I’ve used Reason, FL-Studios, Reaper, Maschine,, and now I mainly use Ableton. Below is a story of my personal journey and my personal opinion.
Reason Before Reason Studios
I loved Reason back in the day and it learned how to make music on it. I started using it when it only had rack extensions and didn’t work with VST’s, so for a while I didn’t know what a VST was.
Reason was great, their prices were economical and one year I even to to pay a $1.00 for an upgrade. They were doing a pay what you want deal and for person not making that much at the time I really appreciated them. Thank your Reason Studios.
Reasons as a stand-alone music software with RE (Rack Extensions) were and are rock solid when it comes to stability, sound quality, and computer resource usage. This program never crashed even with my duo core processor and 8GB RAM back in the day.
One thing that I didn’t like about Reason Studios was the store ratings, you could never tell how many people actually reviewed the product and it deterred me from purchasing RE’s from companies I was familiar with.
I Want to Make Music Like So-and-So
I wanted the popular VST’s that everyone else was using on YouTube. It kind of made me feel like I was missing out, like I needed this extra stuff that I didn’t have to be great.
There weren’t too many popular YouTubers using Reason to make the music that I was making, so when someone said this is how you make the, for instance, Metro Boomin sound, they would be in FL-Studios or something like it and they would recreate the sound using a VST.
My Native Instruments Journey
I got a Maschine with an MK1 and loved the hell out of it. This upped my music knowledge and was pure fun to use. Also, guess what? It allowed me to use VST’s.
After exploring VST’s and learning how useful they are I decided to by a Native-Instruments Komplete Ultimate so that, “I won’t have to buy anymore music software ever again” LOL! If you keep reading you’ll realize that was wishful thinking.
I was able to now use VST’s to create sounds and import the .wav into Reason. Technically, the Maschine is a grove machine software but you still can make whole songs with it, but I needed something that I could make a whole song with without the complexity of importing and exporting into Reason to finish off.
My Ascension to Ableton Live.
After searching for a stable industry standard all encompassing DAW, I decided to go with Ableton 9. Ableton had a controller just like the Maschine but with more pads and piano scale like flexibility.
The Push2 has 64 pads, a step sequencer, arpeggiator, digital screen, midi in and out, pedal effect ports, and much more.
This makes the Push2 much more complicated and intimidating to use than the Native-Instruments Maschine and I feel that the Maschine allows you to focus on the hardware more than looking at your computer screen but, you can do way more with Ableton Live paired with the Push2.
I love how even when Ableton does crash it allows you to recover your project the next time you open it. Ableton is for the most part stable, CPU friendly, RAM friendly unless you open up powerful stock Ableton instrument like Operator. Operator is a beast of a synthesizer and can take up the resources of a budget computer if you add too many.
I’ve had Maschine crash on me so many times without being able to recover it. I know that a lot of the times when it does crash it’s because of a VST conflicting with Native-Instruments but, the end result is the same. Ableton doesn’t crash as much and allowed me to ditch my Reason import and exporting workflow nightmare.
Why Ableton is My Favorite DAW Today.
I can use Maschine as a VST without any weird conflicts most of the time. I don’t have to depend on a strange installer software to install my products.
It’s has a very clean interface unlike FL, Reason and it’s rack wire clutter (which I still like a lot), and it’s not as rigid as Maschines’ software. Ableton allows me to make music fast and it’s perfect for live performances and external gear.
I can go on and on about Ableton but you will have to buckle down and spend the money on it to see what I mean. You can also try this out for 90 days if you want. You can try the full suite version and all of it’s glory before making your decision.
Don’t Be Afraid of Ableton You Will Get Used to It
Ableton may seem hard to use if you are new to the software because the interface is a lot different from the traditional left to right you are use to seeing.
When you give Ableton a shot you will see that you have the best of both worlds when it comes to the layout, you have the option to use session mode and arrangement mode to make lay down your tracks.
Arrangement mode is the traditional left to right ruler with horizontal lanes for each track. This view is what most DAW’s look like.
Session mode is what you will be used to if you ever used an MPC or Maschine. Session view uses clips of your audio ideas that you can drag and drop to mix and match before laying them down on the arrangement timeline.
You can drag each view to a different window if you have multiple computer monitors so that you can drag your clips to Session view once you know how you want them laid out. It seems different at first but it’s life changing.
Key Reason Why I Like Ableton
Ableton’s Ease of use, flexibility, midi controller integration, support, and stability is what sets it apart from other DAW’s. Once you use it you will understand why I think nothing compares. I wish the color pallets were a little bit better but… that okay.
Final Thoughts…
Get What you can afford and have fun, other DAW’s will allow you to learn, create, integrate, and much more. At the end of the day it’s all a preference but this is my current favorite.
Don’t let anything stop you from making music and don’t let anyone talk you into buying something you don’t need. Take my advice and experience and if it aligns with your goals use it.