Recording and Production DAW Software Comparison

Leonard from Kosmic Sound compares the different recording software packages that are currently on the market and gives you some insight into which software package will suit your needs.

The recording software packages that are covered in this video include Pro Tools, Logic Studio, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Presonus Studio One, Reason and Cubase.

For more information or to purchase any of these software packages please head to http://www.kosmic.com.au

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Closed Caption:

hi this is learn from cosmic sound and
welcome to another video in our studio
series of presentations today we're
going to be looking at digital audio
workstations or quite commonly referred
to as doors
essentially what this is is the software
that you use to either record produce
range mix master any combination of
those things
the elements of your music so what you
need to get this up and running
well the first and probably most obvious
thing as a computer
this could be a desktop computer it
could be a laptop pc or mac
the only thing i will recommend on this
front is make sure if you're going to be
buying a new computer you get one with
as much processing power as possible
ample ram if you can be using a lot of
audio and probably just think about
which software package you want to use
before you by your computer and tailor
your computer purchase to the software
and other things you're going to need
audio interface so something like this
something with ins and outs for you to
do your recording and playback through
your speakers that leads me on to the
next one some studio monitors would be
advisable you can mix in headphones if
you absolutely have to
that you this can result in distorted
stereo image and bass perception so best
if you can get yourself some studio
monitors and other things you may want
to have a new studio may include
microphones many keyboards on any number
of things but most importantly make sure
you've got yourself a computer and a
good set of speakers so of course the
other question is who needs a digital
audio workstation so primarily obviously
this is being two distinct groups of
people you have people that record and
people that are producing electronic
music so just a detail this little bit
if you are in a band that you want to
record your band or you want to record
other bands
you would need a digital audio
workstation to multi track to get all
the parts of your recording into the
computer so that you can mix them master
them
arrange them edit them do whatever you
need to do is an electronic musician
it's slightly different your your
workstation basically becomes your
composition tools well you'll actually
create all the elements of your music
within the digital audio workstation
so it's very important to pick one
that's going to work for you especially
table to the kind of music that you want
to produce so any digital audio
workstation will have a set of generic
features
I'm just going to take you through a few
of these now and show you what the basic
elements of any piece of software should
be i'm going to be showing you in logic
nine
that's the door that I use so i'm just
going to show you some features in here
that you should be out of finding any
software that you're looking at
so first of all and most obvious you'll
see this larger range window here this
is where all your audio and MIDI will be
recorded so that you can edit it so I'm
just going to load some million here so
that you can just see what it looks like
so that's a MIDI clip and audio clip
will look much the same except that
instead of seeing me data in like you do
in this one you'll just see a waveform
these sort of things you should be able
to chop up move around stretched all
kinds of things with the manipulate
basically any way that you need to
manipulate them to accomplish the job he
was doing
you'll also notice this is a multi track
editor so you got all your tracks down
the page
you got the thing on this side called
the inspector this will look different
depending which program using sometimes
it may be in a different place but
essentially what this is a channel strip
what you would find on a mixer so on
here we have things like insert plugins
we've got the auxiliary sends the in and
out of the channel and master volume and
panning other things that you should
find is a browser of some sort so over
this side we can browse audio files we
could browse loops
it could be we could be looking at think
or do that we've already got loaded into
the track any anything you want to bring
into the track basically will be
accessible from here
all you men use of course other things
that will be quite common will be things
like a piano
all the entering MIDI data sample editor
like so there's no sample here this time
obviously or even a score editor some
software will have this others weren't
so one other thing that's very important
in your software will be plugins
now this will occur in two different
types they'll be effects and instruments
so effects is something very easy and
you just load them on so I can load the
way here and should pop up like that and
what this will do is basically create an
effect that's overlaid over the top of
you sound and the other type of thing
you will find here
instruments so from the in out you
should be able to select an instrument
I'm just going to open logics modifying
sense now
so this might be any kind of different
instrument it might be a simple like it
is here it might be a sampler
so just keep an eye out for where to
find plugins in New York your software
and probably the last thing you want to
find is your mixer window
now the reason this is important is
because what a digital audio workstation
does is it pretty much replaces the old
style studio with mixes and tape
machines
you still get a digital representation
of that in your software in logic this
is what it looks like and it's exactly
like you find in a studio you've got the
selection of channel strips with your EQ
at the top and all the effects that are
