No, it really doesn’t matter which DAW you use
Image via “ProToolsExpert.com”
One of the most heated debates in the world of music production is that of the Digital Audio Workstation, or as some call it, the DAW wars.
What’s with the long post? Can’t you just tell me what to buy?
Let me first say that this whole debate over which DAW is *best*… It's pretty much pointless now. Each of the major DAWs have evolved, and the software developers are so incestuious, to the point where it is exceptionally rare to be able to do one thing in a DAW and not be able to find a way to do that exact same thing in all the others. In fact, I think the entire “this DAW is SO MUCH BETTER than that DAW” kerfuffle and jabbing is a massive waste of time. Time we could all be spending getting to know the one that is the most intuitive and more relevant to our own work. We’re music producers after all, not music software salespeople… right? I’d even go as far to say that anyone who is actively going out of their way to shit on other major DAWs is probably an amateur and likely not worth listening to. At the end of the day, a digital audio workstation is a tool to help you fulfill the vision of your song. That’s it. Nothing more than that. A tool whose effectiveness depends more on the person using it than on the specific software specs and features.
However, if you’re like a lot of my clients and collaborators (mainly songwriters, vocalists, independent artists trying to grow their career), then you might find yourself on the cusp of diving head first into the world of music production. Which means you need to level up your DAW chops and I totally recognize you might be a bit overwhelmed by all the options and all the strong opinions out there. Maybe you’re looking for the easiest path towards being able to start tracking your own vocals at home, or maybe you want to finally be able to get a demo idea down rather than hiring someone like me to get the initial idea going, maybe you’re wanting to learn how to mix and master your own tracks, or maybe you’ve found a new passion for producing and want to go all in to learn the main tool that we all use to create music we love.
Whatever your reason *why* is for wanting to become proficient in a DAW, odds are you have already been in that awkward position of having to blankly smile and nod as your nerdy “producer” friend goes on an unanswered rant about how shitty ___ DAW is compared to ____ DAW. The problem is that the next day you read a forum or have a different producer friend you equally respect say the exact opposite. So what do you do? Who do you listen to? Which DAW is best and most professional? The answer is pretty simple, and actually should be a go-to method for dealing with these all too common situations of polarizing opinions… you need to ignore them and listen to your own damn self!
Haha, not that the opinions and thoughtful recommendations of others don’t matter. I’m not saying you should just invent your own way from scratch without listening to the advice of others who are further along the path than you… by all means soak up the wisdom! What I’m suggesting is that you can’t expect your situation and your needs to be the same as others. You need to experiment and listen to yourself. Identify what you’re wanting to accomplish and then evaluate the options from that perspective and that perspective alone. Don’t join a bandwagon of the most persuasive software slingers. Instead, look inward and determine your own personal goals, your own likes/dislikes, and get super clear about what you find to be the most inspiring and intuitive tool for making and finishing songs. Because if there is a universal truth, it’s that all new music making software suites can be a struggle to learn, and the last thing you need is to feel like you’re only struggling through this or that DAW because someone told you to. No, you should power through the learning curve with confidence knowing that you picked the right path for you!
Okay, okay but what’s the best DAW for real? I’m trying to become a music producer (or at least get better at producing music on my own) and I need to know what’s what here!
I feel your frustration. I was there about 6 years ago myself. Writing songs on piano and recording them in a thousand voice memos. Paying for studio time so I could record demos. Running into tech issues with my free copy of Audacity… fumbling through Ableton, then quitting and going back to garage band, then downloading FL Studio to test out and get even more frustrated as I feel my wheels spinning and the distance from my goal slipping further away somehow! It’s a pain in the ass for sure. Sometimes we just want a clear, easy answer. We want a definitive “Yes, you are right, use Cubase” or a “No, you are wrong, switch to Ableton and all your pain will go away!” The problem is, we’re often looking for simple answers to nuanced questions.
If we’re aiming to work in this creative field of music production and songwriting, if we really do want to be able to record vocals; track live instruments; build songs and even mix and master our own work; well, those are all very nuanced and complex efforts with few easy straight-forward answers. So, just as I’m not able to tell you which chord progression will work with your that awesome hook melody without hearing it, I’m not going to give you a ranked order of best to worst… that would require a one on one consultation to determine your style, where you want to be, and the tools/resources currently at your disposal.
