Best Sounding Software

[getreel]

I think I'm going to stick with Tracktion for the main DAW since I got it with my new Audiofire12 interfaces. Almost all my new gear is here now. Got the Audiofire12's and the Tranzport yesterday. That means this weekend is going to involve major work on the studio. Hopefully I can start rolling next week with some Tracktion! I definitely am thinking of buying Reaper too as it's too inexpensive to not have the choice available. It has a more mixer like interface that could be good in certain situations. Can you switch channel inputs on a single source to a new track from the Tranzport with Tracktion? What about Reaper? How well does the Tranzport control it?

[TheForgotten]

That reaper looks sweet! Anyone have feedback on it?

Totally amazing!
The support is unparalleled.
And if it's missing a feature, just wait a week and it'll be in the next update.
I love it!

[hiddendriveways]

whoa
they do not all sound the same.
that is for sure.
for example i think nuendo sounds way better than ableton.
ableton has gotten a lot better. but i think steinberg just sounds better.

It's a subjective question. I like Live the best.

I was speaking to a rep once and he told me hands down that Sequioia and Samplitude sound better than everything else out there. They are Windows only so I never dabbled into them.

[A-Barr]

This article has a lot of eye-opening and disconcerting information on the subject.

[inverseroom]

This article has a lot of eye-opening and disconcerting information on the subject.

Hm. The general tone seems to be, "If you think your music sounds good, you're wrong."

[A-Barr]

This article has a lot of eye-opening and disconcerting information on the subject.

Hm. The general tone seems to be, "If you think your music sounds good, you're wrong."

That is tragically true for a lot of people!

But yeah, seems a little dated, I think most DAW software now has at least 40 bits, if not much higher internal resolution to account for all the stuff he talks about, also assumes everyone can only run at 16 bits A/D, yet it's last updated a couple weeks ago. Still, some good info if you ever wondered why some people are so opposed to digital gain changes the like...

[earl parameter]

i'm sick of this debate and i'm sick of only seeing opinions, not facts from the mouths of engineers on how its done. so i've just tried to contact Jamie O?Connell from sonar and if anyone else has ANY leads at all on how to contact any other software engineers please get in touch with them and ask them to participate and explain.

i've tested lots and they do NOT all sound the same. now i want to know why and it not just the summing methods. each piece of software has to have its own proprietary method for handling each file format, etc? so i'm sure that has just as much "character" involved in it as opamps do.


here?s hoping something comes of this.


steven

[earl parameter]

attempted to contact people at reaper and live as well ? anyone else have any idea how to get in touch with cubase or logic? i?m sure an email into support would just get tossed

didn't someone have ties to tracktion around here?

anyone else?



steven

[earl parameter]

from ableton

I?m afraid there?s no time to participate in this discussion.
Recommended reading:

http://www.audiodesignline.com/showArti ... =192200610


Best,
C. Kleine

[inverseroom]

I suspect software engineers are about fifty times more sick of this debate than you are. It is going to be really hard to get anyone to participate.

I feel as though we're at a point now where they all sound pretty good, and whether or not there are subtle differences among them becomes less important every day. Workflow, compatibility, etc. have become far more vital pieces of the argument.

I really feel as though the debate is over. Anyone with some recording skill can make a good sounding recording on any DAW, period.

[earl parameter]

i agree with most of that but while you were typing i wrote up this


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shit i know i just woke up and i'm not all there yet but i could barely get through the first 1/3 of that. i'm not a programmer so that is a pretty heavy read after the first few paragraphs. but it did make some things clear. first of all people seem to NOT think of a piece of software as a DSP but in fact it IS. any piece of software is a Digital Signal Processor in some respect not just effect plugins, they are just another form of DSP. the computer ( and the o.s. in a lot of ways BY DESIGN ) is just a big blank canvas waiting for instructions and the software is what does that job. HOW it does its job is what in the end determines its effects on the information it is processing. so when? lets say sound forge saves a .wav from a freshly recorded section of audio first it has to convert the sound forge format it records it in ( every program has its own from what i understand ) into the wav file and HOW it does that is unlike any other program because it uses its own proprietary format to "process" and work with the data. so if it does a bad job of buffering the information and carrying the 2, applying its digital filter routines ( not audio filters) to each increment of the dynamic range and then cutting and sorting it all into millions of different bits for the new format before it saves the info then as small as those effects might be to our ears, after ?processing? it 1000000 times it will add up ( and we all know what bad digital sounds like but there are stages of degradation that happen as it progressively gets processed and converted over and over and its not just ?bad? or ?good? ). then you have to apply the same steps for things like increasing volume, be it real time of not. the same for panning and the how it processes the panning laws you choose. every single tiny little step it does is different from any other program in ways like how it sorts the frequency range, how it slices up each bit for storage and how its read the stored data back into the program?s format so it can be played back and how its then sent to and interacts with each piece of hardware that you plug into it and works with that hardware?s drivers.

