Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Why do all DAW's suck?

The following is from GearSlutz Read more here


Why is it that every DAW I try seems to have MAJOR drawbacks and functionality issues:

Pro Tools LE:
  • Obvious limitations on track counts, busses, I/O, ADC, etc.
Pro Tools HD:
  • Even with PT8, the MIDI is still pretty sub par.... and considering that most modern composers are using MIDI... well.... this pretty much takes both HD and LE off the usable list
  • The ADC seems to be the worst out of any app that has it
  • Even HD has the ******** I/O limitations on which hardware you can use.

Logic:
  • The worst audio editing out there bar none. I.E., no dedicated trim tool... so.. no way to trim a region unless you scroll all the way to the edge, no way to make slip edits, no dedicated fade tool, you're simply STUCK with the "dumb" tool, etc.
  • No way to use the fade tool on multiple tracks ?! Amazing!!
  • No track based takes (I.E., playlists, layers, etc.)
  • No simple MIDI merge command for recording (merge with selected layers doesn't count at all)
  • No way to view both the Left and Right sides of a stereo waveform.. what am I even seeing here.. is this a mono summed version??
  • Regardless of having "no overlap" selected.. you still get overlapping regions when recording/punching in.. and well... what you see isn't always what you get... MIND ****!
  • No way to independently pan an aux send... what the...... is this 1972??

Digital Performer:

  • No absolute grid.. makes editing MIDI quite the hassle....
  • A "split notes" feature that only works when all the notes of all the chords have quantized attacks
  • A different tool for EVERY edit function for MIDI... separate tool for drawing notes.. separate tool for extending lengths.. separate tool for velocity, etc. You can REALLY tell that the bulk of the MIDI features in DP are quite OLD.
  • No way to select tracks... or even see which tracks are selected in the mixer
  • No MIDI learn function for plugins.. unless the plugin comes with MIDI learn already built in.
  • No way to assign the same plugin across multiple tracks simultaneously .. or assign the same send to multiple tracks simultaneously
  • All that said.. this is by far the best app for me at the moment..... still frustrating though....

Ableton Live
  • No way to create smooth, gradual tempo changes
  • No real way to create takes, comp takes, etc. without major workarounds
  • No real way to work in a linear fashion unless you're OK only the most basic of commands
  • Only the most simple of MIDI commands and edit possibilities
  • Built for DJ's and Loop-Junkies.... and I should just accept it......

Studio One
  • Again.. no way to create smooth, gradual tempo changes
  • A fairly odd way of dealing with automation for busses (who doesn't use busses!)
  • Again... only the most simple of MIDI edit commands
  • OK... it's a new DAW... so I'll be easy

Reaper
  • The worst implementation of rewire,... even though I have to hand it to them for allowing Reaper to work as a Rewire Slave
  • Again... only the simple MIDI editing commands as found in Studio One, Live, etc.
  • No track based takes

Maybe I should try Cubase???? Ed.... No you shouldn't!!!!

Can someone build a proper DAW... it's 2013...

How is it that every DAW out there has major flaws and issues.

Pro tools - cpu hog, VSt's don't work, RTAS instruments barely work, no drum pad sampler, not good for produciton, only mixing.

Logic - (haven't used it much) a pain to look at, everything is so small and cluttered

Ableton - horrendous use of CPU, one core per track, track view is laughable, mix view is laughable. Crashes constantly.

FL Studio - again, horrible GUI. Way too small. Way too cluttered. Just sucks.


These are the only ones I've used. But seriously are these manufacturers that hard of hearing? I mean, people complain about their software non-stop and all they do is make stupid updates about things that didn't even bother us in the first place. I'm hearing now that Ableton is coming out with version 9 and they changed the browser (wtf?) and it is even more of a CPU hog and it probably will still wrongly display the CPU % as before, only worse.

Come on developers, get your sh*t together and stop making garbage.


 

1 comment:

  1. DAWs suck especially when you try to track on them.

    ReplyDelete