loaded any instruments that might be
loaded and you can view them all like
this and if you have automation on
volumes when you press play you'll
actually be able to see all these faders
moving up and down you don't do also
have the opportunity with most pieces of
software to record all this in by either
a midi controller or with your mouse
just by moving the faders
ok so let's take a look at logic this is
actually a product made by apple so it's
only compatible with OSX the Macintosh
system so if you have a piece that you
don't have access to this program logic
is favored by a dance music producers
you'll find that many many dance
producers use logic and there are a
number of very good reasons for this
the first one is that it's MIDI editing
and ability to be used as a composition
tool is extremely good
the range of plugins that come with it
are in my mind
second to none you get an excellent
range of effects the instruments that
come with it are also very good
of course it's very easy to add on other
instruments to it
they must be in the AU format project
does not support the VST format you can
also use logic as a tool for recording
but in my mind is probably not the focus
of the program and if you purely wanting
to record bands then you may want to
look at a piece of software like pro
tools instead where logic is very good
is a composition to land especially for
production of electronic music
the other thing you'll find with logic
is it comes with a massive library of
sounds
you get discs and it's worth of that
with Apple loops and it also come to the
really good range of instruments and
straight out of the box
the excess sampler is probably a major
feature of logic and why it's favorite
amongst a lot of producers it comes
bundled with hopes of instruments canos
organs whatever you can imagine since as
well and it's very easy to create your
own sample-based instruments from the
software as well as download a lot more
from the internet
so if you're an electronic music
producer composer or in a ranger
definitely take a look at logic
so next up we're going to take a look at
Pro Tools now this is probably the
industry standard for recording and
widely used in recording studios around
the world as well as being the favorite
recording option for the film industry
so one of the excellent things about pro
tools is the audio engine
basically what this means is the quality
of audio that Pro Tools outputs after
you've recorded mixed and edited your
music a lot of producers don't even use
pro tools will render out the stems of
their music and run them through the
protools audio engine just to get that
glisten and shine on their sound so the
other thing that's really great about
Pro Tools its audio editing ability
so what this means is when you got your
audio into it it's very easy to slice to
move to stretch your audio in any way
that you need to
so it's very good for handling very very
big recording sessions and that is why
it's the choice of the most engine
is in the recording industry the other
reason a lot of home producers will want
to get pro tools is because it's what's
running in all the big studios
so let's say for example you record a
session at home with you and a few
friends and you want to take this to a
bigger studio to be mixed and mastered
by a real engineer
it's very easy to just literally take
your pro tools project with you and have
it opened on another computer for them
to work with the other way this can be
useful if you go to a big studio to
record drums for example and then you
want to take that home and record the
rest it's very easy for you to work on
the same project in multiple locations
the other thing to note is that pro
tools used to be linked inherently to
hardware so if you wanted to use
protools you would have to have some
protocols compatible hardware such as an
inbox in the new version version 9 this
is now being decoupled so you can run
this software with any audio interface
at all or indeed if you have no audio
interface and you just want to mix on
the road
you can do that too so one final night
on ProTools it does have many
functionality and for the most part it
does work very well but the focus in
this software is definitely on recording
mixing and engineering of any sort
so if you are exclusively in electronic
music producer you may want to look at
other programs such as able to analogic
so next up is able to live
now this is a bit of a different based
from all the other software out there
because it's also used as life form and
software but that means a lot of people
don't consider it as a digital audio
workstation
I find that able to is actually very
very good for production
it can be used for recording but what is
fundamentally designed for is for
electronic music production and its
favorite amongst them produces many
genres from dance music right through
the hip hop and where it's really good
as the fact that you can load audio
straight into her and it will time
stretch it and automatically sync it to
whatever tempo you're working at and
it's also very good for editing audio
stretching it
pitching it up and down doing anything
that you really need to do to this audio
to make it fit with you track it also
has very good midi functionality and you
get a great range of plugins with it
plugins such as the grain delay are
absolutely awesome and the plugins that
you don't get with any other package not
even logic
but you do find with certain ones like
the aq and the compressive that may be a
little bit more aimed live performance
so if you're producing music with a wish
in life you may want to invest in some
third-party plugins for processing your
audio probably the only thing with
Ableton Live is the audio engine which
is not quite up to scratch with some of
the other programs on the market like
pro tools
so if you are unable to use or what you
might want to do is run all your audio
out of ableton either rewired into
another piece of software or render out
your stems and process them through
another piece of software
so next up let's talk a bit about cubase
now this is a bit of software that has
