I like hardware because when I sit in front of computer my creativity dies, cause I'm already using computer a lot, for work and entertainment, and I need a different environment for making creative stuff. Also I dislike endless possibilities of software, I don't know what to do with it. Finishing songs with it though proves very useful.
Yea, this is the way I feel as well. I am a software developer and its my job to bang away on a computer, googling problems and dealing with issues. A Daw always sends me down a tech related black hole where the musical inspiration disappears.
Maybe you should record standing up in front of a PC. Know it sounds stupid but it works for me. But I use all of native instruments stuff including their controller. I use Ableton to record
I totally get it. I’m ENTIRELY Daw-based currently (I mostly compose orchestral/orchestral-hybrid), but I’m starting work on a jazz-fusion album, and I’m finding I’m getting bogged down with the software synths I’m using. (And I’ve got some good ones, lol.) I now feel I need something more hands-on, at least part of the time. But the bigger problem seems to be that “endless-options” issue when it comes to software instruments. (I recently heard it put as “options paralysis,” lol.)
same being infront of a computer 8 hours a day as a graphic designer doesnt encourage me to be infront of screens more! Loving my sp404 but I know I need MPC Live to get more polished finish
I think a lot of it these days has to do with screen overload. Maybe 15 - 20 years ago laptops were the biz, no one had phones, social media didn’t exist. Today, hardware gives u a break from using a screen all day long whether that’s for work, communication or entertainment. That’s what I get out of it, I think it’s why so many are drawn to modular, too.
But a lot faceless setup still have screen and depend on it, I haven't have a music setup and interested in the DirtyWave M8 Tracker but think about it, might as well just learn from Garageband and Logic Pro
i think that’s what’s been drawing me into DAWless production too, i’m learning how to use a roland sp404sx and am going to pair it with a VS840 so i do not need software if i so please
Certainly not the only factor for me, but the idea of getting a notification while I'm trying to use my less than an hour a day making music just makes me want to cryscream
9:33 "The limitations that hardware create, manifest creativity within them." I couldn't agree more. For me at least, the endless possibilities of the DAW completely stifle my creative drive. Precisely BECAUSE anything and everything is possible. I completely resonate with your point about wanting things to feel more tactile / hands-on. I'm a drummer and bass guitarist, but have the same issues with fellow musicians as you described, never really feeling at home in the conventional (rock/metal) band setting. I have used Logic Pro X, Ableton Live, Fruity Loops, and Reason, but the general concept of making music through a computer just feels alien to me. Even after roughly 15 years of trying to get into it again and again. I just want to PERFORM organically (meaning the spontaniety, not necessarily in front of an audience).
Never had enough money until I got older to have hardware. It's re-ignited my creative passion for music, especially sound synthesis. BUT the DAW is my recording studio in a box. Like you said, it's how you take a performance and a cluster of ideas and polish them into a finished project. It's a rock band jamming in the studio and the producer using those jam sessions to craft a track that makes it onto the album.
1:34 “Reason” Flipping the rack around hitting tab. Never dumb. Some real world and life lessons from connecting jacks, CV in that virtual set up. Educational, never dumb. I would never be embarrassed in those feature provided by Reason. Propellerhead (now Reason studios) we’re the original “Roland fan boys” Their first Product , Rebirth, which emulates an 909 Drum Machine and an 808 drum machine with two 303 Bass synths, took me down the software/hardware rabbit hole of music synthesis. I run both Daw (Ableton) and have an MPC one setting up with synths. Best of both worlds. Great video. Really enjoyed the insights discussed. 🪄⭐️
@@tColorsinspacerecordings See, I am often the opposite of that. The moment I'm on my computer, I often do everything but what I went on there to do. For example, why am I on TH-cam right now typing this comment when I should be working on my next song?
@@Rustik1722 I wish programs like Reason, Logic, Pro Tools and ESPECIALLY Ableton would come out with a computer that ONLY runs that DAW. Like a Chromebook for producers.
As long as you can make something dope, it doesn’t matter how you get there. I use both vintage analog gear as well in the 📦, depends on my mood. Great post man, keep em coming.
Go that or these is like go black or white. Hell, no. Go hybrid , respect your wallet, choose your weapons of choice, and don t care about the hype... "Go what fits you"!
I have a bit of a "tactile DAW" setup at the moment. Most of the synths that I use are Arturia Products, so I have a Keylab midi controller that lets me tweak parameters with my hands and my ears rather than my eyes. For mixing, I have a Softube Console One, where I try to do most of my EQ'ing and level balancing. For my workflow (and my wallet) it works really well to be able to have the flexibility and advanced features of a DAW, but still to use my ears over my eyes when I get down to sound design and mixing.
This is very much in line where i landed. Working with hardware was liberating and much more creative. What helps me bridge between the hardware and the DAW is my Presonus StudioLive 32.4.2 mixer/interface. I can record all the instruments to their own tracks and then mix and master in the DAW, the last mile. It was a significant investment but it has provided a ton of value. Great video, thanks as always.
I wish programs like Reason, Logic, Pro Tools and ESPECIALLY Ableton would come out with a computer that ONLY runs that DAW. Like a Chromebook for producers.
@@adampate3893 i picked it up new 3 years ago for $1800 US. That's a lot but it is both my dawless mixer AND my audio interface. Presonus have since stopped making that model. worth checking out to see what they have today. There must be other options as well. I have not researched lately.
Why is that ? With everything engaged its probably doesn't top 1-2 kw/h (for example very power hungry laptops eat 150w max, desktops up to 400w, everything else about 0.2a - 0.5a * 110V = 20-50w. Its a good practice too keep stuff sectioned in sections. For example editing job does take 2 monitors and a set of speakers/phones, mixing calls for proper soundsystem, writing with po's and volcas - well you need a table for that, midi rig is another "station" (just put power switch on your rack and connect everything in the rack thru that switch). Anyway, onewater boiler, electric kettle for your daily coffee fix or electric heater takes way more power.
I started on software but quickly switched over to hardware. I need a limitation to fuel my creativity. With hardware I feel like I'm learning and improving more.
It’s the tactile stimulation we get from touching the knobs, faders and keys/drum pads that connect us with the music. Same as plucking a string or holding a drumstick. It all allows us to project emotion and feeling into the music.
i completely agree, if everyone is using the same modular system and the same rehashed tehcnology that has been around for years, everyone is going to sound the same, each person needs to find what works for them, its not a one size fits all situation...
For me when playing and recording music I prefer DAWless. I lean towards performance playing over looping in a DAW. Once I have recorded my performance now I prefer to mix in the DAW. I have outboard effects and yes I do use them sometimes but most of the time I prefer to use plugins for mixing as I don't have the outboard gear for mixing that I would want for the tasks. A balance of the two is great if you can afford it. Even better if you can go all the way DAWless. If not then as long as your computer CPU can handle the workload then the main thing is recording the sounds and patterns that you have in your head or experimenting with ideas and record them. Software or hardware or both. Nike!! Just Do It!!
@@MrXamanX DAWs are, fundamentally, for recording of audio. How you process that audio (and what kind of filters or sources or whatever you use) PRIOR to going into the DAW is up to you and has no impact on the DAW. The DAW doesn't care what you did to the audio before you digitized it. The DAW, at the most basic level, is the thing that handles it AFTER you digitize it. At that point, any professional DAW will handle your audio roughly the same provided that you have a good interface with good da ad converters.
I'm a computer guy by trade and by hobby and have been for 20+ years. I find myself steeped into the bits and bytes of software constantly. It is something foreign and mysterious when I pickup a piece of hardware kit and try and get it to sing ... or at least make a pleasing noise. It gives me a chance to break-away from my 'day-job' and walk a path less traveled, sail a different ocean, etc. metaphor, etc. Really enjoy your content Ricky. You have a gift in the way you communicate and portray your thoughts on video and in the music you produce.
Just went through that a few months back. Found a great middle ground in the Maschine MK3 and Maschine Jam. Creating in there and then finishing everything, polishing in Ableton
I see your point, but going dawless is not my way. I use Ableton with my hardware synths. Nothing can beat DAWs sequencing capability and I don't want to restrict myself.
Ye its so nice to have a lot of options but sometimes the minimalism brings ideas i wouldnt have otherwise. But ye im also using both :) just expirienced it a lot on my own stuff
I see both sides but whats best is what is best for you. There is no best. People can create great music on any DAW, Tape machine, Cheap s¥nths, expensive ones, soft synths hardware, its about the end result. People have written amazing songs on cheap guitars, expensive guitars, its not relevant
I agree completely, Ricky, the limiting factors for me are space, and money. I love my little analog synth, but if I opted for hardware-only, that one synth is all I'd have. Optimally I'd be hardware-based, for now I'm super-glad to have the software option so I can still create.
As someone who works on a computer for my professional career I try to avoid it if possible. I love being hands on and taking a creative break from the computer.
*For me it's about being connected to the music, the immediacy and flow. I don't like using the mouse and screen to make music and I don't want to sit in a chair, I want to move to the music and use both hands, and my ears more than my eyes, I don't want to be distracted by what I see, that prevents making subconscious decisions based on hearing and feeling because our visual sense is so strong, it will override other senses.* *But also hardware has its own strengths and weaknesses..*
I wish programs like Reason, Logic, Pro Tools and ESPECIALLY Ableton would come out with a computer that ONLY runs that DAW. Like a Chromebook for producers.
@Boofsquad *I'm not rejecting the mouse and screen for ego reasons or "just because", but for those workflow reasons I outlined above. In fact, of course I want to use the tool that works the best FOR ME, and fact: The mouse is horrible for turning knobs, the fine motor precision is not there and you get RSI when operating the mouse standing up, also you can only turn one knob at a time with the mouse, but you don't even get any haptic feedback, you have to use your eyes to make sure that you actually grab the knob correctly. And try doing a techno live performance with a mouse when the desk is vibrating! Hell naw!* *But also in the studio, for other editing tasks the mouse is inferior, it has very low bandwidth compared to what you can do with two hands on physical user interfaces.* *Regarding limiting myself: Art is ALL about self imposed limits, get real! I chose my limits how I like them, so my art is different from others. That's how it should be! I don't let the DAW or mouse impose those limits on me, in fact I wrote my own software for live music performance, improvisation and composition, that combines the best of hardware's and software's strengths and brings the analog work FLOW into the digital domain! And I'm very happy with that, not using a mouse and screen, choosing my own limitations and implementing my own features that DAWs don't even have!* *And it can be used to orchestrate up to 16 hardware or software synths. I'm not sure yet if I should try to sell it, because for normies it'd be a steep learning curve, like flying an airbus, but for me it's perfect.*
Boofsquad mate, it seems like you are reading into a guys preferences about his production pipeline more than you should. Different people like different foods, different art, hell, art made with varying materials and methods, different music.... let this guys enjoy what he enjoys, it doesn’t effect your life. Hell, he even acknowledged strengths and weaknesses to hardware. Are you gonna tell a sculptor that they are ego driven and limiting their art by not painting? A person that works in moulding wet clay that they should carve instead? No, you watch them grow, develop and specialise their skills and accept them for the style of artist that they are. Some prefer a DAW, some prefer hardware, because of workflow differences and how their brain understands it, and some like both. Some don’t have time to learn new methods when they just want to be making music, especially with sadly limited time for learning existing in many busy (work enslaved) adult lives. It sounds like you’ve got some ego issues of your own that you’re projecting onto others there buddy.
Thats the beauty of Ableton. It took me from the linear programming to using clip based recording. I dig the ability to add and subtract instruments and to alter arrangements with midi controllers. It lead me to the same path. I don’t use software as much. I primarily prefer hardware but I do incorporate the iPad in my setup for ease of use and it’s compact size.
Well said! I understand completely. This week I had a glitch in my daw which caused me to not see the wave form when recording. And I wondered why that was a problem for me? I noticed that I was looking to time keep instead of tapping myself or use a metronome. And obviously you always are a bit before or after the beat. And I started to quantize it, too look nice. And it killed the natural swing and falling and landing within the beat. You tend to over use your eyes in a daw. When it should be your ears.
My first love was rock, metal, alternative music, the visceral thrill of attacking a guitar, I then got into pedals, looping, using a 4-track, drum machine & synths, and enjoyed the on the fly tweaking. Yes I can make music on an iPad now, but I really enjoy messing about with tweaking, playing live in the moment, feeling an instrument in my hands. I have a Circuit, which is awesome for quickly getting a groove going, and I’m looking to get some decent fx boxes, maybe a boss looper to mess with sounds on the fly, It’s all for fun, maybe the odd session at a party. But, yeah, the most fun I ever had, was with the limitations of a 4-track, now I can use NanoStudio on my iPad, but I just enjoy being in the moment, tweaking the circuit, coaxing something new out of it’s limitations
I'm doing something similar. I miss my old Tascam cassette 4 track, even though tape hiss is a thing. It ran at double speed, which helped quite a bit and I love the old tape saturation. And it was easy to capture an idea quickly on the fly with my old setup. Instead of dicking around with software for an hour before getting anything done, all I had to do was start the drum machine, hit record, and start jamming.