All that being said, I am going to do my best to give you an overview of the landscape and hopefully give you the key questions to ask yourself before diving into a specific DAW. After that, it’s up to you to try stuff out. Experiment and most importantly PLAY with the tools. These are tools to help you make music after all. And making music is supposed to be fun!
So here is a non-exhaustive list of all the most commercially successful DAWs on the marketplace (in alphabetical order):
(click to view the google spreadsheet)
Comparison of all major Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs).
Okay… but, SERIOUSLY, what is the best one?
I know, I know, you’re like “come on man, that’s just a list of the DAWs I already knew about and MORE soooo how am I supposed to choose the one that fits best for me?”
Again… I hate to be the messenger of complexity here, but you really do eventually just have to pick one and try it out. Test it out to make sure it’s something you enjoy learning. Almost all of the DAWs I’ve listed there will allow you to do anything you could ever need to do with music production and songwriting. So… the “right” answer is much more a matter of taste than functionality. But, before you buy that meal, why not first try a free sample of the ones you think you’ll enjoy most?
There are four DAWs that are by far the most common and popular for music production. They stand quite far above the ones below in terms of their flexibility, community of users to help learn and support one another, and in terms of product vision and future roadmap/planned advancements in the software. The ones I’d recommend choosing from are (again in alphabetical order):
I haven’t seen an officially verified breakdown list of professional music producers and the primary DAWs they use… but I would guess it lands somewhere like this:
Estimate DAW Market Share Amongst Professional Music Producers
This pie chart above is my estimate of the relative popularity or “market share” of the most dominant DAWs: Ableton at 35%, ProTools at 25%, Logic at 22%, Cubase at 11%, and all others in the remaining 7% market share.
Again, this doesn’t necessarily say what YOU should do. I just think it’s helpful to know what kind of environment you’ll be stepping into. Also, note that this is just my own personal estimate based on the forums I’ve read and the real-world interactions over the years with working music producers of all levels over the years; from grammy-winning production teams pulling in real chart-topping numbers to bedroom indie-pop producers scraping by on small sync placements.
I wanted to share this “market share” chart because I wish I would have known this landscape when I first started my journey to becoming a professional music producer and songwriter. Not because I would have picked a different DAW but because it would have actually given me more confidence knowing that the same DAW I used was being used by a huge portion of the people doing the job that I wanted to do. When I was first starting out, I felt a little shy about using Logic to track vocals for example. Working with an artist and having them ask which DAW I was using always gave me a little bit of anxiety because I was afraid they might think it wasn’t as powerful or professional as ProTools. Turns out, in the real world, that’s just not the case. When it comes down to it, a songwriter or artist doesn’t give a shit about what you use for the most part, they just want the song to sound as dope as possible.
*$*# man, just tell me what to buy already!
Okay so let’s assume you’re deciding between one of these four main ones (Ableton, ProTools, Logic, or Cubase). All I can do is give you my opinion and maybe some questions to ask yourself about what you want to accomplish and what kind of work you love to do most.
Here we go…
Ableton:
I see this as the best fit for folks who are looking for speed and/or have a need to run live audio during a performance. For some reason most producers I know who use Ableton have a “drums first” mentality. Maybe it’s how the layout of the software works but it’s just the modern way of producing. But it seems to be why you hear a lot of the young guns touting the superiority of Ableton I think. It’s not the prettiest UI but it is one of the best tools on the planet for quickly dragging in audio samples or loops and having them automatically map to tempo and key. The time warping abilities in Ableton are without a doubt quite superior to the other three leading DAWs. Really the only complaint I have about Ableton is that the UI is just lame. I get the “no frills” ethos and all, but damn, if I’m going to be staring at a screen for hundreds of hours, I at least want to be looking at something that was thoughtfully crafted and pleasing on the eyes.
Are you going to be making a bunch of beats and want to work lightning fast?
Are you wanting to incorporate your productions into irl performance with loops and backing tracks in real time?
Then Ableton is likely the DAW for you.
