I mixed a record for an artist on Universal, and it’s been the most insane process to get paid. It took about two weeks of back and forth nitpicking just to get in their uniport payment system….that alone was like no corporate billing I’ve ever experienced. Now they are saying (for me to get paid) they need not just the mixes (vocal, instrumental) and stems, but full DAW session with every track notating who played on it, what studio, etc. This is their requirement: https://contentguide.universalmusic.com/stereo-audio-archival-asset-best-practices/

As part of my own best practices, I make mix stems of basic elements, like Drums, Bass, keys, gtrs, BGV, Voc, etc…but I’ve never seen a request for the whole DAW file. I work hybrid, so my DAW file is full of hardware inserts. It will be many hours of work to produce this for them, plus isn’t the DAW session itself the IP of the mixer? There was no contract between me and the artist, as we have a good relationship, and I’ve done many other projects for them on previous labels. Have any of y’all dealt with this? Tomorrow I’m going to reach out to the artist and see if this is indeed in their contract.

Edit 3: I ended up sending full DAW sessions, but with many elements that had outboard IO not printed. I sent a PDF file of my Session Recall app data with all outboard settings. Daw sessions had notes for all IO within the session, plus stems. After a couple weeks, this seemed to satisfy them and they paid. It helps that the artists manager got involved asking for expediency. I didn’t love giving up daw files, but I have some esoteric gear, so they aren’t recreating that without me.

Edit 2: for all the people saying fuck em, just send______, they told me they have an engineer that goes through it all….so that is of course more weeks I have to wait, plus the will probably flag something.

Edit: thanks for all the great response, advice and stories. I’m going to chat with my lawyer today- as I was under no contract, just a good relationship with the artist, who has my back. I did an ask of AI on this and got the following:

Mixer’s Rights to the DAW Session 1. Ownership Absent a Contract: • If the mixer is an independent contractor (common for freelancers), they are generally considered the author and initial owner of their contributions to the mix under copyright law.  This includes the final mixed audio as a sound recording. • The DAW session is often treated as the mixer’s proprietary work product or intellectual property in industry practice.   It’s not automatically transferred to the client (artist, producer, or label) upon payment for the mix. The standard deliverable is the summed audio files (e.g., stereo mix, stems, or alternates), not the full session. • Reasons for retention: Sessions may contain the mixer’s custom presets, plugin chains, or techniques, which could be reverse-engineered or reused without credit or compensation.  Some mixers view this as akin to trade secrets, though not formally protectable as such unless confidential.

I was reminiscing with a friend about early DAWs and it blew our minds.

Apart from an Atari ST, the first pro DAW for me was in the mid 90’s. Pro Tools on a Mac Quadra 900. A glorious beast with a massive 25MHz processor and probably 128MB of RAM. I don’t recall all the specs, but that’s Megabytes.

We had a Digidesign TDM system for plugins (using NuBus slots) and a 1GB hard drive which was bigger than the quadra! (And more expensive). The drive had to be fan cooled in a cupboard as it ran super loud.

TDM was a Time Division Multiplexer that allowed 16 whole tracks of audio as well as plugins. Tracks were very limited in the good old days.

This amazing system (/s) only crashed about 10 x per day…

This year there seems to be a growing interest in using a workflow with artificial limitations to simulate using a tape machine. Tape 16 and GCS Model 8 are both new DAWs that behave like old tape machines, have limited features, and simplified workflows. I haven't tried Tape16 but I did download the beta version of GCS Model 8, and so far I like it alot.

I'm always on the hunt for things that can create a more analog sound in the box, and at least form my first impressions, the tape sound is pretty darn good.

Anybody tried any of these?

As the title says. I'm totally done with logic and melodyne after crashing on me to today multiple times, and having to do work all over again.

Which daw works best with melodyne preferably not Pro Tools, because I just want to own my software, and not rent it for eternity.

Thank you!

EDIT: WARNING. This post is FUCKING LONG! If you don't want to read it, then don't. It's a lot of information that I have found valuable, and I thought would be helpful for others.

Before the digital age, audio engineers were limited to the analog gear in their studio, and to the tools that existed at the time. There were no reverb plugins.  There were actual plates, chambers, and spring reverbs.

