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Which OS drives your DAW ?

What OS drives your DAW ?

  • Total voters
    59
  • Poll closed .
pfschim

pfschim

Just a Skeleton with a Jazz bass
Supporting Member
Apr 26, 2006
9,359
10,962
SF Bay Area
#1
I have assembled a basic laptop based DAW this year that happens to be Microsoft Vista based. While searching for various solutions, tools and advice for my projects, have found (no surprise) that the OS you choose has an impact on the options you have (again, no huge surprise).

So, mostly out of curiosity I'd like to know, which OS drives your DAW ?

Along the way, if you'd like offer OS specific insights and pointers I'd love to hear that too. What I am NOT looking for is a OS flamewar of any kind. I happen to have chosen MS Visa fairly reflexively, but also have a reasonable level of (non DAW) experience with various flavors of Linux (Ubuntu, Kanotix, OpenSUSe, Redhat ...). I only have limited time on Macs of any kind.

lets go!
 
#4
I use Ubuntu Linux. Ardour is an awesome program for multi track recording. There are drum machines, synthesizers, sequencers, all kinds of stuff available.

Best part about all this software is its free. I am definitely not a professional but it works good for me. With a decent microphone and sound card you can make some surprisingly good sounding recordings.
 
#5
I use Vista. I'll be migrating to both Windows 7 and Sonar 8.5 by the end of November, though.

My advice is: worry more about what you're recording than what you're recording on, and you'll be much, much happier with the results.

That's not to say your rig isn't important, just that I've seen people get really, really caught up on technical specs to the point they don't create much anymore.
 
#12
WalterBush said:
I use Vista. I'll be migrating to both Windows 7 and Sonar 8.5 by the end of November, though.
Click to expand...

My experiment with Windows 7 wasn't a pleasant one and I had to reinstall XP again. For example, I couldn't use Soundforge as a tool inside the Sonar. Sonar itself was stable and honestly fast (I use Sonar 6 Studio). Some people experienced poor Asio performance, but my latency was 1.6 msec.s with 64 bit engine at 24/96 with no drop-outs. But keep in mind that I only did a dozen of test recordings.

Other than that, Itunes pretty much sucked (took 10 min.s to sync and there was only 1 tiny podcast to be copied). I was later told it's more of a USB 2.0 issue. Onboard Ethernet card was always causing problems, I had to get a new PCI one. You see I tried. :D

Some other software that I frequently use were also performing sub-standard with crashes and freezes. I researched all the problems above for days and I found out I was not the only one without a solution (maybe 20 open topics for each of the problems mentioned above). Most frequent response from the software companies I turned for support was that they would be providing updates once Windows 7 is actually released.

This was about 2 months ago and I was using the final release candidate (I guess 7100 or some number close to that).
 
#14
My studio PC came with Vista on it, but I found it really glitchy for audio on that machine. Switched back to XP and everything's fine. My other computer runs Vista and I'll soon be switching to Windows 7, but for recording I can't see me moving away from XP for a while yet.
 
#15
great replies so far, thanks !

I can't vote

I just rebuilt my setup on 64bit Windows 7 with 64bit Reaper and an M-Audio Delta 44. It's pretty awesome, but I've only done a couple test tracks so far.
Click to expand...

sorry James, I did think about adding Win 7 to the poll list choices, but figured that as it wasn't actually released yet (10/22 .. right ?) I thought I should keep the choices to currently publicly available OSes.

I use Ubuntu Linux. Ardour is an awesome program for multi track recording. There are drum machines, synthesizers, sequencers, all kinds of stuff available.
Click to expand...
very cool superhand - I find Linux in general to be a very interesting world all to its own. I have the latest Ubuntu and OpenSuse 11.x available as VM's using VirtualBox on another desktop machine. I should look at Ardour just to check it out.