been around for a very long time over 25
years now and they're still going pretty
strong
it's a bit of an all-rounder this one
you can use it either for recording your
offer electronic music production and
becomes a great range of tools that
enable you to stretch audio like you can
with pro tools but it also comes with a
really good bundle of plug-in so you're
not really gonna need a lot of third
party products on your computer
except for probably since you do get
some with it but you're definitely going
to want to expand your library for an
electronic music producer so cubase is
more or less a jack of all trades
it has elements of all the other
programs is good for audio editing and
it's also good for producing with midi
you may find that some of the other
programs specialized a bit more in one
than the other so they may be better on
that front
but certainly I'm cubase is set up to do
anything you might want to take on so
another program that's quite similar to
cubase is so now by cakewalk
this is actually a division of Roland so
you know it's going to be a good product
and its operator operates in a very
similar way to cubase again it's a
jack-of-all-trades you can do recording
or media editing with it it'll pretty
much handle anything you throw at it but
just be aware this one's peace the only
so Mac users can't buy it
so next up let's take a look at a
program by Sony cold acid
this has been around for years this one
and i actually used it myself many years
ago and it's a really great program for
just getting started
it's very easy to load audio into it and
it will automatically sync audio to the
tempo of your project and it does have
me functionality which is quite good
you do get some plugins with it but with
this one you'll definitely want to have
a good library of third-party effects
and
since you don't get a lot else with it
but it is definitely a cheaper option
so if you're low on budget then this is
definitely would want to look at just
one night this is pc only so Mac users
you can't get this
so next up is reason now this one is
pretty different to all the other
programs on the market probably even
more so than ableton live
the interface is completely different
from anything else out there and the way
it basically works is that you get a
rack which you can add different
elements to it so it might be mixes it
might be since and it might be effects
and then you can actually customize the
wiring of this of these racks just as
you might have in a classic analog
studio reason comes with everything
bundled with it so all since and effects
of built into it you don't have the st
functionalities of the so you can't add
anything else to it that's not already
there but you get everything that you
might possibly want anyway
more recently they've integrated
recording functionality into it as well
used to be two programs one called
raising one called record which is the
audio component
I mean reason 6 which is just come out
there now all one program so you can
pretty much accomplished anything just
with this one tool reason is still
definitely favored by electronic music
producers by the nature of them the
components that are found inside it but
you can certainly use this is a
recording tool now so if you're an
electronic music producer that just
wants to get one program that has
everything in it
raisins a great option just be aware
that it is not expandable you can't add
more plugins to it and it is certainly a
definitely a different type of interface
so you're going to want to get pretty
familiar with the workings of hardware
so next let's take a look at FL Studio
you may know this is free loops which is
what it used to be called when it first
came out again this one's been around
for years and the whole concept behind
it is similar to raising but in a
different way that everything that
you're gonna need is in one box
it does have a range window like all
your other traditional programs but it
also has a really got great step
sequencer you get an absolute ton of
since and and effects with it so you
pretty much 18 anything else if you do
want to add on to it though it does have
various take functionality and it's very
popular as a dance music production tool
you can record into it as well it does
have audio functionality primarily this
will be aimed at the home studio dance
music producer
so another one to look at is presonus
studio one
this is pretty new on the market it's
definitely one of the new contenders out
there
it can comes bundled with any presonus
hardware that you might buy like start
audio interfaces but you can definitely
buy the software separately
it's great for all kinds of producers if
you want to do recording it's great for
that
it also comes with a good range of
effects plugins and a few cents as well
so if you want to produce electronic
music that can definitely be done with
this as well it doesn't have the
reputation a lot of the others do yet
but definitely look at the studio one
this one is definitely up and coming now
some of these programs have cheaper
versions available as well so if you
don't need all the functions and all the
plugins have a look at some of the other
versions programs like ableton and
cubase the best for this
so if you're looking for an affordable
option definitely check them out too
so today we've been talking about
digital audio workstations and hopefully
we've given you a good idea about what
you should be looking for when you go to
purchase one so just a few final things
to consider
make sure you match the door to your
system so make sure you check the specs
of your machine before you buy your
software to make sure it's compatible
especially if you're a Windows user
running a 64-bit operating system make
sure that the software is going to be
compatible with the hardware that you've
got and most importantly think about
what you want to do and by the software
that will be best suited to that
application so thanks a lot for watching
all these products are available in
stores so please come and see is that
either osborne park and even branches or
check us out online at cosmic calm down
a you
thanks a lot
yeah