I Spent Six Months Switching DAWs. Here is What I Learned.

I spent six months switching DAWs. I tried nearly every one available. The result: a hard drive full of half-finished songs and not one complete track. It wasn’t a gear problem. It was a behavior problem

In the spring of 2025, I took a break from teaching guitar with the loosely defined purpose of “working on my music”. My primary goal: re-record a group of songs from a 2003 demo. By July, I was hot on it, obsessed, you might say.

My first purchase was EZdrummer3. My first obstacle was how to use it. My next obstacle was which DAW do I use it in? My first inclination was Pro Tools. I used Pro Tools while attending online courses at Berklee while serving in the Marines. I quickly found that my ancient Pro Tools knowledge was barely relevant, and that Pro Tools Intro, with its various limitations, would not suit my needs. So began the search for the best DAW. I’ll skip to the punchline: there is no best DAW. But trying to convince my mind was going to take a lot of time. Over the past six months, I tried nearly every DAW: Ableton Live, Cubase, GarageBand, Logic Pro, LUNA, Pro Tools, Reaper, Studio One (now Studio Pro), and possibly others.

The result? A hard drive full of half-finished songs and ideas spread across multiple DAW formats in multiple states of completion, but not one complete song. Not only had I spent hundreds of dollars, but I had also wasted a great deal of time and energy, which was demoralizing.

Somewhere during this pointless quest, I started to realize I was repeating the same process in each DAW. I would create a drum track and insert EZdrummer; I’d create a guitar track and insert an amp sim; I’d create a bass track, etc. I was creating the same template in each DAW. I was replicating the same process in each DAW. My mind was overwhelmed.

Finally, it dawned on me that the DAW really had very little to do with the music creation process. Especially in my case, where I was using third-party plugins. I wasn’t dependent on a specific feature in any DAW. I could replicate my process in any DAW. I finally chose Reaper, not because it was the best DAW, but because it seems to run the best on my current computer (a 2020 Mac mini with 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB HD).

Long story short, I spent six months (or more) switching DAWs, buying gear, and rebuilding the same damn template in different software — and every switch felt rational in the moment; in fact, it felt necessary. I need Logic Pro because it’s optimized for Mac, and GarageBand is too limiting. I need Cubase Artist or Pro because Cubase Elements is too limited. I need Pro Tools because it’s what the pros use, and I want to be a pro. What if I want to collaborate with other musicians? Yes, I need Pro Tools. Wait, no, I need LUNA because I have an Apollo interface, and LUNA integrates perfectly with the Apollo, and I really like Universal Audio plugins. Yes, LUNA it is! Wait, what about Studio One? I heard it’s super easy to use and the interface looks cool. Or maybe it’s Reaper. I saw this guy on YouTube using it and making some really cool stuff. I really like his channel and his tutorials, so if I had Reaper, I could follow along more easily. This went on for months (and sometimes I catch myself still doing it).

At some point, I realized it wasn’t a gear problem. I have a lot of gear. It wasn’t a skill problem. I’d learned how to record and mix in every DAW I tried. It wasn’t a motivation or an inspiration problem. I was highly motivated. It wasn’t a content problem. I had six songs I’d recorded 23 years ago that only needed mixing. I had several songs 90% complete, and a stack of lyrics in various states of completion. I even took a couple of songwriting courses at the beginning of this year and wrote new material. I had everything I needed to be successful except the right mindset. It wasn’t a physical problem. It was a behavior problem. I was doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. The definition of insanity, right?

If any of this sounds familiar, here’s my recommendation: STOP. Take a moment to figure out what you’re really trying to achieve. For me, it was writing, recording, and releasing original music. Ask yourself whether your actions are moving you closer to or further from your desired destination. None of my actions were getting me closer to my desired outcome. In fact, they were moving me further away. Next, define a process. I stopped focusing on tools and started focusing on a workflow.