5 Digital Audio Workstations To Look For

With hundred of Audio workstations out there people often ask what workstation is the best and there is so much discussion, usually talking about the quality of the sound coming out of the workstations. Some people even claim one workstation is sounding better then the other and so on. Trying all the time to proof which one is the most superior.Here is a list of possible the best workstations ever made. 

1. Pro Tools

Avid Professional tools HD, Le is used worldwide. Its advanced and includes allot of great plugins emulating that analog sound. It is also very good for recording, mixing and mastering. Its a industry standard used by most studios and it is a very stable platform that can you from creation to production to final mix. It supports 24-bit audio at sample rates of up to 192 kHz, and can handle Wave, Aif, mp3, QuickTime video . Featuring time code. Automation and surround sound possibilities. Midi can be manipulated. Also it relies on a dedicated DSP card to handle the most audio processing, due to at the time it was first developed computers at that time was not powerful enough to process high end digital audio.

2. Logic Pro

Apple Logic professional is like Fruity Loops on a Mac. Logic Pro is the only one daw that is working only for Macintosh. It is a audio workstation and midi sequencer. Rich in features and good for mixing, arranging it still lacks some functions from cubase or notator. It comes shipped with great processing plugins offering allot of effects and tools, supporting apple loops. Logic Pro can also work with midi keyboards and control surfaces. It is one very good daw. It comes with a streamlined interface. Write, record, mix and perform.

3. Cubase

Steinberg Cubase is the most used. No doubt. This daw has been around for a long time in the market. The workstation is full of instruments, effects, very good for mixing and mastering and have a great sounding engine. Its equipped with racks, master section. and supports many third party instruments. The downside about this thing is that it is still buggy, and slow to work on. The workflow is not the strength of cubase. If you are serious about producing this one is for you however you will spend lot of time routing, clicking and browsing in the program. There is also a program similar to cubase called Nuendo more suitable for post production. It is also very, very good

4. FL Studio

Image Line Fruity Loops has also been around for a long time. It is constantly updated each year or so into a newer versions like cubase and the best about this digital workstations is that it is one of the fastest, or maybe the fastest ever workstations to work in. It comes with a lot of plugins, supporting ASIO or WDM drivers. However FL studio has some disadvantages, the sound is not so good, the mixer is very basic and the plugins included are not giving the quality to produce on a professional level. With the help of third party plugins this digital workstation becomes really good. FL studio is good for arranging, editing, composing, audio manipulation, layering, automation. FL studio is very good when used correctly.

5. Reason

Propellerhead Reason is a very different workstation. It comes with some really good plugins, it is basic to use and is good for everything. It emulates a rack of hardware, so it can be used as a collection of virtual instruments or as a studio for music production. The sound quality reason offers is very very good. The downside is the interface in reason. Reason cannot record audio and does not support plugins, and hence it is not a full audio workstation. Reason can be used as a EXTRA program for creating those fat basses, or leads, or layering vocals or programming synthesis. Reason is good but it should not be viewed as complete workstation.

In the future we will see workstations completely running on the web, without the need to have all the materials loaded from  our computers, with the possibility to work on a single project from many users at a time on the web.