer and in my studio i've been using reaper for 7 years now!I think is the real deal , I recorderd mixed and mastered hundreds of songs with professional results. Just using stock plugins can be tricky at first, but you can also use any plugin from VTS to JS or dll., reaper will take everything you put in it! I have to say, since i come from Cubase, that the MIDI editor and Quantization thing is kinda hard to get it right since there are too many options and rules to set before it quantizes things properly so it takes longer to edit midi than other DAWs i worked on ( Cubase, Ableton, FL for example). and it's "free"!
I like the fact that you made clear that this is your personal oppinion 👍 Wow, you started with Reason 1! I started with Reason 4.0 when I was 12 years old ^^
I found it hard to believe the ranking at first cause I started with cubase sx with reason 3 and then I migrated to fl studio 10 later on and loved it until I watched this video few days ago. I had FL 20 at the time I watched this video and I was thinking of upgrading my setup.. Long story short: after watching this video I got reaper with a commercial license and I got bitwig. With just few days of use, I would say thank you for this video! I feel more like I know what I’m doing now, I always thought the more money and weight the better but now I know that the best things are really simple. Reaper has no match!
I produce Record Mix and master in Cubase 13 and it's excellent from every aspect and it's missing no features. I can connect hardware easily as inserts and I don't find it ugly at all, in the contrary it has a pleasant look so for me Cubase is King..
@@stephb7958 whats plugin follow track? also why would you need to hide the grid? (you can make it the same colour of the background if you want, or just ignore it since u can disable quantisation and sticky grid) in 14 they added the shortcut to directly open plugins (shortcut + number) of the track
@APMastering Nah, Atmos mixes/masters are really big for professional production, especially for electronic music. Studio one, Cubase, Pro Tools and Logic all have them integrated, a huge benefit above Reaper. Similarly, at least Cubase has already integrated Ambisonics which is also better than Reaper. Just some extra pointers for those of producing modern surround music, sound design and movie scoring in a professional manner. Not easily possible with Reaper, I wish it was. I work in Bitwig mainly, and use Reaper for game sound design, but both of them are really lacking in features when it comes to the immersive surround fields in music production, mixing and mastering, which is a big problem especially considering it is 2024 already and immersive sound market is huge already and growing constantly. But yeah, thats my two cents that came to mind.
You're asking for a scandal with this one. :)) The small updates to Reaper bring performance and stability. That thing is like a racecar while the others are family sedans. Also, latest versions of Cubase and Ableton mainly brought in new plugins. So no major core developments there either. Downside is that it's harder to learn, less integrated and maybe less inspiring when just trying to be creative. It probably is best as a mixing tool.
@ agree it looks kinda like a Mountain Dew can. However no DAW blends the “professional” features of pro tools with a smooth musical workflow. The new update shows they are taking some cues from ableton while maintaining the pro feature set. Goated. Just get over the gui lol.
@@SAFAMASTR i dont understand why ppl say cubase looks ugly, imo its literally the best looking daw, it looks modern and sleek, the elements are arranged properly and there s contrast between em, whats ugly about it? its so weird for me cuz i genuinely never thought of cubase as a ugly daw
@@SToXC_. Well, what's ugly and what's nice is a matter of opinion, cubase looks nice to me too... But graphically efficient, that's more important to me than "nice looking", and I believe Cubase is exactly that.
I'm also a Reaper user, and love it, but I'd say you made it sound a bit more complicated to get going than it is. Yes, it's very adaptable and you can go as deep as you like, but it's fine and ready-to-go right out of the box, and no more difficult than any other DAW to get started - don't scare 'em off with your wild and crazy talk of writing your own themes, scripts and plugins - there's a ton of free ones ready-made on their website and forum pages... If you need 'em, and may users probably won't. And Kenny Gioia's videos take you as far on the road from newbie to power user as you want to go. BTW, am subscribed your channel too, and have learned a lot. Keep it coming, cheers.
I love Reaper! it’s my DAW for about 6-7 years (coming from logic and ableton) and I never look back.. BUT for me it was absolutely not ready-to-go out of the box since the default settings are completely useless. I had to customize the play/pause/stop behavior with cycle actions, the cursor, fx slots, missing track inspector, midi editor.. EVERYTHING! 😂
@@Sorgenkind5000 How does Reaper fare in terms of MIDI routing capabilities? Logic's Environment ist pretty powerful and I use it for a pretty complex live masterkeyboard setup. It totally destroys Mainstage which looks like a joke next to it.
@@dkpianist I worked with several hardware synthesizers/sequencers and I would say that Reaper can handle everything. I only had problems to sync the arp of an arturia controller but I‘m pretty sure that was my user error. Logic and Ableton are quick and easy. Reaper always takes a little time and research for the first setup (for me) but after that the workflow beats every other daw
@@APMastering I have not done a "null" test but if you are not turning up the "tape emulation" on the busses it is bypassed. The claim of some special analoge summing magic is just marketing hype, it is not real. It is ardour with some proprietary plugins baked into the custom skin, and ardour as we know is "perfect". Mixbus GUI is fun though, different.
I think you are slightly over selling reaper's modulation compared to bitwig. I am a reaper guy and its the daw i have the most hours in. But i recently switched to bitwig for creating and use reaper primarily for mixing and mastering. Can reaper do most of if not all of what bitwig can do out of the box? No, but with some plugins like playtime2 you can get close. But its modulation capabilities are no where near bitwig just based on speed and efficiency for setting it up. I do wish bitiwg would let you disable the feedback protection between tracks, and the routing in reaper is unmatched. But i disagree that it is better than bitwig across the board. Also the reaper updates i feel you on. Reaper will stay part of my workflow, but it doesnt inspire creativity as much and i get a much more uninterrupted flow from my ideas to the daw when using bitwig. Edit: i also wanna add, that if i had to chose only one daw or make a recommendation to someone, it would be reaper, but i feel like it has some weak spots when it comes to creation of electronic music and beats. I would never record a live band with anything else tho
I really don't understand how Reaper is harder to learn than any other DAW. The default GUI is very simplistic and just by right clicking everything you can get almost all the functions you need. The best thing about Reaper hands down is the parent folder system and multiformat tracks. That's just magnitudes ahead of anything else in the market. Also, one thing many forget to mention is how incredible the preset/history functionality is. You can save literally anything to Reaper and it just works, even KONTAKT presets saved as Reaper presets just work even when KONTAKT doesn't. You can even save the undo history. What other program lets you do that?
It's a difficult way to measure. As a Reaper user I wouldn't set it apart from ableton cubase logic or studio one for the sole reason that it doesn't have any instruments or production tools. It's very lacking in this realm. It is also not user friendly. You have to make it user friendly and that isn't everyone's cup of tea
I'm not a professional mixing or mastering engineer, so my viewpoint is different to yours. I use Studio One because it inspires me and I find it easy to use. The workflow is perfect for my needs. As for Reaper... I know it is a powerful DAW but I just find myself tweaking and trying to find out how to do something. And yes, even with the ability to customise the GUI it's still ugly. I've really tried to make Reaper my principal DAW but I always return to Studio One. And I have decided to not to bother with Reaper anymore. But I get why Reaper is so highly recommended.
I understand where you’re coming from. I use Logic, Cubase, Studio One, Reaper and Ableton depending upon the project I’m working on and who I’m working with. For me, both Logic and Cubase (especially V14) are most certainly an ‘S’. The other 3 would rate a B+
@APMasteringso which feature is missing for mastering? Or for mixing? Editing? Also, you argue that certain GUIs din‘t EXCITE you. As a pro, I would assume you need a tool to get out of your way. I‘ve been using Logic on and off since version 3. I‘m not aware of any features that were removed since then. You do know that Logic starts in Garage Band mode if there is a Garage Band prefs file on your system, i.e. Apple can assume that you have used GB and are an upgrader. You can then go to the Logic Preferences and activate advanced editing, mixing, notation, etc.