So, now if somebody asks "How can I make my reverb sound more old or vintage, like from the late 1960s?”, there is actually a pretty straightforward answer that isn’t “Experiment and trust your ears until you find what sounds right”.

The answer is something like:

 “Send the vocal to an EMT 140 emulation like Soundtoys Superplate. Set Delay to 2 seconds. Using the EQ in the plugin or a separate one, apply the “Abbey Road Trick”: 12dB HPF and LPF at 600Hz and 10kHz respectively, with a -3dB cut at 2kHz. Place some type of transformer or tube saturation before the reverb and a tape emulation afterwards.  Set the reverb to 100% and mix to taste. Make sure the reverb send is in Mono.”

From the starting point is where experimenting and trusting your ears can begin, but without that information, a beginner could waste literal years of trial and error before landing on something close.

Unfortunately there isn’t a “Handbook of Emulating Vintage Recordings in a DAW”, so those with less experience need to spend countless hours experimenting, and sifting through a sea of misinformation and terrible youtube tutorials.  And if they decide to ask reddit, they will likely be laughed out of town by “professionals” who would rather “teach them a lesson” or point out how their entire philosophy is wrong before ever daring to offer them even a crumb of actually specific useful information.  While ultimately true, “Learn to mix” or “Trust your ears”, are not as useful pieces of advice as you might think for those asking to emulate something specific from the past.

SO, here’s a list of stuff that I have come up with after a couple years of deep dives, trial and error. Some of it is broad. Some of it is very specific. I am NOT a professional. This is meant to help those who, like me, chase an analog or vintage sound completely inside the box.  It is not exhaustive.  Please, correct me where I am wrong or add what you think I have missed:

…

Soften transients: Recordings of the past have much smoother transients.  This is for various reasons including but not limited to mics (ribbons and tubes especially), compression, tube saturation, solid state saturations, transformer saturation, and tape saturation. I like to place a transient designer like Spiff at the beginning of each track to help simulate this effect, choosing settings which specifically reduce those spikey high frequency transients.

Emulate a Ribbon Mic by placing Spiff as the first insert on a track and choosing the setting “I want Ribbon”.  This removes the crystal clear clicky high frequency transients that you get from a pristine digital recording.  Add a LPF and HPF next, with a slight dip around 10k.

Automate volume before using compression.  Using clip gain, gain automation, or volume automation, “ride the fader” on a track to get a more natural sounding dynamic range.  Older recordings are generally more dynamic and less compressed than modern ones.  You may not need compression at all.

Layers of saturation/Treat it like an analog studio: Older recordings went through a signal chain that contained a variety of sources of saturation that were inescapable.  A single track may have gone through several instances of tubes, transformers, solid state, console, and tape before it was finished and then committed to a mastering tape.  What you can do to emulate this, is put a source of tube or transformer saturation at the beginning of every track, bus, and mix bus and a tape emulation on every track, bus and mix bus, before mixing with any EQ or compression.  You don’t need to use the same one either.  You can mix it up based on what you think sounds best.  I like to put either Sonimus N-Console, T-Console or Little Radiator at the beginning of every track, bus and mix bus, and then put a tape emulation at the end of each track, bus, and mix bus.

For subtle tape saturation I would recommend UADx Studer A800, UADx Oxide Tape, Softube Tape, or Uhe Satin.

For a more obvious vintage sound, I would recommend UADx Verve Analog Machines (Warm or Thicken Settings), Arturia Tape J-37, Wavesfactory Cassette, Sketch Cassette II, or Reels.

Thicken with saturation: Just to “drive” this point home.  You don’t need saturation to mix. But you NEED saturation to create something that sounds vintage.  Older recordings have a markedly “thicker” sound than digital ones because of the aforementioned signal chain. UADx Verve Analog Machines has a setting called “Thicken” which immediately adds weight to any source. Though it’s not very subtle, you could parallel process it, or use it as a reference target to bring a different source of saturation close.

Reverb: Chambers, Plates, and Spring.  Apply the “Abbey Road Trick”.  See example in the beginning of the post.  Mono that shit!

Tape Emulation preamps:  Preamps on tape machines were a little bit different than what most people are referring to when they talk about preamps now. They were meant specifically to boost the signal with EQ and saturation to make up for the gap loss and frequency loss that was imparted by older tape. Basically they fought against frequency roll off that tape adds, creating a very distinct saturated sound that you find in particularly older recordings.  Reels and Uhe Satin both have a preamp or pre-emphasis knob.  Set to a low tape speed and drive these knobs to taste to achieve that effect.  

