Audioicon
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/06 21:33:06
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chuckebaby
It seems like the general consensus is the same and reminds me of a good comparison.....
Don't give out Happy meals with a Pilots license as the toy.
This is hilarious! Great one! 
Checkout my new song: Playing on YouTube: EUPHORIA.
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Markubl2
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/06 21:56:25
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Just to play Devil's advocate (and hbarton, I'm not picking on you specifically).
If it is a profession, and only professionals should get the tools, then I should then have no business purchasing SPLAT. A year ago, I had zero experience with recording. I couldn't tell you what DAW meant, let alone what midi, comping, or routing was. Was I then just to amuse myself with an IPad app?
No, it is something that I wanted to learn; over the last year, it has been a struggle. I've gone through Groove 3 videos, read countless pages of the manual, and posted here more times than I should. It is by decent documentation, a good amount of patience, and most importantly the charity of those on those on this board that I have learned what I have thus far. My biggest struggle has not been with the technology, but with the terminology. IMHO, DAW makers can't do much to help complete newbies. First, one has to be willing to take the time to learn. Much of DAWs and recording are still a great mystery to me, but one has to start somewhere. One of those ancient Chinese philosophers said that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." That step for me was breaking out my credit card and buying Splat with lifetime updates. Looking back, it was a good decision.
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cparmerlee
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/06 22:25:27
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We can congratulate ourselves for being smarter and more professional than other people because we "do it the hard way" so to speak. I would point out that even though endeavors like flying a multi-engine commercial aircraft and performing heart surgery also require smart practitioners, these practitioners are getting better and better tools every month.
If a person is performing heart surgery on me, I really don't want them to have to stop in the middle of the operation to RTFM. I want their tools to take on as much of the tedium and routine tasks as possible. And I think that was the spirit of the original question.
I am particularly enjoying the new Ozone. It has several new features that make it significantly easier and quicker to get the master "into the neighborhood" before doing fine tuning. Maybe some folks are so good at this kind of thing that they don't think they can benefit from such advancements, but I will take any tool that gets me closer to my goal with the minimum of effort.
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abacab
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/06 22:37:17
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It seems that this place has become a club for angry old men. 
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abacab
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/06 22:48:33
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cparmerlee
I would point out that even though endeavors like flying a multi-engine commercial aircraft and performing heart surgery also require smart practitioners, these practitioners are getting better and better tools every month.
And to your point, modern commercial aircraft mostly have "glass cockpits" (flat screen instrument panels) now, and are capable of taking off and landing by themselves. The captain is responsible for the flight, but has become more of a "flight manager" than a pilot. He enters the flight plan into the computer and communicates with the air traffic controllers.
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Anderton
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/07 04:38:03
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☄ Helpfulby bodhi65 2018/08/08 13:35:58
I think it's important not to confuse the tool with the art. Creating an incredible work of art will never be easy, but having tools that don't get in the way of being an artist is doable. We are in the first baby steps of computer-based recording, and something like Ozone is a baby step as well. Neutron has no artistic intelligence, it just force-fits what you do into something it thinks is probably better than what you'll come up with by yourself. Artificial intelligence has not really been applied to what we do, nor have voice commands. Once a machine learns how you work, things will change. By easier to use, I don't mean so much "easier to make art" but easier to, for example, have the DAW talk to the interface so that setup is automatic. Also something like the Help module had potential, but I suspect it's another one of those things that won't take the next step. For example instead of having to search for topics in the documentation, the machine should be aware of what you're doing, and thus be able to anticipate what you need to find out about. It should also be able to anticipate other functions based on what's happened in the past. As just one example - right now, to have a loop transpose, we need to place a transposition marker every time a transposition needs to happen. If you brought a loop into a project, and there was already a MIDI bass or keyboard part, there could be a pop-up that says "Should loops transpose based on the keyboard part's chord progression?" because it would already know what the chord progression was...that sort of thing. I think there will be ways to make all this happen more easily. Remember, with computers you used to have to tell the computer what to do with punch cards. Then came toggle switches and LEDs, then came QWERTY keyboards and monitors, and now we have graphical user interfaces. I can't imaging how difficult it would be to insert a plug-in using punch cards 
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abacab
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/07 12:37:26
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Anderton
I think there will be ways to make all this happen more easily. Remember, with computers you used to have to tell the computer what to do with punch cards. Then came toggle switches and LEDs, then came QWERTY keyboards and monitors, and now we have graphical user interfaces. I can't imaging how difficult it would be to insert a plug-in using punch cards
I wrote my first Cobol program on a deck of punch cards. What a PITA that was, compared to running a Integrated Development Environment (IDE) on your PC today. In school, we were not allowed to use calculators on tests, but could only use a slide rule, or pencil and paper. But today you wouldn't think of sending a kid off to college without the latest laptop. Tools change. Usually for the better!
