[LAU] FOSS DAW recommendations

[Len Ovens]

On Thu, 16 Nov 2017, David W. Jones wrote:

> Well, when I made an attempt to use Ardour, I quickly figured out that 
> its design assumed I was a fluent user of a traditional hardware mixer 
> and an experienced sound tech/engineer ... but I'm no music pro, so 
> could just be me.
>
> At the same time, I handled the physical tasks of connecting cables 
> between modules on a Moog ages ago, so maybe Ardour needs a more 
> physical UI? ;)

If you don't want to hire an engineer, I am guessing you need to do their 
job. Just as with physical mixers and tape machines, someone needs to 
decide which physical input goes to which channel, what level and Eq that 
signal has, etc. etc.

I guess there are some artists like the famous opra singer who announced 
that she did not _need_ a microphone as her voice was loud enough already, 
thank you. So she was recorded with the live mic sitting off to the 
side... by a hired engineer.

I can not think of any Daw or Daw like sw that does not expect at least 
some "plugging in" or routing to be done.

and yes, Ardour can be run quite well with a physical UI. Be it a keyboard 
with black and white keys, a control surface with faders (physical or 
touch), a keyboard with letters and numbers on it... or even a strange 
small box with two buttons and a wire (or not) that you slide around on 
your desk. It seems some people are willing to spend extra money so they 
can have one of each.

Everything has a learning curve, a piano keyboard is not really intuitive, 
nor the keys of a sax... the trombone might be more such, but a not a 
trumpet for sure. The more versatile the instrument, the steeper the 
learning curve.

Even with a simple Daw, you have to plug the mic in somewhere.

So I fail to see your point, it seems to be "thats not good" but not 
"compare this to that" or "this way would be easier". The average 
amplifier made for someone's living room still has an input selector for 
routing (after the user has physically plugged in all the cords), an eq 
section (treble and bass... or more), a balance control and a level 
control... pretty much like each channel in a mixer.

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net