Marcus Curtis

codamedia
To those that are pointing out Pro Tools being so far down in the popularity contest, I think you need to understand the demographics. I know a lot of Pro Tools users, and not one of them would take a moment out of their day to respond to a poll like this - especially when it is just a ploy to add you to their email list.
 
Just sayin ...

Thats funny, I wonder why I did not need to give my email in order to vote. That may be a feature they added during the course of the poll as it became popular. I did not give them my email and I was still able to vote anyway. hmmm wonder what I am missing here.

I corrected my initial post. When I first visited the poll I kept getting a pop up that was begging for my email address. I never filled it in, and "assumed" (always a bad mistake) that was the unlock for voting. Later when I went to their home page I saw that you could vote without providing an email.
 
My mistake...

Let's face it, all of the major DAWs are utterly fantastic tools that are far more capable than what was available in 'the old days". I'd bet that in most cases 'best' is merely a matter of familiarity. Meanwhile back at the studio...
 
Regards,

These polls are nothing more than an indication of which product's supporters get the word out best to their fellow users and which boards are best at stuffing the ballot box. Also the target audience for the publication doing the poll has an influence on the outcome as well.
 
Run this same poll in Tape Op or Sound on Sound vs say Future Music and you will probably get wildly different results.

Beginners or returners looking for their first/new daw might check these "best daw" polls to save time and decide which product to try first. I don't think many people will try as many as 10-15 daws. So the results of these polls are actually important, I think.

Jlien X
Beginners or returners looking for their first/new daw might check these "best daw" polls to save time and decide which product to try first. I don't think many people will try as many as 10-15 daws. So the results of these polls are actually important, I think.

exactly right. What these polls are more then anything else is marketing. When musicians search for their first DAW things like this come up in the search engine. When I do research for products I look at reviews, forums, and polls. This translates into more sales for DAWS at the top for first time users.
 
Actually there really is no best DAW. There is what you like and what you don't like. I used and owned Pro Tools, and Cubase, I have been in situations where Logic was used too. All these tools are good. Sonar seems to fit my needs and I like the work flow better. But that is just my opinion. That does not mean that Sonar is better than anything else. It just means that it is the tool set I personally prefer to use. Other people prefer different DAWS for different reasons.
 
I voted to give Sonar an edge because I hope that this poll will influence someone that is searching for their first DAW. This will translate into more revenue for cakewalk and serve to further Sonars development. 

codamedia

Marcus Curtis

codamedia
To those that are pointing out Pro Tools being so far down in the popularity contest, I think you need to understand the demographics. I know a lot of Pro Tools users, and not one of them would take a moment out of their day to respond to a poll like this - especially when it is just a ploy to add you to their email list.
 
Just sayin ...

Thats funny, I wonder why I did not need to give my email in order to vote. That may be a feature they added during the course of the poll as it became popular. I did not give them my email and I was still able to vote anyway. hmmm wonder what I am missing here.

I corrected my initial post. When I first visited the poll I kept getting a pop up that was begging for my email address. I never filled it in, and "assumed" (always a bad mistake) that was the unlock for voting. Later when I went to their home page I saw that you could vote without providing an email.
 
My mistake...

No worries. I thought the website might have changed something during the course of the poll. They added DAWS during the course of the poll. Those applications did not get as much exposure as the original DAWS in the poll. For a second I thought they changed something. 

  DAWs have become religions.  Interesting that the top two are not cross platform.  The ones on the bottom are proprietary.  Also FL and X3 are authorization friendly.
  After working with other DAWs, some cater more to certain genres. Comparing some of them is like apples and oranges.   Usually FL Studio wins because the demo is easily accessible.  It has lifetime updates and their top package is the most affordable.  That product is downloaded about 20,000 times a day.
  In the 90's Logic was popular and the made the big mistake of going Mac only. 
  Reason took a dive when they added the proprietary dongle.  They've changed their authorization.
  No matter how good Cubase is, I don't want another dongle.
 
  As for the bigger DAWs,  X3 PE is a better value.  For me to upgrade Live 8 to Live 9 Suite is $400.  Every thing in that is proprietary.  Live IMO is the most over priced DAW out there.  Cakewalk goes far to keep it's users.  X1 was going to be my last version since I don't use it a lot. But no....they had to have an upgrade sale and a $20 off code to where I can't refuse.  $79 for X2PE upgrade.  Only Image Line can beat that with their free upgrades.  I also prefer to give my money to developers who have the "I trust you" attitude to end users.
 
  Popular DAW doesn't really mean anything. To a developer the most important thing is sales.  Yet we get this religious attitude towards DAWs.