Are you a VTuber trying to make a cover?
Are you a content creator trying to get into music production?
In the hopes to answer those questions and bring some value, I dedicated about 50 hours of my time to make a comprehensive video for you guys to help you on your journey!
Picking a Digital Audio Workstation, or "DAW" is a very personal choice that comes with many considerations to think about. Due to the fact there are way to many out there for you to choose, along with the potential to make awesome stuff with literally any of them, it may seem difficult to make a selection. This video breaks down the pros and cons of many DAWs, including some that I've had experience working with. I've also included a four-step guideline on things to consider when making your selection.
The purpose is the same for all of them. Some are easier to use than others, some are more complex to give users more control. Some are geared for just recording top quality live sound, and others are meant for sound design. Whatever goal you are trying to accomplish in sound, allow the video to shed some light on some of the differences each DAW has, and to see how they tailor to your needs. The goal here is to help you out!
The video is not intended to bash other DAWs in any way (even though I will rock FL Gang for life, sorry for all the Ableton and Logic Pro homies out there 🤣). I've took time to research each DAW mentioned to the best of my ability, along with garnering assistance within and outside of my music production community and network.
MY EXPERIENCE
As said, my experience working with Fruity Loops Studio over the past couple years allowed me to understand some of the differences of each DAW, but also the concept of how producing works. A majority of my best works and current portfolio reflects off of FL, which was introduced to me from other musicians and fellow teammates from collegiate track and field. At the time, I only had an HP Laptop valued around $200, that my mom bought from pawnshop for me to aid in my studies at the time, which I downloaded FL on. As time went on, I utilized the demo version and made the investment to get the full producer's edition license for full-access and to prevent any misconceptions of having a cracked FL REG KEY that was spreading over the internet at the time, just to be safe from any assumptions from Image-Line.
**SIDENOTE: Getting cracked codes was the buzz at the time... and there's people out there attempting to do this today. There have been many reddit forums out there posting cracked codes to DAWs and high-quality VSTs for folks who many not have the money to purchase and obtain the licenses, legally. I could talk all day about this, and I heavily advise that none of you choose to go down this path in risking your freedom & integrity. It's not worth getting sued or going to jail just to make music Save the money and just buy the damn license.
Compared to my friends who were lyrically and vocally gifted, I had no confidence nor interest in learning how to sing or rap at the time. I was known as the "beatmaker" of the group, for cyphers on the nights the squad decided to get together. I correlate this in analyzing FL Studio, a DAW geared mostly for sound design and instrumentals, compared to other workstations like ProTools and Logic Pro for vocals. I favored only making instrumentals and other markets requiring only instrumentals such as cinematic elements and videogames at that time. My comfort zone stayed in that realm for quite a while until I decided to break out of it, by producing and engineering my first track...with vocals. Of course, the experience wasn't the easiest to get through, nor producing the best result. However, the experience only nurtured my passion, because I tried something new. I've learned where mistakes were made, along with developing new tricks and techniques, thanks to many YouTube tutorials and forum tips from others! This grew over the years, within trying out different DAWs and experimenting the workflow of each one; FL Studio turned out to be the universal choice for everyone within my network at that time in college.
Before FL ever came into the picture though, I've played around and composed many things on Mario Paint Composer when I was 14 (Used to replicate many themes from Dragon Ball Z 🤣🙄). Coupled with my understand of theory thanks to five years of orchestra, my hobby fostered into something I envisioned myself excelling in for a while. High school happened and I got my first smart phone, hence the piano apps. College happened, prior to getting that HP laptop, where I stumbled upon
GarageBand, messing around with the Mac computers in the residential dorms. This was also the same time I learned about Newgrounds.com, and became active on there. I learned how submitting music worked and what was trending back in 2016. Logic Pro was also used to try out vocals thanks to the apple integration and one of my homies showcasing it to me.
**SIDENOTE: Please keep in mind that I've never had legitimate access or interest to apple products at all—mad expensive, yo.
I graduated from college and tapped into discord, where other communities of fellow content creators showed me a thing or two as well. Thanks to OdysseyEurobeat and her discord community, I picked up a lot of game I feel personally that skyrocketed my career. Techniques in production, arrangement, mixing, & mastering whether vocals or instrumentals alone have sharpened due to participating in the community. Ideas, tutorials, and resources, were bouncing back in forth in that discord, and it was a literal college course itself in my eyes. Just to add, many fellow producers use a variety of different DAWS, however, the fundamental concepts of production universally remains the same: mixing, experimenting, and furthering your education.
The biggest takeaway here is to understand it takes time to get great at a skill and to learn a program. You can definitely do this for you own enjoyment, and have the potential to make some crazy good stuff. It depends on your dedication and self value, along with the will to learn.
Don't give up music if one doesn't work out. Choose one, learn it, and stick with it.
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