I should disclose that I’m deep in a ten-year love/hate relationship with Ableton Live (I teach the free Live Clicks and Backing Trackscourse on Soundfly on how to use Ableton for on-stage electronic syncing and processing). I’m also friendly with REAPER, suspicious of Pro Tools, and really intrigued by Logic Pro X and Studio One 3. At some point you need to dive in a build a relationship with your DAW, mastering its peculiar perks and quirks. The reality is that it’s hard to be a jack-of-all-trades with recording software. I’ve tried a bunch of DAWs in my time and I’m always looking for a cool new thing. It’s about choosing the one with the workflow and atmosphere that makes you feel at home and gets your songs where they need to be. Just like there’s no guitar that will suit all guitarists, there’s no platform that will be right for every producer. The quality of your mix will come down what you put into the DAW which is why making the right choice for you is so important. But basically, any DAW you choose will deliver the same audio transparency and clarity. If you’re really interested in this (and why wouldn’t you be?) this article is a great introduction to the science behind this topic. Without diving deep into the complex, fascinating, and heady science of signal processing, all major recording software is now able to sample using at least 32-bit floating point calculations. In the interest of doing just that, I’m going to deal with a controversial point straight up: There is very little, if anything, that differentiates DAWs in terms of pure sound quality.

Part of my job is to help you cut through all the post-truth out there and make the right choice for you about where to lay your precious tracks. It’s no surprise then, that much like the fights that people have over Nintendo/Xbox/Playstation or iOS/Android, the world of audio production is rife with software fan service and forum flame wars (harmless, of course, but they can be quite harsh!)… It’s the bridge of your musical Starship Enterprise, containing and co-ordinating all the software and hardware you use to create and communicate each of your decisions.

Whether you’re working out of a home studio or a small project studio, your Digital Audio Workstation (or, DAW) is probably the single most important part of your setup. This post originally appeared on Flypaper by our friends at Soundfly.

Protools on 2017 mac pro waste basket