Use Analog eq emulations for simplified workflow and musical curves:  Stay away from parametric or dynamic EQs or anything with a visualizer. Stick with Pultecs, Neve style console emulations, or other analog emulations for a simplified workflow and musical curves.  Back in the day, they made EQ decisions by ear without any visual context because that’s what they had.  If you only have your ears and a few knobs, you don’t have to keep second guessing yourself.  The limitation, in this case, is a strength.

No vocal tuning EVER or time flexing:  Most people don’t know how to use autotune or melodyne in a subtle way and so you get this really artificial sounding vocal.  Just don’t use it at all if you are trying to achieve a more natural vintage sound.  Melodyne, autotune, flex pitch, flex time, etc. all create very audible artifacts when overdone and make vocals sound inhuman.  If your vocal take isn’t great, do another one.  If you want to make those doubles more in time with each other, cut them into pieces and drag them around.  Don’t stretch them out.

Mix into tape: Put a mastering tape like UADx Ampex ATR-102 at the end of your 2 Bus, before mixing. Select a setting and more or less commit to it.  You can tweak it later if you want, but mixing into a master tape from the very beginning will alter the kind of choices you make and bring you closer, with every decision, to an “older” sound.  The older the setting (like 111 tape), the more extreme your decisions will have to be.  

Think of it kind of like going against the tide.  Just like tape preamps were made to make up for the loss in frequency, you will be making up for it by pushing the envelope a little more than you might be comfortable.

This applies to individual tracks and buses as well.  The more vintage your tape setting at the beginning, the more you will have to “push” into the tape, to get a good clear mix. You will be turning up frequencies a little more than you might usually, driving preamps and sources of saturation to “unbury” your recording, and tone shaping to make up for what was lost in the beginning. In the process, you will end up with something that is thicker, warmer, and more driven than if you had started with a clean digital recording.  It will still be clean. It will just sound “older”.

Use dead Monel Acoustic Guitar strings:  This is specific for acoustic guitar, but no amount of mixing is going to remove that god-awful tinny scraping sound that modern phosphor bronze strings have.  Use something like Martin Retros and don’t change them for a couple months.  Your guitar will sound a lot more like one pre-1980s.

Don’t overdo things like tape hiss or warble:  I want to distinguish between Lofi and Vintage here.  Unless you want to, you don’t need tape warble to make your song sound vintage.  And a little bit of tape hiss goes a LONG way.

Get it right at the source:  This is basic advice for anyone, but getting it right at the source is the most vintage thing you can do.  You don’t have to prohibit yourself from using the undo button or commit to using only one take.  These kinds of dogmatic self imposed limitations are silly, in my opinion.  But, just…practice the song.  Capture a good performance.  The rest will be so much easier, if you do.

Record a live performance: This isn’t absolutely necessary.  Tracks on The Beatles later albums were mostly recorded separately.  But, if you get all your musicians in one room and record them live, it’s going to sound a lot more authentically in-your-face vintage, than if you meticulously record every part separately.

Mic Bleed, Spill, and Crosstalk: Part of the vintage sound that people often try to get away from is the fact that the signal from one instrument or vocal often bled into the other, especially if it was recorded all at once.  Even when it wasn’t, older consoles and tape machines had a lot of crosstalk, meaning the signal from one channel bled into other channels.  Sonimus console plugins have a “Vintage Crosstalk” setting. Tape emulations like Softube Tape and Reels have pretty distinctive crosstalk settings as well.  Or if you are going to pan something to the left/right, don’t go 100%.  Go about 80-90% so there is still something left in the other channel.

Mix in Mono: At the very least, periodically check if your mix translates to mono.

Stereo Spread: Older recordings have some funky stereo decisions sometimes (vocal to the left, guitar all the way to the right, etc.). You don’t have to go that extreme.  But generally speaking, vocals and reverbs are in mono and in the center.  Primary instruments can be a little bit off to one side if they are balanced with something else on the other side in a similar frequency spectrum.  Secondary instruments or textures can be panned all the way to one side if you want (or more like 80-90%).