Reaper is the Linux of DAWs. A bit clunky to use but can do anything. Linux is now the mist common used OS out there (ok not on the desktop). Why because engineers could do anything they wanted and then made it open source so anyone can use their extension. The free extensions in reaper are amazing. I think reaper will slowly catch on, especially at it's price point.
The best DAW is the one you like using and gets you the results you want.
Engagement bait vid hahah
yes... and this... sorry...would be Reaper if you had choosen it.😊
Came here to say this. I use and teach Ableton, Logic Pro, Pro Tools and Bitwig. All have their benefits and all do their job extremely well. The best one however is the one that is right for you at the time. Horses for courses and all that
@billB101 not true here. Logic has many many problems i could solve in Reaper right away. The same with cubase that just didnt the job... to buggy
@@TracingFlares I mean, you do you, but I can make music in any of the DAW's I mentioned no problem at all. What problems exactly can you solve in reaper that can't be done in Logic or the other DAW's I mentioned?
Sorry, but I cannot take this ranking seriously.
Don't like the Cubase UI: rates it B. Don't like the Reaper UI but rates it S tier? I'm an audio engineer, not a coder. Most audio engineers just want to get on with the job in the most efficient manner possible. I wonder where the consistency is. Can't really record audio well in Ableton, but it's an A tier for an audio workstation? More like a composition tool. Samplitude (AFAIK) is the only one with region specific plugin and parameter editing, yet (because it's PC only) it's a D tier while Logic (Apple only) is a B tier?
So far I have used Ableton, Reason, Reaper, ProTools, Cubase, Logic, FL Studio, Bitwig, Cakewalk and Samplitude in both professional and personal work. I can't comment on every DAW.
A friendly tip is to come up with categories with a scoring system in each category: Ease of install, Ease of use, Reliability, Platform dispersion, Bundled plugins, Cost, Applicability of features per industry role, etc. Give each DAW a score based on these, then aveage and rank them then.
The work you have done on compressors and EQs has been revelatory and exhaustive, and I thank you for that. If you apply the same rigour to a video aiming to reccomend the best DAW, then people will expect a more objective framework rather than personal opinion.
sure. this video could have been done better. might do a follow up
@@APMastering Ardour special with interviews of dignitaries who are active in the production of properly licensed audio tools?
@@APMastering The video is great. Don't get swayed
He uses an apple lapdog.
I mean objectively, cubase is just insanity, there is nothing you cannot do. It has an extremely steep learning curve, but it is a lot of fun and my hobby is learning mire and more about cubase pro.
Recently I programmed a midi controller in the remote, so much fun
It doesn't matter which one you use, as long as you get done what you need getting done.
agree
Yes.
Exactly (and if that's hard to understand then those who don't - get educated !)
Agree, except Fruity it is the best =)
@@PavelLitkinBorisovich no its not :)
Serioulsly... a mac only software is B-rated, a windows only software is automatically D-rated?
Agree, Cakewalk and Samplitude are knocked to D for lacking cross-platform availability while the very same holds true for Logic Pro.
Core audio
Lol, really? I’ll skip this video then.
Especially that Windows has like 90% of market share globally.
IKR?
Pro Tools is made by people who love money. Reaper is made by people who love music making.
This, as AP Mastering, is a political/emotional opinion not a professional one. You are both reviewing AVID, not the DAW. I understand but it's a callow cliché in the light of reviewing the company compared to the actual applications and their usability.
Fl studio is not expensive because you have free updates for life
that's right. i think it blows everything else out of the water.
@stizan9185 you can use all the features and updates reaper has without even using a license. FL is cool but not an outstanding DAW.
Indeed. Even if the most expensive edition is around 400/500 € just Cubase Pro is above that.
470 CAD is expensive..wtf lolol, i just use Reaper, and i'm glad i did cuz it has more options than the other daws for what i'm doing which is video game music . we can integrate reaper with middleware
@@Maplefoxx-vl2ew Compared to other DAWs FL is less expensive long term, I use Reaper too.
All i can say is learn a daw. Master the daw. Make great music.
This
Heavy disagree on Ableton. While it isn't traditional to do so, you can do mixing or mastering in Ableton Live easily.
It's hard to take someone seriously if they believe you can't master a song in Ableton and think Reaper is the best-looking DAW. 😂
where's wildcard matrix rendering in Ableton? I didn't say one single song. Try doing stem albums all day in Ableton and get back to me.
@ ha just because Ableton doesn’t have some file naming automations doesn’t mean you can’t mix or master with the software. Also you can batch export individual tracks by selection or all.
@@SeedtoStage that's useless for the workflow of a mastering engineer
@@MARAASIM Same for FLStudio.
Saying nobody would mix/master professionally in it, is simply absurd.
Cubase in B tier is wild
why? should it be higher or lower? If it cost half as much and wasn't ugly, and they updated some stale ways of working, it would be S tier.
@@APMastering You call Cubase ugly then I'm sorry but, Reaper is beautiful?
@@TJUnderGroundEST yes, I find my UI design in reaper beautiful.
@@APMasteringc'mon man you don't mean this. Reaper is amazing but it definitely is the ugliest of the bunch.
@@val_de_mez but in Reaper you can actually customize almost everything, so the uglyness is irrelevant if that option exists
This type of videos should be called and titled: "I am in love with..". It is just an explanaition of why you do love the DAW you use. No reasonable comparision. So: This is just unprofessional - not the way a professional comparision is done.
The guy is so unprofessional he doesn't have heat in his room, apparently.
most of the true professionals don't have time to be faffing about on youtube blathering nonsense all day
Well yeah any time you see a rank list you should go into it knowing that it is the ranker's opinions
Fact. Especially when he did luna
@@basementdwellamusic1326 Ya, he definitely just brushed Luna and one or two others off. Definitely more of a "personal preference" video than a true "comparison". He seems like a pretty intelligent guy, but Reaper is more of a techie/tweaker kind of a DAW, which is great if you're into that. Also, he's all about Mastering, which is not my main thing - I write/arrange/record/mix on my DAW, but usually master outside my DAW.
Cubase is absolutely phenomenal. I honestly don’t know why everyone hasn’t latched on to it yet.
i was using it 25 years ago
I demoed Cubase. I REALLY wanted to like it. Zimmer and a few others in Hollywood have bucked the status quo and I like that. But I couldn't get it to recognize a lot of VST's I already had working in Studio One. (The irony that they are the creators of VST). I was in communication with support for over 1 week. I finally gave up. The other thing I don't care for is the black, red and white theme. (A little too close to 1930's Germany if you know what I mean). That plus the horribly thin font was an eyesore and hurt the heck out my eyes. Reminded me of a metal head's bedroom. To each his own. 🤷♂
Cubase had its time. Didnt invest in the same R&D space and moved in different directions in the late 90's early 2000's. Has always been a great daw but they shot themselves in the foot
Because it looks ugly af.
I could say the same about Studio One... But yeah.
A B for Cubase because you don’t like the interface ?!?! This review is not serious.
Of course it's not.
IMHO there is no best or favorite DAW. There's just the DAW that you're stuck in. 😉
This similar wat I used to think, but when I tried Reaper and could even do video edit and rendering and toooo many things that makes life easy and fun, then it relly matter what you use, you just think you are fine till you actually try something else.
A Canoe is fine on water, you be like its working takes me from A to point B, you must have never owned a Yatch Boat, then after actually getting to try one, for a few weeks, you will realize you were just suffering yourself all along, refusing to try something new.
Reaper is so amazing, We cant even count all the ease of use and you do now in a long winded way that its a finger snap in Reaper.
@@theministryofsound7448 you are right. The thing is there is objetively better DAWs depending on what you need. Even if they all can do what you need, there's still gonna be one that is more intuitive, has better workflow, better performance, etc.
I was stuck Pro Tools until I realized Reaper was cheaper than another support ticket. I don't have the skills to explain in how many areas Reaper is superior.
This!
This is why I hate this type of videos, the best DAW is always the daw that the person doing the video uses.
At the end of the day, the best DAW is the one you are comfortable using as long as it works for the situation.