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cparmerlee
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/07 15:54:30
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It has been mentioned numerous times above that while it made good sense 20 years ago for the emerging DAW platforms to adopt a look and feel reminiscent of a traditional recording studio, that makes much less sense now, considering that most of the future customers will never have ever set foot inside a traditional studio.
While we are all comfortable with the look and feel of DAWs -- and frankly they all look almost exactly the same -- I would suggest that at any moment, 95% of what is on the screen is not needed and amounts to clutter. The problem is that all those little buttons and widgets are needed SOMETIMES, so they sit there looking at us.
I can imagine a new view of the DAW that is highly graphical, such as in Bidule. The initial view would show each track or bus as a node, and would have a visual map of all the connections. To see detail for each entity, you could fly over with the mouse or touch on the screen. As music is playing, perhaps there could be visual ways to call attention to the most active tracks, including a red glow for anything that is clipping. The most active nodes could bring themselves to the foreground. Of course, you could drill down to any of the detail we have today, but it wouldn't necessarily be on the main work surface.
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Markubl2
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/07 15:59:56
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cparmerlee
I can imagine a new view of the DAW that is highly graphical, such as in Bidule. The initial view would show each track or bus as a node, and would have a visual map of all the connections. To see detail for each entity, you could fly over with the mouse or touch on the screen. As music is playing, perhaps there could be visual ways to call attention to the most active tracks, including a red glow for anything that is clipping. The most active nodes could bring themselves to the foreground. Of course, you could drill down to any of the detail we have today, but it wouldn't necessarily be on the main work surface.
This sounds really cool actually. Kind of like how some of the new Reaktor Modules are built and displayed.
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Anderton
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/07 17:40:42
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cparmerlee
It has been mentioned numerous times above that while it made good sense 20 years ago for the emerging DAW platforms to adopt a look and feel reminiscent of a traditional recording studio, that makes much less sense now, considering that most of the future customers will never have ever set foot inside a traditional studio.
+1,000.
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bdickens
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/07 18:03:59
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I guess the point of my "RTFM" comment is that looki g up how to do something first before floundering around blindly and getting frustrated makes things a lot easier in the long run.
OK, I've got my software installed and my interface. I"ve got it up on the monitor. Now, I want to record a track. How do I do that? Well, let me go to the help files and look it up.
Much simpler, quicker and EASIER, than sitting at tbe computer punching keys and wondering wjy nothing is happening.
As far as those people who "just want to record a song" and don't want to become recording engineers, perhaps tbey need something a,whole lot simpler (and less expensive) than a full-featured DAW. What they need is really some sort of computerized "tape recorder," not SPLAT, Cubase, Pro Tools etc.
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cparmerlee
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/07 18:22:54
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husker
This sounds really cool actually. Kind of like how some of the new Reaktor Modules are built and displayed.
A few additional random thoughts. What I described would be a VIEW, not an revolutionary change in architecture. It simply would be a clean desktop into what we already have. At any moment, the user could switch to "Full DAW" view and do everything they do today just as they work today. The idea would be to offer a cleaner, low-clutter view that helps you spot problems and visualize how everything fits together. I imagine the simplest operation on any node would be the single-click, which would mute or un-mute that node, just as people do with Youtube videos. Of course, the muted nodes would become light gray, transparent, or somehow instantly recognizable as muted. A flyover with the mouse might solo just that node momentarily. There would be view options for how much information to display with each node. For example, you might want to display only a meter and nothing else. I'd like to see the signal levels indicated subtly by a glow around the node. If we have a kick drum, then we should see a subtle glow whenever the kick is struck, and the intensity of the glow grows with signal level. If it clips, that glow would turn orange or red for bad clipping. A right click could bring up a popup window that is what we see today in track view or the channel strip view -- or maybe combine all that information in a single popup. When you are done with that, click on white space to dismiss that popup. And so on. The premise for all of this is that DAWs have mostly reached their functional end point. There are little improvements here and there, but we won't achieve a 50% boost in productivity with the path we are on. We really should celebrate what DAWs have become. They are all amazing, and SONAR is among the best. But from here, the big gains come from more intuitive and uncluttered ways to work with that technology. And as a bonus, this makes the technology more inviting to newcomers, which is good for bitness. A person can easily imagine the Surface Dial being really useful with this type of highly graphical desktop. Microsoft might even underwrite some of the development, or at least promote the product. And speaking specifically about Cakewalk, this could be presented as a companion product, rather than a patch to SPlat. I have the perpetual deal for my updates, but I wouldn't mind paying an incremental amount for this new view.
