DAW Wars

I suppose with a title like this, I should’ve posted this yesterday (May 4th), but I always preferred Revenge of the 5th 😉

Anyway, what has prompted this post is a discussion amongst friends about a current ‘No-Brainer’ offer from the folks over at RSPE Audio Solutions. Until May 15th, they’re offering the Harrison Mixbus DAW software at a paltry $19.95. In real (i.e. British) money, that’s a few pennies over twelve quid! That represents a +90% saving on the RRP.

Mixbus is based on the open source Ardour DAW which has a strong following in the OS X and Linux communities. However, Harrison, a well respected name in the studio hardware world, have taken it and given it the benefit of their sonic expertise. Whilst never being mentioned in the same breath as the more popular DAWs, it seems to have a good following. And I imagine this following to increase over the next couple of weeks.

But my friends and I began to discuss its merits over other DAWs and this is a subject that has always been close to my heart, as I’m often asked about which DAW I would recommend or what my thoughts are on a particular DAW.

The initial question, from my good friend, and music teacher, Glyn, was, “How is this better/different from Cubase or Logic?”.

Another friend, the sublimely talented Neil Fellowes, a massive Reaper fan, suggested that the benefit of Reaper or Mixbus was their un-bloated nature compared to those popular applications. And of course, the price!

I guess if you own Cubase, Logic or any other DAW, then you may not want this. As Neil says, given the price, it’s got to be worth a look and Harrison do have a pedigree in the hardware world.

My thing about DAW’s and recommending them is that so many people get into “DAW WARS”, claiming that one DAW is better than another. Aside from poorly coded pieces of rubbish, every DAW is as good as the next one, because ultimately they help an individual or group to produce some audio.

The real measure of a DAW is how it suits your individual modus operandi. I was a long time Cubase fan because I had used it on Atari ST’s and PC’s and it was all I really knew. By the time they demanded yet another £100 for yet another upgrade that seemed to cloud the creative process (SX1 if I recall correctly), I just gave up. And then I discovered Reason and something just clicked. The way it worked suited by brain. It felt incredibly intuitive and, even to this day, I’ve barely read the manual and I know my way around the application. But most importantly, it aids my creative flow, almost as if it was written for the way my brain works. Conversely, Ableton Live is the total opposite. It’s clearly a very popular program that works for a great many people, but not me. It seems unintuitive and throws up barriers to my creative flow, rather than greasing the wheels.

Is Ableton Live a crap DAW? No, not at all. It’s just no good for ME. And that’s the first thing a musician needs to establish. What DAW is good for them? The only way you’re going to do this is use them all and go with the one that fits, not the one your peers are forcing upon you. Reason has a great demo plan, meaning you can download the full app, use it without creative restrictions and even save songs. But you can’t re-open those saved songs until you have bought a licence. Reaper is shareware, but shareware done well. A licence is only around $60, and the trial is for 30 days, but at the end of those 30 days, you will simply have a short nag screen, telling you the trial has expired, which then goes away after 5 seconds. Ableton Live has a decent demo but Cubase requires you to have an e-Licenser dongle to try the demo and Logic just doesn’t have a demo at all. I like Apple for a great many things, but this is not one of them. Logic may be great value at £140, but I want to try it first. Sort it, Apple! Finally, Presonus’ Studio One is garnering quite a following of late and has a free version you can try.

Anyway, Harrison Mixbus is based on Ardour, an open source DAW of some repute. On initial inspection Mixbus seems to be pretty intuitive to me. It also looks nice, and I was able to load up some stems and start mucking about very quickly. I’d say it’s more akin to Reaper, which I think is great, but I’m no hardcore user of that, like Neil is. What I also like about Mixbus is the cross platform nature, something that apps like Reason & Reaper do very well. Rather than force a user to by for one platform or another, these apps come as multi-platform bundles. And Mixbus caters for Linux, which is highly commendable! All of this aids the collaborative process. I can do stuff on my Mac, knowing that with Reason, Reaper or Mixbus, a collaborator on a PC can use the same application.

I try not to recommend any DAW to an individual, primarily for the reasons stated above. But Mixbus seems to have a good reputation, and at 90% off, it has to be worth a punt in anyone’s book.

The moral of all of this is go and try shit out for yourself. Don’t bow to peer pressure but do listen to advice. Don’t buy what your musical hero uses but do buy the one that feels the most transparent and unobtrusive to your creative process.

Harrison Mixbus is on offer at $19.95 via RSPE Audio Solutions until May 15th 2014.