Cubase:
I see Cubase as the challenger in the DAW wars. It’s so extremely powerful and versatile. Actually, having seen a few of my colleagues recently switch to Cubase, I can confidently agree with the likes of Ian Kirkpatrick in saying that it’s probably the most powerful DAW that exists. The product vision is hard to beat and it’s one of those tools that seems to be able to do a little bit more advanced versions of everything that all other DAWs can do. That being said, it’s a bit too complicated and customizable for my taste. I like constraints and I like using tools that a lot of other music makers use so I can learn from others a little more easily. It just doesn’t have the traction that the other leaders have, maybe because it is a little more complex, which is really the only bad thing I have to say about it.
Are you a sound designer and do you love to dive head first into the deep waters of complexity?
Do you love having no limits and being able to customize everything in your workflow?
If so, Cubase is probably your DAW.
LogicPro:
I see LogicPro as the “every-persons-DAW”... ahum… actually maybe the better description would be the “every-apple-persons-DAW.” It sucks that Apple has made closed systems a central company value… but, I guess that might be in part why they’re able to offer such a powerful tool for so cheap. If you grew up on and enjoyed GarageBand like I did, then this is a no-brainer in my opinion. It’s likely the most intuitive and visually appealing UI of the top players and it does not compromise on advanced features and customizability. Logic comes from a lineage of some of the first advanced MIDI processing and composing companies, and as a result, the midi processing and editing functionality is top of the line. My main gripe with Logic is that it does seem to be pretty CPU intensive. If you’re someone who likes to have a web browser open and discord chats happening all while you try to mix down a production… then you’re going to run into the dreaded “cpu overload” error message a lot. I have heard this is solved with the new apple chip processing though… so… good job Apple shareholders.
Did you grow up using GarageBand?
Do you want to be able to use midi like a champion and want to do a combination of songwriting, producing, mixing?
If so, then LogicPro is probably your DAW.
ProTools:
I see ProTools as the workhorse incumbent in the DAW race. For the longest time, it was so damn far ahead of the competition that you really couldn’t call yourself a producer or engineer without being an expert in ProTools. It’s in every major recording studio. It’s still probably the best tool for working with analog gear and editing audio. The company that makes it, Avid, is the industry standard for all major film and tv studios so if you’re looking to get into that kind of audio editing, music editing, post-production work, then you kinda have to use ProTools. The thing is that it’s so ingrained in the studio system that they have basically gotten comfortable in my opinion. The advancement in midi processing, real-time audio processing, and sample based songwriting and production trends have kinda passed ProTools by. It outshines the competition still in a couple key areas: Vocal comping, audio editing, mixing and mastering. The way it was designed allows for a little more control and less cpu intensive processing of audio which makes it great for mixing. The “playlisting” feature allows you to quickly create vocal comps and it’s super easy to share files and sessions between other ProTools users. My biggest pain point for ProTools though is that it feels like you’re using a software that was built in the 90s… well, that’s because YOU ARE. It’s old, it’s battle tested, and honestly quite boring. The midi functionality is kinda a joke and there are a few extra steps you have to take for every advanced feature you may want to use. But, at the same time, it’s likely still going to be a linchpin in all professional studios even in the far future.
Are you wanting to work for or in major studios?
Do you primarily record live instruments or want to focus on mixing and mastering?
If so, ProTools is probably your best bet.
A final reminder…
Well I hope that was helpful. I don’t think it can be over-emphasized how important it is to really start with your own needs and goals in mind when picking the right Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Practicing and learning the tools you use so they become second nature to you is WAYYYY more impactful than picking the “right one.” So please trust yourself. Don’t be afraid to try new things… but also, don’t be afraid to just pick a direction and go! The road to becoming a professional music producer or being able to level up your self-production skills is a long one, so you have to make sure you enjoy the journey.
Happy music making and please feel free to hit me up if you have any questions!
PS:
If you’re still wondering what I use… well that’s a secret! Hah, no I kid, I primarily use Logic when I’m songwriting and producing because I’m so fast and can achieve anything I hear quickly. But, when I’m in studios tracking live instruments or vocals, I’m almost always using ProTools. Also, I’ve lately been learning Ableton and find myself doing this funny dance:
Making beat in Ableton
Bouncing it out into Logic to flesh out the arrangement and for mixing the song
Bounce the stems out of Logic and then master in ProTools for final delivery
Here is some music I’ve produced using that (maybe somewhat unconventional) method :)