I Was Losing Sleep Over My DAW Choice. Here's What Finally Made it Obvious.

I’ve had a hard time choosing recording gear. More so this time around. Maybe it’s because of the knowledge and experience I’ve accumulated over the years, or maybe it’s the massive amount of information readily available at my fingertips. Since getting back into recording, I’ve made some choices that have worked out well and others that haven’t. The times when I seem to choose best are when I think through who I am, what I’m trying to achieve, and how I envision doing it.

First and foremost, I’m a hard-rock guitarist. I bought my first album when I was 11. Kiss Alive II. To me, a proper rock guitar sound is a Gibson Les Paul plugged into a Marshall amplifier. Other humbucker-equipped guitars, such as SGs, will also do (I love Angus Young and Tony Iommi’s guitar tones), and other British-style tube amps (Friedman might make a better Marshall than Marshall). While I record my guitars and basses directly, these preferences still apply when choosing hardware (an audio interface with a dedicated guitar HI-Z input) and software (amp sims that can achieve the tones I’m after).

My playing and songwriting are heavily influenced by hard-rock bands of the 70s. While I grew up listening to the hair metal of the Eighties (Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Ratt, Cinderella, etc.), when I started playing guitar, I latched onto the bands that influenced my heroes. Jake E. Lee was the reason I picked up a guitar, and in interviews, he talked about Jimi Hendrix, while others introduced me to players like Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford of Aerosmith, Paul Kossof of Free, and Mick Ralphs of Bad Company.

What I didn’t realize about these influences until recently was that I was also influenced by the sound of those recordings. Those sounds were not just the players, the guitars, and the amps, but also the consoles, the compressors, the EQs, and the reverbs used to make those records. Not to mention the way they were tracked. When Black Sabbath recorded Paranoid in 1970, they were probably limited to eight tracks (16-track machines were starting to become available, but they were “state-of-the-art”, so not every studio had them). Translate this to my needs and the sound I’m going for: I know I need a 1176-style compressor, Pultec-style EQ, plate reverb, tape delay, and tape saturation/emulation. Those elements are the core of the sound I’m going for.

I also know I don’t need large track counts. Most of the recordings I love probably have four drum tracks (kick, snare, and an overhead left and right), two or three guitar tracks, a bass track (maybe two), and a couple of vocal tracks. The music I love and the music I’m trying to create are simple, but they do require a specific set of tools.

I first attempted this in REAPER using Universal Audio plugins, but they wreaked havoc on my 2020 M1 Mac mini with 8 GB of RAM, so I ditched REAPER. I didn’t want to abandon the sound I had in my head, so I needed a DAW that could deliver my desired production style without overloading my computer. Logic Pro seemed to fit that bill, with a native 1176-style compressor, Pultec-style EQ, plate reverbs, tape delays, and tape saturation, and running efficiently on my modest computer. Logic may not be my forever home, but it checks more boxes than other DAWs

Drums are also a high priority for me. Rock songs need good-sounding drums, and it’s hard for me to get inspired when writing or recording to a click track. In my four-track days, I used an Alesis SR-16 drum machine. Later, when I switched to computer-based recording, it was drum loops and sequencers like Reason. Now it’s EZdrummer and Logic Pro’s Session Drummer. While I’m just scratching the surface on Logic’s Session Drummer, it seems like a good-sounding, low-friction tool for writing. EZdrummer is more versatile, but Session Drummer is quick!

I was stuck in decision limbo until I sat down and wrote down who I was and what I was trying to accomplish, then I used that to choose my tools. The writing-it-down part was extremely important because I was trying to hold approximately one metric f%ck-ton of information in my head, and it caused me to go back and forth between options. Maybe I should buy a new computer (as of this writing, no Mac minis are available anywhere)? Maybe I should update Cubase Elements to Artist or Pro? Maybe I should update Ableton from Lite to Standard (I had previously worked out ideas in Lite)? Maybe I should use Pro Tools (it does not run well on my Mac mini)? Maybe I should use Studio One (Studio Pro now)? I have a license, but the thought of learning a new DAW from scratch was unappealing, and for some reason, I never clicked with it.

And possibly the biggest mental battle I was having was: maybe I should go back to using my Apollo Twin X? I thought about this option a lot. I have an $800.00 interface sitting on a shelf collecting dust. But then I remembered all the frustrations I had with Console, how expensive UAD amp sims are, and the rabbit hole I went down last time. Along the same line, I thought about LUNA. LUNA seamlessly integrates with Apollo and eliminates console frustration, but it does not run well on the mini (I ran several Activity Monitor tests with multiple DAWs).

All this “stuff” had been rolling around in my head for more than a month. I was literally losing sleep over this. Writing it down and working through who I am, what I want, and recalling my past experiences made the decision to move to Logic Pro almost inevitable. Decision made. Now the hard part, getting back to work on moving the music from my hard drive to Spotify.