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Recommendations on a DAW


JeffWWaldrop

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Recently I commented that I was using Adobe Audition as my software to process recorded sounds and (mostly) human dialog.  I referred to Audition as a DAW.  Most of the replies seemed to say Audition comes up short as a DAW.....  I am on a Mac Book Pro btw....

 

What is your recommendation for a beginning sound recordist?  I am a photographer who has gotten in to video short films or documentary style video and I am using the Zoom F8n and the F6 to capture the audio and sync with video.   My audio has, for the most part, been clean and honestly acceptable...

 

Any comments, criticism or suggestions will be most appreciated....

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There's nothing wrong with Audition, it's a very powerful system with some real advantages if you are working on productions being edited in Premiere.  I tried very hard to make it work for me a few years ago as a DAW for long form mostly doco post, and eventually came to the conclusion that it was great for doing a lot of work to a short piece of audio in many different versions, and a lot less great for long form where I need to work in much long spans.  Much of my hassle with it had to do with how they designed their screens and windows and exactly how it edited clips and organized them.   I asked around to users on forums and at trade shows and found that many of the daily drivers of Audition were game audio folks--hence the "short clip a million ways" kind of work.  The reigning paradigm in long form is ProTools.  The other DAWs that get used for more film-style work more or less follow that paradigm.  I encourage you to get online and look at how PT, Reaper, Cubase etc etc operate--you'll see a similarity.  As to exactly which to choose--the terrible truth is that you have to get demo versions and test drive them with the sort of project you want to do.  This can be a long process, but choosing a DAW is a pretty deep commitment of time and energy, and CHANGING  your DAW is very disruptive of your business, so choose carefully.

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DiVinnci Resolve is an incredible tool set that is a color correction program used by DIT’s world wide. Within it is a NLE, an FX suite, and Fairlight ( DAW ) all working under one roof and together. As a Photographer/Vidiographer/Whatever it might be worth a look. It’s free. It’s powerful. It has many fans. ProTools has a free version called First that is easy to download and learn.

CrewC

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Another vote for Reaper here. But if you know your way around Audition then I'd stay with that and hone those skills instead of having to learn something anew. If you still want to change I can see no other option than reaper, honestly.. It's cheap enough that you can buy a new license every six months (which of course you don't have to) and still not break the bank. There's a learning curve, no doubt. But it's highly customizable so when you're up to speed you'll be able to work really fast. 

 

I've worked with most daws and I can safely say that reaper is by far the one that suits me the best right now. It takes everything and silently takes care of any issues with file type or bitrate.. It's ridiculously fast and flexible. Very complex and deep. Worth reiterating ; learning curve. But once you're up the hill you can really look down on the other daws. 

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1 hour ago, old school said:

DiVinnci Resolve is an incredible tool set that is a color correction program used by DIT’s world wide. Within it is a NLE, an FX suite, and Fairlight ( DAW ) all working under one roof and together. As a Photographer/Vidiographer/Whatever it might be worth a look. It’s free. It’s powerful. It has many fans. ProTools has a free version called First that is easy to download and learn.

CrewC

 

Wow fantastic, didn't know about Pro Tools First, thanks for that. 

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On 1/21/2020 at 2:23 PM, Philip Perkins said:

Resolve is worth watching.  I use it a lot for making video conversions, am very impressed so far.

Yeah. I use it for all my personal media projects but I still use PT for the sound as I know it well but Firelight is on my list to do.

I'm a Universal Audio guy and have many of their plug ins and I'm looking forward to their in house DAW called LUNA. Free this spring if you own a thunderbolt interface. Worth checking out.

CrewC

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am glad I learned ProTools. That way, I was even more impressed when I saw how well Nuendo improves my workflow. Tried to run parallel for a few years, then stopped paying for upgrades on the PT I wasn’t using. 
 

YMMV.  I cut my teeth long before DAWs were practical. So I already had a reputation and client base who trusted me. 
But if you’re in LA and just starting out, knowing ProTools is probably essential to finding a studio job. 

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