to think that there is just some sort of preset generic way to achieve all of this that all of these companies just pull out of some prefab builder kit is crazy. each of these little steps are designed and built by hand by teams of people over years and years via trial and error just like everything else in the world and if anything is done badly or not given enough attention by that guy that just broke up with his girlfriend that morning so its ?good enough? we WILL hear it in the end. no it may not be a HUGE effect and in most cases good enough is just that, especially for the masses who could care less, but they also can?t hear the difference between a 163x and a 1176 so why do we bother to care ourselves?


because we can hear it




steven

[Jeff White]

Regarding Live... I have found that Live obviously sounds different depending if WARP is engaged or not, as well as which WARP algorithm is used. Also, when using WARP I have heard a difference running all of those tracks in Live or with Live rewired into Digital Performer. Rewired Live audio into DP sounds better to me.

A DAW's pan laws can have an effect on how someone hears the "sound" of a DAW.

Jeff

[A-Barr]

As an experiment, I imported and exported a track into Acid Pro 20 times, each time with a semi-random gain change, but avoiding clipping (i.e. -6 export, +3 export, +2, +1, -2, +2, etc.) all with 16 bit audio. I played the 20X bounced stereo track against the original, out of phase.

The result was perfect cancellation, no degradation.

[Russian Recording]

how is that no one really seems to know about samplitude? this is by far the best recording software i've ever used. jumping frrom sonar (back when it was sonar 1) was the best thing i had ever done. samplitude is super intuitive, extremely fast and ergonomic, and stable. i use it like a tape machice... 32 outputs. and i love it.

[longfade]

i agree with most of that but while you were typing i wrote up this


-



shit i know i just woke up and i'm not all there yet but i could barely get through the first 1/3 of that. i'm not a programmer so that is a pretty heavy read after the first few paragraphs. but it did make some things clear. first of all people seem to NOT think of a piece of software as a DSP but in fact it IS. any piece of software is a Digital Signal Processor in some respect not just effect plugins, they are just another form of DSP. the computer ( and the o.s. in a lot of ways BY DESIGN ) is just a big blank canvas waiting for instructions and the software is what does that job. HOW it does its job is what in the end determines its effects on the information it is processing. so when? lets say sound forge saves a .wav from a freshly recorded section of audio first it has to convert the sound forge format it records it in ( every program has its own from what i understand ) into the wav file and HOW it does that is unlike any other program because it uses its own proprietary format to "process" and work with the data. so if it does a bad job of buffering the information and carrying the 2, applying its digital filter routines ( not audio filters) to each increment of the dynamic range and then cutting and sorting it all into millions of different bits for the new format before it saves the info then as small as those effects might be to our ears, after ?processing? it 1000000 times it will add up ( and we all know what bad digital sounds like but there are stages of degradation that happen as it progressively gets processed and converted over and over and its not just ?bad? or ?good? ). then you have to apply the same steps for things like increasing volume, be it real time of not. the same for panning and the how it processes the panning laws you choose. every single tiny little step it does is different from any other program in ways like how it sorts the frequency range, how it slices up each bit for storage and how its read the stored data back into the program?s format so it can be played back and how its then sent to and interacts with each piece of hardware that you plug into it and works with that hardware?s drivers.

to think that there is just some sort of preset generic way to achieve all of this that all of these companies just pull out of some prefab builder kit is crazy. each of these little steps are designed and built by hand by teams of people over years and years via trial and error just like everything else in the world and if anything is done badly or not given enough attention by that guy that just broke up with his girlfriend that morning so its ?good enough? we WILL hear it in the end. no it may not be a HUGE effect and in most cases good enough is just that, especially for the masses who could care less, but they also can?t hear the difference between a 163x and a 1176 so why do we bother to care ourselves?


because we can hear it





steven

Could anyone actually read this? Good grief.