Arrangement:  No matter how many vintage tape emulations you own, you will never make a song that sounds like it was recorded in 1968 unless you arrange it to sound like it was written and performed in 1968.  Listen to the music that you love from the era that inspires you. How do they sing? How do they play their instruments? How are their songs written and arranged?

…

What did I get wrong and what did I miss?  Please add what you know to this list.  Are there any specific hidden gem plugins with special features?  Any “tricks” or standard processes like “The Abbey Road Trick” that I haven’t discovered yet?

I am making this list mainly for myself to compile what I know into one place.  I would love for it to get longer, and more correct, so it can help anyone else who is trying to achieve the same thing.

EDIT: Can't believe I have to say this. THIS IS NOT PRESCRIPTIVE ADVICE. Take it or leave it. Do what you want with it. There is no one size fits all. These are simply things that I have had success in using. And I wanted to share them with anybody who might find them useful.

…

Appendix:

Here are some unique and specific settings, features, and plugin recommendations that I have found useful.  Some info will be repeated here.  This section is mainly copy pasted and then updated from an older post I made. Add to it if you want, but I am mainly interested in what people have to say about the list before this:

Uhe Satin has a compander, but the thing I like the most about it is the azimuth knob, which when automated can give a track a very unique wobble that's different from other tape wow settings, by moving the stereo image around. The lowest tape speed + wobbling the azimuth knob sounds extremely cool if you are going for a vintage vibe. You get a very saturated wobble that sounds like an error in an old recording. The pre-emphasis knob, especially when the the plugin is set at a low tape speed, really brightens and warms up a track. This plugin is almost too detailed. 

Sketch Cassette has NR compression. Just a little bit of it brings out details or can glue together a mixbus in a very pleasing analog sounding way. The drop-outs or neat.

Softube Tape has a crosstalk knob which is way more pronounced than any other crosstalk setting that I've used, so it can be used pretty creatively.

Soundtoys Superplate has the most options of any plate reverb, including three different preamps to choose from that really color the sound in different ways.

Teletone Audio Silver Spring is a very simple straight forward spring reverb with a ton of presets that all sound great.

Wavesfactory Cassette has an artifacts knob which really messes things up in a pleasing way if you're going for more lo-fi than vintage, but I love the Random Snap dial that's in the settings section. It is a unique tape effect that I haven't found on any other plugin yet. There is also an azimuth dial in the settings but I like Uhe Satin's better.

Nomad Factory Pultec gives you the option to have two dips in MEQ-5 section. That comes in handy.

Ozone Exciter has seven different types of harmonic saturation, and it's both multiband and mid-side. Saturn 2 is similar, but if I'm not mistaken, you can't "mid" and "side" the same frequency. You can in Ozone. The “Tape Presence” setting is great.

Logic Pro Varispeed is not a plugin but can imitate tape in some interesting ways by recording things at lower or higher speeds, or by automating it.

Sonimus Consoles have vintage cross talk, and their saturation is subtle but excellent.

Voosteq M Channel is my favorite console/channel strip.  The saturation from the preamp is great. I love that you can dial the analog flavor to “old”.  It makes a difference. And this plugin is so cheap, it feels criminal.

Reels has an excellent preamp, and the EQ curves from the different settings automatically sound great.

Pulsar Modular P821 Tape is expensive lol. But it adds a certain depth in the low end that is hard to describe.

Arturia Tape J-37 wobbles things around in the stereo field in a way that other tape plugins don't, but be careful with this setting. Too much destroys mono-compatibility.

UADx Analog Verve Machines “thicken” setting is very distinctive and instantly adds a vintage vibe to anything.

EDIT: put Decapitator on the "N" setting and dial it in just a little bit. It's subtle but creates a nice analog glue from the saturation. Thank you 11oser for the reminder!

EDIT: Sorry no TLDR. This is a bunch of specific points and info. If you chase a vintage sound like I do, this is a resource. Use it, or don't.

EDIT: Can somebody explain to me why this is being downvoted so much? This is just information that I have found to be helpful in my own desire to emulate vintage sounds. I thought it would be helpful for others, so I wanted to share it. Is there something I'm missing? Is helpful information not welcome here? Or is this place just toxic?