Dude, brilliant video. "Here's my philosophical thoughts on workflow, now your turn." And for the record, I totally agree that the tactile nature of hardware is incredibly inspiring. And to your point about DAWs being tools that excel at certain things - I fully agree with that, but I see it as a critical, albeit secondary, element to my creative process. Ableton plays the role of historian, scribe, the capturer of my flow state output. Interacting with hardware facilitates a certain creative magic that results in sparkly musication. But if a synth musics in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it truly make a sound? That tongue in cheek riddle is based in a cold hard reality. One of my greatest regrets in life was that, for all the years my old bandmates and I dedicated to practicing and performing live music, we never invested adequately in recording a professional quality EP, foolishly thinking we had plenty of time to deal with that in the future. Then a cascading series of humans doing human things eventually brought it to an end and so many of the artworks we dedicated countless hours to crafting were doomed to wither away in the museums of our fading memories. Music is inherently a transient, ethereal art form. If you don't capture it in a recording, how can you prove that it ever actually happened at all? So - it's turtles all the way down, soylent green is people, the call was coming from inside the house, planet earth is a single atom in the spleen of the universe and it doesn't even know it, and that rug really tied the room together. Stoner epiphanies aside, why is a DAW better than just hitting record on a Tascam to ensure your musical forest exists? For me, it's two things - multitracking and MIDI. If lightning strikes and you Music Super Good, capturing it is step one. Step two is Doing It Again. Which requires understanding exactly what you did the first time. And BOOM - therein lies the power of the infinitely expandable DAW. Strive to record every instrument on its own channel, both audio and MIDI, ALWAYS at all times.
Thanks for your thoughts on this Ricky! I really love utilizing the best of both worlds when I'm making music. Right now I'm using Push 2 a lot, but often I'll spend a week just jamming on Volcas. Thanks for spreading the love.
Loved the video it makes so much sense to me. Sometimes I feel stuck when making a song on where to start my automation. I feel I complicate it to much cause there is so many things to do in a daw. I still want to use a daw like you said I would be more 60 40 get the meat of my track done then add some sprinkles and mix. But something about tweaking knobs and not having to set up a full template for each vst for your midi controller. I see why a lot of the pros use their daws like a tape machine everything is mixed and EQ before going in.
Both And yes, I pretty much agree on what you said. Same experience. I started dawless in the '80s. I still have mixers and hardware sequencers, recently got a Zoom R24 (which I should be using much much much more often) and I love hardware for the usual reasons we by now all know. Yet... I love DAWs as well, the endless possibilities, the sounds you can get from plugins, the room it does not take in the real world but.... you can end up making music with your eyes instead of with your ears, and that is true in all stages, from laying down tracks to mixing and mastering. And it's a trap (a nice one, of course but still a trap): it can turn the experience into something more like something along the lines of video editing, graphic design or even just watching something visual instead of creating an auditory experience - you no longer hear the boxy snare, you see it jumping up and down on the EQ curve on the screen, you no longer hear notes but you see rectangles on the piano roll, (even if you played them and not painted them) and so on and so forth. The tools are great, and that is why we gravitate towards them, they make things much easier but it takes away something. We can make the 2 go hand in hand, though. Just like studio work vs live performance - it does not have to be an either-or choice.
I wish programs like Reason, Logic, Pro Tools and ESPECIALLY Ableton would come out with a computer that ONLY runs that DAW. Like a Chromebook for producers. Seriously, Sometimes I don't want to turn my computer on, I just want to power on my DAW. It will be so NEXT LEVEL when I can buy an Ableton-Book for a grand. It'd be simple and only what I need. An 11" computer. No speakers. No Wifi. No HDMI either. Just a trackpad, Keyboard, an SD card Reader, a 3.5mm Headphone jack and a SEPERATE 3.5mm Mic jack. Then just give me like 4 USB 3.0 ports. If you want to get really fancy, add a BUILT IN 4x4 drum pad midi. Or take it even further and make a 15" laptop version with a Launchpad built in around the keyboard somehow. Idk. get creative Strip down the laptop and reverse engineer that jazz with 1 goal in mind: a DAW. it would be the first DAW that is NOT a computer. Would it be considered analogue at that point? Who knows? All I know is I want one.
So I have a fun story for you. The PC I make all my music on just...doesn't have internet access. I got it for less than the equivalent of 30 USD, (the school was upgrading the computer lab and I saved it from the garbage) The hunk of junk (who I've nicknamed William) does not have speakers. It has 2 gigs of RAM and basically only 2 programmes - Microsoft Word, and FL Studio. My audio set-up is just....an aux chord into a Bluetooth speaker, or aux chord into headphones. That's it. And I would not trade it for the world. Every time I sit down here I have 2 options - Open a word document (to plan D&D or write an assignment) or make music; and this set up is such a creativity factory for me. There isn't much else I can do except make music here. 10/10 recommend for music making Granted I'm a dead broke final year high-schooler, so this set up is mostly out of necessity, but I really cannot recommend this type of set-up enough. It's entirely possible to build a DAW workhorse if you have the time and inclination (there's probably more than a few people looking to get rid of an old desktop PC)
Ever thought of LattePanda or similar x86 / x64 singleboard computer ? I'm sure there is a way to clean up desktop and run ableton as soon as OS starts. You could commission some computer tech to do it for you, or you could DIY it. It seems very lego like
@@bxktty okay, first of all, respect. The fact that you're main setup is so bare bones is awesome. so many gearheads out here get waaay to focused on high quality gear. But my major point is that your computer CAN do more. The fact of the matter is, Windows still runs processes in the background. You still have to boot up the computer which can take too long. Even 30 seconds is too long. I know that sounds picky, but i want something that is fast and designed to be a DAW from the start. I don't want an Operating System at all. No windows or max or chrome or linux. Nothing. Just Ableton. or Just Logic. or Just Reaper. You know? Still, your setup is great and I respect the hustle. Also, since you're using FL, you should look into Ableton. It's always fun to try and make a simple beat in an Unfamiliar territory.
@@micindir4213 Thank you for the LattePanda. I didn't know that existed until now. I was considering using a raspberry pi or something similar, but yea I'm looking into making my own. If i can build one, I'd sell millions. I'm telling you. This is the future. even @b0xk1tty kind of proved my point. I just want a machine that does the work i need. nothing more and nothing less.
Work with the tools that get the job done. I’d never recommend a orchestral composer who regularly uses hundreds of gigs of samples and was bumping up against the old 256 track limit in Logic to try going DAWless. Much like you’d never tell a stage keyboardist to tour the country with just a laptop.
For me there are 2 reasons why i recently went into dawless world: 1) "paralysis" of too much possibilities - often i was finding myself looking for that special bassline sound for hours, and then i've lost my inspiration and forgot what i was about to make, in Digitakt i can fidle with the sound while pattern is playing, kinda "on the fly", so composition and sound design go hand in hand, not one after the other 2) watching Your studio, Compact Creations series and explaining the Digitakt was that deciding factor for buying DT and going dawless
I had an idea to have fully complete setups in DAW and map everything you have to HW controller. And don't fiddle with selecting-connecting-disconnecting stuff when really playing. That way you would just plug in the DAW and start playing. Unfortunately I still was not diligent enough to make that happen and just play with my HW synths.
I was in a DAW forever until last year when I got the model Cycles, then Digitone, and now a Digitakt and I’ve LOVED going dawless. You’re 100% right those limitations force you into all new places that you may not have ever discovered just in a DAW
After being 100% DAW for a solid 15+ years I recently just bought an Elektron AR MKII and within 2 short weeks it’s completely flipped my whole concept of producing dance music on its head. Now writing tracks “live” more the way I would on guitar ... you “learn” how to play it while you’re writing it THEN you record it. So I still plan to use the DAW as a finishing tool to add the polish / final tweaks. But the writing and arranging part for me is now forever changed. ... your channel has been such a help during the transition away from the DAW. Thank you so much! Plan 2 buy merch as thank you! ;) respect!
I'm going back to hardware. I spent too much time in the Ableton Live with sound design and other DAW rabbit holes. I'm putting together a very basic setup. I want to spend my time making music and not creating drum sounds or putting together effects chain.
lol same can be said about hardware synths... some really capture you for hours on end fiddling with the sounds and the sequencer.. non of that shit is the fault of the daw.. just your own.. start the daw with a song in mind. make a basic drum loop that fits your song... put in the song layer by layer... put in the vocals... then start tweaking everything.. and when it is done you still have time to fiddle around in the rabbit hole to maybe find the icing on the cake..
You expressed EXACTLY how I feel. I use Bitwig as my DAW, and as much as I love it, it doesn't compare to using something that reduces things to you and the sound. And gives you the feeling that you're physically manipulating the sound. Thanks for this, homey.
I just figured out the same thing for myself... Using my gear is soo much fun BUT finishing the tracks is sometimes very difficult. I produce with gear and record and finish everything in DAW.
I've been moving more into hardware for the simple reason that it feels like I'm using my computer or my synths as one big instrument. I get to interact with it instead of staring at a screen. The hybrid set up is definitely my preference, I can set up all the mixing and channels in Ableton and all the creative stuff is done on hardware. It's also very cost effective to do most of the effects using a DAW.
@@lardosian not really. I've been using an ancient i5 machine that's running ddr3 RAM and a SATA SSD and I've had no problems at all running quite a few instances of effects at once. If you want to run stuff like kontakt then yeah, you need a powerful processor
I agree- use the best tools for each task. The DAW does tend to limit live performance and tactile interaction yet you need it for editing, mixing and polish.
Never take musical productivity advice from someone who has little to no musical productivity. Of course, his contributions to the science are immense and respected. But that's totally different from finishing and releasing a song.
@@meanguitar use beatmaker 2 or 3 I have 2 on my ipad 1 Still using it Its crazy goood And i sample other apps synth (or use loops i create on electribe) I love samplimg
@@meanguitar oh little stupid question Is the ielectribe wavetable a good app or only presets overpriced stupid app I cant install any apps I am glad i had jailbroken mt ipad and install all good apps i can find on the ipad
Same journey here: from tape deck to hardware samplers to Reason to hardware synths to hybrid DAW/hardware. Computer being more destination oriented and pre-meditated is totally acurate! Thanks for putting words on the topic, that’s helpful.
A producer who is more tech and project minded will be more DAW centered. A musician who is more creative and artistic will gravitate to more of a DAWLESS setup. Both types can produce great music.
Great analogy. I agree. I think using a DAW has so many advantages, but all of the automation is completely uninspiring to me. I I find the ideal setup for me is to take a song as far as I can go on my own using hardware, my hands, eyes and ears then when I’m done, finding someone who loves sitting in front of a screen and letting them do what they do best. I think both have advantages. It definitely is dependent on the type of artist you are.
I know deadmau5 pretty much goes all out on hardware. And he uses some software, but most of his sounds are from modular synths and keyboards. Same with nine inch nails.
Thank you for this video. I saw a video of someone making a song with only an OP-1 and Ive been researching grooveboxes and DAWs. But man I have been getting so frustrated because nobody has talked about what the actual process of CREATING the song is. You're the first person ive seen that makes the point that resonates with me, I dont know what song I want to write until my fingers touch the keys/pads.
I agree. I've been producing my own beats in Reason since I was 18. Last year I started playing the guitar again and using it more in my productions. I was just plugging it straight into the DAW or running it through Guitar Rig and thought it sounded fine, but then one day I decided to mic up and record straight from my shitty $80 amp and it sounded SO MUCH better to me!! Had much more character and it's fun to physically twist nobs and get new sounds rather than just use a mouse. I feel as though it's helped me a ton creatively! I started buying more pedals and ordered a new guitar amp a few weeks ago. I'm hoping to get a Moog Grandmother and drum machine when I get some more money. But yeah, it was quite the revelation.
I was more or less DAWless from maybe 2007 until around the end of 2015 and it ended up getting really limiting. What has been working for me now is the "DAW as tape machine" approach, where I still keep my sound design and sequencing OTB more or less 100%, but still record multitrack into the DAW, do overdubs in the DAW and then do a hybrid mix where I'm summing in the DAW and using some plugins but mostly using hardware for send effects, and mixing down in real time to tape. The trouble with being completely OTB is that I only have two hands and I try not to do much sequencing, but play everything live as much as possible, with little or no editing - basically treating it like a 24 or 32 track tape based studio rather than a DAW. I've found it helps me maintain the spontaneity of working OTB without limiting control of my arrangement and mix to what I can do in a live take. For playing out, which I only really do a few times a year these days, I just come up with a minimal setup - usually the Octatrack, one drum machine, one monosynth (x0xb0x or Mutable Anushri 99% of the time) and a CZ-101 or something similar that I can do some noodling on to bring some more organic phrasing in, and just write an entire new repertoire for it for every show. My main personal rule for playing out is I can only use what I can carry in one load, and I'm not concerned at all with trying to translate my recorded stuff to a live setting - they're two different mediums.
I have my daw (ableton) template with a number of soft synths and effects . I know it and my displays usually turns off because of power save because I know where everything is and don't need it.. Almost everything I use is mapped to my midi controllers. It's a bit like going DAWless with a DAW somewhere in the background that I don't see unless I want to go deep into some plugin preset or want to rearrange large parts of a track or something because that's just painful to do otherwise.
