It’s that time of year again when all the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation i.e. software recording studio) companies update their products. It also nearly always coincides with my computer starting to die. I don’t think laptops are designed to run an internet company and be a music studio everyday. This post is more for my benefit than anything else, but somebody might get something out of it: here is my guide to the top DAWs at the moment.

Apple Logic Studio – This must be the best package out there, tons of great instruments, really popular, no dongle and now half price. If I had a Mac. Which I don’t. Last year I looked at one and Logic crashed every time I tried it and Flash and Photoshop didn’t work. Luckily this last year things have really improved and if I was buying a new machine for music, either laptop or desktop, I’d probably go for a Mac just because of Logic. But for the moment I don’t have so…

Cubase 4: Cubase sounds lovely, it’s really easy to use and hardly ever crashes. I’ve been using a really old version for ages and upgrading this is maybe one option. But it has a few problems. The first is the horrible “dongle”. It’s a plastic box that takes up a USB port for no other reason than that you paid for Cubase rather than buying a dodgy cracked copy. Really annoying as you can guarantee it’s never in my bag when I need to record something or I end up running out of USB ports. Plus Cubase doesn’t include any really interesting virtual instruments and costs nearly double all the other packages, so it’s not an automatic upgrade option.

Ableton Live 6 (free upgrade to Live 7): I also really like this one. You can link up a turntable, spin in some beats and have a track with filters and faders all linked up to a keyboard or MIDI desk. It’s easy and fun. The only problem is the audio quality. Many times I’ve started a track on Live but when it comes to the final mix it just sounds harsh and distorted. All the experts and on the forums everyone says “Oh no, Live has perfect sound quality”. So what’s the latest update? An improved audio engine and fixing MIDI “jitter” i.e. going out of time and not playing back what you play into it. This basically forces you to buy the new upgrade to fix these bugs. I don’t really like that. Plus the built in effects are pretty bad and the virtual instruments costs a fortune to add.

Pro Tools : On paper this would be a no brainer. It’s the industry standard and is available in very affordable packages. It has lots of great sounding effects built in and is supposed to be crash proof. The problem? Well, it just doesn’t sound very musical. It’s great if you want to record a project you’ve got planned out in your head, but not that good as a launch pad for new ideas. It also doesn’t accept VST instruments. The major problem for me is that you have to carry around the Mini Box audio interface everywhere you go. They have just released a Micro version which is nice and small, but that has no audio input so is practically useless. I don’t really fancy carrying round another audio interface when I already have a fantastic one in my laptop (Panasonic Y5 ). Oh, and it won’t work with my Samson CO1U Mic.

Cakewalk Sonar : This is the one that’s getting my attention at the moment. It has a very nice upgrade package for users of other sequencers (e.g. this one from Dolphin Music) and it contains some fantastic plug in instruments. The drums sound great and the Roland V-Vocal looks brilliant. The only problem is that it’s PC only so if I did upgrade to a Mac in future it wouldn’t be too easy to bring in my previous projects. This is actually a serious problem if your business is music because very often you need to change a project from a few years ago and if you don’t have the software to do it it can be a real hassle.

In the past I’ve also tried Sony’s ACID Pro 6 (used to be really great but now too bloated) and the MAGIX Music Makersoftware ( amazing features for the very small price, but crashes like crazy).

Anyway, I’m still deciding which one to upgrade to. With over 100 GE songs out there, coming up with new ideas is pretty tough and a good sounding, quick & easy to use, inspirational package is something I need, but no one package seems to have them all.

To be honest even though I’m very much a computer person I much prefer music hardware to using software. All computers crash, take a while to load up and when you hit a key they have a think about what they should do before they play the note (something called latency). With hardware you hit the note and it plays straight away and is just a lot more fun.

When I was a kid I would walk in a music store and just want to buy everything, but of course could afford none of it! Now I’m lucky to do this for a living I could actually buy everything in the shop, after all if it helps make some tracks quicker it will pay for itself pretty quickly. The problem I have now is weight! Not the slim fast type problem, it’s because for the last 7 years I’ve been pretty much always on tour and have no home base, so any added weight takes me over my airline baggage allowance. In fact I’m now over in Europe without a coat because I decided to pack a microphone instead! Anyway, if I didn’t have the weight problem, here are some of the hardware I’d go for…

Akai MPC500: If you’ve heard any hip hop records, you’ve heard the MPC sound. This is a portable battery powered one you can take anywhere. You simply hit the pads and drum sounds pop out. And they sound fantastic, almost anything you play sounds like an instant record, amazing.

Novation XioSynth: A mini keyboard, audio interface and synth all in one. This is also great. I would have bought one but it came out 3 days after I bought my Korg K25 controller. The only problem I could find with the Xio is that although it has 2 audio inputs, one is line and one is microphone, hence you can’t record a stereo line signal, which is a hassle.

Novation ReMOTE 61 SL: I usually just use normal synths as controllers, but if I had to buy one from scratch this is what I’d go for. The automap feature is so good, you simply select a VST and all the controllers are mapped up. Great.

Line 6 Spider Guitar Amp: I’m also very impressed with these amps. When I used to play guitar you had to save up for an effects pedal and put up with just a few sounds. With these amps you have hundreds of amazing sounds at your fingertips, and they all sound really good.I spent last Saturday at the music store trying out guitars on this amp. I’d love one, but I don’t think it would fit in my backpack!

DJ decks: Actually I’ve just bought one of these! I just got the cheapest one from Amazon ( “Ministry of Sound”) as I’ll have to leave it when I move on. But just adding in a few scratches and breaks live from vinyl makes a huge to difference to a recording, it’s like giving it CPR and bringing it to life!

Well, that was quite a long post and probably totally useless to most of you, so sorry for that! But it’s got a few things out of my head so I can hopefully start planning which DAW route to go down for this year. Although computer music has come on in recent years, it’s still not as easy as it should be. If anyone has any comments or advice, I’d love to hear them!