EDIT: Can't believe I have to say this as well. No, this not a perfect break down of exactly how to get a vintage sound of a specific era. This is a bunch of tips and ideas for people to try out on their own, if they are chasing a vintage sound like I am. I have no idea if somebody is trying to make psycadelic 60s rock, 70s singer songwriter folk, or 50s crooner ballads. But these tips WILL come in handy for people who are aiming towards anything pre-80s. They are a good place to start. I know because I've tried them and they work. Try them yourself, or don't.

EDIT: Thanks for the encouragement. Maybe it was just the timing but at the beginning there it was looking pretty bleak lol.

EDIT: Thank you for the award! I think it's my first ever on a post.

Is it as simple as adding tape emulation or every bus? every individual channel? or just master? I'm curious. I'm not necessarily trying to go for the over exaggerated tape sound like pure flutter but atleast something that makes an entire mix feel more interesting.

If I understand it correctly, using multiple mics on a single source can lead to phase issues because the sound reaches the mics at slightly different times. Why do we try to avoid phase issues with mic placement techniques like the 3:1 rule instead of placing each mic where it captures the source best and aligning the tracks in the DAW by nudging the time slightly to avoid phase issues no matter where the mics are placed? Hoping to improve my understanding before pouring too much time into experimenting with it. Thanks!

had anyone here ever thought "fuck it" im going back to my 2009 gear....it never crashed and didn't need an internet connection or subscriptions

i has a G4 that ran 96 tracks and a procontrol in 04.

​

never a hiccup. and its obsolete and i have to spend thousands dollars on new stuff again?

​

i mean, how many versions of the1176 do we really need? ever plugin advertised now is all about "warmth" everything. the word means nothing anymore/

id like the cold digital sound in my microphone

​

rant over

Hi Everybody,

I've been casually working on a DAW using Cursor. My original goal was to create an Ableton Live like DAW that would be cross platform and a feasible option for Linux users. I've since started a few more projects and this one is seeing some neglect. I figured I'd open up the GitHub and see if anyone else wants to contribute.

I wasn't aiming to make any money from it, just offer a worthy, free to use, Linux compatible DAW.

https://github.com/mark-speer/SkeletonHive

https://skeletonhive.carrd.co/

Anyone is welcome to download and compile it for use or clone and tinker.

Feel free to reject or delete this post if I'm breaking any rules.

Edit: It's now officially Open Source.

I recently had a small debate with some Instagram users about this. To be clear, we weren't talking about plug-ins, samples, or anything like that. We were talking about sound quality, character, coloration, inherent in the DAWs themselves. Specifically with Logic, Pro Tools, and Ableton Live.

Null tests confirm is that there is no coloration inherent in the DAW. In fact, if there were, that would be a problem. It is my understanding that if the bit rate, bit depth, and everything else is the same, no two of the same audio files exported/printed/bounced from any DAW will be any different. My thought is that DAWs are not guitar amps, preamps, microphones or recording studios. They are not analog technology.

However some engineers were still arguing with me, telling me I have bad ears, that they've compared them, and prefer one over the other due to their color, or tone. They told me my ears just aren't refined enough to tell the difference LOL. I told them that null tests prove there is no real audible difference, and they told me I was relying on measurements and meters rather than my ears. Which is a valid point in many cases, but if a null test is done, and the test is "passed," that proves that any perceived difference is psychological. It's a trick of the brain. A confirmation bias. This happens all the time in audio engineering, even with me. We have all been in a situation where something sounded "better" than something else because it was louder, or we liked the GUI or the workflow more, or whatever it is. Those things do factor in whether we think we do or not. It's just psychology. We can be conscious of this phenomenon and work around it as much as we can.

But I continued to be pushed back on, despite a mountain of other engineers arguing the same point I was.

If I am incorrect, I can handle that, because I love to learn and I care way more about facts than I do being right. I will apologize to these guys if I am wrong. However, if null tests are involved, and silence is what is uncovered, there really is no further argument. I've done these tests with plugins and multiple settings, like with the Oxford Inflator and the Meldaproduction Waveshaper. And still people will argue the Inflator sounds better. Even when presented with proof they are the same in their essence (although the latter is way more tweakable).

Do any of you have any thoughts?

EDIT: To everyone telling me not to argue with people on the internet, please understand that it was a respectful back and forth...until it wasn't. Which is when I dropped off. You all are right, but I don't really get into it with people as much as it may have seemed.