I tried to set Studio One up once with Axiom M32 controller, never managed and just gave up hahha. That does sound like the dream for sure. I'll try again when I have another MIDI controller :)
How many controllers do you use? I find a single Novation Launch Control XL a bit lacking for that. Well, if you have the whole track set up it is mostly ok but when building the set up I can't get really efficient in using the controllers and found DAWs really frustrating because of that.
@@TimurBatyrshin I used to have an AXIOM 32, which has a LOOOOOOT of buttons and knobs for all your needs. Check it out, quite affordable as well. It's what Marc Rebillet uses , check him out
Searched for "shortcomings of dawless" and came up with this. Great commentary, and helps me realize (again) how diverse electronic music has become. I'm all-in with DAWs - They're how I've produced for 20+ years. But my focus, until a couple years ago, has been based on creating delicate recordings with exact mixes, not on performing live. In 2018 I finally decided to put together live sets based on my existing albums' stems, and Ableton has been a godsend. I could never recreate the atmospherics and details of my songs using hardware, and have opted for a hybrid solution that involves chopped-up stem clips and effects hardware. The results are raw, live-sounding, and different from the original recorded tracks, making my live material a different experience. But there appears to be a stigma these days, perhaps a holdover from the "just press the spacebar" criticism of pre-arranged live sets. I agree that pressing the spacebar, dancing around, and pretending to twist knobs reduces a live performer's credibility. But the pendulum swing over to total DAWlessness, in my opinion, robs the artist of an essential creative tool. Samples, special sequences, time-stretching, EQ and track-specific effects, and many other aspects are much better-handled in Ableton (or pick your fave), especially in a live environment. DAWless gives you lots of knobs and faders, but most artists just end up piling layers on top of each other, muting or filtering, then subtracting. The detail a DAW can offer in a live setting is awesome. I like your approach and wisdom though. Using DAWless for your creative flow, then detailing everything in a DAW makes sense. And live, you can just fall back on your DAWless chops. Thanks for the vid and thoughts!
I'm coming up on two years since I started my journey into eurorack. Before that I had absolutely no experience in anything musical, save for a few years as a kid playing saxaphone. I've learned a lot from your channel (thanks for being a good reason I bought a BIA and a Mimetic) and I resonated a lot with what you said in this video. I work primarily with video editing, and I always assumed using a DAW would come naturally to me given how comfortable I am in video editing apps but I found out rather quickly that that wasn't the case. I've learned a lot in the last two years and I'm currently struggling with how to record/mix/master my synth both technically and philosophically, but I guess that's just part of the struggle. You're an awesome inspiration and I'm a big fan of your work, thanks for putting out this great content, I've learned a lot from you and hope to keep doing so in the future!
A big contribution to the special feel of an entire song done without a DAW is that the song had to be INTERESTING to you the entire time you were playing it live while recording it...you HAD to push it along, you HAD to make the changes in texture, patterns, mutes at the time that you felt it was right. That energy you feel while the song is playing, that energy while tells you where the song needs to go and when, is very hard to tune into and lock on to if you are constantly stopping and starting and editing, and then rendering at the end.
This is why, although I use the daw a lot, I usually record my tweaks on the fly until they sound right. Never used midi automation (CC's) much as I prefer the connection I get when feeling the music and turning the knobs in real time.
Very thoughtful reflection and lots of great points. Back in the day early 1990s I was full on midi because hardware was too expensive. Fast forward I am at the 90/10 ratio with using Reason Daw as a mix mastering for all my tacking that is done via DP32 . Four Moog synths and Blofeld, Boss DR-880 and Squarp Pyramid for sequencing. a computer is needed to get out tracks out into the world... having a DAW around for tweaking etc is very helpful.
well i as much as i love your content, and your workflow, can not afford to buy as many fancy toys, given not all are expensive but still it adds up specially space wise as my studio is still in my room. . . :(. i do despise having no way to rid my eyes off the screen so i use push and a full 88 key midi controller. if i manage to not polishing stuff to oblivion i think i can come up with descent stuff.
yes !!! push 2 and ableton has come a long way to change my workflow from using the screen less and less, just dont use the akai mpc live,the last version, its like using a pad most of the time and a really old version of ableton and bad one at that...
I found a love for hardware through Reason (and still use it! It's even better now, and the cables in the back are still amazing - and useful!!). Now that I have some hardware synths and samplers, I run it all into a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 with an adat expander, so 16 channels, and mix in Reason after recording. Sometimes I use it to arrange as well, or sometimes use it as a sampler to drop in drums or whatever and then play the Digitakt or Circuit or DeepMind or whatever on top of it. Just like I would with a guitar or bass or cello. So I see them as instruments more than an *alternative* to a computer. That said, if I had an Octa or ARmkII or convenient mixer (and space to set up hardware away from my studio computer) then I would probably love working that way too. Look at it this way - if you're gonna put your music out on Spotify or iTunes or whatever, you need to use a computer in the end anyway. Maybe for people who are anti-daw it would be better to use something like ProTools, Logic, Harrison MixBuss, MOTU Digital Performer, or even Adobe Audition, because those all function much more like multi-track tape recorders, and you'd be less tempted to line everything to the grid and mess with the mouse all that much, more for setting levels, doing some software EQ and maybe some send FX like basic delay and reverb, etc.
Love the video as always... I'm about 50/50, I love using both hardware and software synths then do all my arranging and editing in my DAW. I tried going DAW-less but just found myself making music that sounded more like rough demo drafts of a song.
I like staying in the box because I've never really learned to play an instrument. Plus I like how everything I need is in a computer I can take anywhere. Hardware looks cool tho
My workflow over the years has developed to something similar to what you're doing. Get as much music sequenced with my hardware gear, then record into Cubase through my Motu Ultralite (3 stereo tracks, 2 mono) live perform it. Afterwards check the mix, re arrange if needed, add some vst stuff and master it out. Best workflow I've found so far. Digitone acts as master sequencer for everything else. It's a thing of beauty!
I find that with a DAW I have kind of a blank slate feeling sometimes that makes it hard to know where to begin. With hardware I feel like I know better how to begin.
@@adampate3893 Pretty much all the major DAWs allow you to create templates, not just Live. Many use those also for having mixing specific templates or recording/hardware specific ones and so on. Also you could try to create workspace in your chosen DAW which would eliminate also a bit of that blank slate syndrome. Also: choose some restricted set of plugins, learn to utilise them and create that way some restrictions for yourself. That also eliminates a lot of the feeling of "where should I start?", when you know your instruments. It creates a feeling where you eventually "just know" what is the right choice for specific scenarios and you don't spend too much time on wondering "which plugin to use?" Hope this gave you some ideas. :)
@@jarkokoo It does give me some ideas for sure, for when I go into a DAW. Recently though, I've been recording off of a Groovebox into Audacity, and that has been working. I've never really found a daw that felt right like this does. There's something wonderful about using a machine that is designed from the ground up to make music, with no capability of checking email. I've used quite a few DAWs over the years, but never really had one that speaks to me the way that hardware does. Acid was probably the one that was closest, but sadly, since Magix took over development of it, its now a DAW I not only don't use, but wouldn't recommend either.
I started recording on a digital recording device because of the abillity to quick erase and start over, hearing it and deleting a part, adding some by track recording. It was a daw without being a daw. When I was younger, like grade school, yeah, we recorded on cassette, now these days I would rather be able to not waste tapes so in the mindset of going Dawless, one would really need to be skillfully artistic on the spot at that record push, which is good for feeling that performance anxiety and learning to be comfortable there. ( cassette these days is like recording an already recorded performance, but maybe I'd like to feel that performance anxiety, but it wouldnt be so bad if practiced. ) I personally practice music ideas and sounds, before I even record, I use a daw, I like the technology, and how one can really use it, not just the basics. It can really get in depth like many synths also can, but people tend to use them in a very limited way. There are definitely pros and cons either way, it's about where one feels more at home. I personally have a tendency to want to be more creative than use a device that helps me be creative, but it can also compliment the process. To each their own there.
I actually think you’ve hit on something really important when you talk about the computer being destination-based, and needing to know what parameter you’re going to manipulate before you do it. I absolutely agree, and love the ability of hardware to show you all possibilities for manipulation that currently exist all at one glance. I think it’s the same reason boxes or modules that rely on a lot of menu diving often aren’t as much fun.
Yeah, this is much more an attribute of the analog revolution of the past decade and the knob-per-function ideal. But go back to the 90s and 00s to the digital synth boxes that were the only option in hardware, and the picture was much less pleasant. DAWs weren't really an option, and hardware was mostly huge plastic boxes with tiny 2 row monochrome screens and poorly translated user manuals. Makes me really appreciate the state of music technology nowadays.
I really hate looking at a screen, I really hate writing music when it feels like a point and click adventure or browsing the web. Even when I switched to writing on a tracker and just using the keyboard it just felt like typing. To be honest "daw switching" and trying to find a good interface for making music has taken away years of proficiency yet I love sitting in front of a piano and just improving and playing pieces. But I do love editing on a computer, to me if I'm going to be doing something which feels like working on an excel spreadsheet it should be similar. So using ableton feels like that to me, but I found sitting down with an electribe and a small synth with some notation paper to really be the best thing for me. Once I have everything good, I go export everything and go to ableton and just like excel it feels like I'm inputing data to make a functional spreadsheet. But I'm really arranging everything to make a functional song. I am also a huge stickler for interface design and really get too caught up in dealing with every soft-synth's interface and all the annoyances which come with not having a reactionary ability to making music. It's like waking up and someone re-tuned all your piano strings or changed all the key sizes on the piano. So to me I really just hate using software espicially when things update and surprise the interface is different or something functions differently. More importantly, Reason recently reminded me that if you are paying for anything and you don't own it you are throwing money away. Reason 11 made me re-pay for rack extensions I already owned and it really pissed me off. Buying digital items is a scam because you really pay for license usage and it can be devalued at any moment or be discontinued. I remember a SOS article where this one mixer still used like Cubase 4 on a G4 iMac because he got a set up which worked, he took it offline and never updated it ever. I can really see why. I also find the over abundance of sounds to be problematic with daws too, once everything copied ableton's browser it really felt like committing to sounds was hard because you had so many options. I know that's a gamblers fallacy of "oh but what if the next pull of the lever is a jackpot" really translates to "but what if the next kick is better" and I hate it. I hate having 20 choices for a synth as the over abundance leaves me spending more time trying to learn my tools than using them. Vs if you just have a guitar you can master it by using it daily. So it's why I will never upgrade ableton 9 suite, it's why I will stick with hardware, it's why I'll stop using VSTs and never buy sample packs again because it's all superfluous and just gets in the way of shit for me. There is something special about mastering an instrument and becoming proficient in using it that software and daws can lack in the ever changing yearly updates and new releases. Just not for me, I wish I didn't waste so much time trying to learn this lol
I can honestly say, that with software there is problem / advantage of total recall. Total recall means never finished, and if your computer allows, you can always go back to the source and edit it - even if you have your mastering chain ready. That kind of non-linearity of the process is what's difficult to understand to average person. You need routines and processes in place to tackle a piece of music to a finished state. Remember, that this business was very divided and mix engineer wasn't a producer, and producer didn't play drums (very, very rare). Now when we are in DIY age you've got to do all by yourself, and honestly its more than one undisciplined person can handle. I personally find hardware fits three categories. Its either spicy sampler material, that is unique and generic enough to fit the music (modular, individual drum module etc. , cheap stompbox ) or some sort of a small sketchpad, a toy meant to spark ideas. (yamaha QY, volca sample, almost anything with sequencer/sampler inside) some specific gear, a template sound if you will, that can be grabbed fast (303 clone, DX , 1080, moog funk lead, stringmachine) With hardware there is this feeling that you get when you perform a track into tape machine. A very special kind of feeling. There is magic happening if you lay a track with small changes to a sound at right places, and then do same for number of tracks. Not to overcook is another skill that is acquired later, knowing how much of a changes in this specific layer you need even before everything else is layed. Software is conquered by applying your specific routines to it. In case of ableton live, making your / buying packed effects or instrument racks is one part of it, another is a way to differentiate writing process from arranging and mixing. For example one strategy might be to limit a track to a number of mix buses
@@philxdev I can say for myself that I struggle to churn definitive studio versions of the track. In analog recording you are really limited by track number. 8 tracks were a luxury for DIY and most of the time it was 12 channel mixer into 1/4in 2 track. So you had to be 100% sure of your arrangement before committing to tape. Midi sequencing was separate matter, you had all the time in the world to perfect your mmt 8 pattern, but mixer limitation still applied. Knowing all that I still cannot commit to final versions with ableton without definitive deadline. There's definitely a limbo of some sort inside daw
Might you say it's like the difference between shopping for a book online and going to a book store picking up a book you might not have known existed.
