The Web's Most Popular DAW's

Here's a chart showing the most popular digital audio workstations, based on recent search activity on today's four most popular search engines.



1. Pro Tools
2. Cubase
3. FL Studio
4. Cakewalk Sonar
5. Apple Logic
6. Adobe Audition
7. Ableton Live
8. Apple Garageband
9. Sound Forge
10. Sony Acid


via Digital Music Doctor

What's your favorite DAW?

Just watched a half-hour clip of Dubstep's A-lister Benga, going through his process of making a beat.

He uses FL Studio (formerly known as Fruity Loops) and Logic to produce his tracks, two of today's most commonly used DAW's. But while Logic is found in most professional production studios (frequently substituted according to preference by Pro Tools and Cubase), FL Studio is often bashed by producers as a "beginner's software" that produces a complementary sound. These people are usually surprised to hear successful artists of all genres (like Boy 8-Bit, Beastie Boys, Timbaland or Benga) working with it and creating crisp results. Yes, it is a simple program and anyone who uses its on-board samples will always recognize them in other songs. But combined with a controller, synthesizer, external plugins, own samples or other DAW's, FL Studio provides limitless capabilities. It remains the most user-friendly DAW on the market, which was always FL's key to success. Anyone who has an idea, can just sit down and realize it quickly. And you don't have to be Timbaland to do it.

Personally, I love Fruity Loops and the concept behind it. But since I came across Ableton Live a while back and Native Instruments' Maschine more recently (which has a very similar software setup to FL Studio), I've just been losing touch.

What's your favorite DAW? Any tweakers out there, let us know what you think!

Watch Benga working on a beat here.

Benga - Pleasure

Ableton Live on tour

Berlin-based software company Ableton, responsible for one of today's most popular DAWs, is taking its updated flagship product Live 8 on tour. Supported by DJ/production team DubSpot, Ableton is set host educational workshops in 8 cities in the US, kicking off in San Francisco and leading through Boston, Chicago, LA and DC, among other cities. The tour, which will take place throughout the month of May, aims to display new features to those that have used previous versions of the software, as well as introduce the program and its revolutionary capabilities to people that haven't worked with it before. While interactive learning sessions are to take place during the day, the nights will be filled with some sweet live performances. Tickets will be $125 for a single day, $225 for the entire weekend. Sounds like a lot of cash, but it's pennies well spent for those interested in audio production or DJing.
Check out Dubspot's website for more info on schedules, participating artists and purchasing tickets.