The point of a paid DAW? -

[Crichax]

Seriously, though. Why pay for something like FL Studio or Ableton when LMMS exists? Sure, I wish some of the features for LMMS were improved (like having the ability to split tracks and move tracks with more precision). But, in my opinion, paying hundreds of dollars for a DAW is a waste of money and time. I just don't get it. If there's something I'm not getting, feel free to tell me why I'm wrong.

 

[Terminus Est]

Seems like there's a lot you aren't getting

 

[XYZpdq]

Paying for a DAW? is that when you give a hooker money and she goes "daaaaaawwwwww" ?

 

[Desire Lines]

that's like asking why would you use photoshop when gimp exists lol

 

[Raging Capybara]

Why pay 200 dollars for a synth if you could use a free one full of aliasing and shitty filters?

 

[Clop]

As a co-worker of mine once quipped: "Pay? Who said anything about paying? "

 

[RetardedCat]

"why buy Solidworks or Fusion360 when FreeCAD exists?"

 

[VV 422]

why would you ever pay for software when it's possible to pirate without consequences
are you afraid it'll mean less to you and inhibit your desire to make music because you didn't invest any money into your tools? you can't pirate a good microphone or midi controller, spend your money on those

 

[Marco Fucko]

"My favorite artists use X to make/play music during shows, so I should too."

 

[Oaat]

It's hard to describe specific things because I haven't tried LMMS and haven't made any songs in awhile. But basically my projects involved 60+ tracks worth of Kontakt and PLAY and free shit just wouldn't cut it once I was doing more than simple midi stuff.

Also if LMMS workflow is like FL Studio then it's exceptional.

 

[Crichax]

It's hard to describe specific things because I haven't tried LMMS and haven't made any songs in awhile. But basically my projects involved 60+ tracks worth of Kontakt and PLAY and free shit just wouldn't cut it once I was doing more than simple midi stuff.

Also if LMMS workflow is like FL Studio then it's exceptional.

Pretty much every VST (including Kontakt) should work in LMMS. It has better VST support than other free DAWs like Cakewalk.

LMMS is pretty much like FL Studio in its workflow, though, so if you don't like FL, you won't like LMMS.

But you should be glad you don't use Cakewalk. I like the default instruments in Cakewalk, but VST and soundfont support is terrible. The NES VST sounds completely off, and there is no way to use SoundFonts in Cakewalk without a SoundFont host like sforzando. And even then, sforzando sounds terrible in Cakewalk.

 

[Oaat]

Pretty much every VST (including Kontakt) should work in LMMS. It has better VST support than other free DAWs like Cakewalk.

LMMS is pretty much like FL Studio in its workflow, though, so if you don't like FL, you won't like LMMS.

But you should be glad you don't use Cakewalk. I like the default instruments in Cakewalk, but VST and soundfont support is terrible. The NES VST sounds completely off, and there is no way to use SoundFonts in Cakewalk without a SoundFont host like sforzando. And even then, sforzando sounds terrible in Cakewalk.

As I've said without having tried it I can't really say how it's stability or features compare. Professional orchestra composers do crazy shit like slaving computers together for more RAM to load up templates with hundreds of instruments with multiple mic positions and reverb effects at once and I can't imagine it would be stable or even possible with free software.

I wouldn't recommend using a DAW for it's sounds. All DAWs have terrible sounds, you have to buy (or pirate) good ones. For the kind of music I did (orchestra) soundfonts aren't very good. If you're skilled you can make free orchestra samples sound decent by layering them just right and having good reverb and mixing, but it still won't have as much potential as professionally made samples with the same skill put into making it sound it's best.

 

[oldTireWater]

When I was looking for a DAW I tried out Reaper (among others), which is pretty much free. It seemed ok, but I wound up shelling out for Reason (a lot over the last couple years). I picked Reason because it was a "canned" environment, and I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing, and didn't want to spend a bunch of time trying to learn tools. I was willing and able to pay for a relatively user friendly tool.

No, I don't use a Mac.