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I will never understand "music software" people. I just do NOT get where their heads are at, in any way, shape, or form. If you asked me to come up with the wor

I will never understand "music software" people. I just do NOT get where their heads are at, in any way, shape, or form. If you asked me to come up with the worst way to deal with audio in software, it would look very much like what most DAWs currently look like. I say this as someone who makes music and records it on a PC (MacOs/Windows/Linux), AND as someone who makes software for those same OSes. Admittedly, I do not really mess with loops or synthesizers, so I acknowledge those use-cases as some that might actually seem reasonable with current DAWs, but I definitely do not "get" it. I get bored screwing with synthesizers/filters (funny noise machines), and I use loops mostly with simple sequencers. So most of my time is spent producing and managing waveforms. To that end, every DAW looks - to me - like a god damned file manager, rather than a space for making content. I'd LOVE for one piece of software to treat me like a user, rather than an audio engineer. I need a timeline, sure, but FIRST I need to pick an instrument; either by plugging it in (and the software auto-recognizing it), or by selecting a synth. I also need to pick a controller, if it's a synth. THEN I need to be put into an area where I can immediately get feedback for that thing. I don't need it to ONLY play when I hit record, or when I'm logging to the timeline. I need to have an empty space where I can start doing "takes". Simple snippets that I can refer back to. Auto-split during "silence", so I don't have to scan through a massive timeline to find the bit I liked. Obviously the mixers and things need to be summonable, here, for tuning. But they don't necessarily need to already be present. I don't need 18 knobs for tuning while I'm scritching out a riff, or finding the melodic line with my voice. I need to be able to try a thing, edit the settings, try again, edit again, back and forth until I feel like I'm "here in the space". Again, this is like...every recording studio I've ever been to. You take some time to get your gear set up and, while that's happening, you play the things and find your sound in this space. Yet every piece of audio software just pretends like all of their audio processing isn't a change to the "space". It treats audio input a kind of "pure" input which it will alter, but doesn't immediately let musicians get a feeling for that alteration. Instead, we get infinite complexity right up front because "that's how computers work" or "that's how the files are handled" or "it's based on older stuff that had such limited processing this was the only way it could be done; now people are used to it, so we can't change it". All nonsense. I'm not asking for every DAW to be geared towards musicians, I'm asking for ONE. Let ProTools still be ProTools. Or Audacity still be Audacity. But I'd really love if someone could make software for a 6 year old to plug a guitar into and start playing. *yes, I am in a position to make that kind of DAW, and yes I do have the requisite insight to build the thing I'm asking for. And, boy, if I ever get the time, it's on. But I won't be holding my breath for my other projects to clear out enough to make this happen.

gizajob 2y ago
One of your main issues is describing art and music as “content”. Ableton Live at least is a phenomenally powerful tool for arranging and recording music in a way that is completely elastic and transformative. I’ve been using it for over twenty years to make records and every time I’ve wanted it to do more, somehow those features have been magically added on every version without me having to ask. The thing with any tool is that one has to know what result one wants rather than focussing on the method. Your post reads like you should maybe think about doing creative things other than music. And I’m sure we’d be all ears for the improved DAW that you never got round to writing yet. Apple also made that tool for six-year-olds and their guitars. It’s called GarageBand. Some of those six-year-olds have made albums with it.
- catapart 2y ago
  I'm game: give me the steps it takes to get a kid with an electric guitar and an appropriate USB connection to A) start making noise with the guitar in the software, and then B) start filtering that noise to sound like electric guitar distortion. My post reads like a person who has tried every DAW I know of and ended up with at least 10 steps (usually involving "sign up" and "log in" for no fucking reason), when there should only be 3: Plug in, open app, pick guitar. I've mastered enough CONTENT to know that Ableton is great! Not just at MUSIC but at sound effects, at atmospheric/environmental engineering, too. But Ableton is still an engineer's software, not a musicians. Again, I'm not complaining that the good things work good at what they're good at. I'm complaining that no one seems to be working on different good stuff for different kinds of people.
  - gizajob 2y ago
    The people that made Ableton were musicians - see Monolake. I’ve used it for making psyche rock albums and I’m pretty sure I could use it for producing pretty well any kind or genre of music. I’m a musician primarily and not an engineer, so I’ve no idea what you’re talking about saying Ableton is an engineers software. Some of your point about Pro Tools is right because that’s completely hamstrung and backward due to it being from the era of Amigas and MacOS7. But modern alternatives exist that overcome that. It really sounds like you need to buy Ableton - it really is turn on, plug in, make music.

gizajob 2y ago

One of your main issues is describing art and music as “content”. Ableton Live at least is a phenomenally powerful tool for arranging and recording music in a way that is completely elastic and transformative. I’ve been using it for over twenty years to make records and every time I’ve wanted it to do more, somehow those features have been magically added on every version without me having to ask. The thing with any tool is that one has to know what result one wants rather than focussing on the method. Your post reads like you should maybe think about doing creative things other than music. And I’m sure we’d be all ears for the improved DAW that you never got round to writing yet. Apple also made that tool for six-year-olds and their guitars. It’s called GarageBand. Some of those six-year-olds have made albums with it.

catapart 2y ago
I'm game: give me the steps it takes to get a kid with an electric guitar and an appropriate USB connection to A) start making noise with the guitar in the software, and then B) start filtering that noise to sound like electric guitar distortion. My post reads like a person who has tried every DAW I know of and ended up with at least 10 steps (usually involving "sign up" and "log in" for no fucking reason), when there should only be 3: Plug in, open app, pick guitar. I've mastered enough CONTENT to know that Ableton is great! Not just at MUSIC but at sound effects, at atmospheric/environmental engineering, too. But Ableton is still an engineer's software, not a musicians. Again, I'm not complaining that the good things work good at what they're good at. I'm complaining that no one seems to be working on different good stuff for different kinds of people.
- gizajob 2y ago
  The people that made Ableton were musicians - see Monolake. I’ve used it for making psyche rock albums and I’m pretty sure I could use it for producing pretty well any kind or genre of music. I’m a musician primarily and not an engineer, so I’ve no idea what you’re talking about saying Ableton is an engineers software. Some of your point about Pro Tools is right because that’s completely hamstrung and backward due to it being from the era of Amigas and MacOS7. But modern alternatives exist that overcome that. It really sounds like you need to buy Ableton - it really is turn on, plug in, make music.