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Tim Flannagin
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/07 18:26:41
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Anderton
I think it's important not to confuse the tool with the art. Creating an incredible work of art will never be easy, but having tools that don't get in the way of being an artist is doable. We are in the first baby steps of computer-based recording, and something like Ozone is a baby step as well. Neutron has no artistic intelligence, it just force-fits what you do into something it thinks is probably better than what you'll come up with by yourself.
Artificial intelligence has not really been applied to what we do, nor have voice commands. Once a machine learns how you work, things will change.
By easier to use, I don't mean so much "easier to make art" but easier to, for example, have the DAW talk to the interface so that setup is automatic. Also something like the Help module had potential, but I suspect it's another one of those things that won't take the next step. For example instead of having to search for topics in the documentation, the machine should be aware of what you're doing, and thus be able to anticipate what you need to find out about.
It should also be able to anticipate other functions based on what's happened in the past. As just one example - right now, to have a loop transpose, we need to place a transposition marker every time a transposition needs to happen. If you brought a loop into a project, and there was already a MIDI bass or keyboard part, there could be a pop-up that says "Should loops transpose based on the keyboard part's chord progression?" because it would already know what the chord progression was...that sort of thing.
I think there will be ways to make all this happen more easily. Remember, with computers you used to have to tell the computer what to do with punch cards. Then came toggle switches and LEDs, then came QWERTY keyboards and monitors, and now we have graphical user interfaces. I can't imaging how difficult it would be to insert a plug-in using punch cards
bdickens
I guess the point of my "RTFM" comment is that looki g up how to do something first before floundering around blindly and getting frustrated makes things a lot easier in the long run.
OK, I've got my software installed and my interface. I"ve got it up on the monitor. Now, I want to record a track. How do I do that? Well, let me go to the help files and look it up.
Much simpler, quicker and EASIER, than sitting at tbe computer punching keys and wondering wjy nothing is happening.
This. I think a set of wizards that could be user selectable with regard to the "level of wizardry" needed would be good. For some operations, I'm able to get the program to do what I want to do. But for others, I'm not so experienced, so a wizard to walk me through would be helpful. If you could select the level of assistance needed, it would be great. I can imagine a range from "do this for me in a Cakewalk best practices way" down to a "just display a tooltip". I can imagine that you might want to operate in an environment that gives the most help while tracking or coming up with quick ideas, where you might want to dial it back to manual mode for perfecting the mix.
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jackson white
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/18 20:42:44
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cparmerlee
The premise for all of this is that DAWs have mostly reached their functional end point. ... from here, the big gains come from more intuitive and uncluttered ways to work with that technology. And as a bonus, this makes the technology more inviting to newcomers, which is good for bitness.
You mean like this? https://www.soundtrap.com/ The quote that got my attention was; "Forget about complicated music production tools – let your talent and creativity shine." Which was preceded by; "Auto-Tune™ One of our most loved features is the ability to pitch and modify your voice recordings. Powered by Antares" Perhaps an indication of their target market. Or Spotify's attempt to homogenize the playlist of the world? .... All attitude aside, agreed on your fundamental premise, but see more than one user profile to consider. The basic functions have all been addressed in some fashion but many suffer from clumsy attempts to emulate analog workflows in a digital environment. I suspect the main driver for this is the marketing served up to capture a newer and much larger market which has only recently been able to access the capabilities of a professional studio. The promise of "meticulously modeled retro-whatever" is so much sexier than efficient workflow on a digital workstation. There is different profile that's used to a much lower barrier to capturing their imagination in tangible form for immediate dissemination on a social media platform. Imposing a "traditional workflow" is likely to generate some incompatibility with the desire to contribute to their community in an efficient manner. To satisfy both would be a difficult task for a single platform. I suppose it might be possible if the fundamental tasks were abstracted down to a modular level and exposed with different levels of functionality, application focused templates and UIs.