About the piano, if you watch Lisa Belladonna, her keyboard chops translate to her doing regenerative lines on the fly which other folks would need a sequencer. and a quantizer. It's because she is a pianist first . I learned piano as a kid and never forget it. It really helps to get my fingers going again . And DAWless, yeah definitely. Musical Directors and producers, yes I see them needing a DAW. But creative sparks are always best with lesser "things". Try this an experiment. Just use Audacity for a month and record everything ":manually" with HW synths. You'll start to think ahead compositionally, rather than just re-acting to what you're groovebox or synth gives
I went dawless after 20 yrs of daw use. I still have to get used to recording, it's way different without a daw / software aranger. But dawless made me accept the things I cannot change. :)
YO that point you made about the lack of exploration while creating in a DAW is CRAZY. It's a simple concept to be sure but it's only identified in the scope of some extremely intuitive observation. Cheers for that!
Nice talk, Ricky! Those advantages of gear over soft that you mentioned are definitely there. Somehow, software makes people stop playing and improvising. I needed a mental effort to start exploring music again within the confines of plugins. Getting a midi controller and not being lazy to map it, can also give a good result. I limited myself to a few virtual synths, mapped them, and now tweak sounds as if on real synths. However, once I got enough courage and finance, I'll invest in a few synths.
I think you hit the nail when you talk about perform vs compose. Some are composers, and love to make music, not much playing it, and that's where DAW users feel more comfortable. For people that perform live or are into those endless patterns where you swing around filters and such; then dawless is where they feel more at home. Personally I don't perform live, I don't plan to, and I don't spend more than 2 bars doing a filter sweep or something of that kind, so to me the appeal of doing that is close to 0. But I love hardware synths for creating sounds; I love the feel of change real knobs and faders, move switches around, and that is why I use a DAW but my main instruments are mainly hardware. I can play them on the sofa or attached to my computer, and once I am ready to move from an idea to a fully fledged piece, I turn on my DAW and get things done. Record few times, play forever; without the hassle to have to remember setups, or even which patches I used for a track. Many may say that the fun is in do the manual work, and that's fine. That is what fun is for some, but for me, the fun is in starting with a 4 bars pattern idea, on my sofa or on the train, with a hardware synth or beatbox and end up with a finished song that I can save in a file and modify the midi track or effects at any time I want, on a computer.
The minimum you have to buy is a solid midi controller like Maschine, Mpc or Push.. Daw only means you have to know exactly what you are aiming for... I think music is born feeling that naturally fluids out of your moving or singing, but the mouse is not the right way to translate that signals.. Explore that gift you got with being a human :D
For me it's more about function focused devices and being "in the zone". Fueling your creativity requires the right feel, and instrument. You could compose a melody tapping fingers on a table, singing..any sound really. You could have a seperate laptop for music production, a tablet, your phone..anything you choose. So just like choosing your tools , it's always about how they make you feel and how you use them.
@@terrorbirbfpv4732 Pete cannon did a video earlier this year. Even pressed vinyl directly from 8bit amiga octamed. Super video. Was for Sound on Sound.
Thanks for opening this conversation. I love the tactile feel of affecting the sound directly with hardware. I’ve tried with software (mainly Logic and Mainstage) using knobs to control those same functions but it’s just not the same as having dedicated control on an actual instrument. I use various synths with a hardware sequencer (Squarp Pyramid) because I prefer the hands-on approach of making that music happen live, as in affecting the sound of each instrument while it is playing, as opposed to prerecorded tracks. Plus I don’t need more screen time added to my life. I prefer looking at keys and turning knobs than clicking a mousepad.
Another reason is that in software there's always something preventing fun, like: Oh, wanna use that plugin? Sorry, it crashed / your daw crashed / you're out of memory and CPU because there are already a ton of other plugins and stuff opened and you need to close it all / your system will now update, so fuck you and your music / your cheapo midi interface is not responding for some reason, please throw it out the window and proceed to the "fuck you" stage / ... It's not good nor it is bad, it's inevitable, because software products are one of the most complex systems made by humanity. Hardware is much more simple, foolproof and responsive. But of course there's much plugins I would miss like graphic EQs and compressors, great reverbs and delays. P.s. Right now I am writing it and at the same time avid update agent can't exit because it freezed :-D
Like with anything that runs hard on the computer; SAVE OFTEN... I was thinking about how i would love to have an effect rack recently - and then i remembered that i have Komplete 11 Ultimate on my computer, so i can use that as my effect rack. If i bought hardware versions of everything on my computer, it would cost a fortune, and i could still only use 1 instance of it - so if i want different parameters for the effects i want to put on different instruments, i would have to get several of the effect modules. On my computer, i can just load up another instance of the plugin... And software is usually DIRT CHEAP and full of features i often dont find on hardware versions. So for most people, where money is an issue, id say that software is "where its at"... Thats just me though... I love hardware, but it just doesnt provide all the features im used to with my plugins... And in my world; "less features" means "NOT AS GOOD"... Of course the "hands on" experience of hardware is awesome, but... I think the Maschine MK3 is gonna solve at least most my issues with using software :P
I believe you're having those issues, but I'm not. My daw doesn't crash, I've got enough RAM and a decent processor (have to bounce midi to audio only after 100 tracks) and I schedule my updates. And it's not as if hardware units never break down, or need a restart either.
Well, they break of course, but I've never encountered this. And usually producers don't ship broken hardware anyway because it would cost them alot in the future. With software... em, not so much. The latest example: I've bought a Largo VST. It's a great software copy of Blofeld with extended possibilities. I love it, but... every time I click on precise edit a control and then anywhere else on the screen, it crashes. I can't even imagine this kind of problem happening on a hardware synth. And these guys sell it for a couple of years now. P.S. Let me be clear. It's not because they are bad or stupid, or that everyone always have software problems. There are thousands of possible OS/DAW/drivers/computer hardware combinations and it's impossible to check them all. This is usually not the case when developing a hardware synth, because it has a static configuration, and all encountered bugs are easy to reproduce on a dev stand.
That would only usually happen if you don't know what you're doing and are using an ill-equipped setup. But I get your point, hardware stuff is the same every time and you can really get good at using it.
This reminds me so much of my other life designing interfaces for medical devices. The example of “listening with your eyes” (my words) rather than with your ears when using a DAW is beautiful. I’m adding it to my bestiary of User eXperience examples.
Dawless is good for live performance but for recording you can't beat a Daw. There is a reason Professional recording studios around the world use them.
Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys would talk about “playing the studio” or using the studio facilities/equipment as it’s own tool or instrument to add to the track. In the Love and Mercy movie there’s a scene about that people thought he was crazy At the end of the day, the problems people identify with DAWs aren’t due to the software themselves but more so with the approach to music. If you want to perform your track live, then remove quantize and practice playing through parts, get a mixer and record in multiple parts live. Or setup your DAW tracks, hit record and shut off your screen. Edit later We spend way too much time looking at phone screens, laptop during the day etc. To me that’s the principal benefit of hardware, tactile and no blue light screen etc. Like you touched on it, there are some clear frustrations with hardware and some clear downfalls with the mouse click approach of most DAWs, but with a little creativity you can get the best of both worlds like you’re doing.
I love the argument. I personally like how some instruments are designed in a way that makes me want to play with them. For samples it's a mixed bag. I love how ableton's track view and sampler instrument is lightyears faster than anything else to just mangle stuff. But for synths i like that physical impact of interacting with it. I want something like that without the menudiving torture champer of the Octatrack. Another thing that doesn't get talked about is workflow. Personally I look at racks of gear and I suspect most of the time they don't get used to their maximum. That's why I like Machinedrum's approach. He's using mainly the Ableton track view, ableton instruments, samples and the Ableton Push. He's just focused on that and pushes a lot of tracks out that way. Hardware equivalent would be the squarp pyramid video you did. It was so dope because in barely any time you had a full track going. That's also why I like the Maschine workout vids, and the against the clock vids. You see people's workflow. If the workflow works you'll get it out fast. I applied that to myself that to only having 1 hardware synth (Digitone) (a trade ended up getting me 4 volcas to sequence from the digitone lol) and maybe i get 1 sampler later, but apart from that I'm not buying other gear. I only use 1 thing (digi and midi to volcas) and force myself to push things out. Chorus Verse Chorus Verse Bridge Chorus Chorus Done
I use them both,daws mostly for recording and arranging,and hardware for creating ideas. So,as a musician beeing in two worlds i have to admit people:Nothing like turning the f^&&^ing knobs!! Bless to every creative person outta there!
Limitations (for me) is the key word. Limitations force compromise, compromise forces decisions, decisions force the finite. Too many options for me are paralyzing. That being said, I use both. My current journey is finding the best way to integrate both so they are sonically cohesive. That's just mechanics. After all that though -- I've never been as productive as now just using my ipad and one app - Grooverider. I don't leave that environment and it makes me choose - on the spot - what sound to use, etc. Eventutally, I'll suss a way to combine that with my hardware. Thanks for this Ricky!
Hi. Totally agree with you. I love my hardware. It’s making some “mistakes” on my hardware which led to some of my best ideas. I find making songs in a DAW more about what I see. I think more like a producer and less of as a song writer. Going DAWless has been difficult but fun and it’s helped me connect back to the musician inside of me. I know like you use the DAW to tidy up my music and add additional elements to make it polished and professional. However most of my best songs are purely from a well rehearsed DAWless performance which then goes into the DAW to get tweaked. So I still use both. But the whole song writing and creative process is done via hardware only. I only use the DAW for the last 20% of the song 🙂👍 Thanks for the video
You absolutely nailed it with this video. The reason for dawless is just the way some people’s brains work. I’d wager that a lot (maybe even most?) people who prefer to work dawless, have a personality type that is more exploration based. Maybe we all have that explorer type archetype within us to a degree. I’ve tried to work like other producers. I’ve tried to previsualize the end result and it really just feels forced. Previsualization definitely helps to get you the end result easier but in the end it’s the exploration of an aural landscape that is the appeal of making music. Being able to react to what we find along the way during these auditory adventures is fun. It’s what we crave 🙂
youtube captions changed “go dawless” to “go dollars”... still accurate
Clef is Futile why go Dallas?
@@piercemcintyre1327 Because the food there is great. Lol
Arranging things in the dog sounds really painful.
@@ThatBonsaipanda I think it also requires that one be a licensed veterinarian.
"Why go, dollars?" ... because gear
I like hardware because when I sit in front of computer my creativity dies, cause I'm already using computer a lot, for work and entertainment, and I need a different environment for making creative stuff. Also I dislike endless possibilities of software, I don't know what to do with it. Finishing songs with it though proves very useful.
Yea, this is the way I feel as well. I am a software developer and its my job to bang away on a computer, googling problems and dealing with issues. A Daw always sends me down a tech related black hole where the musical inspiration disappears.
Maybe you should record standing up in front of a PC. Know it sounds stupid but it works for me. But I use all of native instruments stuff including their controller. I use Ableton to record
I totally get it. I’m ENTIRELY Daw-based currently (I mostly compose orchestral/orchestral-hybrid), but I’m starting work on a jazz-fusion album, and I’m finding I’m getting bogged down with the software synths I’m using. (And I’ve got some good ones, lol.) I now feel I need something more hands-on, at least part of the time. But the bigger problem seems to be that “endless-options” issue when it comes to software instruments. (I recently heard it put as “options paralysis,” lol.)
same
same being infront of a computer 8 hours a day as a graphic designer doesnt encourage me to be infront of screens more! Loving my sp404 but I know I need MPC Live to get more polished finish
I think a lot of it these days has to do with screen overload. Maybe 15 - 20 years ago laptops were the biz, no one had phones, social media didn’t exist. Today, hardware gives u a break from using a screen all day long whether that’s for work, communication or entertainment. That’s what I get out of it, I think it’s why so many are drawn to modular, too.
But a lot faceless setup still have screen and depend on it, I haven't have a music setup and interested in the DirtyWave M8 Tracker but think about it, might as well just learn from Garageband and Logic Pro
i think that’s what’s been drawing me into DAWless production too, i’m learning how to use a roland sp404sx and am going to pair it with a VS840 so i do not need software if i so please
Certainly not the only factor for me, but the idea of getting a notification while I'm trying to use my less than an hour a day making music just makes me want to cryscream
Hardware = Tactile expression of ideas.
DAW = Recording, Arranging, Mixing and Archiving said ideas.
Get a MPC LIVE!! =)
@@yourmom9828 Why? I have an MPC 1000, ASR-X, Digitakt, SP404SX and SP2400 OTW...
Well said. Have both!
@@yourmom9828 MPC1000 > every sequencer/sampler ever
His name was Bill Batson. Well said.
Music with ears
Edits with eyes
Mixing with... coffee
Mastering with time
9:33 "The limitations that hardware create, manifest creativity within them."
I couldn't agree more. For me at least, the endless possibilities of the DAW completely stifle my creative drive. Precisely BECAUSE anything and everything is possible.
I completely resonate with your point about wanting things to feel more tactile / hands-on.
I'm a drummer and bass guitarist, but have the same issues with fellow musicians as you described, never really feeling at home in the conventional (rock/metal) band setting.
I have used Logic Pro X, Ableton Live, Fruity Loops, and Reason, but the general concept of making music through a computer just feels alien to me. Even after roughly 15 years of trying to get into it again and again.
I just want to PERFORM organically (meaning the spontaniety, not necessarily in front of an audience).