This is why I use multiple daws.
well im not going to make a video saying the best DAW is X, and there's no reason to use anything else, but I use Y, because, reasons.
I kind of get the appeal of using two DAWs for two different purposes.... for example reaper for mastering but then bitwig for composition and digital performer for scoring. I guess that's fine but for me that is too much friction in my workflow. I just want to simplify and use one piece of decent software that I can do everything in.
@@APMastering -- This is why, after experimenting with several other DAWs -- some of them actually quite decent -- I've chosen Reaper as my primary DAW. It does everything I need in one program.
This makes no sense. if someone is making a video about the best DAW then obviously the one that they are using is gonna be best to them. Why would it be any different? Why would someone be using Protools but think that cubase is the best Daw? why would they not just switch to cubase? PS. I used to use 2 DAWs. FL for making beats, and then Adobe Audition for recording and mixing. I switched daws a few times but nothing quite did the same thing that i could get from Adobe Audition. Now I have Reaper and It does everything. This is why I think Reaper is the best DAW. it does lack vst instruments and it could do a little better in the eye candy department, but it does all i need it to do
@@MrFattarot - It's not just about which ONE he likes best, it's about ranking them all according to their pros and cons as he perceives them. Indeed it would be pretty useless if he just said, 'I like Reaper best. The End." But he gave some thoughtful comments about each of the others he has encountered.
I don’t think FL Studio is on the expensive side since it has free lifetime updates.
good point. but compared to reaper, which I think is better, it kind of is expensive relative to that.
@@APMastering sure, but it's probably more fair to compare with the producer or signature edition since they only add more instruments etc, of which is a limited feature in Reaper iirc.
@APMastering FLStudio is 169€. You took the price of the full version + plugin bundle.
That price is an absolute steal. Especially with the Lifetime Free Updates.
I'm slightly confused by your Cakewalk comments. Logic is Apple only and costs money. The latest version won't run on your old mac. Cakewalk is Windows only, is free (although Sonar, its version in development, is not), and it will run on your old pc.
I use CW and Reaper. Most of what I actually want in Reaper is in CW and in some ways CW is better (not least of which are that its arranger tracks are better thought out than Reaper's regions and that it actually has an arranger - that actually works unlike the sws one for Reaper - and is integrated properly, so you can write an arrangement directly to an mp3 or wav for example).
You can mix and master fine in CW.
I generally use Reaper because of certain bugs in CW that annoy me but if they fixed those I would use it a lot more. Sonar's current subscription only model is a show stopper but I suspect they'll fix that.
he didnt say it openly, but clearly sounds like he hates windows and thinks you cant do professional work on something thats not a mac, he was mad because it wasnt on mac, not that it was "just on windows". if its just the mac then its fine
@@SToXC_. Which is a ridiculous take.
@@Music-tg5is not the only ridiculous take on the video
Well, not entirely true. I'm running a 2009 Mac pro and am using logic pro 11. Granted you need to run opencore but it's not really a big deal. I've only ever paid 2 times for logic. Once for 9 and once for 10. 11 was a free upgrade. So in 15 years logic has cost me about 2 dollars a month.
I gave up on windows because it couldn't handle the latency, and wouldn't allocate enough RAM to individual programs I had that required heaps of power. All I remember doing on my PC was fucking around with settings instead of making music. Bought the mac pro and everything worked properly right away and there was no fucking around.
And from what I understand, even though windows is obviously a lot better than it was, it's still not "plug and play" easy like Mac. People can poo poo apple all they want but it just works properly nearly all the time. And lifespans are not as bad as people make out.
CakeWalk pisses all over many of these DAWS...it does everything Ableton can do...and it's free
I came here for the comments. I wasn’t disappointed. Absolute weapon.
Have fun with mine, LOL.
All the Reaper haters are here! They simply never used Reaper! Once they use it they won't go back!
@@mohitrahaman he hasn't used like half of the DAWS on his list...
'Reason is the reason my wife left me'
that's a lie. Everyone who uses Reason has a Big Cock
I use Cubase pro (have been on Cubase since Atari ST) and Reaper. I love reaper for tracking but prefer Cubase for mixing. For MIDI, Cubase is the best.
it's definitely solid. midi in reaper is not the best, not anywhere near
@@APMastering6:36 totally agree on Reason, when it came out I was blown away by what it could do
@@APMastering14:30 there was that time they added oversampling options per plugin and fx chain oversampling, that was an awesome addition
@ i guess that was pretty good but i don't really use it
Cubase is great for scoring/MIDI. This is Reaper's Achilles heel. But its getting better with every version. Like OP said, those changes are nuanced and tough to notice unless you're really paying close attention
Reaper : cheap, versatile, stable, light, tons of community stuffs and ultra customizable.
And yeah they do listen to the customers ideas to improve it.
Reaper is only for nerds with too much time. That says all.
@@Byron101_ says alot about you for sure :D
so why don't they sort out the mess of the filing, stuff ends up everywhere on the computer.
@@chriskemp466 ehm well it ends up were you tell Reaper to put it ^^
@@chriskemp466 not on my computer
Cubase user here.
The problem with people rating daw’s is that, they only know there daw of choice-is feature's and workflow well enough to be able to rate it. and are oblivious to all the other daws features and workflow. Don’t care how meny daws you’ve tried, cuz the daw you use wires your brain in that workflow, and then when you compare others daws to your’s, your battling it in your court. For example fl has a very specific work flow which other daw users just won’t understand and Vice versa, and that is the case with every daw.
Also not everyone makes the same music, so you’ll have to make a very specific tier list for the. Production of a specific type of music, or diversity of prediction capabilities.
I totally agree that the ratings are highly subjective. This is just from my perspective as a mastering engineer. I agree that most people can't judge without fully getting into the workflow of another DAW. A good few on this list though I did fully get into the workflow, but I just didnt use them for many years. I've worked professionally in reaper, PT and logic. I made countless dnb tracks as a teenager in reason and fruity. I used cubase for a couple of years too. Well that's 6 that I did really get into. The others not so much / not at all. Also spent a while in Renoise. That's fun.
@@APMastering if you’re rating in terms of mastering I think you should put Wavelab on that list lol
@@jorgedejesustejedavaldez5283 I wanted to keep it more general. nobody is going to be using wavelab for making music, its a niche product. same goes for all the other mastering focused daws
FL studio has a wet dry knob for all plugins as well. And the built in mono/stereo spreader in the mixer is something i haven't seen in any other DAW. But i do produce in FL and mix in Reaper for the most part
width on every channel has been in reaper for a very long time. FL does a lot of cool stuff
@APMastering FL Studio's width knob can increase or decrease width (100% side to 100% mid), but, as far as I know (I do use reaper), the default reaper width knob only decreases stereo width from the original stereo spread. However, I'm sure there's a way to achieve that in Reaper somehow, which is a great strength
Me snuggly twiddling my mustache on my fixed gear bike watching this video on my vinyl player as I make beats on my tracker.
sounds good
@@APMastering but in all seriousness I would love to see a video on if mastering hardware is still necessary with how far the plugin equivalents have come.
@@FRANKMUSIKOFFICIAL i WILL be doing such a video in s month or two, it's part of my video schedule
@@APMasteringTHANK YOU!! I’ve been holding off purchasing any mastering hardware until you have a verdict on the differences. I’m looking for the least noisy monitor controller possible with at least 3 stereo inputs. If you know of anything please let me know. I’m looking at the Grace design of Crane Song but that seems overkill for my setup.
Is that you, Cameron?
Nobody should get too upset here, this is just one man's opinion. My opinion is that Cubase is amazing... its so complete and used by so many professionals for a reason, including Hans Zimmer.
So I don't understand the B rating at all. I'd give it an A minimum.
exactly just my opinion from my perspective
Tell me what "professional" capability is Ardour lacking. Every DAW has some minor features, other DAWs don't (yet) but assuming Ardour isn't for professional use just because it's open source is quite a statement. In fact, Ardour has some features that "the big ones" are lacking. So if you rate DAWs it would be suitable for your reputation if you AT LEAST tried the mentioned DAWs out BEFORE rating them.