My advice is: worry more about what you're recording than what you're recording on, and you'll be much, much happier with the results.
That's not to say your rig isn't important, just that I've seen people get really, really caught up on technical specs to the point they don't create much anymore.
Click to expand...
Good advice WalterBush, and I agree completely, its all about using the tool(s) to create music. I feel like I am definitely doing that. In 2 months since I got all my stuff actually working right (mercifully, it was not difficult), I have created a number of solid practice loops and moved on to building a few toons of my own. So much fun, it makes me laugh out loud when I get something good (at least IMO :cool:)

FWIW, I use Windows Vista SP2 on a Toshiba Laptop with a core duo 8200. I have tweaked it for audio to a certain extent, but it does general app stuff for me too, so its not a strictly dedicated audio machine. I am using Native Instruments GuitarRig3 with it's USB interface, into Ableton Live 7 as a "recording" looping destination. I've got the latency down to ~ 5ms, which I'm pretty happy with. Of course, I do not have a great deal to compare it to. The last time I was in a studio it was at Columbia in Chicago in 1979 and 1980 ... so it was all 1" or 2" tape all the time !

I'm certainly enjoying the tools I have so far, and am totally amazed at what is available for the money.

thanks and keep those responses coming.
 
#16
naturalkinds said:
Elaborate. I think it depends on what MIDI work you're doing. But please enlighten me.
Click to expand...

Well, I think both programs are now very good to perform MIDI and Audio recording.

Unless you're doing something very specific there's nothing each one can't do.

MIDI in protools? I've been working with some great programmers and keyboard players that use PT on movie soundtracks, composing, recording sessions etc etc… and no one complains about it.

I do (everyday) a lot of audio editing in Logic also with great results.

Some years ago the above statement could be considered true but on today current versions PT and Logic are very reliable on both tasks.

My opinion, of course.
 
#18
depalm said:
Well, I think both programs are now very good to perform MIDI and Audio recording.

Unless you're doing something very specific there's nothing each one can't do.

MIDI in protools? I've been working with some great programmers and keyboard players that use PT on movie soundtracks, composing, recording sessions etc etc… and no one complains about it.

I do (everyday) a lot of audio editing in Logic also with great results.

Some years ago the above statement could be considered true but on today current versions PT and Logic are very reliable on both tasks.

My opinion, of course.
Click to expand...

Agreed, its got to the stage where both are as advanced as each other, they each have a few DIFFERENT features for audio/midi editing but one doesn't have more than the other.

If you want to get REALLY deep into midi then Logic lets you do this, so I guess it maybe has the edge but i'm talking about environment commands and hypersets, so not the sort of thing even most advanced users get into. Pro tools' midi is fine to the highest professional standard and logic has innovations in audio recording that pro tools is quickly trying to emulate.

as for me, mainly Mac OSX 10.4.9 and 10.5.8 with pro tools HD and logic, though I have a XP PC as well with cubase, pro tools m-powered and various others if ever i need them!

Fokof, not sure I agree mate, though DP is very good!
 
#19
pfschim said:
sorry James, I did think about adding Win 7 to the poll list choices, but figured that as it wasn't actually released yet (10/22 .. right ?) I thought I should keep the choices to currently publicly available OSes.
Click to expand...

Mine is an official copy with a legit "Genuine Microsoft" activation. No pirating here!

And yes, the retail release is 10/22 (a week from today)... Anyone looking to build a Vista system today needs to wait and do it right with 7 next Thursday :bassist:

Prior to this install, I was running XP pro sp3 in an older single core Intel box as my DAW.
 
#20
I'm a Linux guy when it comes to computing, but I've always used Sonar for recording, so my studio machine runs Vista. I prefer XP, and I haven't tried 7 yet, but I had a free (legal) copy of Vista Ultimate that my father had gotten from work, so I just used that.

I'd be curious what people think about Linux DAW software though. I like the looks of Ardour and some others I've seen, but I'm fairly reliant on my VST plugins and my Line6 UX8. Does anyone have any experience with Line6 gear and Linux?

Maybe a thread for Linux recordists would be a good idea. Then again, maybe there already is one; I haven't really looked.
 

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