What DAW Do You Use?

In the world of modern DJs, you are not on only a DJ. Today you have to be a promoter, designer, show manager, publicist, host, and public relations. In order to take it to the next level I spoke with Wick-it the Instigator after opening for his show in Madison, WI. I always ask the artists I open up for one piece of advice. Wick-it told me that in order to succeed as a DJ in today’s world you have to produce. You must produce your own original songs or remixes. Today’s technology can allow anyone to DJ. The sync button can make every bedroom DJ sound like they have been in the music game for years with little to no practice. The truth is, one day the sync button will fail. The sync button is a button that allows 2 to 4 songs to sync together at the same BPM. This means that the DJ can beat match like they have been around for years when in reality the sync button is doing the work for them. In order to produce, Wick-it said to use a DAW. What is a DAW you ask? A DAW is a digital audio workstation that you can record, mix, master, remix, and create a song from a computer. Digital audio files are inside the program such as drums, instruments, acapellas, sound loops, and sound effects. A DAW is a full studio in a computer program without having to go to the big studios and spend money by the hour to be inside. Examples of DAW’s are FL Studio, Ableton, Logic, Reason, Bitwig, Garage Band, and Maschine. In the EDM (electronic dance music) scene FL Studio and Ableton are popular because producers can send project files back and forth easily online to each other. One advantage of FL Studio I have heard over the other programs is that you pay once for the program. You get updates of the newest versions for free for life. With most of the other programs you must pay for the newest version and it can become costly. I personally have had a fear of producing because I don’t want to be criticized for my amateur song work. I have learned to get over my fear and started producing. One song I have made so far is a Moombahton song called “People Don’t Dance" with CBIII on Soundcloud. I used Ableton for it but am in a battle between diving into FL Studio or Ableton. I am still unsure of which to learn completely to produce. What DAW do you use? Let me know in the comments below.

-Shotty305