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Green Needle
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/19 12:04:29
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My contribution here to what would be a good addition to DAW's (Sonar specifically) is to find a way to be able to insert pics into the notes section for hardware settings on hybrid set ups. Then the pics could live with the session and have notes on them as well. It may sound trivial, but man would it be a sweet time saver.
Track to track would be cool but as a general method within "notes" more specifically as you would have to be able to see them large to see the finer settings. Also, the way i mix, the hardware is used by groups more than tracks so a pic per track doesn't really help. although the option would be nice.
Maybe the bus/track icons could take reg jpgs that you double click and they open full size? Just thinking out loud.
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Jeff Evans
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/19 12:23:10
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Would this help: https://non-lethal-applications.com/products/snapshot Its free as well. This app allows you to take shot from your phone and insert the image into the session. On tracks I believe. Their website implies the phone is the only method of getting the image in. However I have emailed them and asked them if the Windows screenshot can be used instead. e.g. of an open plugin window. I hope so and if it can they have certainly not made that very clear. Taking pictures of your monitor might not be that great. It would be good in the case say taking a shot of a drum micing setup or guitar cab mic position etc..
post edited by Jeff Evans - 2017/11/19 12:48:26
Specs i5-2500K 3.5 Ghz - 8 Gb RAM - Win 7 64 bit - ATI Radeon HD6900 Series - RME PCI HDSP9632 - Steinberg Midex 8 Midi interface - Faderport 8- Studio One V4 - iMac 2.5Ghz Core i5 - Sierra 10.12.6 - Focusrite Clarett thunderbolt interface Poor minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas -Eleanor Roosevelt
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abacab
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/19 14:04:14
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As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...
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Jeff Evans
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/19 22:45:52
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Yes Snapshot does import any image including ones generated by the Windows screenshot etc.. But as they said it is more about taking a shot of your analog outboard gear and its settings and from this point of view it would be excellent.
Specs i5-2500K 3.5 Ghz - 8 Gb RAM - Win 7 64 bit - ATI Radeon HD6900 Series - RME PCI HDSP9632 - Steinberg Midex 8 Midi interface - Faderport 8- Studio One V4 - iMac 2.5Ghz Core i5 - Sierra 10.12.6 - Focusrite Clarett thunderbolt interface Poor minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas -Eleanor Roosevelt
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abacab
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/19 23:19:58
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Snapshot looks handy for including any image in your project! It doesn't go into the notes, but having it as a plugin is still relatively unobtrusive.
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jrb101
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/20 16:42:08
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Hi All,
Just to chime in with my first post here...
I've come to SPLAT recently, having used lots of different DAWs for 20-odd years now. I think that there is always going to be some sort of learning curve associated with a product such as a DAW, but some are definitely more easy to get to grips with than others.
DAWs like SPLAT, Cubase Pro, Logic, Pro-Tools, Samplitude etc. are by their design aimed at full professional (or very enthusiastic amateur) level users and so have a million features so that every type of musician, engineer, sound designer (and any other role) can find the tools they require (probably only ~50% of what's in there for each role).
There are other DAWs out there that are aimed at different levels - for instance my two other go to DAWs are Mixcraft 8, and Harrison Mixbus 4. These cater for different groups - Mixcraft is about as easy as a DAW could sensibly go whilst retaining reasonably powerful features and has lots of tutorials available (yep, so does SPLAT, I know!), but it is never going to match the raw power of SPLAT as that's not it's target audience. Mixbus is a different beast again, with a workflow centred around a faithful recreation of a Harrison console and to-tape tracking. Basically, I think the approach that Sonar has gone with of multiple versions is a good idea, but maybe they should go even further - I saw someone had suggested use-case based versions of DAWs - seems like a great idea to me - e.g. Sonar Guitarists edition, Sonar Softsynth edition, Sonar Mastering edition all with specific tailored tools.