Never had enough money until I got older to have hardware. It's re-ignited my creative passion for music, especially sound synthesis.
BUT the DAW is my recording studio in a box. Like you said, it's how you take a performance and a cluster of ideas and polish them into a finished project.
It's a rock band jamming in the studio and the producer using those jam sessions to craft a track that makes it onto the album.
1:34
“Reason”
Flipping the rack around hitting tab. Never dumb. Some real world and life lessons from connecting jacks, CV in that virtual set up. Educational, never dumb. I would never be embarrassed in those feature provided by Reason.
Propellerhead (now Reason studios) we’re the original “Roland fan boys”
Their first Product , Rebirth, which emulates an 909 Drum
Machine and an 808 drum machine with two 303 Bass synths, took me down the software/hardware rabbit hole of music synthesis.
I run both Daw (Ableton) and have an MPC one setting up with synths.
Best of both worlds.
Great video.
Really enjoyed the insights discussed.
🪄⭐️
Why not have both? Never understood this argument.
INGENUK for me I just can’t get any motivation to work on music as soon as I get front of a computer.
@@tColorsinspacerecordings See, I am often the opposite of that. The moment I'm on my computer, I often do everything but what I went on there to do. For example, why am I on TH-cam right now typing this comment when I should be working on my next song?
Jagilsdorf oops I just edited that.. I can’t get any motivation when I’m on the computer! Ok turning off iPhone and going into studio. 👍
OK Boomer.
@@Rustik1722 I wish programs like Reason, Logic, Pro Tools and ESPECIALLY Ableton would come out with a computer that ONLY runs that DAW. Like a Chromebook for producers.
As long as you can make something dope, it doesn’t matter how you get there. I use both vintage analog gear as well in the 📦, depends on my mood. Great post man, keep em coming.
Go that or these is like go black or white.
Hell, no.
Go hybrid , respect your wallet, choose your weapons of choice, and don t care about the hype...
"Go what fits you"!
That's what I got currently. So many tools and so many REALLY good ones too
@@ChurroLightyear Nice man me too. Aquired a MK3 and SP404SX and MPC1000 within a year. Time to do less buying and more playing hahahaaa
TRUE. THE MIDDLE WAY. PLUS MOST FOLKS WOULD SWOON THAT USE A JD-XI(A HYBRID TECHNOLOGIES ANALOGUE/DIGITAL SYNTH)
clem klm exactly!
Go purple or orange. Beats grayscale every time.
I have a bit of a "tactile DAW" setup at the moment. Most of the synths that I use are Arturia Products, so I have a Keylab midi controller that lets me tweak parameters with my hands and my ears rather than my eyes. For mixing, I have a Softube Console One, where I try to do most of my EQ'ing and level balancing. For my workflow (and my wallet) it works really well to be able to have the flexibility and advanced features of a DAW, but still to use my ears over my eyes when I get down to sound design and mixing.
This is very much in line where i landed. Working with hardware was liberating and much more creative. What helps me bridge between the hardware and the DAW is my Presonus StudioLive 32.4.2 mixer/interface. I can record all the instruments to their own tracks and then mix and master in the DAW, the last mile. It was a significant investment but it has provided a ton of value. Great video, thanks as always.
I wish programs like Reason, Logic, Pro Tools and ESPECIALLY Ableton would come out with a computer that ONLY runs that DAW. Like a Chromebook for producers.
@Bob Familiar That's pretty awesome. I'm curious, about how much did that set you back?
@@adampate3893 i picked it up new 3 years ago for $1800 US. That's a lot but it is both my dawless mixer AND my audio interface. Presonus have since stopped making that model. worth checking out to see what they have today. There must be other options as well. I have not researched lately.
@@Jagilsdorf ipad can be pretty close to this vision.
That's a niiiice mixer!
Do you know any similar ones with maybe less tracks? Would love to get one to have separate recording channels!!!
Man you must have one hell of a electricity bill.
no joke... i do.. haha
Why is that ? With everything engaged its probably doesn't top 1-2 kw/h (for example very power hungry laptops eat 150w max, desktops up to 400w, everything else about 0.2a - 0.5a * 110V = 20-50w. Its a good practice too keep stuff sectioned in sections. For example editing job does take 2 monitors and a set of speakers/phones, mixing calls for proper soundsystem, writing with po's and volcas - well you need a table for that, midi rig is another "station" (just put power switch on your rack and connect everything in the rack thru that switch).
Anyway, onewater boiler, electric kettle for your daily coffee fix or electric heater takes way more power.
mic indir go home bro 🤫😴
@@lloydc1092 I'm home
I noticed that too once I started getting gear.
I started on software but quickly switched over to hardware. I need a limitation to fuel my creativity. With hardware I feel like I'm learning and improving more.
It’s the tactile stimulation we get from touching the knobs, faders and keys/drum pads that connect us with the music. Same as plucking a string or holding a drumstick. It all allows us to project emotion and feeling into the music.
I do not claim one side or the other. You can have *BOTH*. ❤️❤️
i completely agree, if everyone is using the same modular system and the same rehashed tehcnology that has been around for years, everyone is going to sound the same, each person needs to find what works for them, its not a one size fits all situation...
💯
Electronisounds Audio Shut up Dean 👊🏽😂. Where’s your Black Friday sale ? ☝🏽🤓
@@KarzenX Sorry, no Black Friday sale(s) this year. 👊
No.
For me when playing and recording music I prefer DAWless. I lean towards performance playing over looping in a DAW. Once I have recorded my performance now I prefer to mix in the DAW. I have outboard effects and yes I do use them sometimes but most of the time I prefer to use plugins for mixing as I don't have the outboard gear for mixing that I would want for the tasks.
A balance of the two is great if you can afford it. Even better if you can go all the way DAWless. If not then as long as your computer CPU can handle the workload then the main thing is recording the sounds and patterns that you have in your head or experimenting with ideas and record them. Software or hardware or both. Nike!! Just Do It!!
me: How many devices will I need to replace my DAW
you: Don't look behind me
It's 3am 😂😂
You can do basically everything you can in your DAW of choice in an MPC or Roland MV-8000 / MV-8800 (or Kronos / Fantom / Motif).
@@mc2engineeringprof no you can't...did you ever touched analog filter??Did you hear it scream like a little girl...thats what daw can't do
@@MrXamanX DAWs are, fundamentally, for recording of audio. How you process that audio (and what kind of filters or sources or whatever you use) PRIOR to going into the DAW is up to you and has no impact on the DAW. The DAW doesn't care what you did to the audio before you digitized it. The DAW, at the most basic level, is the thing that handles it AFTER you digitize it. At that point, any professional DAW will handle your audio roughly the same provided that you have a good interface with good da ad converters.
1.
an OP-1
I'm a computer guy by trade and by hobby and have been for 20+ years. I find myself steeped into the bits and bytes of software constantly. It is something foreign and mysterious when I pickup a piece of hardware kit and try and get it to sing ... or at least make a pleasing noise. It gives me a chance to break-away from my 'day-job' and walk a path less traveled, sail a different ocean, etc. metaphor, etc.
Really enjoy your content Ricky. You have a gift in the way you communicate and portray your thoughts on video and in the music you produce.
Just went through that a few months back. Found a great middle ground in the Maschine MK3 and Maschine Jam. Creating in there and then finishing everything, polishing in Ableton
Thanks for having this talk, there is something magical to recordings done by ear. Out of the box.
I see your point, but going dawless is not my way. I use Ableton with my hardware synths. Nothing can beat DAWs sequencing capability and I don't want to restrict myself.
Ye its so nice to have a lot of options but sometimes the minimalism brings ideas i wouldnt have otherwise. But ye im also using both :) just expirienced it a lot on my own stuff
Do whatever works for you, but in a weird way having some limitations can be a good thing
@@markz9739 that's because limitation breeds creativity!
Hey how do you overdub record a monosynth in live?
I see both sides but whats best is what is best for you. There is no best. People can create great music on any DAW, Tape machine, Cheap s¥nths, expensive ones, soft synths hardware, its about the end result. People have written amazing songs on cheap guitars, expensive guitars, its not relevant
I agree completely, Ricky, the limiting factors for me are space, and money. I love my little analog synth, but if I opted for hardware-only, that one synth is all I'd have. Optimally I'd be hardware-based, for now I'm super-glad to have the software option so I can still create.
As someone who works on a computer for my professional career I try to avoid it if possible. I love being hands on and taking a creative break from the computer.
Eric Liss What do you use to create?
*For me it's about being connected to the music, the immediacy and flow. I don't like using the mouse and screen to make music and I don't want to sit in a chair, I want to move to the music and use both hands, and my ears more than my eyes, I don't want to be distracted by what I see, that prevents making subconscious decisions based on hearing and feeling because our visual sense is so strong, it will override other senses.*
*But also hardware has its own strengths and weaknesses..*
I wish programs like Reason, Logic, Pro Tools and ESPECIALLY Ableton would come out with a computer that ONLY runs that DAW. Like a Chromebook for producers.
Like playstation for games
@Boofsquad *how do you mean?*
@Boofsquad *I'm not rejecting the mouse and screen for ego reasons or "just because", but for those workflow reasons I outlined above. In fact, of course I want to use the tool that works the best FOR ME, and fact: The mouse is horrible for turning knobs, the fine motor precision is not there and you get RSI when operating the mouse standing up, also you can only turn one knob at a time with the mouse, but you don't even get any haptic feedback, you have to use your eyes to make sure that you actually grab the knob correctly. And try doing a techno live performance with a mouse when the desk is vibrating! Hell naw!*
*But also in the studio, for other editing tasks the mouse is inferior, it has very low bandwidth compared to what you can do with two hands on physical user interfaces.*
*Regarding limiting myself: Art is ALL about self imposed limits, get real! I chose my limits how I like them, so my art is different from others. That's how it should be! I don't let the DAW or mouse impose those limits on me, in fact I wrote my own software for live music performance, improvisation and composition, that combines the best of hardware's and software's strengths and brings the analog work FLOW into the digital domain! And I'm very happy with that, not using a mouse and screen, choosing my own limitations and implementing my own features that DAWs don't even have!*
*And it can be used to orchestrate up to 16 hardware or software synths. I'm not sure yet if I should try to sell it, because for normies it'd be a steep learning curve, like flying an airbus, but for me it's perfect.*
Boofsquad mate, it seems like you are reading into a guys preferences about his production pipeline more than you should. Different people like different foods, different art, hell, art made with varying materials and methods, different music.... let this guys enjoy what he enjoys, it doesn’t effect your life. Hell, he even acknowledged strengths and weaknesses to hardware. Are you gonna tell a sculptor that they are ego driven and limiting their art by not painting? A person that works in moulding wet clay that they should carve instead? No, you watch them grow, develop and specialise their skills and accept them for the style of artist that they are. Some prefer a DAW, some prefer hardware, because of workflow differences and how their brain understands it, and some like both. Some don’t have time to learn new methods when they just want to be making music, especially with sadly limited time for learning existing in many busy (work enslaved) adult lives.
It sounds like you’ve got some ego issues of your own that you’re projecting onto others there buddy.
Thats the beauty of Ableton. It took me from the linear programming to using clip based recording. I dig the ability to add and subtract instruments and to alter arrangements with midi controllers. It lead me to the same path. I don’t use software as much. I primarily prefer hardware but I do incorporate the iPad in my setup for ease of use and it’s compact size.
Well said! I understand completely. This week I had a glitch in my daw which caused me to not see the wave form when recording. And I wondered why that was a problem for me? I noticed that I was looking to time keep instead of tapping myself or use a metronome. And obviously you always are a bit before or after the beat. And I started to quantize it, too look nice. And it killed the natural swing and falling and landing within the beat.
You tend to over use your eyes in a daw. When it should be your ears.
Raymond Doetjes have definitely experienced this
Totally agree with you homie - I use my DAW to track-out, mix, and master but everything is made upon my SP & MPCs 🙌
"Hardware or software?"
"Yes"
My first love was rock, metal, alternative music, the visceral thrill of attacking a guitar, I then got into pedals, looping, using a 4-track, drum machine & synths, and enjoyed the on the fly tweaking. Yes I can make music on an iPad now, but I really enjoy messing about with tweaking, playing live in the moment, feeling an instrument in my hands. I have a Circuit, which is awesome for quickly getting a groove going, and I’m looking to get some decent fx boxes, maybe a boss looper to mess with sounds on the fly, It’s all for fun, maybe the odd session at a party.
But, yeah, the most fun I ever had, was with the limitations of a 4-track, now I can use NanoStudio on my iPad, but I just enjoy being in the moment, tweaking the circuit, coaxing something new out of it’s limitations
I'm doing something similar. I miss my old Tascam cassette 4 track, even though tape hiss is a thing. It ran at double speed, which helped quite a bit and I love the old tape saturation. And it was easy to capture an idea quickly on the fly with my old setup. Instead of dicking around with software for an hour before getting anything done, all I had to do was start the drum machine, hit record, and start jamming.
