Quality Budget Gear Ep. 05: DAWs

Today we’re talking about DAW software, and questions around choosing the right audio software for your particular musical situation.

DAW= Digital Audio Workstation, i.e. computer software that lets you record and manipulate audio. There’s many different DAW options you could choose, and many of them do similar things. The right choice for you is individual to your particular workflow, needs, the type of studio you’re building, and the kind of music you’re working on. So, rather than a specific software recommendation right off the bat, let’s drill down with some questions to consider first.

What is the purpose of your music studio?

Before we can choose the correct software tool to achieve our goals, we need to clarify the goals for our space:

• Are you trying to make rough demos of your music, to record later professionally?

• Are you trying to demo/record yourself, and then generate professional sounding tracks you can send out for postproduction (mixing or mastering) by a professional?

• Are you trying to make complete professional music productions out of your home? Recording, mixing, and/or mastering?

• Are you trying to do professional session work as an instrumentalist out of your home?

• Are you just recording for fun, and don’t really need a fully pro setup-just something easy to use and good enough for now?

All of these different scenarios require a different mix of both gear and skills. For a home music writing studio, Ableton Live, Garageband, and Logic are all strong DAW choices with many similar features. Ableton might have an edge for electronic/sample based artists, while Garageband and especially Logic lean more into a traditional recording setup. No matter which you choose, the big lesson here is:

Think about how you like to write music, your typical workflow in doing so, and what exactly your longer term goals are, before you choose a DAW or any other music gear.

The difference between a music writing studio and a professional recording space

For 98% of aspiring musicians, it’s way more cost-effective to focus on building an amazing home music writing studio, rather than a professional recording or production space. The recording arts can be a legitimate career, but there’s a whole lot of room at the bottom.

And, to be able to compete in a competitive market like professional recording and production services, you will need to buy a certain amount of very expensive gear. That level of gear will only ever pay for itself if you enjoy working on other people’s music for money regularly, and are able to charge more than rock-bottom prices for your production work.

Getting to this point in such a business requires a significant commitment of both money and time. Many years building a portfolio and client base, and many thousands of dollars, in almost all cases. It is not unrealistic for it take 10+ years to develop a business like this to a sustainable level.

So, building out a professional recording studio space makes the most financial sense if you’re planning on running your studio as a professional-level business, for at least a 10 year period of time.

The vast majority of artists that dabble in music production never make their initial investment back, and quit after just a few years. Even seasoned professionals with experience and a strong portfolio can have a difficult time making it all work out financially. A lot of musicians realize (only after buying the expensive gear), that music isn’t always as fun when you have to worry about paying the bills with your musical work.

Solutions

If you focus on making an amazing music writing and demo studio, all of this angst and pressure goes away. Now, you’ve just got a bunch of awesome instruments around, with unlimited time to experiment and play with them.

And, you can be strategic about investing in higher quality recordings of the songs that you’re really passionate about getting out there. A professional music recording space is different than a music writing and demoing studio, and that’s perfectly ok! Just don’t expect to get a fully professional result recording of your home. After all, you’re using a space that is not explicitly designed to achieve those results.

We all want that Billie Eilish thing to be true, and so we believe that if we just make the right album in our bedroom, all of a sudden our musical careers will blow up. Don’t get me wrong, bedroom albums are great-some of the best albums ever made!

Be aware, blowing up suddenly just because you made an album in your bedroom and released it yourself onto the internet is the highly unlikely exception in our business, not the rule.

This does happen occasionally, but it will not happen to you. And, if you do end up being that one in a million that gets lucky, it’s just that: luck, and not something you have any control over.

Let’s not waste time worrying about things that are out of our control. Instead, let’s focus on what we can control: releasing great, interesting music that stands out, at a pace that is both regular and sustainable, over the long term. For 99.9% of musicians, this is a better formula for long term success than betting on some big hit that might never come.

Even though we’re getting a bit existential here, these big questions are really important to consider, because they impact every part of the creative process. Including the software tools you choose to invest in.

Exceptions

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule! Certain electronic music artists who want to learn every single technical part of the music production process, and who might only be working with software instruments, are artists who might have better success attempting to record and release professionally using home recordings.

In that particular case, I’d suggest focusing on learning how to record your tracks at very high quality, maybe learning how to mix yourself (depending on your interest in this skill), and then sending your mixes out for professional mastering. This process would be a hybrid blend of bedroom production and professional production techniques, and I’ve seen several independent artists do this successfully. It’s also a very cost-effective approach.

Keep in mind that contrast is important when it comes to release time. A bedroom record might be even more effective when contrasted with a professional studio record, especially if you release both in the same year. This type of release approach can show interesting creative range, and that’s always appealing for an audience to experience.

If you’re interested in digging even deeper on some specific technical production skills, my Mixing Cheat Sheet has everything you need to get started making great mixes at home.