Music-makers: What's your DAW?

I use Logic and Reason, although I'm starting to like Logic and I'm moving away from Reason ('cause it doesn't do recording unless you've got Record -.-). I'd like to get Ableton as well, 'cause I hear its pretty dope for live mixing. I need a few more MIDI controllers to be any worthwhile in a live setting anyways, but I play bass too and I use my DAW for recording purposes.

So anyways, chime in about your DAW experience and stuffs. Side Question: If anyone knows of any Open-Source DAWs out there please provide links! I have so much to learn!

hello , yes i use ableton live 7.0
i tried cubase , reason , ejay(lol) , computer music magazines free sequencer (a very good mag made in the uk , lots of samples and stuff)
fact of the matter is that i found that ableton is the best for me , very good for quick tunes , ideas , and will also provide all that you could ever
want , has midi support and vst shitz
very easy to use , but still very profesional (un like my spkelling)
but at the end of the day its your ears and what ya do with whatever ya got

i bought it for $900 aust , and its worth every cent

hope this helps

:^[/align]

if on windows: FL Studio all the way, i used it since the beginning of time, and still, nothing has beaten it (well, ok, concerning live-acts, then ableton)........

got everything you need...

well on linux... hm hm hm... there are too many, and i dont stick to one very long, depends on my mood

(p.s.: kick reason in the can, its b.s.)

I use LMMS. Using Zynnaddsubfx with LMMS provides perfect music. Occasionally I'll use Synth1 or Atlantis VST.

Thanks for the tip on LMMS and Zynnaddsubfx. I use Crystal as one of my VSTs (AUs on Logic but its the same thing basically) I'll check out those other two as well.

I started making music with FL Studio 5 and I learned a lot there. But I decided to use open-source.

I used to use OpenMPT http://openmpt.org/
a powerful modern tracker

Then I switched to linux completly, and I'm using right now:

LMMS http://www.lmms.sourceforge.net - I found it a really powerful tool for electronic music, despite poor samples that come with it (but good mixing can fix almost everything ). It is very similiar to FL Studio, and has a awesome posibilites of dynamic changes to sound - using LFOs (to control other LFOs), Peak Controllers (use sound to control other sound) and Automation along with plenty of grat LADSPA effects makes it easy to make your sound "live". Still learning it, It is missing some features like Autosave and MIDI file export, but notice that it is sill in its 0.4.6 today (did'n reach the 1.0.0 yet)

LMMS is great for synthesis and sampling. While for all recording I use...

Ardour http://www.ardour.org
Ardour rocks if you want to record a bunch of guitars, vocals, percussion or whatever you want to create a song/track. It's mixing system is (trurly) without a limit. LMMS's mixing is much simplier and not so powerful (but it still can do a good job).
WWhat ardour is missing is MIDI support and sequencing. No music sythesis with it.

Before I discovered and learned LMMS i used a combination of...

Rosegarden http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/ and Alsa Modular Synth (AMS) http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/

AMS is an amazing tool that makes creating your instrument an art. If you learn some basic rules, you will fast discover it's power. I didn't try yet tu use it with LMMS (that should work) but I think it might be great. No idea how to route the AMS output back to LMMS mixer, but MIDI works even without JACK.

Thank you very much unfa! I guess I have to get a Linux partition going if I want to make all of my music with open source software. Unless someone could point me in the right direction to modify LMMS to work on OSX. That would be most awesome.

Thank you very much unfa! I guess I have to get a Linux partition going if I want to make all of my music with open source software. Unless someone could point me in the right direction to modify LMMS to work on OSX. That would be most awesome.

Maybe here: http://lmms.darwinports.com/ ?
You have to build it. Hope it works.

software from Native Instruments

software from Native Instruments

No wonder your stuff sounds so crisp!

Also, thank you Aleator. No time to work on it now, but soon I hope!

oh and a Korg Padkontrol

http://linux-sound.org/

i switched to linux 4 years ago and i dont regret it.
used to work with cubase/soundforge/var plugins
now i have jack/qjackctl/patchage/ardour/rosegarden/linuxsampler/zynaddsubfx/jamin/audacity/hydrogen and tons of ladspa plugins + so many tools i haven't tried yet ;]
the workflow has become a little more complex but it's really worth it.

and if an application misses some features?
...like ardour has no midi support atm? np! record with ardour, do the midi stuff in rosegarden and synchronize ardour and rosegarden via jack.