Dude, brilliant video. "Here's my philosophical thoughts on workflow, now your turn." And for the record, I totally agree that the tactile nature of hardware is incredibly inspiring. And to your point about DAWs being tools that excel at certain things - I fully agree with that, but I see it as a critical, albeit secondary, element to my creative process. Ableton plays the role of historian, scribe, the capturer of my flow state output. Interacting with hardware facilitates a certain creative magic that results in sparkly musication. But if a synth musics in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it truly make a sound? That tongue in cheek riddle is based in a cold hard reality. One of my greatest regrets in life was that, for all the years my old bandmates and I dedicated to practicing and performing live music, we never invested adequately in recording a professional quality EP, foolishly thinking we had plenty of time to deal with that in the future. Then a cascading series of humans doing human things eventually brought it to an end and so many of the artworks we dedicated countless hours to crafting were doomed to wither away in the museums of our fading memories. Music is inherently a transient, ethereal art form. If you don't capture it in a recording, how can you prove that it ever actually happened at all?
So - it's turtles all the way down, soylent green is people, the call was coming from inside the house, planet earth is a single atom in the spleen of the universe and it doesn't even know it, and that rug really tied the room together. Stoner epiphanies aside, why is a DAW better than just hitting record on a Tascam to ensure your musical forest exists? For me, it's two things - multitracking and MIDI. If lightning strikes and you Music Super Good, capturing it is step one. Step two is Doing It Again. Which requires understanding exactly what you did the first time. And BOOM - therein lies the power of the infinitely expandable DAW. Strive to record every instrument on its own channel, both audio and MIDI, ALWAYS at all times.
My journey sounds a lot like yours but only gets to about 2:45. I'm looking forward to continue to get more and more DAWless.
Grab a knob, grab another knob and uhhhng?
Thanks for your thoughts on this Ricky! I really love utilizing the best of both worlds when I'm making music. Right now I'm using Push 2 a lot, but often I'll spend a week just jamming on Volcas. Thanks for spreading the love.
Loved the video it makes so much sense to me. Sometimes I feel stuck when making a song on where to start my automation. I feel I complicate it to much cause there is so many things to do in a daw.
I still want to use a daw like you said I would be more 60 40 get the meat of my track done then add some sprinkles and mix.
But something about tweaking knobs and not having to set up a full template for each vst for your midi controller.
I see why a lot of the pros use their daws like a tape machine everything is mixed and EQ before going in.
Both
And yes, I pretty much agree on what you said. Same experience. I started dawless in the '80s. I still have mixers and hardware sequencers, recently got a Zoom R24 (which I should be using much much much more often) and I love hardware for the usual reasons we by now all know. Yet... I love DAWs as well, the endless possibilities, the sounds you can get from plugins, the room it does not take in the real world but.... you can end up making music with your eyes instead of with your ears, and that is true in all stages, from laying down tracks to mixing and mastering. And it's a trap (a nice one, of course but still a trap): it can turn the experience into something more like something along the lines of video editing, graphic design or even just watching something visual instead of creating an auditory experience - you no longer hear the boxy snare, you see it jumping up and down on the EQ curve on the screen, you no longer hear notes but you see rectangles on the piano roll, (even if you played them and not painted them) and so on and so forth. The tools are great, and that is why we gravitate towards them, they make things much easier but it takes away something.
We can make the 2 go hand in hand, though. Just like studio work vs live performance - it does not have to be an either-or choice.
I wish programs like Reason, Logic, Pro Tools and ESPECIALLY Ableton would come out with a computer that ONLY runs that DAW. Like a Chromebook for producers.
Seriously, Sometimes I don't want to turn my computer on, I just want to power on my DAW. It will be so NEXT LEVEL when I can buy an Ableton-Book for a grand.
It'd be simple and only what I need.
An 11" computer. No speakers. No Wifi. No HDMI either.
Just a trackpad, Keyboard, an SD card Reader, a 3.5mm Headphone jack and a SEPERATE 3.5mm Mic jack.
Then just give me like 4 USB 3.0 ports. If you want to get really fancy, add a BUILT IN 4x4 drum pad midi. Or take it even further and make a 15" laptop version with a Launchpad built in around the keyboard somehow. Idk. get creative
Strip down the laptop and reverse engineer that jazz with 1 goal in mind: a DAW. it would be the first DAW that is NOT a computer. Would it be considered analogue at that point? Who knows? All I know is I want one.
So I have a fun story for you.
The PC I make all my music on just...doesn't have internet access. I got it for less than the equivalent of 30 USD, (the school was upgrading the computer lab and I saved it from the garbage) The hunk of junk (who I've nicknamed William) does not have speakers. It has 2 gigs of RAM and basically only 2 programmes - Microsoft Word, and FL Studio.
My audio set-up is just....an aux chord into a Bluetooth speaker, or aux chord into headphones.
That's it.
And I would not trade it for the world.
Every time I sit down here I have 2 options - Open a word document (to plan D&D or write an assignment) or make music; and this set up is such a creativity factory for me. There isn't much else I can do except make music here. 10/10 recommend for music making
Granted I'm a dead broke final year high-schooler, so this set up is mostly out of necessity, but I really cannot recommend this type of set-up enough. It's entirely possible to build a DAW workhorse if you have the time and inclination (there's probably more than a few people looking to get rid of an old desktop PC)
Ever thought of LattePanda or similar x86 / x64 singleboard computer ? I'm sure there is a way to clean up desktop and run ableton as soon as OS starts. You could commission some computer tech to do it for you, or you could DIY it. It seems very lego like
@@bxktty okay, first of all, respect. The fact that you're main setup is so bare bones is awesome. so many gearheads out here get waaay to focused on high quality gear. But my major point is that your computer CAN do more. The fact of the matter is, Windows still runs processes in the background. You still have to boot up the computer which can take too long. Even 30 seconds is too long. I know that sounds picky, but i want something that is fast and designed to be a DAW from the start. I don't want an Operating System at all. No windows or max or chrome or linux. Nothing. Just Ableton. or Just Logic. or Just Reaper. You know?
Still, your setup is great and I respect the hustle. Also, since you're using FL, you should look into Ableton. It's always fun to try and make a simple beat in an Unfamiliar territory.
@@micindir4213 Thank you for the LattePanda. I didn't know that existed until now. I was considering using a raspberry pi or something similar, but yea I'm looking into making my own. If i can build one, I'd sell millions. I'm telling you. This is the future. even @b0xk1tty kind of proved my point. I just want a machine that does the work i need. nothing more and nothing less.
mynamebestname challenge accepted
Work with the tools that get the job done.
I’d never recommend a orchestral composer who regularly uses hundreds of gigs of samples and was bumping up against the old 256 track limit in Logic to try going DAWless.
Much like you’d never tell a stage keyboardist to tour the country with just a laptop.
Right on ! Don’t forget to leave some mistakes in there . Over-mixing is like flipping a burger too many times .
For me there are 2 reasons why i recently went into dawless world:
1) "paralysis" of too much possibilities - often i was finding myself looking for that special bassline sound for hours, and then i've lost my inspiration and forgot what i was about to make, in Digitakt i can fidle with the sound while pattern is playing, kinda "on the fly", so composition and sound design go hand in hand, not one after the other
2) watching Your studio, Compact Creations series and explaining the Digitakt was that deciding factor for buying DT and going dawless
I had an idea to have fully complete setups in DAW and map everything you have to HW controller. And don't fiddle with selecting-connecting-disconnecting stuff when really playing. That way you would just plug in the DAW and start playing.
Unfortunately I still was not diligent enough to make that happen and just play with my HW synths.
I was in a DAW forever until last year when I got the model Cycles, then Digitone, and now a Digitakt and I’ve LOVED going dawless. You’re 100% right those limitations force you into all new places that you may not have ever discovered just in a DAW
After being 100% DAW for a solid 15+ years I recently just bought an Elektron AR MKII and within 2 short weeks it’s completely flipped my whole concept of producing dance music on its head. Now writing tracks “live” more the way I would on guitar ... you “learn” how to play it while you’re writing it THEN you record it. So I still plan to use the DAW as a finishing tool to add the polish / final tweaks. But the writing and arranging part for me is now forever changed. ... your channel has been such a help during the transition away from the DAW. Thank you so much! Plan 2 buy merch as thank you! ;) respect!
I'm going back to hardware. I spent too much time in the Ableton Live with sound design and other DAW rabbit holes. I'm putting together a very basic setup. I want to spend my time making music and not creating drum sounds or putting together effects chain.
lol same can be said about hardware synths... some really capture you for hours on end fiddling with the sounds and the sequencer.. non of that shit is the fault of the daw.. just your own..
start the daw with a song in mind. make a basic drum loop that fits your song... put in the song layer by layer... put in the vocals... then start tweaking everything.. and when it is done you still have time to fiddle around in the rabbit hole to maybe find the icing on the cake..
You expressed EXACTLY how I feel. I use Bitwig as my DAW, and as much as I love it, it doesn't compare to using something that reduces things to you and the sound. And gives you the feeling that you're physically manipulating the sound. Thanks for this, homey.
I'm mainly just mixing in the daw as a tape deck + effects processor...everything else pc free
I just figured out the same thing for myself... Using my gear is soo much fun BUT finishing the tracks is sometimes very difficult. I produce with gear and record and finish everything in DAW.
I've been moving more into hardware for the simple reason that it feels like I'm using my computer or my synths as one big instrument. I get to interact with it instead of staring at a screen. The hybrid set up is definitely my preference, I can set up all the mixing and channels in Ableton and all the creative stuff is done on hardware. It's also very cost effective to do most of the effects using a DAW.
But you need a powerful cpu to use fx in real time is the only barrier.
@@lardosian not really. I've been using an ancient i5 machine that's running ddr3 RAM and a SATA SSD and I've had no problems at all running quite a few instances of effects at once. If you want to run stuff like kontakt then yeah, you need a powerful processor
@@squoblat I defo need a better machine thats for sure.
I agree- use the best tools for each task. The DAW does tend to limit live performance and tactile interaction yet you need it for editing, mixing and polish.
When I studied with Tom Erbe in the 90s he talked me into selling my hardware off but now he makes eurorack modules lol
I only use an iPad daw these days with Cubasis I use all hardware and the android app I wrote
Never take musical productivity advice from someone who has little to no musical productivity. Of course, his contributions to the science are immense and respected. But that's totally different from finishing and releasing a song.
@@meanguitar use beatmaker 2 or 3
I have 2 on my ipad 1
Still using it
Its crazy goood
And i sample other apps synth (or use loops i create on electribe)
I love samplimg
@@meinemudda3095 yeah beatmaker3 works well on the new iPad mini for me
@@meanguitar oh little stupid question
Is the ielectribe wavetable a good app or only presets overpriced stupid app
I cant install any apps
I am glad i had jailbroken mt ipad and install all good apps i can find on the ipad
Same journey here: from tape deck to hardware samplers to Reason to hardware synths to hybrid DAW/hardware.
Computer being more destination oriented and pre-meditated is totally acurate! Thanks for putting words on the topic, that’s helpful.
A producer who is more tech and project minded will be more DAW centered. A musician who is more creative and artistic will gravitate to more of a DAWLESS setup. Both types can produce great music.
Totally disagree
Great analogy. I agree. I think using a DAW has so many advantages, but all of the automation is completely uninspiring to me. I I find the ideal setup for me is to take a song as far as I can go on my own using hardware, my hands, eyes and ears then when I’m done, finding someone who loves sitting in front of a screen and letting them do what they do best. I think both have advantages. It definitely is dependent on the type of artist you are.
Perhaps your comment is assumptive and a sweeping generalization?
I know deadmau5 pretty much goes all out on hardware. And he uses some software, but most of his sounds are from modular synths and keyboards. Same with nine inch nails.
Thank you for this video. I saw a video of someone making a song with only an OP-1 and Ive been researching grooveboxes and DAWs. But man I have been getting so frustrated because nobody has talked about what the actual process of CREATING the song is. You're the first person ive seen that makes the point that resonates with me, I dont know what song I want to write until my fingers touch the keys/pads.
I agree. I've been producing my own beats in Reason since I was 18. Last year I started playing the guitar again and using it more in my productions. I was just plugging it straight into the DAW or running it through Guitar Rig and thought it sounded fine, but then one day I decided to mic up and record straight from my shitty $80 amp and it sounded SO MUCH better to me!! Had much more character and it's fun to physically twist nobs and get new sounds rather than just use a mouse. I feel as though it's helped me a ton creatively! I started buying more pedals and ordered a new guitar amp a few weeks ago. I'm hoping to get a Moog Grandmother and drum machine when I get some more money. But yeah, it was quite the revelation.
I was more or less DAWless from maybe 2007 until around the end of 2015 and it ended up getting really limiting. What has been working for me now is the "DAW as tape machine" approach, where I still keep my sound design and sequencing OTB more or less 100%, but still record multitrack into the DAW, do overdubs in the DAW and then do a hybrid mix where I'm summing in the DAW and using some plugins but mostly using hardware for send effects, and mixing down in real time to tape.
The trouble with being completely OTB is that I only have two hands and I try not to do much sequencing, but play everything live as much as possible, with little or no editing - basically treating it like a 24 or 32 track tape based studio rather than a DAW. I've found it helps me maintain the spontaneity of working OTB without limiting control of my arrangement and mix to what I can do in a live take.