“Logic Pro is hands down the perfect DAW its name says it all! It truly reflects the brand’s commitment to creativity and precision. 🔥”
I tried Cubase, Ableton & Reaper. Didn't get on with Ableton at all. Reaper was ok but clunky (I was coming from Studio One) and Cubase was what I chose. It has everything I wanted. Looks and feels pro and wasn't so much of a jump from Studo One. Reaper was ok though and it's cheap as chips.
i like cubase, but it has always felt very outdated, from the ui to the installation, and numerous other issues i've had to troubleshoot. You have to install like 10 things just to get cubase working, and it just doesn't feel like it's really made for windows users. I ended up switching to ableton and never looked back.
exactly. this is what I mean about the vibe I get from it being ugly and kind of old. It's solid, just not my fav
I'm the same way, I really wanted to like it, because it seems so powerful, but the interface just feels so damn clunky and ugly.
Does Cubase still have the dongle?
@@mellobotstudio nope
As odd as it sounds, as an old guy with 30+ years of experience who have already used everything to some extent (even '90s antics like SAW or Session16, not to mention C64 and Atari driven sequencers) being deep-knee in digital audio production for ages, I find this ranking surprisingly accurate. But seriously, no sarcasm. Great work, lad (y)
Did you say SAW? I still have that software, but haven't used it for a couple of decades. My choice now is REAPER, the only DAW I ever really loved.
I switched to Cubase 4 years ago. No regrets. Best feature for me is MIDI remote, which has helped me utilize practically forgotten controllers I had laying around. The functionality is top notch, but I agree that the visual appearance is rather unimaginative. Would like to see some alternate skins. But this is a minor complaint. I'm giving it top tier.
As a former Studio One user, I loved how intuitive it is. Great for beginners and experts alike to just start it up and get shit done. To speak on your point about the 'project' layout - it's the kind of thing I would use to bring my already mastered tracks in to do a final layout adjustment for an entire album, and then do a final export, but yeah, it is a little limiting when it comes to what you can do with it to master multiple versions of a single song.
The only reason I switched from Studio One to Reaper is the cost: 150 dollars every version vs. 60 dollars every 2 versions? No brainer to me. I've since fallen in love with the customization of controls and the awesome, free JS plugins, but I do sometimes miss how easy Studio One is to just pickup and use.
yeah sounds about right, although Ive been using reaper for well over a decade so to me its the easiest thing to use because its what I know the best
I like Studio one alot and payed for the upgrade from 5 to 7.that was worth it I think. Not sure about the next upgrade. I also have a reaper license. Liking them both
10:56 there is a dry wet knob on every plugin in fl studio did you realy use that daw seriously ?? because it is one of the most advance daw you can find. you can literaly program you're own algorithm, and you have almost infite routings possibilites with patcher . the only downside i found in fl was for surround mixing .
i've not used it in years. i'm aware it's gotten much better
@@APMastering indeed
The dry wet knob in fl studio is not perfect tho. Many (external) plugins cause weird phase changes when changing that knob (at least for me).
@@dehazesings you Can set the way you want the latency of each plugin .
Speaking of which, that DRY WET knob on the plugins is one of those things I immediately looked for when I got back into Cubase. "Cubase does not natively provide a dry/wet knob for each plugin in the mixer, unlike FL Studio. " FL Studio rules in some ways. Another way it outshines Reaper and Cubase, is the way it allows you to customize the way it scans for plugins, and the way it gives you the ability to edit your plugin library hierarchies externally, in Windows Explorer or the Apple equivalent. In FL Studio my plugin scans are a few minutes - yet occasionally Reaper and Cubase will bog down doing scanning (& Sometimes Reaper will do this when I haven't added anything) - in Reaper I can exclude folders from the scan, but then they get removed from the list of available plugins. In FL studio after a 2 minute scan (go to browser menu and select "fast scan") you can use your new plugin. The only caveat is you need additional steps if you think you'll make mistakes when you can't recall whether it's an instrument or effect plugin. I don't have that need really but full scans will fix it - at your next opportune time to full scan.
brother what actually is wrong with mastering with fl studio
it's not made for it. if you can do it with high productivity, good effort
@@APMasteringis it a work flow thing or is the summing algorithm that bad
@@Eyuelin purely workflow and features, not audio quality. but workflow and features are extremely important.
Fl studio is one of the best sounding DAWS on par with Logic, but the workflow is a big turn off for a lot of composers.
@@mikern444 Surely all DAWs sound the same(?)
as a songwriter / musician making independent music; Logic is king. the software instruments are great (and vastly improved in Logic 11), the plugins are great, you have Apple Loops and a virtual drummer & bass player.... none of which come with Reaper. a one time payment for a lifetime of updates. now that we're moved away from physical media; mastering is within reach of the indie musician. Fab Filter Pro C2, Q3, MB & L2... those 4 plugs produce killer results.
I like it too for those reasons. One package that has everything and everything is good quality in spite of what some people would have you believe. I'm not a "pro". I just want shit to work properly and not have to waste time with settings. When I started on a windows system that was all I was doing. Switched to logic and apple and actually made music.
My man did Ardour a bit dirty... at least it deserves to be put a level above Mixbus (which is Ardour with proprietary overhaul), if not for current end-user features, then for the moral quality of being the only open source software of the bunch. Being open source means it potentially holds infinitely more value and ability to its user than any of the other software here, including Reaper with its scripting abilities. Also, a point worth a mention, you can install Ardour on Linux from a binary package same any other software, no need to compile it yourself. It's a "perk" you get if you are an open source software user. But also, holding it against them that they ask you to pay $1 to get the .exe of a full really capable DAW, in a world where people pay $200 for a limiter? I don't think that's fair.
i upgrades ardour in my follow up video
"You cant master in Ableton" WTF you on about bro?
where's the wildcard matrix rendering in live?
@@APMastering Yeah, because you NEED that to make a great master....🤦♂
@@dingbatjack1234 you never mastered an album bro....
Is that a fact? LOL. I do this for a living you goob.
I do this for a living nonce
The CUBASE 14 update that came out today has everything you mentioned for the others. Still the best
is it still ugly?
@APMastering haha I mean you're not going to get more customization skin or theme-wise as you mentioned in reaper but the resolution was improved and the colors pop more and the dark mode looks better. It's a bit more like frooty loops colors. Way better than pro tools
@@ET2carbon does it have Clip launchers like Bitwig or ableton? (No). Does it support clap format? (No). Has it ever been fully rewritten so as not to lump along bloatcode from 1989? (AFAIK no). Can you lua code and hyper-personalize virtually every function like in Reaper? (No)
Cubase user here for years. Great daw in many ways, and if that’s your choice: go for it. But objectively it does not have all the features mentioned here.
@@jeffreyhanc1711 they just did clip launching in the new update. Bloatware is installable by user in the options. No to the rest, I personally am not a programmer so that doesn't really pertain to me. I do wish they had a simplified option that looks like logic though logic looks great while tracking. I would just want the editing options in a kind of pro mode when tracking is done
@@APMastering Less ugly than Reaper
Seems like a bit of a double standard to throw Windows-only DAWs in the D tier, but Logic is Mac-only and gets a B tier. I don't use those DAWs, just an observation. :P
I'm on Studio One, moved over from Mixcraft in 2020. I'm still on version 4 and it's pretty broken, but I am excited to upgrade to the new version now that they only do the Pro version and the price dropped significantly. I'd say it's an exciting DAW, you can do just about anything in it and it's not very expensive anymore.
Quick, tell Hans Zimmer he's using a mid tier DAW.
all B tier daws are solid. mid tier is D. i didn't include E and F categories
@@APMastering Sorry, you lost me, when you mentioned design as something to rate professional software on.
