VideoTrack,

Your first criteria, really only has meaning with DAW software that does not support VSTs. There aren't that many.

I can only think of these off the top of my head:

1. PreSonus Studio one ARTIST version - only allows you to use it's own plugins
2. Reason (see Richard's comments above)
3. GarageBand - all Apple stuff have their own plugin format, but I think you can use VST/VSTi in Logic through a 'wrapper'. But I have no experience with this.

Other than those, most other software that calls itself a DAW allows use of VST and VSTi. There are a few small limitations of RB's implementation of VST/VSTi regarding use of the project tempo inside of the VST/VSTi, but nothing that is a showstopper.


Your other questions are entirely subjective. What I would recommend you do is decide what YOU think is important from a feature-set standpoint, and then comparison shop. Ease of workflow is one of the most contentious topics because it is so entirely dependent on subjective criteria.

For example, I use a program called Tracktion - and I love the workflow in it because it throws out pre-conceived notions of how DAW should work, and works more like a signal flow diagram - which really appeals to my engineer/nerd side. It seems like most people that are used to fake mixers on screen and so forth hate Tracktion. That's just one case and point.

Richard mentions Reason, which takes an equipment rack and patch-cord view of the DAW world and for folks that love poking around with equipment racks, it fits their thinking hand-in-glove. I really don't care for it myself, but many love it. A whole bunch of the electronic music from the late 90's and early 2000's came from Reason users and experts.

What features are you looking for:

Autoaccompaniment?
Scoring of music?
Pattern based song structure and or sequencing?
Combining music with video?
etc. etc. etc.

It's really impossible to answer your questions, without your goals stated up front. For some of the goals listed above, you probably already know, there is no other choice than PG products - plain and simple.

-Scott

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