DAW Platforms

People are often willing to die by their platform of choice. Well, maybe that's an overstatement, but many people either swear the software they use makes their music sound better or that it’s “superior” from a user interface point of view.

I think all the major DAW's (Digital Audio Workstations) are viable options - Cubase, Sonar, Digital Performer, Samplitude, Logic, Protools, and even open source software Ardour (although it does not yet support midi and software instruments) - and I very much doubt that there are any significant differences in the sound quality they provide. Sure, there are some differences in the arithmetic used by their respective audio engines (24 or 48 bit fixed point math as well as 32 and 64 bit floating point) but I challenge anyone to pass a true double blind listening test, telling these things apart. Rather, I believe the people who claim they hear the difference just don’t know how to use the “worse sounding systems” correctly and thus achieve worse results when using them inappropriately. Tools are important, but whoever uses them, and especially how they use them, is much more so.

Ultimately, the most important thing for any engineer is to be really comfortable with the tools they use so that technical aspects don't get in the way of creativity. So even if software A is a little better on some technical level or has some desirably feature that software B lacks, the loss of productivity involved with having to re-learn everything after a switch is usually not worth it. Only in extreme cases, like when a software manufacturer goes out of business (think Studio Vision in 1998) does it really make sense to leave one DAW for another.

That being said, the situation is very different for someone who's just starting out and doesn’t already have a large knowledge investment in a specific piece of software, and it's of course always good to keep experimenting and trying out new tools, so long as it doesn't get in the way of the creative aspects.

I've used Apple's Logic for the last 10 years, from early Platinum 4 all the way up until today's Studio 9, and by now, I know it really really well. I'm proficient in Protools too, (It's the closest thing to an industry standard there is, so it's important for any engineer to know it) but not at the same level.

Audio Philosophy

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email: mix@unne.net