@@peterbrandt7911 design is important. bad ux slows you down
@@APMastering I'm using Cubase since the Ataris ST days, used Logic on the PC, Reaper and PT for some projects of friends. Feel free to dislike the Cubase desigm, I don't mind that, but please don't try to sell that Cubase is so ugly, that it slows you down - please.
Why Reason got rid of Rewire I will never understand.
15:45 dear sir, that is Studio One, not Nuendo. .
oops! you are of course correct. I had a whole bunch of DAW screenshots in a folder and it seems I mixed that one up, well spotted!
The expert conclusion in this matter is, "the DAW you use is the best, especially if you can take an idea from 0% to 100%, and a UA-camr telling you that the DAW he's mastered is the best is just fishing for views and useless debate in the comments!"
Because as an FL user, I can guarantee you that mixing and mastering on it is very much possible at a pro level, and 450.00 isn't expensive. Lifetime upgrades, loads of pro level plugins, and probably the most tutorials online.
Directwave alone is worth at least 100.00. Patcher, even more. Maximus is a powerful tool... dude, sytrus... smh, FL is a crazy program.
Lol, most musicians want to make music, not learn code to make music.
As an owner of Pro Tools, S1, Ableton and Reaper, I must admit the speed of Logic when recording / producing a song from a scratch. Not ideal for mixing, but you CAN mix and then again that speed in midi, audio comping, tuning etc. - incredible! S1 comes close. Ableton is speedy too, but less for tracked music.
@@MrPanpanam Reaper records and arranges much better than logic. It just surpasses Logic in almost anything i know about recording and editing. I highly encourage anyone to at least make research and look deep into this.. as many of us will spend thousands and thousands hours producing... you better have a good tool that accomplishes in an unparalleled way.🖖
I comp drums (acoustic) in Studio One a lot. 14 mics on drums, so I group edit, and it's wild how much the audio will drop out and I have to stop and start again.
While I realize that a lot of people love Pro Tools, I ditched it following a three year stint of struggling to master with it. Just saying
I have a dozen DAWs and I still open Reason 5 when seeking inspiration.
its defo fun
Reason 5 is special!
Lol same. I'm used to reason being my sketchboard
5 was the last one that I used before finally buying 10 after falling in love with the 2.5 demo that was free with a magazine back in the days when I was using Making Waves. I paid a random dude £15 for a Reason 5 CD-ROM(s) after seeing his free-ad in my local newspaper. I have Live 12 Suite, Bitwig 5.2, FL All Plugins and Samplitude, (which I've never actually used at all). 11 Suite was sweet while 12.5 added VST3 yet 13 is lacklustre. I'm trying to force myself to acknowledge that Reason is destined to fail, hence I should explore the avenues that DAWs that I've already paid for can provide but I'm comfortable with Reason 12.7 even though I know that there's so much more potential that my other licenses can provide.
From 10 onwards, I have paid for 100% of what's on my SSDs. I'm transfixed by Reason. Propellerhead were the boss! Reason Studios is the low tier gangster who's missing a few fingers.
I'm not sure that you needed to know all of this. haha.
You should really better open Reason 13.
Reaper's greatest secret weapon is, of course, the one and only Kenny Gioia and his incredible Reaper training videos. All on UA-cam. Any DAW feature is only of use if you know about it, you know what it does, why you'd want to use it, how to use it and best practices when using it. KG's videos make at least 80% of Reaper - an absolutely huge piece of software - acessible to everyone. The best DAW training manual out there. For free. An incredible piece of work.
Reaper rules
I cut my teeth in digital 20 years ago with Samplitude. It was the most intuitive to me moving from analog and I used it in a hybrid setting before going full ITB. I moved on from semi-professional work and when I returned to hobbyist production I did a big survey on all the DAWS. I went with Reaper, its trial version, low cost and full features made it the choice and I'm happy with it. I would have been happy to pick up samplitude again but I can't justrify the price point.
@@urniurl I have used several versions of Samplitude, and it's not stable, and it doesn't improve. They have to rewrite a lot of code, but they dont. They just add on extra stuff like other daws, libraries and plugins that you really dont want.
in Luna's defense, its newest updates does fill a lot of those big functionality gaps it used to have.
20:58 Isn't that Atmos feature already on Cubase, Nuendo, Pro Tools, Logic and Studio One as well?
yeah its not unique to that DAW
Logis was the first to implement it.
NEVER say anything even remotely negative about Studio One, or the fake "as a retired 30 year software developer" crew will cry at you.
Mixbus is just a reskinning of Ardour. In fact, if you install it, some of the folder names still say ardour because they didn't change them. I don't know if this is still true on the latest version but it was true a few years back when I tried it. And on top of that, there's tests done by people that show that the DAW itself doesn't introduce any kind of analog warmth. It's just from the plugins it comes with. So if you do want a more analog sound, you can get that on any DAW using plugins that colour the sound. I use Reaper and was thinking of running my audio through it to make it sound more coloured, but after I read this up, I wasn't sure it was worth the trouble. The worst part was that Mixbus is extremely crash prone. It was so buggy and despite having a license, I got rid of it and have no intention to ever use it again. I just use saturation plugins in Reaper. The crashing is a side effect of being based on Ardour which was also extremely buggy and crash prone then.
solid comment, interesting to hear. someone else mentioned it was an ardour fork
@@APMastering Yeah, they forked it because they're not going to release any of their plugins as open source. But the fact remains that the code base was largely not their own. What's hilarious is that Harrison released the 32c channel strip EQ, which was stated to be yet another "analog colour" EQ, yet Dan Worrall demoed it and found it nulls perfectly with the ReaEQ. Harrison responded to him, and he responded back.
ua-cam.com/video/RSHexh1yNoc/v-deo.html
ardour used to crash on me in the early 2000s but I’ve never had a problem with it in the last couple of years when I used it again. This is on Linux.
I use both Reaper and Ableton Live, and when it comes to mastering the two are functionally identical (edit: just noticed your comment below about the rendering matrix in Reaper, I do find this a very useful feature for rendering different groups of stems for albums or if you're sending off different versions for vinyl mastering etc).
I mix/master using Live's arrangement view, which gives the same horizontal track view as Reaper. In fact, I find Live's plug-in's along the bottom of the screen easier to work with than Reapers at the top of each mixer track. (I use TDR mastering plug-ins, which of course you can use in any DAW)
One feature I love in Live is the warp mode. Having the ability to quickly modify clips to nudge audio around to fix timing issues, or apply a quick envelope is a real time-saver.
Ultimately, the 'best' DAW is the one you're using right now. Learn one DAW and stick with it, rather than changing DAWs and going through a learning curve every time is laborious.
Generally speaking I agree that almost all DAWs are going to be identical in terms of your ability to simply process audio with plugins but it's the rendering and project setup which is totally different for professional mastering. That's why there is a demand for dedicated mastering DAWs and most standard music DAWs are not up to the task for the needs of professional mastering engineers
No, its not true learn one DAW and stick with its a very lazy and naive mindset, you know what people of mind just knowing Reaper can do video, yes basic but more ythan enough for UA-cam etc. why would I use anything else.
Well I wont convince people, people are hard to change even if they been in a bad situation they just get used to something and hate change, its like Church people love the same seat even though are almost all the same, then I realize that people hate or fear change een if its a good change. So they in one religion and they will never change if there is a better one or better alternative, even their is some what diabolic, they sill will stick.
This is why system succedds at programming mass of people, from young age.
Because they will stick and never change.
I´ve switched from Ableton to Reaper some years ago. Warp mode is really cool, but Reaper has it too, and in my opinion, it sounds betteer than Warp.
I still use Sonar Platinum. It is a great all around workhorse… Sequencing, Tracking, Routing, Mixing, Mastering, Video synchronization.
Wish I could still use it. It’s great! I still have the VS-700C Console for it, mint condition. Are you using it on an old windows system or have you found some way to use it with new systems
@ I run it with the latest version of Windows 10. I was able to download and install it through the Bandlab Assistant. I still have the AIR Music bundle and Bluefish audio bundles too.