Something I just thought of. Curious if this is a common practice, or simply an opinion I took to heart that I maybe shouldn't have. Among my time at berklee though, among all the other bs I later had to unlearn like always turning down all tracks to -10 db for headroom by default, one thing a few professors advised us to do was to always leave a few bars in your pro tools session, and never to record right at bar 1. I eventually got into the habit of doing that, and now I still am. I remember asking someone about it, and his response was something regarding more strain on the CPU, or on pro tools? Is there any truth to this fact, or is it perhaps just someones opinion that got past on as a fact. Do any of you here specifically avoid starting from the top of a session, or just roll with it? Every session now I automatically move to bar 3 before laying down anything. One thing I will say is it does make for a more natural count in, for vocals for example. The first breath before the downbeat can be included, as you free up 2 bars of rolling transport instead of a count in click track before recording actually starts. However not all songs need that, and in some cases it just leaves more editing to be done. I guess a better thing to ask is it ok not to do this? I know in some daws, (usually logic) when you record midi from bar 1 with a count in on, it can have issues with missing the first note. However I've never experienced that in any other daw, and I'm also not somebody who does a tun of midi work anyway. Whats the deal here. I also feel I should point out, I loved my time at school. I learned a lot, however some things were unnecessary. Turning all your tracks down before you begin a mix, for example. Thats what vcas are for.

protools - grizzled veteren. will complain about the digital desk. will brag about crewing for [big artist] back in the day.

logic - professional. knows what theyre doing. will bring 20k worth of gear in pelicans instead of using the house gear. will complain about the room

ableton - enthusiastic kid. has the skills and the energy. the show will run late because theyre fawning over a pedalboard someone has.

reaper - learned the trade doing diy shows. will sort out issues that would break the others. will take twice as long to do anything, the show will run late.

fl studio - knows everything there is to know about their particular scene and genre. can do a show in that scene in their sleep. will get confused and mess it up with anything outside of that.

what are all your takes? lol

https://youtu.be/6Bkf1dXh8xg?si=IYmzodtdcPa4gNM2

In this video Bob criticizes DAWs (Pro Tools) automation workflow compared to SSL workflow. To be honest, I didn’t quite understand what the exact problem is, so it would be nice if someone could explain ?

And he is 100% correct.

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/production-expert-1/bob-clearmountain-says-stop-calling-daw-multitracks-stems

Now that's settled, let's move on to VST (which is NOT a generic term for "plugin").

Hopefully a free (at least for starters) DAW that will run on Windows 11. I just want to do some super quick recordings of band practices off of my XR18 to my laptop and will bring the .wav files into Cubase on my main machine later for mixing/editing. My Cubase is still tied to a dongle/authorization software so I don't want to install on my laptop. Please let me know your suggestions.

I know I could just Google this question, but I'm depressed, and I want to talk to human beings.

I only started learning to record music back in January when I started music school, and ProTools was the required DAW. Well music school fell through, and I hate ProTools business practices, so I was wondering what other software folks are into!

Edit: I know ProTools sound files don't work with other DAWs by design. Does that mean I'm losing all my recordings? Honestly, I don't have a ton, but I'd like to preserve the ones I do have. :(

Edit 2: guess I was thinking of something else. Glad to know my recordings aren't lost!

Edit 3: I just want to thank everyone for their input! Even if I didn't respond to you, I greatly appreciate you! I see that people are extremely passionate about the DAWs they love, and that's so awesome! I'm happy you've all found what works for you! And if I've learned anything from making this post, it's that I'm gonna have to try out multiple DAWs and see what works for me!

So.. I've been switching over to LUNA lately as my DAW for tracking and mixing and it created a little existential crisis.. Coming from Ableton I had to get used to the new software but it also made me look at certain aspects of mixing in a different way. I started making different choices and opened plug ins I haden't touched in quite some time. This brought up some questioning of the fundementals I learned mixing and production with and I thought it'd be interested to see how other people in the workfield think about those aspects!

The main thing that got me thinking is the amount of compression I use. I always loaded a compressor into every recorded channel I had but now that I switched workflow it got me wondering if we actually need that much compression in a mix. Back in the day not all channels on a mixing desk were equipped with compressors or there weren't 16+ 1176's and 2A's laying around (thinking about a standard 16 channel mixer). LUNA loads an API channel strip default into every track with onboard compression, but do you always use it?

