Does your choice of DAW matter? A short, honest answer
If you search online for "which DAW to start with", you'll land on hundreds of rankings where someone is convincing you that their particular program is the best. The truth is less flashy and more down to earth. For someone who's just starting out, the choice of DAW matters far less than it seems.
A DAW, or Digital Audio Workstation, is the program you record, edit and mix music in. Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Reaper, Studio One, Cubase, they all basically do the same thing. They differ a bit in their methods and where they put the emphasis, in their general workflow (that is, the way you work in them), and not in whether you can make good music in them. You can make good music in every one of them.
What actually decides how your track sounds happens outside the program. It's your ear, your knowledge of arrangement and plugins, your mixing skills and the hundreds of hours spent over your projects. The producers you look up to would sound just as good if you dropped them into a different DAW.
So when does the choice actually matter? In a few specific situations. If you make heavily rhythmic, electronic, loop-based music, Ableton and FL Studio have a workflow that will make it easier for you. If you work on a Mac and you're an instrumentalist, then Logic is a great choice. If your budget is zero, Reaper is cheap, and if you dig around a bit you can program it however you like. If you record a lot of live instruments and you care about a classic, "studio" approach, Cubase or Studio One will also be a good choice. These are differences in the way you work, and honestly, mostly cosmetic ones.
There is, however, one factor that beats all of the above. It's about who you work with and what the people around you are learning. If the friend who's helping you get started works in Ableton, start in Ableton. Being able to peek into someone else's project, ask a question and swap sessions is worth more than any feature list. The best DAW is the one you can work in alongside your friends.
Our advice is simple. Grab the program you have the easiest access to (a trial version, a cheap option, whatever your buddy has) and stay in it long enough to stop thinking about how to use it and start thinking about how to make the music you hear in your head. Switching DAWs later is trivial, because you carry with you the thing that actually matters, which is your skills and experience.
If you want to talk about which option fits what you do, or learn your DAW from the ground up, get in touch through the contact form. We also run 1:1 lessons and consultations, precisely to walk you through this early stage.
PS Aneta uses Logic, Zuzia uses Ableton Live, and Michał uses Ableton Live for production and Reaper for mixing/mastering.
— the Fungazza team
