Hi everyone.  

I'm a long time Cakewalk user and I also use Pro Tools periodically out of collaboration necessity.  I currently use Sonar X2 as my main DAW for production work at our company.  Recently, we obtained Pro Tools 11.  As I go through the materials from AVID to get up to speed on things, it seems to me that there's a kind of "behind the curve" feeling I get when I compare Pro Tools to workflows and features that have been available in Sonar for some time now.  So without babbling further, I just wanted to pose the following general question for discussion among peers.
Other than the obvious "being consistent with industry standards" reason, what reasons do you have for using either DAW over the other?

Best,


Tobias
www.sbrop.com

Some other standard besides VST. I think the VST platform trashes decent audio and different companies implement the standard in different ways leaving us with varying results. For high quality audio, I don't feel a VST platform does the audio justice. This is why I use a DAW which does not rely on VST for audio. I do however use Sonar for VST sound generation i.e. the midi implementation sets the standard. I then move my files to another platform for mixing.

There, said that without mentioning any competitors.

as far as i go its all about music creation, and i think apps like sonar, cubase, logic ar far better for music creation. The only way id bother spending the money on a HDX rig would be if i was opeing a studio for commercial use, and was "needing" that hardware/software solution, but i dont need it, and im more than happy with what i work with

"I think the VST platform trashes decent audio" would you mind elaborating there please

Chregg


as far as i go its all about music creation, and i think apps like sonar, cubase, logic ar far better for music creation. The only way id bother spending the money on a HDX rig would be if i was opeing a studio for commercial use, and was "needing" that hardware/software solution, but i dont need it, and im more than happy with what i work with

I find that this is pretty consistent with the way I've seen Pro Tools implemented.  It's always A-Room stuff and kind of more "buzzy" for client side impression.  There is an enormous amount of content created fully in Sonar alone that is used in film and television on a regular basis though not regularly advertised as such.  This makes me wonder why Roland is not far more aggressive in touting this and shining light on these things from an industry position standpoint.


But I'm actually very curious to see the technical reasons as they pertain to my original question. :-)

I use the UAD platform and the difference in RTAS vs. VST of the same plug is clearer and small changes in the knob settings can be heard in RTAS less so in VST. I have file tested this and there is a difference in the files in the mid to upper frequency range.

From my experience it is a waste of time to compare DAW platforms without taking into consideration the primary influencer of the sound which is the plugins used to develop a mix. Another area which is never debated is how one DAW handles the audio driver versus another. This alone can skew your listening results even though the files of two systems can match.

Bowing out now because I have a feeling this old and worn out debate is about to tumble into the realm of my DAW is better than your DAW.

Middleman


I use the UAD platform and the difference in RTAS vs. VST of the same plug is clearer and small changes in the knob settings can be heard in RTAS less so in VST. I have file tested this and there is a difference in the files in the mid to upper frequency range.

From my experience it is a waste of time to compare DAW platforms without taking into consideration the primary influencer of the sound which is the plugins used to develop a mix. Another area which is never debated is how one DAW handles the audio driver versus another. This alone can skew your listening results even though the files of two systems can match.

Bowing out now because I have a feeling this old and worn out debate is about to tumble into the realm of my DAW is better than your DAW.

Well......I'm looking for actual technical feedback which is what you're giving.  I get what you're saying about the desire to bow out because most people do punt to vague general sentimental type points which is useless from a professional standpoint.  I'd like to hear more about what you have to offer.  At this point, it's not a factor in any decisions on our part at our company.  We have BOTH systems.  It's just a matter of workflow considerations to produce the work we do.

"I use the UAD platform and the difference in RTAS vs. VST of the same plug is clearer and small changes in the knob settings can be heard in RTAS less so in VST. I have file tested this and there is a difference in the files in the mid to upper frequency range. " Thats quite interesting that, hate to drag you back into this, but what kinda differences where you seeing/hearing between the files

 Recently, we obtained Pro Tools 11.

No disrespect..but how???   It has not been released yet, and Avid and those in the know are bound to secrecy upon the launch date.

Chregg


"I use the UAD platform and the difference in RTAS vs. VST of the same plug is clearer and small changes in the knob settings can be heard in RTAS less so in VST. I have file tested this and there is a difference in the files in the mid to upper frequency range. " Thats quite interesting that, hate to drag you back into this, but what kinda differences where you seeing/hearing between the files

Middleman


I use the UAD platform and the difference in RTAS vs. VST of the same plug is clearer and small changes in the knob settings can be heard in RTAS less so in VST. I have file tested this and there is a difference in the files in the mid to upper frequency range.

From my experience it is a waste of time to compare DAW platforms without taking into consideration the primary influencer of the sound which is the plugins used to develop a mix. Another area which is never debated is how one DAW handles the audio driver versus another. This alone can skew your listening results even though the files of two systems can match.

Bowing out now because I have a feeling this old and worn out debate is about to tumble into the realm of my DAW is better than your DAW.

 
What you experience is  is because of phase shift and quality degradation of the RTAS plugins. RTAS do not sounds better actually it perform worse both in audio quality, CPU use, multi threading and latency. RTAS is in 24bit only. VST float in 32bit or 64bit.
New AVX plugins float in x64bit and will sound and perform much better then RTAS.
 
AU-plugins, OSX audio drivers and OSX over all perform less then PC and VST. MAC  and OSX is not a very good multimedia platform that you might think.
That is why the big turn in the multimedia industry last years (Music, FILM, animation, Photo) toward PC platform. As far as I know AVID has put their main resources making PRO TOOLS 11 x64 work and perform best on Windows 7/8 x64bit platform.