KVR vote for 'Best Daw'

Reaper 114
Mu-Lab 15
FL Studio 52
Sony Acid 3
Cubase 106
Ableton Live 86
Reason 11
Studio One 126
Buzz 3
Samplitude 15
Zynewave Podium 9
Renoise 15
Orion 9
Cakewalk Sonar 38
Nanostudio 1
Mixcraft 6
Mixman 0
NI Maschine 5
Logic Pro X  48
Pro Tools 13
OhmStudio 1
Caustic 2      
 
From these results i simply can't see how Pro-Tools is the industry standard, i think that may actually be a misnomer calling Pro-Tools the industry standard..Looks like Studio One Reaper and Cubase take the Cake.

LA2A
Reaper 114
Mu-Lab 15
FL Studio 52
Sony Acid 3
Cubase 106
Ableton Live 86
Reason 11
Studio One 126
Buzz 3
Samplitude 15
Zynewave Podium 9
Renoise 15
Orion 9
Cakewalk Sonar 38
Nanostudio 1
Mixcraft 6
Mixman 0
NI Maschine 5
Logic Pro X  48
Pro Tools 13
OhmStudio 1
Caustic 2      
 
From these results i simply can't see how Pro-Tools is the industry standard, i think that may actually be a misnomer calling Pro-Tools the industry standard..Looks like Studio One Reaper and Cubase take the Cake.

Unless these results are accompanied by data that indicates the voters actually represent a cross-section of industry professionals, this says nothing one way other about the status of PT as standard. It would be like coming to a conclusion about what cars NASCAR racers prefer based on a poll on an car enthusiast site.

Not to mention that the large majority of current day DAW users are hobbyiests/semi-pros with home studios or small scale independent tracking studios with limited budgets. To the cost of the flagship PT release, all the Avid approved extras needed to perform tasks required in modern music production AND all the PT friendly hardware you could probably buy a nice car.
 
Is THAT version the "Best" DAW? IDK, because I've never used it and don't really have much interest in doing so but it is indeed the industry standard for now so it must have something going for it. I personally think it's just because it was the first widely used DAW so it took it's place in the educational institutions and big studios. If you are "pro" you are expected to know it so you can walk into any studio and just get to work. Kind of like a lot of spreadsheet and wordprocessing softwares or coding languages. There may be better alternatives that have certain advantages but for the sake of consistency and not having to have people take 10 college/uni courses instead of one or two the known and established software gets used.
 
CONFORM!!!
 
;-p
 
PS: If I did ever find myself in a position to drop the coin needed to buy the dream PT rig I'd probably spend it on Nuendo and a ton of cool gear instead... and copies of all the less expensive DAWs to just to play around with. I'd get far more bang for my buck(s) that way I think. Then if I wanted to use PT I'd just rent some studio time. AFAIK Reaper can basically be turned into a PT clone anyway.

at first glance I thought the # s next to them were there rank ..lol
im like nanostudio ? #1 who are these people.

 a meaningless survey. It's almost as bad as posting a vote here for favorite DAW. 
Myself like probably 89% of the KVR lurkers go there for free stuff. So it does not surprise me that Reaper is king of the hill with that group. Reaper is a great DAW for people with no money who have good computer skills to turn it into something. Myself I found it a waste of time compared to Sonar or Cubase. 
 
And Pro Tools is still a well oiled machine. Another small studio in my hometown has just switched from Sonar to Pro tools and is lovin it. That's 2 of them now.  But He only records Audio, he is not a musician and has no clue about midi. His clients show up with a real drummer or thier Sonar, Cubase or Garage band drum tracks. 

I play around with caustic on my phone

As Craig said, this is not a very scientific way of calculating market share. And it doesn't represent reality at all.

I'd like to get a basic MIDI editor for my laptop that won't squonk out using the onboard sound with BFD Eco or AD and some general synth/instrument sounds. That way I can put together drum parts and little melodies or whatever as they pop into my head without having to boot up the DAW. I really don't think the lappy will like X3 without an interface.
 
Music Creator? Something else?
 
oh... and it would have to be dirt cheap/free... because... yanno... broke ass beepin' beeper.
 
edit: I just remembered I have a copy of Ableton Live Lite that came with my interface. Seems like a massive switcharoo from how I usually work but maybe that'll do it.
 
hmm....

lawp
Live would definitely do it, or project 5 if you can get hold of it... I only moved to live cos p5 never got multi core support, I much prefer p5

 
Sweet. Ableton seems a little intimidating for a rock dinosaur like me but it has always intrigued me. The main thing for me is it just needs a PRV type set up and I'm good. I'm assuming it'll have quite a few instruments and drum stuff included so I'd just use that to write with. Everything would get transferred onto my big rig anyway where all my good synths live.
 
...and who knows, maybe I'll become the next big electronic dance sensation. lol!
 
Cheers.

That poll is so far from scientific that it should be totally disregarded. I've conducted professional research projects throughout my career, and a poll like this one from KVR provides nothing of true value. Not even a tiny part of it can be reliable.
 
And when those in-the-know state that it completely disagrees with actual sales figures, that should end the discussion of validity. People can comment and vote however they like, but the real test of a product's popularity comes from how many people actually lay out their hard-earned cash for it. 

Hey Beep,
 
The free version of Presonus Studio One might fit the bill.  I use it with my crappy built-in audio card, and it works fine for for fiddling around with loops and building ideas with midi.  And it fits your budget...
 
-John

markyzno...This is hardly representational of Pro Use...

That's it in a nutshell.  There should be no surprise that the "industry standard" Pro Tools did poorly in this survey.  Reaper is #1 in this KVR thing - And, um, I'll put good $ down right here that exactly Zero pros use Reaper.  That program is popular because it's almost free (I remember when it Was free) and has the same basic features as any DAW - It's The People's DAW of choice, but certainly not the pro DAW of choice.
 
Randy

yeah, it's just a poll of kvr users' favourite daws...
 
@beepster, you can get the free version here http://www.presonus.com/products/studio-one/download but yes it is quite crippled, though you may be able to do what you need with it

is the "pro" short for "professional" or "producer"? i suspect people mix these up

In the search for more credibility on sales, seeing as Craig says the actual 'hard sales-figures' are undisclosed to the majority, the following may be the closest we'll get to the truth... looks like Pro Tools is doing better than i originally surmised.
According to Digital Music Doctor, which has been tracking Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) popularity since 2004. The latest results are pretty surprising: instead of Pro Tools, Imageline’s FL Studio now takes the cake, both on a quarterly and yearly average basis as of early 2013.
 

 
One thing to keep in mind is that this is not based on actual unit sales, rather popularity across search engines (Google, Yahoo+Bing), social networks (Facebook, Twitter) and YouTube. But still, this is quite telling i would think. I'm still not a fan of pro tools, never will be. Ableton live made no sense to me, the interface was ghastly to say the least. Also, according to some other official figure... in 2010 Propellerhead Reason outsold every other DAW in the US besides Avid Pro Tools.