For playing out, which I only really do a few times a year these days, I just come up with a minimal setup - usually the Octatrack, one drum machine, one monosynth (x0xb0x or Mutable Anushri 99% of the time) and a CZ-101 or something similar that I can do some noodling on to bring some more organic phrasing in, and just write an entire new repertoire for it for every show. My main personal rule for playing out is I can only use what I can carry in one load, and I'm not concerned at all with trying to translate my recorded stuff to a live setting - they're two different mediums.
I have my daw (ableton) template with a number of soft synths and effects . I know it and my displays usually turns off because of power save because I know where everything is and don't need it.. Almost everything I use is mapped to my midi controllers.
It's a bit like going DAWless with a DAW somewhere in the background that I don't see unless I want to go deep into some plugin preset or want to rearrange large parts of a track or something because that's just painful to do otherwise.
I tried to set Studio One up once with Axiom M32 controller, never managed and just gave up hahha.
That does sound like the dream for sure. I'll try again when I have another MIDI controller :)
How many controllers do you use? I find a single Novation Launch Control XL a bit lacking for that. Well, if you have the whole track set up it is mostly ok but when building the set up I can't get really efficient in using the controllers and found DAWs really frustrating because of that.
@@TimurBatyrshin I used to have an AXIOM 32, which has a LOOOOOOT of buttons and knobs for all your needs. Check it out, quite affordable as well.
It's what Marc Rebillet uses , check him out
Searched for "shortcomings of dawless" and came up with this. Great commentary, and helps me realize (again) how diverse electronic music has become. I'm all-in with DAWs - They're how I've produced for 20+ years. But my focus, until a couple years ago, has been based on creating delicate recordings with exact mixes, not on performing live. In 2018 I finally decided to put together live sets based on my existing albums' stems, and Ableton has been a godsend. I could never recreate the atmospherics and details of my songs using hardware, and have opted for a hybrid solution that involves chopped-up stem clips and effects hardware. The results are raw, live-sounding, and different from the original recorded tracks, making my live material a different experience.
But there appears to be a stigma these days, perhaps a holdover from the "just press the spacebar" criticism of pre-arranged live sets. I agree that pressing the spacebar, dancing around, and pretending to twist knobs reduces a live performer's credibility. But the pendulum swing over to total DAWlessness, in my opinion, robs the artist of an essential creative tool. Samples, special sequences, time-stretching, EQ and track-specific effects, and many other aspects are much better-handled in Ableton (or pick your fave), especially in a live environment. DAWless gives you lots of knobs and faders, but most artists just end up piling layers on top of each other, muting or filtering, then subtracting. The detail a DAW can offer in a live setting is awesome.
I like your approach and wisdom though. Using DAWless for your creative flow, then detailing everything in a DAW makes sense. And live, you can just fall back on your DAWless chops. Thanks for the vid and thoughts!
The limitations on my Electribe 2 and 2s makes me work harder.. Oldskool rulez.. Knobs and sliders..
I'm coming up on two years since I started my journey into eurorack. Before that I had absolutely no experience in anything musical, save for a few years as a kid playing saxaphone. I've learned a lot from your channel (thanks for being a good reason I bought a BIA and a Mimetic) and I resonated a lot with what you said in this video. I work primarily with video editing, and I always assumed using a DAW would come naturally to me given how comfortable I am in video editing apps but I found out rather quickly that that wasn't the case. I've learned a lot in the last two years and I'm currently struggling with how to record/mix/master my synth both technically and philosophically, but I guess that's just part of the struggle. You're an awesome inspiration and I'm a big fan of your work, thanks for putting out this great content, I've learned a lot from you and hope to keep doing so in the future!
No.1 reason for going DAWless is to prevent your DAW gaining consciousness and quantasizing all your hard work!
Quantization is good
I totally agree. The fusion and integration between the DAW and hardware is awesome. The hardware drives the DAW. Awesome video thank you.
A big contribution to the special feel of an entire song done without a DAW is that the song had to be INTERESTING to you the entire time you were playing it live while recording it...you HAD to push it along, you HAD to make the changes in texture, patterns, mutes at the time that you felt it was right. That energy you feel while the song is playing, that energy while tells you where the song needs to go and when, is very hard to tune into and lock on to if you are constantly stopping and starting and editing, and then rendering at the end.
This is why, although I use the daw a lot, I usually record my tweaks on the fly until they sound right. Never used midi automation (CC's) much as I prefer the connection I get when feeling the music and turning the knobs in real time.
Very thoughtful reflection and lots of great points. Back in the day early 1990s I was full on midi because hardware was too expensive. Fast forward I am at the 90/10 ratio with using Reason Daw as a mix mastering for all my tacking that is done via DP32 . Four Moog synths and Blofeld, Boss DR-880 and Squarp Pyramid for sequencing. a computer is needed to get out tracks out into the world... having a DAW around for tweaking etc is very helpful.
well i as much as i love your content, and your workflow, can not afford to buy as many fancy toys, given not all are expensive but still it adds up specially space wise as my studio is still in my room. . . :(. i do despise having no way to rid my eyes off the screen so i use push and a full 88 key midi controller. if i manage to not polishing stuff to oblivion i think i can come up with descent stuff.
yes !!! push 2 and ableton has come a long way to change my workflow from using the screen less and less, just dont use the akai mpc live,the last version, its like using a pad most of the time and a really old version of ableton and bad one at that...
I found a love for hardware through Reason (and still use it! It's even better now, and the cables in the back are still amazing - and useful!!). Now that I have some hardware synths and samplers, I run it all into a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 with an adat expander, so 16 channels, and mix in Reason after recording. Sometimes I use it to arrange as well, or sometimes use it as a sampler to drop in drums or whatever and then play the Digitakt or Circuit or DeepMind or whatever on top of it. Just like I would with a guitar or bass or cello. So I see them as instruments more than an *alternative* to a computer. That said, if I had an Octa or ARmkII or convenient mixer (and space to set up hardware away from my studio computer) then I would probably love working that way too.
Look at it this way - if you're gonna put your music out on Spotify or iTunes or whatever, you need to use a computer in the end anyway. Maybe for people who are anti-daw it would be better to use something like ProTools, Logic, Harrison MixBuss, MOTU Digital Performer, or even Adobe Audition, because those all function much more like multi-track tape recorders, and you'd be less tempted to line everything to the grid and mess with the mouse all that much, more for setting levels, doing some software EQ and maybe some send FX like basic delay and reverb, etc.
Love the video as always... I'm about 50/50, I love using both hardware and software synths then do all my arranging and editing in my DAW. I tried going DAW-less but just found myself making music that sounded more like rough demo drafts of a song.
Same here. it sounds cool, but when I compare it to some other released stuff I realise how badly it needs proper mixing and mastering.
@@hubadj exactly, I use alot of hardware but it always goes into my DAW.
I like staying in the box because I've never really learned to play an instrument. Plus I like how everything I need is in a computer I can take anywhere. Hardware looks cool tho
There are definite advantages to both hardware and DAW, I'm kinda 50 / 50.
My workflow over the years has developed to something similar to what you're doing. Get as much music sequenced with my hardware gear, then record into Cubase through my Motu Ultralite (3 stereo tracks, 2 mono) live perform it. Afterwards check the mix, re arrange if needed, add some vst stuff and master it out. Best workflow I've found so far. Digitone acts as master sequencer for everything else. It's a thing of beauty!
I find that with a DAW I have kind of a blank slate feeling sometimes that makes it hard to know where to begin. With hardware I feel like I know better how to begin.
I make templates in Ableton Live so I never need to work with a blank slate. Works wonders. :)
@@Claidheambmor Sounds like a good idea. I haven't tried Ableton Live yet, but I am a little curious about it.
@@adampate3893 Pretty much all the major DAWs allow you to create templates, not just Live. Many use those also for having mixing specific templates or recording/hardware specific ones and so on. Also you could try to create workspace in your chosen DAW which would eliminate also a bit of that blank slate syndrome. Also: choose some restricted set of plugins, learn to utilise them and create that way some restrictions for yourself. That also eliminates a lot of the feeling of "where should I start?", when you know your instruments. It creates a feeling where you eventually "just know" what is the right choice for specific scenarios and you don't spend too much time on wondering "which plugin to use?" Hope this gave you some ideas. :)
@@jarkokoo It does give me some ideas for sure, for when I go into a DAW. Recently though, I've been recording off of a Groovebox into Audacity, and that has been working. I've never really found a daw that felt right like this does. There's something wonderful about using a machine that is designed from the ground up to make music, with no capability of checking email. I've used quite a few DAWs over the years, but never really had one that speaks to me the way that hardware does. Acid was probably the one that was closest, but sadly, since Magix took over development of it, its now a DAW I not only don't use, but wouldn't recommend either.
@@oOFTJOo "You will always have more fun to play soccer than play soccer in a video game." You summed it up perfectly.
I started recording on a digital recording device because of the abillity to quick erase and start over, hearing it and deleting a part, adding some by track recording. It was a daw without being a daw. When I was younger, like grade school, yeah, we recorded on cassette, now these days I would rather be able to not waste tapes so in the mindset of going Dawless, one would really need to be skillfully artistic on the spot at that record push, which is good for feeling that performance anxiety and learning to be comfortable there. ( cassette these days is like recording an already recorded performance, but maybe I'd like to feel that performance anxiety, but it wouldnt be so bad if practiced. )
I personally practice music ideas and sounds, before I even record, I use a daw, I like the technology, and how one can really use it, not just the basics. It can really get in depth like many synths also can, but people tend to use them in a very limited way.
There are definitely pros and cons either way, it's about where one feels more at home. I personally have a tendency to want to be more creative than use a device that helps me be creative, but it can also compliment the process. To each their own there.
I just don't get why Goku would abandon his son to go train in the forbidden zone........
I actually think you’ve hit on something really important when you talk about the computer being destination-based, and needing to know what parameter you’re going to manipulate before you do it. I absolutely agree, and love the ability of hardware to show you all possibilities for manipulation that currently exist all at one glance. I think it’s the same reason boxes or modules that rely on a lot of menu diving often aren’t as much fun.
Yeah, this is much more an attribute of the analog revolution of the past decade and the knob-per-function ideal. But go back to the 90s and 00s to the digital synth boxes that were the only option in hardware, and the picture was much less pleasant. DAWs weren't really an option, and hardware was mostly huge plastic boxes with tiny 2 row monochrome screens and poorly translated user manuals. Makes me really appreciate the state of music technology nowadays.
'Sound like a boomer saying that' what does that mean?
Yea, the Reason cable swing animation is legendary.
@Mot Yrrah Hmm I'm Not Sure😎
But with the ecomony the way it is, you could be right (brought to you by Brawndo©®™)
I really hate looking at a screen, I really hate writing music when it feels like a point and click adventure or browsing the web. Even when I switched to writing on a tracker and just using the keyboard it just felt like typing. To be honest "daw switching" and trying to find a good interface for making music has taken away years of proficiency yet I love sitting in front of a piano and just improving and playing pieces.
But I do love editing on a computer, to me if I'm going to be doing something which feels like working on an excel spreadsheet it should be similar. So using ableton feels like that to me, but I found sitting down with an electribe and a small synth with some notation paper to really be the best thing for me. Once I have everything good, I go export everything and go to ableton and just like excel it feels like I'm inputing data to make a functional spreadsheet. But I'm really arranging everything to make a functional song.
I am also a huge stickler for interface design and really get too caught up in dealing with every soft-synth's interface and all the annoyances which come with not having a reactionary ability to making music. It's like waking up and someone re-tuned all your piano strings or changed all the key sizes on the piano. So to me I really just hate using software espicially when things update and surprise the interface is different or something functions differently.
More importantly, Reason recently reminded me that if you are paying for anything and you don't own it you are throwing money away. Reason 11 made me re-pay for rack extensions I already owned and it really pissed me off. Buying digital items is a scam because you really pay for license usage and it can be devalued at any moment or be discontinued. I remember a SOS article where this one mixer still used like Cubase 4 on a G4 iMac because he got a set up which worked, he took it offline and never updated it ever. I can really see why.
I also find the over abundance of sounds to be problematic with daws too, once everything copied ableton's browser it really felt like committing to sounds was hard because you had so many options. I know that's a gamblers fallacy of "oh but what if the next pull of the lever is a jackpot" really translates to "but what if the next kick is better" and I hate it. I hate having 20 choices for a synth as the over abundance leaves me spending more time trying to learn my tools than using them. Vs if you just have a guitar you can master it by using it daily.
So it's why I will never upgrade ableton 9 suite, it's why I will stick with hardware, it's why I'll stop using VSTs and never buy sample packs again because it's all superfluous and just gets in the way of shit for me. There is something special about mastering an instrument and becoming proficient in using it that software and daws can lack in the ever changing yearly updates and new releases. Just not for me, I wish I didn't waste so much time trying to learn this lol
I can honestly say, that with software there is problem / advantage of total recall. Total recall means never finished, and if your computer allows, you can always go back to the source and edit it - even if you have your mastering chain ready. That kind of non-linearity of the process is what's difficult to understand to average person. You need routines and processes in place to tackle a piece of music to a finished state. Remember, that this business was very divided and mix engineer wasn't a producer, and producer didn't play drums (very, very rare). Now when we are in DIY age you've got to do all by yourself, and honestly its more than one undisciplined person can handle.