@ I run it with the latest version of Windows 10. I was able to download and install it through the Bandlab Assistant. I still have the AIR Music bundle and Bluefish audio bundles too.
@@willmcelroy6376 Works great on Windows 10, been using it for 35 years. $500 top of the range software (when sold by Roland) available now for FREE, because of bad sales policies of Roland and Gibson!
Reaper is beautiful in my opinion. I find most DAWs visually off-putting. Funny how different people are.
I've always been attracted to the way it looks, too.
I make my beats in FL. Record my music in Mixcraft. I'm self taught in Mixcraft and love it.
Reaper is the bestest ever. The Swiss Army Knife of DAWs.
The only other DAW I would even consider using is Cubase.
When DAWs die they have to go before Cubase to see if they had been good or not.
@@RolandDeschain1 I loved Cubase (9.5) but stepped over to Reaper due more efficient rendering (cpu), record to flac, mono recording to stereo tracks, and render matrix. Indeed clunky, but solid and stable.
Studio One gets a B? That's kinda ridiculous. And no one uses Mixbus for the features or the interface, which kinda suck. They use it for the warm sound. I hate the look of it, and the UI would drive me absolutely insane, but love the sound of mixes that come from it.
what rating should it get? I think the idea of having a purposefully coloured DAW is kind of bad. not something im into at all
@@APMastering You should rate it based on its features, ease of use, and workflow. Your review amounted to "It has pretty much everything you'd expect in a DAW, but I didn't like the way the Mastering section looked, so I'm giving it a B." That's some odd criteria. It's your video, so of course you can use whatever criteria you want, but giving a professional product like that a B instead of an A makes it seem like it's missing important features or has workflow problems that hinder professional use.
@APMasteringyou can adjust it to any colour you like. Even have it all in shades of grey and black. Did you even use it??
I never understand why Mixcraft is never included in any vido like this. It has been my number one choice of DAW for the past 10 years and every time I try something else I always go back to it as it is so intuitive compared to everything else.
I agree. I've tried them all,but I can't seem to leave.
I’ll take the bait, what advanced features are missing from Logic?
rendering matrix for example
Attention, onlookers: REAPER HAS THEMES. DRAG AND DROP.
It can look like any DAW....
Can’t function like any daw. Sorry I don’t want to setup the daws basic functionality than just getting 💩 done. lol
Chip!
Welp to be fair themes changes the outer shell of Reaper not the insides, when you dive into the different dockers, you realize it's still the ugly default Reaper interface we all know, in Mac is not a problem, but as Windows user is just ugly af, the midi editor for example is just impossible to use too much visual noise.
It would be cool if they could change their graphics engine and do huge a UX/UI work/effort redesign, because I think it is kinda clunky and not very beginner-friendly.
It's just a matter of time, as a Reaper fangirl I know some day they will implement it and they going to start to rule the "battle of the DAWs" 🤭
@@hairetikaos You can literally fix all of the stuff you're talking about in Reaper.
@@sickmessiah That's not what I wrote, is it? But if you're too pressed for time you can't spend 10 minutes changing a theme, you probably don't have time to make comments on UA-cam.
Reaper can install on a portable flash drive. You can even have a separate install for every song you're working on, in its own folder. It's only about a 15MB download, and the nag screen is 5 seconds, so you can use it without restrictions.
Personally i would put ableton as a b-tier, reason and logic as a-tier along with bitwig.
Cubase is A, instead Logic. Logic has too many bug, so cant be A in 2024, but Ableton definitely an A, Bitwig should be S.
But Reason is seriously capable of torturing people, so its T, like Trash.
Probably Pro Tools also underrated by people who doesnt record a lot.
Reason is explicitly the antithesis of DAWs.
@@giotti333 You don't know what you're talking about
@@DJAdalaide , after 30 years of making significant money in this industry, sorry, but I know what I'm talking about
@@giotti333 haha never heard of giotti 333
@@DJAdalaide I assumed you had some kind of argument to support why you think otherwise. I thought someone would finally tell me what the horrible Reason has going for it... but it seems I won't find out. In the meantime, since I only work for big companies and I'm not a wedding DJ, it's no surprise you haven't heard of my UA-cam username.
you ranked samplitude D because its only for windows?
windows is unusable
There's too many good things to say about Reaper, but my favorite thing, that has nothing to do with how powerful it is, is just the simplicity of the layout and the customization options. The "sterile" or "boring" aesthetic is a huge draw for me and makes it a joy to work in.
I use Nuendo and Bitwig and used to use Studio One when I switched from Cubase (wich at the time was'nt much to write home about). I noticed on Bitwig something strange happened when using my Roland D-50, causing the synth plugin I was using to just shut off all audio when the key was released. This is due to a bug in the D-50 that automatically sends out an all notes of MID message when releasing the keys. However, this didn't happen in Nuendo, the midi is automatically filtered there, without me having to do anything. When asking bitwig about this problem, and if it is possible to filter the incoming MIDI messages in som way, all I got was a short answer from them "it's not possible". It wouldn't really be a problem to include a MIDI filter in 2024 would it? And with all the other MIDI features in there, I would think that would be a small problem for them to fix. Besides, I think a lot of Bitwigs features are very confusing, I need more time to figure it out, but a I think haveing too much possibilities is some of a problem. For example, the The Grid in Bitwig, I don't really have a lot of patience to learn something like that. Else I think Bitwig as a company is kind of good, they often give away free gifts, like for example I got two free U-He synths from them, and now I got a great filter plugin the Hybrid Filter. In Nuendo, you have a lot of great processing plugins, you can actually mix in Nuendo without having to rely on plugins by other companys. There are pros and cons of all DAWs I guess. I didn't really know that Reaper is as good as you claim.
As others have said, the best DAW is the one you know best. That having been said, the new Cubase 14 is a game changer for me. The new features are mind blowing. As for the ability to write code in Reaper; I don’t know any professional composer that has the time or knowledge to begin to do that.
@@ElMarko2000 this is my issue as well. One needs to learn scripting, customisation and hunt for scripts and themes just to start using a DAW with basics and half decent looks is crazy.
well i do that
@@APMastering Yeah but you said nothing about composing yourself and you also have a pretty weird DAW ranking system too 😉
@@ElMarko2000 I compose for a living and being able to set my own code completely customized to my workflow and making my DAW look exactly how I want has been extremely helpful to me.
You dont have to write it if someone else did and you find it.
Choosing which DAW I want to use really depends on the kind of work I’ll be doing, the size of the project, the timeline, etc.!
I think it’s fairer to compare DAWs by asking:
• Can they all do this task?
• Which one does it best?
• Which one can do it with the least number of clicks? At the end of the day, time is of the essence, right?
For example:
• I prefer Pro Tools for editing and mixing, especially when I need to do some complicated signal routing.
• Wavelab Pro is my go-to for mastering.
• Logic Pro X is perfect when I want to make a beat.
It’s like how painters have different brushes, butchers have various blades, and programmers use different languages depending on what they’re trying to create! There’s no “one tool does it all the best”.
Each DAWs has its strengths and weaknesses, and the best choice depends on the specific requirements of the job at hand.
It's weird because the comments are 2 fold. You have clearly people like me who are composers/producers who are commenting from that perspective. Then you have actual sound and mastering engineers pretty much agreeing with the list save maybe 1 or 2 DAWs. But for me the most interesting thing has been the most obvious things, when you're mastering, you look for completely different functions entirely. I had to ask myself outside of creating my templates, when was the last time I touched some of these features and I honestly can't remember if I have!
Is your room cold?
not any more
This guy understands distributions. Get a sample. Exclude the extremities, in this case the D tier. Rate everything else A/B/C. You would expect to find around half of your cases in the mid-tier, and not a ⅓ distribution all around. When done, focus on the top-tier, so you can pick a very limited number of S rated. In a sample of 11, more than two would be overkil. Cheers from a huge fan of statistics. I'm so sick of ratings and tier lists that try so hard to be equally distributed, whether that's applications, albums, movies, books, etc.
