Recording - June 2020 - 72

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Favorite DAW? Pshaw! Why choose only one?
By Aaron Trumm
A long time ago, in a studio far, far away, there were many
people involved in song production. The process included separate and distinct roles, each one performed by a specialist-a
professional. Performances were captured in a studio by tracking engineers. The song was balanced by a mix engineer. And
there was the dark and mysterious process of mastering, done
in a highly specialized mastering suite by a golden-eared,
equally specialized and single-minded technician.
Now? Not so much. Yes, the traditional process still happens, but more and more it's all one big jumble, especially for
those of us producing track after track on tight budgets, often in
our own home studios.
All of this-made possible by the power of computing. Gone
(mostly) are megalith tape machines; in their place, the all-powerful DAW. Like ice cream flavors, everyone has their favorite.
Some love their choice and hate all the others; debates are
waged, articles are written: "How to choose the right DAW for
you." "Which DAW is best?" If it weren't for the loudness wars,
the sample rate wars, and the regular ol' guns and ammo wars,
the DAW wars might rage uncontrollably.
What would it be like if the world of the DAW was all kumbaya
and lovey-dovey? What if you didn't have to choose just one? What
if all DAWs had their place in a wonderful world of DAW inclusion?
Or at least what if you, the all-in-one production team, realized that there may be a reason to use more than one. If you
think of audio as audio, and not as DAW projects stuck inside
a particular format, there's a whole world of possibility for improving workflow, sound, and creativity.
There are a few reasons for this. One may be obvious: certain
DAWs are better suited to certain tasks than others. Better stated, some software programs may be better suited to your way
of performing tasks than others. On the other hand, that same
DAW may not run a favorite plugin or two, or embed video the
way you like, or warp audio in a way that makes sense to you.
An argument can be made for warping yourself instead.
Learning how to fully use your DAW's features is definitely a
good idea. Still, it's nice to know there may be other options.
Using different software for different parts of a project harkens back to the traditional way of doing things. If you're a
one-person production crew, it's beneficial if you can get yourself into a different mindset for each part of the process. Granted, exporting audio and changing software midstream can be
seen as a touch inefficient, but it can go a long way toward
achieving your goals and can be super helpful in the long run.
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Another benefit of learning multiple DAW platforms is that
you may find yourself collaborating with people outside of
your studio who are using different software. Wouldn't it be
nice if you were the person who could handle multiple formats,
change back and forth, work within someone else's flow, and
make everything come together?
Having a working knowledge of multiple DAWs is equally
helpful when you travel to a session at another studio, and your
preferred software isn't available. Perhaps you're a Cubase
lover, but you don't have a grand piano, and you've been
granted access to a Pro Tools studio with a beautimous grand.
You're given the run of the place-as long as you can pilot the
ship yourself. You would need to be competent with Pro Tools
and know how to bring the project back into Cubase.
Yes, it can be costly to run multiple DAW platforms, admittedly.
Some great software is free, and other packages offer affordable
tiered pricing. Maybe choose three affordable options rather than
one expensive one. Or, it may just be the cost of doing business to
maintain a wide array of options. It all depends on your situation.
Of course, everyone's flow is different. We all have our quirky
little setups. I'll leave you with mine, just to give you an example.
Tracking: Cakewalk by BandLab. Pro Tools if piloting the
piano studio mentioned above.
Editing: Cakewalk. I can't wrap my head around Pro Tools
editing, even after 25 years.
Voiceover editing: Audacity.
Loop-based composition, warping, and live triggering:
Ableton.
Mixing: Cakewalk, and then MixBus for final tweaks and
its special MixBus sound.
Mastering: Reaper, because it seems to deal with my preferred plugins best.
MP3 Conversion: Sox, a command-line tool. I wrote a
script that uses Sox to make every deliverable I need in
one fell swoop.
Yes, everything I do can be done in any of the packages I
use. But I find it freeing to move smoothly from one to another.
Maybe you could too!
Aaron J. Trumm is an educator, audio engineer, and writer who
loves all of his little DAWs the same, just in their own unique
way. You can talk to him on social media @AaronJTrumm

Recording - June 2020

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