One feature that is in Mixcraft 8 that I'd like to see in more DAWs is the ability to use a smartphone as a transport controller over wifi - I've found that indispensable when trying to record instruments away from my PC! And a feature from Mixbus that is great and would be brilliant in SPLAT is the add track menu - it asks how many tracks you'd like, what they're for (e.g. vocal takes, podcast with vocal and backing music, live band setup with all inputs armed etc.) and then sets them up, routes them and arms them for you - all you need to do is hit record!
Just my thoughts...
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Starise
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/20 17:07:35
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It could be argued that the decline of guitar sales from both Fender and Gibson are partially the result of a younger generation who have found it to be less expensive than a new guitar to make guitar music with loops or vsti's using daw software.
From that vantage point, the software is already easy enough to use. Easier in fact, than learning to play an instrument. You can get the effect of a band without a band or the need to learn to play. They take the path of least resistance. The younger generations are practically raised with a pacifier and a computer attached to them in one way or another. My 7 year old grand daughter knows her way around a smart phone already. Probably better than some adults.
If quantum computing ever makes it into the mainstream we will have the most real AI ever. They have already built the hardware for it.1's can be 0's and 0's can be 1's making a quad architecture possible or 4 possible outcomes to every byte.
I would still like to see voice control. Works well with Alexa but she uses IFTTT and some of that can be tough to put into Sonar as it is. Some time in the near future there will be an easier way.
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Green Needle
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/20 17:56:07
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Jeff Evans
Would this help:
Its free as well. This app allows you to take shot from your phone and insert the image into the session. On tracks I believe. Their website implies the phone is the only method of getting the image in. However I have emailed them and asked them if the Windows screenshot can be used instead. e.g. of an open plugin window. I hope so and if it can they have certainly not made that very clear.
Taking pictures of your monitor might not be that great. It would be good in the case say taking a shot of a drum micing setup or guitar cab mic position etc..
This is really good, I'm super happy with this solution, thanks again Jeff.
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cityrat
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/21 13:04:10
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Cakewalk USED to have a product that was pretty much the epitome of "easy to use" GUI that let you focus on music creation. The side bar of the signal flow, looping, etc. Mixing not so much, but that's not the point in creating it.
It was called Project5. RIP.
(no "matrix view" is not even close)
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THERAPSMITH
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/25 21:53:28
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For me, it's integration. (The reason I love Sonar) ...
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Danny Danzi
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2017/11/25 22:33:40
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☄ Helpfulby mettelus 2018/08/09 05:37:45
Here's my take for what it's worth...
I've taught many people how to record. From cassette recorders, hard drive, computer, tape.....here's what I've come up with.
Today, users are bombarded with options that have options that have options that have options. They are all over the screen and can scare the heck out of you before you do a thing. This needs to change. I have a guitar student right now who is now having me teach him recording with Sonar. His first question to me was "how will I ever learn all this? Just look at all the stuff that pops out on my screen!"
He's right...and he's only using Sonar Professional. Ever right click on something in Reaper? Man, so many options! We have to make it sort of like the old Sonar. Remember when you could choose what you wanted to see on on the screen? We need to take on the "it's a little tape machine with huge features we'll get to later" approach.
No one needs to be bombarded with options all over. It's great we have them for the power user, but I like the whole question and answer thing someone mentioned above.
We have everything "smart" these days. How about a DAW that asks you questions and tailors what you see to your needs? One that will blow your face off with options as you go through the ranks to see all that stuff, or...if you are already a power user, you disable that feature and go all out. We take for granted how much we really know as well as what we do to make our systems work.
Just look at ASIO settings alone. I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell people "a good rule of thumb is to find a happy medium buffer that works for recording to avoid latency, and use something bigger for mixing so you have the room to do what you need to do." They usually say "well, why can't I just leave it alone? Why do I have to touch it?"
Granted, some of you have systems where you don't have to mess with your ASIO buffers. Not everyone has that luxury. So they have to change from time to time depending on the interface and pc etc.
At any rate, I think the mouse-over help that Sonar implemented was quite useful. I also like one-click link tutorials inside help files that load up projects or templates so you can see things step at a time. Watching videos is good...but nothing beats going through the motions. Celemony has some really good how to videos.
