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It's been ages since I made electronic music on my PC. I always liked FL Studio and some friends of mine sweared by Reason but I haven't been keeping up with DA

by rsp1984 5y ago

It's been ages since I made electronic music on my PC. I always liked FL Studio and some friends of mine sweared by Reason but I haven't been keeping up with DAWs / sequencers. What are people using these days?

adzm 5y ago
Ableton Live is huge in the electronic music space. It really works well for live experimentation and feels a lot more like an instrument you can play and experiment with as you go.
wlflnhrdt 5y ago
Check out Bitwig, it's cheaper and more exciting (to me) than Ableton despite a very similar core workflow. Bitwig really shines if you like modulation and flexibility.
- jcpst 5y ago
  I tend to agree with this. And I’ve tried Bitwig. However, as someone that’s been using Live for more than 15 years, the muscle memory with the workflow is real. And my large collection of custom plugin chains, sample instruments, templates... I couldn’t find enough reason to create the momentum to switch. The good thing is, Bitwig brought real competition, which forces Live to improve.
  - tomduncalf 5y ago
    I agree, also could be familiarity but I think Ableton is simpler to use. It’s certainly visually cleaner, I find Bitwig’s UI a bit “information overload” whereas Ableton is pleasingly minimalist. I can totally see why others would disagree though!
- odiroot 5y ago
  I can only second Bitwig. Although it's really pricey for the full version (16-track is enough for me). It works perfectly on Linux and even supports Pulseaudio if you don't want to deal with JACK. I tried Ardour, LMMS, Reaper, Waveform but couldn't get used to any of their UIs. Bitwig seems so much more intuitive and polished to me. The community is really great, pretty much every day, a new video pops up on YouTube about some Bitwig feature or trick. [No one is paying me to write that, just in case]
RickS 5y ago
for electronic music FL studio and ableton are the big ones, IMO. I loved reason back in the day but their lackluster approach to VSTs and audio clips eventually pushed me to Ableton. They've since made improvements to both, but the damage is done. FL studio also has solid mac support now, thankfully.
encryptluks2 5y ago
Ardour and Muse both seem descent. There are a lot more free ones, but it may also be worth checking out making audio in a markup language or using something like csound. Here is a good list of software available by default in Arch: https://archlinux.org/groups/x86_64/pro-audio/ https://archlinux.org/groups/x86_64/pro-audio/
keyle 5y ago
Most people use Ableton / Bitwig afaik. I'm still stuck in my old ways with Renoise and an MPC.
Marazan 5y ago
Mpc Beats (free version of the full MPC software) has a work flow that meshes well with me. Only restriction is 8 seperate instrument tracks max but its not like I'm doing anything more than drums, samples, bass and melody anyways.
p0nce 5y ago
FLStudio and Live are the most used, followed by Cubase / Pro Tools / Studio One.

adzm 5y ago

Ableton Live is huge in the electronic music space. It really works well for live experimentation and feels a lot more like an instrument you can play and experiment with as you go.

wlflnhrdt 5y ago

Check out Bitwig, it's cheaper and more exciting (to me) than Ableton despite a very similar core workflow. Bitwig really shines if you like modulation and flexibility.

jcpst 5y ago
I tend to agree with this. And I’ve tried Bitwig. However, as someone that’s been using Live for more than 15 years, the muscle memory with the workflow is real. And my large collection of custom plugin chains, sample instruments, templates... I couldn’t find enough reason to create the momentum to switch. The good thing is, Bitwig brought real competition, which forces Live to improve.
- tomduncalf 5y ago
  I agree, also could be familiarity but I think Ableton is simpler to use. It’s certainly visually cleaner, I find Bitwig’s UI a bit “information overload” whereas Ableton is pleasingly minimalist. I can totally see why others would disagree though!
odiroot 5y ago
I can only second Bitwig. Although it's really pricey for the full version (16-track is enough for me). It works perfectly on Linux and even supports Pulseaudio if you don't want to deal with JACK. I tried Ardour, LMMS, Reaper, Waveform but couldn't get used to any of their UIs. Bitwig seems so much more intuitive and polished to me. The community is really great, pretty much every day, a new video pops up on YouTube about some Bitwig feature or trick. [No one is paying me to write that, just in case]

RickS 5y ago

for electronic music FL studio and ableton are the big ones, IMO. I loved reason back in the day but their lackluster approach to VSTs and audio clips eventually pushed me to Ableton. They've since made improvements to both, but the damage is done. FL studio also has solid mac support now, thankfully.

encryptluks2 5y ago

Ardour and Muse both seem descent. There are a lot more free ones, but it may also be worth checking out making audio in a markup language or using something like csound. Here is a good list of software available by default in Arch: https://archlinux.org/groups/x86_64/pro-audio/ https://archlinux.org/groups/x86_64/pro-audio/

keyle 5y ago

Most people use Ableton / Bitwig afaik. I'm still stuck in my old ways with Renoise and an MPC.

Marazan 5y ago

Mpc Beats (free version of the full MPC software) has a work flow that meshes well with me. Only restriction is 8 seperate instrument tracks max but its not like I'm doing anything more than drums, samples, bass and melody anyways.

p0nce 5y ago

FLStudio and Live are the most used, followed by Cubase / Pro Tools / Studio One.