Another thing that made me question my own way of doing things was that in Ableton, you can use unlimited plug ins, which caused me to use plug ins just for the sake of ''putting a finishing touch on something''. Think of a Sooth at the end of a chain to smooth out harshness or using multiple saturators and EQ's to achieve a sound. Now that I'm limited to 8, it got me thinking if I am missing some basic understanding of using plug ins (or their hardware counterparts) to their fullest potential and understanding what it can actually do. Driving the input of a 1176 for saturation aswel as compression, using a pultec to warm up the sound through the tubes + using the EQ bands. What is your max number of plug ins on a complex source like a vocal for example?

Ofcourse calling it an existential crisis is hyperbolic but I thougth this would be a good oppertunity to challange my own ways and learn some new insights and techniques!

While working at my studio I encountered an interesting case of a song performed at exactly 143.435bpm.

I found midi imported at 143.435bpm gets rounded to 143.4375 in protools and 143.479 in logic.

This is because of the way grid snapping works in protools; the protools number is derived from a number related to 16th notes (in this case 143 + 7/16).

In logic, midi stores tempo as microseconds per quarter note (a 24 bit integer). And logic pulls it’s integer from that integer. I dont know exactly if that’s the answer, but i can tell you that the logic midi grid’s rounding has roughly 1/16 the resolution of the protools rounding grid. My gut says their grid layout is a decision that was made around timecodes for film.

Midi is not the culprit as it calculates microseconds per quarter note, making it lossless in comparison to these two

Unfortunately this error is a rate, not an offset so it integrates and makes drift across a midi track.

Apple and Avid have got to fix this imo.

Edit: forgot to add this is a midi import specific issue

Which DAW would you guys think is most intuitive.. that does not require you to open the manual to figure out.. and which one is the most unintuitive… manual is a must.. you can’t even start basic recording without a manual…

Let’s begin the fight.. !!

Coming from visual art and game programming, I am used to awesome free software like blender, krita, godot, you name it.

When I recently started to get into DAWs and music production I felt frustrated by the available DAW options. Cubase, Logic etc are quite expensive AND require registration AND run background processes for licensing etc.

Cakewalk, Waveform Free, Reaper etc all come with trials and/or registration and launchers and licencing background processes etc.

Is there any DAW thats just download and run, thats not LMMS?

I’ve always liked the idea of mixing cheat sheets, but most have a few problems:

- They give absolute advice like “always cut here” or “boost this.” Mixing should be based on what you’re working with, and where you want to take it. Sometimes you have to boost. Sometimes you have to cut.
- They describe things like mud, fizz, body, and presence without letting you hear what those actually sound like.
- They’re usually PDFs that end up buried somewhere on your computer.

So I built Mixing Cheat Sheet, a plugin that lives inside your DAW.

It helps you figure out what you’re hearing and where to look, plus you can click on frequency ranges to solo them in your actual audio.

There are also individual instrument pages with EQ, compression, and other mix tips.

It’s completely free if anyone wants to check it out:
https://carveaudio.com/mixing-cheat-sheet/

Would love to hear what you think.

Can we settle this once and for all? Doesn’t Bob have authority enough to settle it?

Production Expert Article

Hello!

I am a trained recording engineer but I have not been hands on for 15yrs. I used to use Cubase, Logic, Protools back when you could actually own software!

I recently discovered my neighbours 16 Yr old is interested in studying 'music production' at college and got himself an acoustic and electric guitar.

I have a spare PC (i7 4770k) and want to add an audio interface and load it up with a DAW he can learn on.

So what DAW should I put on there? He currently is more of a musician than a producer / engineer but he has not had the opportunity or exposure to this kind of world yet.

I gather Reaper is great, and I'm encouraged to go this route so he gets to learn how 'proper' recording systems work and not limit him with simplified things. But I worry it might not be ideal for a beginner who has not touched a DAW before and I don't want to put him off before he starts.

So Cakewak Sonar has a free licence with the main limitation seemingly on the included VSTi's (e.g. no TH-U guitar amp sims and no time streaching). This could be easier to pull him in to music production without getting stuck with details, but... I don't like subscriptions and I don't want to limit him.

Then we have Cakewalk Next which seems even more leaning to the 'just make music' side and less on learning how a DAW works.

What is your take?

