Hello, I am considering working more with a DAW I like some patterns present in AD2 and would like to analize/rearrage them in user friendly DAW. Any recommendations? I have no experience with them so usability is very important. Btw I use mashine mk3 as a pad controller.
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I personally think Logic X, Ableton and Cubase are all great DAW’s that are pretty user friendly.
Right now I use Reaper which is super cheap for what you get, but it’s sort of ugly and not very intuitive to use at first.
Before Reaper I’ve used Cubase for over a decade. Enjoyed that DAW a lot. It’s just not the most power efficient on Macs.
You probably do not need the most expensive versions of all the DAW’s I mentioned. Usually the “artist” version is more than enough unless you’re gonna go nuts with 100 track pop songs.
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I just started to record my progress with Ableton. User friendly and if you get the suggested audio interface it includes Ableton lite. Lite has what you need at first even as lite.
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For my 2 cents, I very strongly encourage using a DAW, even if the focus is musicianship rather than production.
Developing even very basic abilities with a DAW will expand your practice in obvious ways and also in ways that are difficult to conceptualize beforehand.
I personally started with FL Studio, and moved to Ableton Live after a few years, either of which would be great I should think.
Your preferred genres could influence the selection, and obviously budget. What kinds of music do you anticipate working in?
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I feel like using a DAW has made me understand music, especially rhythm, like I never could from just careful listening and using DJ programs to mix like I used to. Ableton is so great, almost too great. It opened up a whole world that I wasn’t ready for. I bought a set of video tutorials by SubSine Academy to focus my Ableton learning and now I’m having so much fun and learning so much every week, I’m just amazed. Absolutely worth it!
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If you get further in the “Funky song from A-Z” course, I actually have a couple of lessons in which I analyse the stuff I played inside my DAW. Just zooming in, looking at the notes. Am I early, am I behind, etc.
It’s so incredibly useful to record yourself that way and see what happened.
This is not relevant for most of you, but I seriously also learned how to sing in key better by singing parts and then analysing my notes inside the DAW’s pitch correction software. 
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Hello all,
I just joined because I am at a point where I need a good drum controller, and During my research into drum pads, I came across this site.
Like a lot of folks, my first DAW was ProTools, but switched to Digital Performer in 2018.
I have been usig AD2 for about 2 years now and I love the amount of control it gives you. I have created and use several custom MIDI maps in AD2, aand usually run the channel outputs Pre fader to my DAW, with the exception of the Kick and Snare. By using AD2 to add compression and reverb to the Kick and Snare, and sending them post fader, I can reduce the plugin load in my DAW
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Hey Rayzorx!
Welcome to the community. It’s still small, but we’ve been growing steadily over the past couple of months.
I agree with you about AD2. So far, with a couple of extra kits at my disposal, I’ve managed to build every drum sound I needed from within AD2. There’s this intuitive thing to it where you can use the transient shaper, add or remove harmonics from the snare and kick and/or “layer” your sounds with other sounds. For example some extra snap to the snare or extra oomph to the kick.
With all of that available in an intuitive way I always manage to shape the drums into something I liked. Impressive piece of software.