Hi Vincente,

As a number of people have indicated, my view is that there is no 'best DAW'. From what I understand, most DAWs are very capable and very powerful these days. When I listen to the songs on Users Showcase here in the PG Music forums, it's easy to hear that the many DAWs used all turn out great results.

Whatever DAW one decides to settle on, the key is to thoroughly learn those bits of the software that you need for what you want to create.


I'm a Reaper user. Below are the reasons I like Reaper...

1. Audio and MIDI tracks can be dragged from BIAB to Reaper.

2. It's easy to set up plugins and softsynths in Reaper.

3. Time-stretching is a valuable tool for me and Reaper has time-stretch markers that make stretching/shrinking audio very easy.

4. Full audio clips can also be time-stretched easily.

5. Automaton control in Reaper is vast and every control on whatever effect is used on a Reaper track can be easily automated. The main envelopes I use are (a) volume, (b) pre-FX volume, (c) reverb, (d) mute.

6. Reaper offers a number of envelope-related shapes that are great for (a) assisting with de-essing (or taming harsh sounds in general -- like J, G, K, etc.), (b) compiling snippets of audio into a single track, (c) fading in and out in general.

7. I've recently discovered spectral editing (from a user on these forums) and this is a very powerful, frequency-based editing tool.

8. 'Snap to grid' is something that I use a great deal and access to its settings and on/off switch is fast and easy in Reaper.

9. The tutorial library created by Reaper master Kenny Gioia is very, very extensive. Kenny's videos are also easy to follow and very instructive. In addition, there are many Youtube videos created by many different users on how to do things.

If you want to checkout Kenny's video collection, have a look at....

www.kennymania.com/reaper-videos/


Realband (available with the Windows version of BIAB) is also an important song-creating tool for me. While I assemble my final product in Reaper, the fact that Realband offers all the functionality of BIAB but in a DAW-like environment is useful. If I used the Mac version of BIAB and didn't have Realband, though, BIAB and Reaper would still do exactly what I need.

Regards,
Noel

MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2024