The way you describe Digital Performer makes it sound more like an A-tier to me. You definitely give very solid points why a happy user of Tier B would want to check out Ableton or Bitwig, but very clear reasons as to why they would want to skip directly to Reaper.
Reaper: YOU OWN IT and it is LINUX NATIVE. NO BLOAT yet still FEATURE RICH.
nuff said.
What kind of stock instruments and libraries does it have? Asking for a friend.
Ive agreed with a lot of your list bro but theres no way Cubase is B tier, if we were in a pub and you said this to my face i`d have to ask you to step outside........🤣🤣. Great vid by the way, you need to do plugins next.
lol what would you give it?
@@APMastering Cubase is S Tier bro. Ive used Logic back in 2010 even got my apple certification in it. Moved away from it because the way it handled audio loops and samples was terrible if you weren't using apple loops so they wouldn't sync to project while auditioning. Jumped to Ableton 9 and loved it but missed the Logic mixer and also I don't care what anybody says Ableton back then wasn't clear pristine audio without it even being stretched. Drag a vengeance kick into a blank project in to Ableton verses Logic and it always sounded cleaner no processing on either DAWS. So jumped on Studio One 3 and loved it but when I was composing trailer music with a massive 500 track plus template using Kontakt it was so slow so jumped to Cubase 13. My god once you get your head around it its the Maybach of DAWS. Small templates, large templates it just laughs and says bring it on even if you got a modest laptop or PC. The mixing window is pure salavation and just makes sense and the sound ( I don't care what anybody says about DAWS don't have a sound they all render the same zeros and ones blah blah blah) is clean and crisp. What plays in my project I get right back. Some DAWS don't do that and have weird artifacts in the rendering. So I respectfully request you put Cubase in S Tier. Why do you think Hans Zimmer and other massive composers use it. I rest my case :)
@@APMastering Cubase is S Tier bro. Ive used Logic back in 2010 even got my apple certification in it. Moved away from it because the way it handled audio loops and samples was terrible if you weren't using apple loops so they wouldn't sync to project while auditioning. Jumped to Ableton 9 and loved it but missed the Logic mixer and also I don't care what anybody says Ableton back then wasn't clear pristine audio without it even being stretched. Drag a vengeance kick into a blank project in to Ableton verses Logic and it always sounded cleaner no processing on either DAWS. So jumped on Studio One 3 and loved it but when I was composing trailer music with a massive 500 track plus template using Kontakt it was so slow so jumped to Cubase 13. My god once you get your head around it its the Maybach of DAWS. Small templates, large templates it just laughs and says bring it on even if you got a modest laptop or PC. The mixing window is pure salavation and just makes sense and the sound ( I don't care what anybody says about DAWS don't have a sound they all render the same zeros and ones blah blah blah) is clean and crisp. What plays in my project I get right back. Some DAWS don't do that and have weird artifacts in the rendering. So I respectfully request you put Cubase in S Tier. Why do you think Hans Zimmer and other massive composers use it. I rest my case :)
@@APMastering Cubase is the OG of DAWs. It should be at least "A" tier. I'd personally say it's "S" tier. I'd also like to add that Cubase has the BEST stock plugins that I've ever come across.
@@kb420ps i do think i was a bit hard on it tbh. it's probably A
I use n-track 10. Been advised to try Reaper. Having issues with some plugins. May be because my lack of tech ability. Have you used N-track?
Hi! Reason user here. Looks like I need to prove you wrong.
in what regard? I think reason is fantastic, just not the tool for the job for mastering, unless recent updates have make it more suitable.
@@Canderson_Beats Save your breath. This is a “Why I like Reaper” video disguised as a DAW tier list.
@@boying. 😂😂😂
@@APMastering yes Reason 13 is dope you can do everything inside Reason including mastering and it is a standalone DAW and a VST that can open up in any DAW
Reason Gang !!!🎹💯👍 Best DAW for me total one stop shop !!!
The best is the one that I create and produce the most finished tracks with. For me, having tried Reaper, Bitwig, FL, Cubase and Ableton, it was and still is, Ableton Live. I guess the workflow of Ableton just maps to my way of working best. For me, it's all about tinkering, experimenting, "what if I make a lead line out of the bass notes?", "what if I take this pad out in this section and move it to the intro?" and so on. I'm not a trained composer recording piano concertos, don't need 8 channels of recording (did use Cubase for that when in a band & recording all parts).Each DAW has it's identity, it's strengths & I find Ableton is great for creativity, using your imagination to try things fast. Not so good for mixing & mastering as said in the vid. Cubase better for band recordings and mixing.
There are tracks with millions of streams made in all DAWS, so the DAW is never the reason you are not producing the music you would like.
Reason 1 is still the best version . It was fun it was limited, it made you get creative. Everything a DAW should be.
So, when skipping through this video, I have to remember what icon goes with which DAW, to know which one you're talking about?
I found Audicity back in the 90's and then boom! I was Reaperized!
Never stopped learning and using Reaper since then, even when my uncle who is a renowned sound engineer tried to talk about protools bla bla bla. Nowdays he's the one asking me "how did you do this? How did you do that?!"
The render and the endless pin connections makes Logic and Protools users dumb, they don't know what I'm talking about... anyway, you make me laugh and smile by the way you talk about the master Reaper. Thank you!!!
ha ha yeah I totally get that
Hello i'm an italian music producer and in my studio i've been using reaper for 7 years now!I think is the real deal , I recorderd mixed and mastered hundreds of songs with professional results. Just using stock plugins can be tricky at first, but you can also use any plugin from VTS to JS or dll., reaper will take everything you put in it! I have to say, since i come from Cubase, that the MIDI editor and Quantization thing is kinda hard to get it right since there are too many options and rules to set before it quantizes things properly so it takes longer to edit midi than other DAWs i worked on ( Cubase, Ableton, FL for example). and it's "free"!
I like the fact that you made clear that this is your personal oppinion 👍 Wow, you started with Reason 1! I started with Reason 4.0 when I was 12 years old ^^
I found it hard to believe the ranking at first cause I started with cubase sx with reason 3 and then I migrated to fl studio 10 later on and loved it until I watched this video few days ago. I had FL 20 at the time I watched this video and I was thinking of upgrading my setup..
Long story short: after watching this video I got reaper with a commercial license and I got bitwig. With just few days of use, I would say thank you for this video!
I feel more like I know what I’m doing now, I always thought the more money and weight the better but now I know that the best things are really simple.
Reaper has no match!
reaper is amazing and goes as deep as you want
@APMasteringAbsolutely..
I produce Record Mix and master in Cubase 13 and it's excellent from every aspect and it's missing no features. I can connect hardware easily as inserts and I don't find it ugly at all, in the contrary it has a pleasant look so for me Cubase is King..
cubase is a very competent, mature piece of software. not a bad choice at all. as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
a king without plugin follow track ??? a king without HIde Grid ? a king without shortcuts open /edit plugin on the select track?
@@stephb7958 whats plugin follow track? also why would you need to hide the grid? (you can make it the same colour of the background if you want, or just ignore it since u can disable quantisation and sticky grid) in 14 they added the shortcut to directly open plugins (shortcut + number) of the track
yeah I know, he's just butthurt, no one famous actually uses Reaper, including engineers and musicians, so ugly and unintuitive.
How easy is it to use Dolby Atmos in Reaper? I know that it isn't integrated, but does it work otherwise? 🤔
i don't do atmos. seems like a gimmick
@APMastering Nah, Atmos mixes/masters are really big for professional production, especially for electronic music.
Studio one, Cubase, Pro Tools and Logic all have them integrated, a huge benefit above Reaper.
Similarly, at least Cubase has already integrated Ambisonics which is also better than Reaper.
Just some extra pointers for those of producing modern surround music, sound design and movie scoring in a professional manner. Not easily possible with Reaper, I wish it was.
I work in Bitwig mainly, and use Reaper for game sound design, but both of them are really lacking in features when it comes to the immersive surround fields in music production, mixing and mastering, which is a big problem especially considering it is 2024 already and immersive sound market is huge already and growing constantly.