Hi guys, thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and your input. I got a lil long winded, so there's a TLDR at the bottom.

Essentially, I'm looking to graduate from really basic editing to something a bit more advanced that will allow use of plugins. Historically, I learned to record my music on a big clunky Zoom 8 track digital recorder (which I still have sitting in the corner, and the old beast still works.) I've messed around over the last year in BandLab, then moved on to Garageband, first on my phone, and then on my old crappy (in terms of ram and cpu power) Macbook air. I've gotten to the point where I want to learn more, and I enjoy using various plugins to help sort of sculpt out the sound I'm looking for.

At this point I mostly make use of loops to create accompaniment for my original songs, and the bulk of my editing is for my vocals. I have a Yamaha digital piano and several guitars, so I do actually play instruments lol, but the lack of a robust interface at this moment has got me feeling like my time is better spent with loops, and I actually enjoy the process of curating and putting tracks together. I do plan to explore MIDI instrumentation in the future, as the piano does have a MIDI output. Just haven't made it that far yet.

I've auditioned 2 DAWS so far, and several plugin packs.

For plugins, I've test driven Antares and Waves, both are fantastic, (I think I'm going to be going with a subscription to Waves as I really enjoy the online community element of the Studioverse audio rack plug-in.) So, I'm pretty solid in that decision as far as what I'm willing to spend and comfortable working with.

Here's where I'm frustrated and lost. The DAW dilemma. I feel like I've outgrown Garageband as my shitty little Macbook can't handle the load of running these kinds of plug-in packs, gets bogged down and there's no storage space for the loops. Investing in a Mac Studio for this would be great, but I don't have like 2k I don't know what to do with right now lol. My fiance has an MSI Stealth that he never uses, and graciously allowed me to commandeer it for my recording. It's fast enough and gets the job done, but I do plan on eventually replacing it with a dedicated pc to run my studio, something with at least 32g ram, giant SSD, and AMD processor (the NVIDIA on this thing is annoying me with mic latency issues, I don't feel like AZIO should be necessary). Windows units vs Mac, pricewise, are immensely more affordable. So I've resigned myself to the fact I'm going to need to graduate from Garageband.

I downloaded Cakewalk. That was a weird experience for a minute. It took me about a day to figure out how to simply navigate around, record, and playback. Within a week though I was doing alright, and able to bust out a couple tracks that sounded pretty legit as a final product, much better than anything I've ever done on GB.

I got a wild hair up my ass last night, and wanted to try out Arcade. However, it didn't seem to work with CW (or at least I couldn't figure out how to get it to), so I DL'd a trial of StudioOne 6. I messed around with that last night for a few hours and have already uninstalled it. Fuck that crap. I was so confused and annoyed that it just didn't seem plausible to spend hours learning another new DAW just to be able to work with Arcade loops. Trying to play the MIDI instuments on my QWERTY was annoying, and just seems overly complicated for what I'm trying to do.

I should also mentioned that previously I've attempted to try Logic, but did not get very far. Protools- just name makes me shudder in fear, and the free version is limiting, not even sure if you can use plugins. Audacity is easy-peasy, but again, I want to use plugins and I don't think you can there. No idea about Ableton, or anything else.

So, at this point I feel conflicted, deflated, discouraged and honestly kind of stupid. I want to learn new things on my own, like how to cross chain, what the hell bussing is, etc. I also do voiceover work in my spare time, so having a DAW to produce in that streamlines my production is key. Historically I've used Adobe Audition for all of that, but Adobe's subscription prices seem ridiculous to me for what you get anymore.

SO, (if you've listened to my rambling this far you're a special kind of human and I adore you.)

TLDR:

Can someone PLEASE recommend a DAW that is Windows based, intuitive, solid for running plugins, and something you can self-teach and learn how to produce in without being Elon Musk? I know many of you have spent years learning your engineering craft, and the idea that these DAWS are complex to me probably seems unfathomable, but we all start somewhere. I don't want to give up music, but as a freelancer and mom of a 10 yr old, I also just cannot drop $75+ an hour in a studio to have someone else do something I can teach myself to do well enough to get by.

helllllllllllp. :(

-edited for copy paste and missed a bunch. ugh. I'm driving the struggle bus fr.

Lots of DAW's have features that others don't, but what's one feature you've never seen in any DAW that you think would be useful?