I personally find hardware fits three categories. Its either
spicy sampler material, that is unique and generic enough to fit the music
(modular, individual drum module etc. , cheap stompbox )
or some sort of a small sketchpad, a toy meant to spark ideas.
(yamaha QY, volca sample, almost anything with sequencer/sampler inside)
some specific gear, a template sound if you will,
that can be grabbed fast
(303 clone, DX , 1080, moog funk lead, stringmachine)
With hardware there is this feeling that you get when you perform a track into tape machine. A very special kind of feeling. There is magic happening if you lay a track with small changes to a sound at right places, and then do same for number of tracks. Not to overcook is another skill that is acquired later, knowing how much of a changes in this specific layer you need even before everything else is layed.
Software is conquered by applying your specific routines to it. In case of ableton live, making your / buying packed effects or instrument racks is one part of it, another is a way to differentiate writing process from arranging and mixing. For example one strategy might be to limit a track to a number of mix buses
@@philxdev I can say for myself that I struggle to churn definitive studio versions of the track. In analog recording you are really limited by track number. 8 tracks were a luxury for DIY and most of the time it was 12 channel mixer into 1/4in 2 track. So you had to be 100% sure of your arrangement before committing to tape. Midi sequencing was separate matter, you had all the time in the world to perfect your mmt 8 pattern, but mixer limitation still applied.
Knowing all that I still cannot commit to final versions with ableton without definitive deadline. There's definitely a limbo of some sort inside daw
Might you say it's like the difference between shopping for a book online and going to a book store picking up a book you might not have known existed.
2020 is the best time for music makers to try to go Dawless. The genius is in the creative mind not the machine.
Exactly.Go wild on hardware.Once u get the aha moment. Finish in the daw
About the piano, if you watch Lisa Belladonna, her keyboard chops translate to her doing regenerative lines on the fly which other folks would need a sequencer. and a quantizer. It's because she is a pianist first . I learned piano as a kid and never forget it. It really helps to get my fingers going again . And DAWless, yeah definitely. Musical Directors and producers, yes I see them needing a DAW. But creative sparks are always best with lesser "things". Try this an experiment. Just use Audacity for a month and record everything ":manually" with HW synths. You'll start to think ahead compositionally, rather than just re-acting to what you're groovebox or synth gives
I went dawless after 20 yrs of daw use. I still have to get used to recording, it's way different without a daw / software aranger. But dawless made me accept the things I cannot change. :)
YO that point you made about the lack of exploration while creating in a DAW is CRAZY. It's a simple concept to be sure but it's only identified in the scope of some extremely intuitive observation. Cheers for that!
why go Dollars
Haha that’s good
Nice talk, Ricky! Those advantages of gear over soft that you mentioned are definitely there. Somehow, software makes people stop playing and improvising. I needed a mental effort to start exploring music again within the confines of plugins. Getting a midi controller and not being lazy to map it, can also give a good result. I limited myself to a few virtual synths, mapped them, and now tweak sounds as if on real synths. However, once I got enough courage and finance, I'll invest in a few synths.
The important question. WHY THE HELL IS YOUR FRIDGE DOOR EMPTY?
i eat too much :/
No hot sauce!!! 🤯🤯🤯
I think you hit the nail when you talk about perform vs compose. Some are composers, and love to make music, not much playing it, and that's where DAW users feel more comfortable.
For people that perform live or are into those endless patterns where you swing around filters and such; then dawless is where they feel more at home.
Personally I don't perform live, I don't plan to, and I don't spend more than 2 bars doing a filter sweep or something of that kind, so to me the appeal of doing that is close to 0. But I love hardware synths for creating sounds; I love the feel of change real knobs and faders, move switches around, and that is why I use a DAW but my main instruments are mainly hardware. I can play them on the sofa or attached to my computer, and once I am ready to move from an idea to a fully fledged piece, I turn on my DAW and get things done. Record few times, play forever; without the hassle to have to remember setups, or even which patches I used for a track.
Many may say that the fun is in do the manual work, and that's fine. That is what fun is for some, but for me, the fun is in starting with a 4 bars pattern idea, on my sofa or on the train, with a hardware synth or beatbox and end up with a finished song that I can save in a file and modify the midi track or effects at any time I want, on a computer.
Always felt that music doesn't have to be super polished anyways
The minimum you have to buy is a solid midi controller like Maschine, Mpc or Push.. Daw only means you have to know exactly what you are aiming for... I think music is born feeling that naturally fluids out of your moving or singing, but the mouse is not the right way to translate that signals.. Explore that gift you got with being a human :D
I rarely agree with anyone 100% but I’m with you on this one.
For me it's more about function focused devices and being "in the zone".
Fueling your creativity requires the right feel, and instrument.
You could compose a melody tapping fingers on a table, singing..any sound really.
You could have a seperate laptop for music production, a tablet, your phone..anything you choose.
So just like choosing your tools , it's always about how they make you feel and how you use them.
depends what kind of music you are making. good luck with making drum and bass strictly on hardware
Lol no way dude, lots of classic DNB came out of stuff so primitive you wouldn't believe it. Like the MMT-8, SP-303, etc
@@TheCALMInstitute fair enough, but I don't know of any current dnb artists using strictly hardware
Dude, almost all dnd classics are made on a hardware sampler with hardware fx and a computer (but only for the sequencing)
@@scality4309 true, up until 21 years ago
@@terrorbirbfpv4732 Pete cannon did a video earlier this year. Even pressed vinyl directly from 8bit amiga octamed. Super video. Was for Sound on Sound.
Thanks for opening this conversation. I love the tactile feel of affecting the sound directly with hardware. I’ve tried with software (mainly Logic and Mainstage) using knobs to control those same functions but it’s just not the same as having dedicated control on an actual instrument. I use various synths with a hardware sequencer (Squarp Pyramid) because I prefer the hands-on approach of making that music happen live, as in affecting the sound of each instrument while it is playing, as opposed to prerecorded tracks. Plus I don’t need more screen time added to my life. I prefer looking at keys and turning knobs than clicking a mousepad.
Another reason is that in software there's always something preventing fun, like: Oh, wanna use that plugin? Sorry, it crashed / your daw crashed / you're out of memory and CPU because there are already a ton of other plugins and stuff opened and you need to close it all / your system will now update, so fuck you and your music / your cheapo midi interface is not responding for some reason, please throw it out the window and proceed to the "fuck you" stage / ...
It's not good nor it is bad, it's inevitable, because software products are one of the most complex systems made by humanity. Hardware is much more simple, foolproof and responsive. But of course there's much plugins I would miss like graphic EQs and compressors, great reverbs and delays.
P.s. Right now I am writing it and at the same time avid update agent can't exit because it freezed :-D
Like with anything that runs hard on the computer; SAVE OFTEN... I was thinking about how i would love to have an effect rack recently - and then i remembered that i have Komplete 11 Ultimate on my computer, so i can use that as my effect rack. If i bought hardware versions of everything on my computer, it would cost a fortune, and i could still only use 1 instance of it - so if i want different parameters for the effects i want to put on different instruments, i would have to get several of the effect modules. On my computer, i can just load up another instance of the plugin... And software is usually DIRT CHEAP and full of features i often dont find on hardware versions. So for most people, where money is an issue, id say that software is "where its at"... Thats just me though... I love hardware, but it just doesnt provide all the features im used to with my plugins... And in my world; "less features" means "NOT AS GOOD"... Of course the "hands on" experience of hardware is awesome, but... I think the Maschine MK3 is gonna solve at least most my issues with using software :P
I believe you're having those issues, but I'm not. My daw doesn't crash, I've got enough RAM and a decent processor (have to bounce midi to audio only after 100 tracks) and I schedule my updates. And it's not as if hardware units never break down, or need a restart either.
Well, they break of course, but I've never encountered this. And usually producers don't ship broken hardware anyway because it would cost them alot in the future. With software... em, not so much.
The latest example: I've bought a Largo VST. It's a great software copy of Blofeld with extended possibilities. I love it, but... every time I click on precise edit a control and then anywhere else on the screen, it crashes. I can't even imagine this kind of problem happening on a hardware synth. And these guys sell it for a couple of years now.
P.S. Let me be clear. It's not because they are bad or stupid, or that everyone always have software problems. There are thousands of possible OS/DAW/drivers/computer hardware combinations and it's impossible to check them all. This is usually not the case when developing a hardware synth, because it has a static configuration, and all encountered bugs are easy to reproduce on a dev stand.
That would only usually happen if you don't know what you're doing and are using an ill-equipped setup. But I get your point, hardware stuff is the same every time and you can really get good at using it.
>Avid update agent
Well there's your problem right there.
No seriously, Avid software sucks the fun out of everything.
This reminds me so much of my other life designing interfaces for medical devices. The example of “listening with your eyes” (my words) rather than with your ears when using a DAW is beautiful. I’m adding it to my bestiary of User eXperience examples.
Dawless is good for live performance but for recording you can't beat a Daw. There is a reason Professional recording studios around the world use them.
That's why I utilise both in unison
I write with hardware.
I record with a DAW.
It’s the only way.
Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys would talk about “playing the studio” or using the studio facilities/equipment as it’s own tool or instrument to add to the track. In the Love and Mercy movie there’s a scene about that people thought he was crazy
At the end of the day, the problems people identify with DAWs aren’t due to the software themselves but more so with the approach to music.
If you want to perform your track live, then remove quantize and practice playing through parts, get a mixer and record in multiple parts live.
Or setup your DAW tracks, hit record and shut off your screen. Edit later We spend way too much time looking at phone screens, laptop during the day etc. To me that’s the principal benefit of hardware, tactile and no blue light screen etc.
Like you touched on it, there are some clear frustrations with hardware and some clear downfalls with the mouse click approach of most DAWs, but with a little creativity you can get the best of both worlds like you’re doing.
I love the argument. I personally like how some instruments are designed in a way that makes me want to play with them.
For samples it's a mixed bag. I love how ableton's track view and sampler instrument is lightyears faster than anything else to just mangle stuff. But for synths i like that physical impact of interacting with it. I want something like that without the menudiving torture champer of the Octatrack.
Another thing that doesn't get talked about is workflow. Personally I look at racks of gear and I suspect most of the time they don't get used to their maximum. That's why I like Machinedrum's approach. He's using mainly the Ableton track view, ableton instruments, samples and the Ableton Push. He's just focused on that and pushes a lot of tracks out that way.
Hardware equivalent would be the squarp pyramid video you did. It was so dope because in barely any time you had a full track going.
That's also why I like the Maschine workout vids, and the against the clock vids. You see people's workflow.
If the workflow works you'll get it out fast.
I applied that to myself that to only having 1 hardware synth (Digitone) (a trade ended up getting me 4 volcas to sequence from the digitone lol) and maybe i get 1 sampler later, but apart from that I'm not buying other gear. I only use 1 thing (digi and midi to volcas) and force myself to push things out.
Chorus Verse Chorus Verse Bridge Chorus Chorus Done
I use them both,daws mostly for recording and arranging,and hardware for creating ideas. So,as a musician beeing in two worlds i have to admit people:Nothing like turning the f^&&^ing knobs!! Bless to every creative person outta there!
I love watching videos of people performing music. DJs, Keyboardists, Synthesizer users, finger drummers, etc.
Limitations (for me) is the key word. Limitations force compromise, compromise forces decisions, decisions force the finite. Too many options for me are paralyzing.
That being said, I use both. My current journey is finding the best way to integrate both so they are sonically cohesive. That's just mechanics.
After all that though -- I've never been as productive as now just using my ipad and one app - Grooverider. I don't leave that environment and it makes me choose - on the spot - what sound to use, etc. Eventutally, I'll suss a way to combine that with my hardware.
Thanks for this Ricky!
Hi. Totally agree with you. I love my hardware. It’s making some “mistakes” on my hardware which led to some of my best ideas. I find making songs in a DAW more about what I see. I think more like a producer and less of as a song writer. Going DAWless has been difficult but fun and it’s helped me connect back to the musician inside of me. I know like you use the DAW to tidy up my music and add additional elements to make it polished and professional. However most of my best songs are purely from a well rehearsed DAWless performance which then goes into the DAW to get tweaked.
So I still use both. But the whole song writing and creative process is done via hardware only. I only use the DAW for the last 20% of the song 🙂👍
Thanks for the video
You absolutely nailed it with this video. The reason for dawless is just the way some people’s brains work. I’d wager that a lot (maybe even most?) people who prefer to work dawless, have a personality type that is more exploration based. Maybe we all have that explorer type archetype within us to a degree.
I’ve tried to work like other producers. I’ve tried to previsualize the end result and it really just feels forced. Previsualization definitely helps to get you the end result easier but in the end it’s the exploration of an aural landscape that is the appeal of making music. Being able to react to what we find along the way during these auditory adventures is fun. It’s what we crave 🙂