But yeah, thats my two cents that came to mind.
@ only one of my clients ever has requested atmos. basically zero demand or interest from my perspective and i work 90% with electronic music
You're asking for a scandal with this one. :))
The small updates to Reaper bring performance and stability. That thing is like a racecar while the others are family sedans. Also, latest versions of Cubase and Ableton mainly brought in new plugins. So no major core developments there either. Downside is that it's harder to learn, less integrated and maybe less inspiring when just trying to be creative. It probably is best as a mixing tool.
which is best for midi mate?
probably logic
cubase is S tier for sure
if they make it less ugly and modernise it a bit then ok
@ agree it looks kinda like a Mountain Dew can. However no DAW blends the “professional” features of pro tools with a smooth musical workflow. The new update shows they are taking some cues from ableton while maintaining the pro feature set. Goated. Just get over the gui lol.
@@APMastering The thing with Cubase/Nuendo look is, it is not preaty, but it is very utiliterian and easy to navigate.
@@SAFAMASTR i dont understand why ppl say cubase looks ugly, imo its literally the best looking daw, it looks modern and sleek, the elements are arranged properly and there s contrast between em, whats ugly about it? its so weird for me cuz i genuinely never thought of cubase as a ugly daw
@@SToXC_. Well, what's ugly and what's nice is a matter of opinion, cubase looks nice to me too... But graphically efficient, that's more important to me than "nice looking", and I believe Cubase is exactly that.
Despite some snarly comments, I found it VERY USEFUL and informative. Many thanks for your time and effort.
I'm also a Reaper user, and love it, but I'd say you made it sound a bit more complicated to get going than it is. Yes, it's very adaptable and you can go as deep as you like, but it's fine and ready-to-go right out of the box, and no more difficult than any other DAW to get started - don't scare 'em off with your wild and crazy talk of writing your own themes, scripts and plugins - there's a ton of free ones ready-made on their website and forum pages... If you need 'em, and may users probably won't.
And Kenny Gioia's videos take you as far on the road from newbie to power user as you want to go.
BTW, am subscribed your channel too, and have learned a lot. Keep it coming, cheers.
i agree with you 100%. maybe i'll make a follow up video on what i like about reaper
I started with Reaper as a complete beginner and I 100% agree with you.
I love Reaper! it’s my DAW for about 6-7 years (coming from logic and ableton) and I never look back.. BUT for me it was absolutely not ready-to-go out of the box since the default settings are completely useless. I had to customize the play/pause/stop behavior with cycle actions, the cursor, fx slots, missing track inspector, midi editor.. EVERYTHING! 😂
@@Sorgenkind5000 How does Reaper fare in terms of MIDI routing capabilities? Logic's Environment ist pretty powerful and I use it for a pretty complex live masterkeyboard setup. It totally destroys Mainstage which looks like a joke next to it.
@@dkpianist I worked with several hardware synthesizers/sequencers and I would say that Reaper can handle everything. I only had problems to sync the arp of an arturia controller but I‘m pretty sure that was my user error.
Logic and Ableton are quick and easy. Reaper always takes a little time and research for the first setup (for me) but after that the workflow beats every other daw
Reaper -- lots of great tutorials out there to help new people get started and more.
Harrison Mixbus sounds absolutely frikin amazing. Unfortunately the GUI is not really suited for a computer monitor. It's great for mastering tho.
doesnt it arbitrarily mess with your audio quality?
@@APMastering What does that even mean? As arbitrary as your ratings?
@@APMastering I have not done a "null" test but if you are not turning up the "tape emulation" on the busses it is bypassed. The claim of some special analoge summing magic is just marketing hype, it is not real. It is ardour with some proprietary plugins baked into the custom skin, and ardour as we know is "perfect". Mixbus GUI is fun though, different.
I think you are slightly over selling reaper's modulation compared to bitwig. I am a reaper guy and its the daw i have the most hours in. But i recently switched to bitwig for creating and use reaper primarily for mixing and mastering. Can reaper do most of if not all of what bitwig can do out of the box? No, but with some plugins like playtime2 you can get close. But its modulation capabilities are no where near bitwig just based on speed and efficiency for setting it up. I do wish bitiwg would let you disable the feedback protection between tracks, and the routing in reaper is unmatched. But i disagree that it is better than bitwig across the board. Also the reaper updates i feel you on.
Reaper will stay part of my workflow, but it doesnt inspire creativity as much and i get a much more uninterrupted flow from my ideas to the daw when using bitwig.
Edit: i also wanna add, that if i had to chose only one daw or make a recommendation to someone, it would be reaper, but i feel like it has some weak spots when it comes to creation of electronic music and beats. I would never record a live band with anything else tho
i sort of agree with you here. i'm jealous of bitwigs modulation and creativity. i would switch or at least use it but its render features are failure
I really don't understand how Reaper is harder to learn than any other DAW. The default GUI is very simplistic and just by right clicking everything you can get almost all the functions you need.
The best thing about Reaper hands down is the parent folder system and multiformat tracks. That's just magnitudes ahead of anything else in the market. Also, one thing many forget to mention is how incredible the preset/history functionality is. You can save literally anything to Reaper and it just works, even KONTAKT presets saved as Reaper presets just work even when KONTAKT doesn't. You can even save the undo history. What other program lets you do that?
in cubase you can save presets of anything and i think other daws can also do that
It's a difficult way to measure. As a Reaper user I wouldn't set it apart from ableton cubase logic or studio one for the sole reason that it doesn't have any instruments or production tools. It's very lacking in this realm. It is also not user friendly. You have to make it user friendly and that isn't everyone's cup of tea
pretty much agree
I'm not a professional mixing or mastering engineer, so my viewpoint is different to yours. I use Studio One because it inspires me and I find it easy to use. The workflow is perfect for my needs. As for Reaper... I know it is a powerful DAW but I just find myself tweaking and trying to find out how to do something. And yes, even with the ability to customise the GUI it's still ugly. I've really tried to make Reaper my principal DAW but I always return to Studio One. And I have decided to not to bother with Reaper anymore. But I get why Reaper is so highly recommended.
sure, studio one is just fine. i wouldn't choose it but if i only had that it still be able to do pretty much everything
Maybe i don't understand, but why does one need a DAW for mastering?
If Logic is good enough for Steven Wilson and Jacob Collier it's certainly good enough for me
I think the point, that it does not have advanced features is also completely invalid. It is a good allrounder and I can do everything in it.
those are musicians not mastering engineers. im a ME and this ranking is from my perspective as someone who also makes music but predominately is a ME
I understand where you’re coming from. I use Logic, Cubase, Studio One, Reaper and Ableton depending upon the project I’m working on and who I’m working with. For me, both Logic and Cubase (especially V14) are most certainly an ‘S’. The other 3 would rate a B+
@APMasteringso which feature is missing for mastering? Or for mixing? Editing? Also, you argue that certain GUIs din‘t EXCITE you. As a pro, I would assume you need a tool to get out of your way.
I‘ve been using Logic on and off since version 3. I‘m not aware of any features that were removed since then. You do know that Logic starts in Garage Band mode if there is a Garage Band prefs file on your system, i.e. Apple can assume that you have used GB and are an upgrader. You can then go to the Logic Preferences and activate advanced editing, mixing, notation, etc.
@ watch my follow up video
This is the tier list you'd expect from a Reaperphile
I`ve tried _all_ daws.. and have settled on Reaper, Renoise/Redux and Blockhead.
don't know blockhead not tenoise is dope
@@APMastering you gotta check it out. It's the most "outsider" DAW I've ever seen. Weird but interesting
Reaper is the Linux of DAWs. A bit clunky to use but can do anything. Linux is now the mist common used OS out there (ok not on the desktop). Why because engineers could do anything they wanted and then made it open source so anyone can use their extension. The free extensions in reaper are amazing. I think reaper will slowly catch on, especially at it's price point.