Anyway, that's just my take. Anyone deciding to create a "Smart DAW", please bring me along for turning you onto the idea. LOL! :)
-Danny
My Site Fractal Audio Endorsed Artist & Beta Tester
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methodman3000
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2018/08/07 23:29:04
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I subscribed to both VTC.com and Safari Books online and they both have excellent Sonar Classes, bear in mind that VTC sells a unlimited license that covers many of the sequencers in earlier versions, but it gives me an idea of what to look for and explains things that I would never find on my own. Go look for a coupon for VTC so you can get it for less money and it covers any kind of software you can imagine not just Sonar. But they are for previous versions up to Sonar X1 But I actually learned more from the earlier courses than that one. They also include Photoshop Reason, Cubase and several others Protools These courses are very deep. Safari also look for a discount coupon carries Sonar Books and the VTC Programming Courses but for example it only has the VTC Sonar x1 course but it has Scott's books and about 4or 5 Cakewalk books. Both of these are great deals if you get the discount for 1/2 price on Safari Books online. It covers everything technological. Well worth the 1/2 price.
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Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2018/08/08 00:08:34
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bapu
First you have to pass a written test showing that you know the terminology of the DAW.
Brilliant Bapu. Now remind me not to hire you when we're trying to improve sales :-)
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jimfogle
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2018/08/08 01:39:55
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1) Every other program I use it's left click and drag to highlight an area. Every other program I choose what action I want to perform on the highlighted area by either moving the mouse cursor to the top to select the next action from the edit menu or right click on the highlight to open a sub menu. That's a pretty basic action but the only audio program I've found that performs like that is Audacity! Cut, copy, paste, delete, move all of these words are the most basic tasks you'll perform using a DAW and all approach performing those tasks differently. Why? That's a constant frustration. It also means if I want to perform a simple task I'll likely open Audacity and not a full featured DAW. Guess what, the more I use Audacity the more comfortable I feel with it and less comfortable I feel with CbB. I have to relearn how to perform basic tasks in CbB every time I use it and that takes time I don't have and raises my frustration level for something I want to have fun using. I will say this, I'm just not picking on CbB. The same holds true for other DAWs I've tried.
2) Signal chains. In the seventies I bought a Teac A-3340 reel to reel tape deck. I got pretty good at recording but I couldn't achieve my goals because I had no outboard gear and had no idea of what gear I needed. I started thinking the Peggy Lee refrain, "Is that all there is?" Luckily my wife gave me a hardware DAW as a present. The hardware DAW includes nine software algorithms that emulate various insert signal chains for recording acoustic and electric instruments or vocals. It also has a send/receive parallel buss to add reverb and delay. Now I know what I was missing! Why can't software DAWs have algorithms that emulate a variety of basic signal chains that beginners can use and learn from?
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Euthymia
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2018/08/08 09:15:41
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jimfogle
Why can't software DAWs have algorithms that emulate a variety of basic signal chains that beginners can use and learn from?
Would this be different from the TONS of FX Chains that Cakewalk by BandLab ships with (admittedly many of them now refer to plug-ins that are not currently included, but I trust that the team will iron that out)? Have you not noticed them down there at the very bottom of the list in the FX Browser? (And BTW, I hear ya about Audacity's ease of use and conformity to Windows UI standards. I once auditioned REAPER after having spent time doing all my work in Audacity and....I'll just say that REAPER is known for its idiosyncratic workflow and leave out the other parts of how that went)
-Erik ___________ 3.4 GHz i7-3770, 8G RAM, Win 7 64-bit2X PreSonus Firepods, Event 20/20bas, Alesis Monitor Ones, Alesis Point SevensCakewalk by BandLab, Mixcraft Pro Studio 8.5Warning: if you tell me my issue can be remedied by buying more RAM, an SSD, or a Waves plug-in, I will troll you pitiilessly
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eve_ripper
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Re: What Would Make DAWs (Not Just SONAR) Easier to Use?
2018/08/08 10:01:16
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What a topic.
I was born in 90s and started making music in 2005-2006. As a child I've learned some music theory (no special classes).
I've got a concept to write music with sheets, notion, etc. Software as a Guitar Pro was used as a sketchbook where I was making all the music. It was hard to understand any midi gear and connections. I wanted only to play instruments and then record em all. I've tried Cubase, Sonar in 2005-2006. And it was a nightmare without midi keyboard and just music theory in head.
Nowadays we have guides for web-sites and etc. These guides can and should help other guys that are in music.
Modern DAW should have concept to give user less time to make something. Don't need to look for sub-menus, it should be right here and in your hands.
Also we have mobile devices which are getting more and more music software. It can be integrated.
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