DAW sound

Areor

New Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2009
Is this true that each daw sounds somehow different or some people only just think they sound different?

I ask because some people tried to build song in different daw's using exactly same vst's, effects, settings etc, and they say that for example tune in Nuendo sounds better than one build in FL. Haven't listened myself, but I'll try this too.

How do u think, is it true that DAW by itself may affect sound ?
 
apparently. Fl's sonic output is poor if you are using multiple generators at a time.
but if someone like Spor produces music like he does on FL i think its bullshit.
I use Logic which is meant to have the best sonic output but its not the tools you use...its how you use them.

however i dont think FL is 'live recording' friendly
 
Fl isn't live friendly yeah.

I do think Spor makes the most out of FL and DAW only matter either: how much complexity you can handle, what you comfortable with, or what you can afford.
 
Fl isn't live friendly yeah.

I do think Spor makes the most out of FL and DAW only matter either: how much complexity you can handle, what you comfortable with, or what you can afford.
 
Is this true that each daw sounds somehow different or some people only just think they sound different?

I ask because some people tried to build song in different daw's using exactly same vst's, effects, settings etc, and they say that for example tune in Nuendo sounds better than one build in FL. Haven't listened myself, but I'll try this too.

How do u think, is it true that DAW by itself may affect sound ?

I dunno , i use fruity and ive heard rumors that FL colours the sound. I think that is just a live playback issue if anything at all, but i think everything will remain sweet and sound as it should after youve rendered/saved to HQ wave or mp3. Maybe the standard plugins are coloured? I never use the standard sound generators tho, i use external stuff and run it through fruity.
 
I'm convinced it's just psychology. Nuendo "sounds good" because of the 10-fold price-tag compared to FL.

There have been a lot of tests on this matter and all the ones I've had the patience to read/follow have concluded that there are no differences. One example from Gearslutz.com forum, at the bottom of the page http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/202484-how-can-you-describe-daws-sound.html

The most obvious differences between DAW's come from the "extras", as in the instruments and effects that come bundled, and the GUI. More subtle differences (and ones that would also affect sound) come from the handling of panning laws, dithering and noise shaping configurations.

FL does have a weird way of presenting output levels but that has nothing to do with how it sums up different sound sources.

There is a way of testing if a DAW affects sound in any way: "phase invert" test. You sum the same 2 or more tracks together in 2 different DAWs, calibrate them to the same volume and then bounce both. Then you open them up again in a DAW of your choice, invert the other track and the result will be absolute silence. This has to be done without effects and can't include VSTi's (prebounced audio only). They always introduce some voodoo randomness into the sound that can't be reproduced twice.
 
How do u think, is it true that DAW by itself may affect sound ?


I know no longer where i read it, but it seems to be true. Different DAW have diff. core audioengines. There are diff. ways to order the modules building that engines, and this causes slightly diff. output. I have no plan of DSP, but in analogy there are so many FX vst for reverb for example out there and u read built in effects in some DAW have bad quality. So there seems to be a differences how exactly thes vst with same effect are programmed in detail. And most of the pros use "Pro Tools" because it seems to have the best audio engine. But a non pro eventually will not here any difference.

What i saw myself, when u import a pure single sinus wave in Reason as a .wav sample and then export it with reason to .wav there a some other quiet frequencies also added in spectral analysis view. This should be caused by the audio engine i think. But saying a special DAW produced song will sound accordingly is nonsense in my opinion. u just have to get a wizard at mixing and mastering with filters and eq, probably much more important.
 
people who have paid full price for top of the range daws will tell you that cheaper daws are coloured. that is because they are rich white and racist and are jealous that fl studio is the best ever. sometimes they will even rewire fl or reason into their supremacist daw and pretend that it is their slave
 
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How do u think, is it true that DAW by itself may affect sound ?

Yes, although it depends more on the analog/digital converters used. Higher end DAW's used with a high quality A/D Converter will have a better sound quality because the audio they record is at a higher sample rate. There will be a lot of examples where its not too noticeable, but when you start to look at the really high end (and expensive) gear there will be a big difference, for example, a Pro Tools HD setup with a 192I/O interface can record and playback audio at a sample rate of 192khz, if you then made a wav file of something recorded with this setup, and put it into Pro Tools LE, which would play it back at 44.1khz, then the quality would be lower.
 
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