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DAW Stability: " who's stable, and who isn't"


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Greetings,

 

The seems to be an upheaval brewing in the DAW world not so much at the top, moreso in the middle. It seems early on the companies garner sales with the latest greatest feature set, and in the end it may take months or years, if ever-for the blasted updates to repair the bugs which allow you to use these features effectively. Daw instability will eventually erode your user base, look at MOTU!!!!!!!!

 

So lets do a shoot out, lets rank the top 5 current DAWs based on stability alone, and the 5 most unstable DAWS. Currently I am a Pro Tools user. But I would like to layout my DAW history.

 

I initially migrated from a Roland S50 which handle my sequencing and sampling (very stable) to Studio Vision(IMHO very stable). From there I jumped to Logic Audio (which seemed stable, but I was unable to get the enviroment thing). So I moved to Digital Performer 2.7, probably the biggest mistake I made in life. I mean I never got to even stress the audio engine, because the program popped & locked more than a LA street dancer while just handling midi data and small audio files. This was on a stock 450 MHZ B&W G3. After a few weeks of that crap I moved to PT. I've been happy with my stability since.

 

Most Stable --- Pro Tools 5.1 OS 9.2.2

 

Least Stable --- Digital Performer 2.7 OS 9.2.2

 

Dallas

http://TrilogySound.com

 

Reading, PA

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Daw's seem to be highly complex systems where a vast number of variables can affect performance. I run DP 3.11 on my now almost five year old G4/400.

 

Rock Solid here. :thu:

 

I don't know much about the others, becuase I am satisfied.

 

Tascam 4 track cassette------>Roland1680(still use great little box)----------DP3 :D

Ahh! Let us proclaim absolute truths.

 

Let us dishonor war, No...glorious war does not exist.

 

-Victor Hugo

 

http://www.composerguitarist.com

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Nuendo 2 on Win 2K is as stable a DAW as I've ever seen.

 

Under OS X it's not there yet though. Hopefully it will be soon.

"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." - Banky Edwards.
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Sonar 2.2 on Win 2K SP4 sans IE Explorer(none,as in stripped out).No dongles or PACE either.2 minor software crashes due to badly coded beta plugs,but no OS or host crash in over 3 years.Like a rock.
"A Robot Playing Trumpet Blows"
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Originally posted by DallasPA:

Most Stable --- Pro Tools 5.1 OS 9.2.2

I gotta say (knock on wood) my PT Mix 5.1.1 on my 9600/350 running OS 9.0.4 is the most stable computer system of any sort (daw or otherwise) that I've ever worked with. I occasionally do stuff like running Disk Warrior on the drives, rebuilding the desktop, zapping pram. Were it any more stable I'd forget it uses a computer (knock on wood a second time :) ).

 

Tom

http://www.digitalaudiorock.com

The Protools Plugin Preset Co-op

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AMD Athlon 2100

ASUS Mobo

WinXP w/minor tweaks for audio

Networked (home/internet)

Hammerfall 9652

Sonar 3 Producer, Sonar 2XL

Sound Forge 5

Bunch o' pluggs and various audio

 

No crashes. Stability hasn't been a problem since Windows 98 went out the door several years ago.

Rubber Lizard Studio
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Here we use PTle5.2.1(the beta 32 track version) on a dual 1Ghz G-4 Quicksilver running OS9.2.2 with an 001 (iwth an appogee on the outs) wtih 1.5gb ram, 250mb allocated to PT and 200mb allocated to DAE. We can pretty much take the software to it's limits with no problems.

 

Now, we do not record into the 001, we record into a Mackie HDR 24/96 and transfer tracks from that (or one of the two MDR 24/96 machines we use for remote recording). the HDR and 001 are sync'd, giving us 56 tracks of playback. No crashes, no problems, for over 2 yrs now.

Hope this is helpful.

 

NP Recording Studios

Analog approach to digital recording.

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While my system is fairly stable, I would not say it's rock-solid, FWIW. It crashes occasionally if I load DUY plug-ins in AudioSuite, and once in a rare while crashes while the program is loading. Again, it hangs on the DUY or occasionally the Waves plug-ins upon load-up. Other than that, if it's playing or recording or editing, it's very solid and efficient.

 

PT 5.1/OS 9.1 on a Mac 466 MHz G4.

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Originally posted by DallasPA:

Least Stable --- Digital Performer 2.7 OS 9.2.2

That's exactly what I use, on a G4 466MHz (DP 2.72). I sometimes get type 2 errors when quitting the program, but I think that only happened after I partitioned my hard drive, and it doesn't otherwise affect anything. Otherwise, I've not had any stability problems at all.

"And then you have these thoughts in the back of your mind like 'Why am I doing this? Or is this a figment of my imagination?'"

http://www.veracohr.com

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I'm currently running PT LE 6.1 and 6.1.1 on a self built Athlon XP 2700 / Asus A7N8X system (VIA chipset firewire card, 1 GB PC3200 DRAM, 60 GB C, 80 GB D, 80 GB firewire drives, Pinnacle 4X DVD-/+RW and Sony 40X CD-RW) with a Digi 002... running Yamaha's Studio Manager simultaneously with PT LE, and it's ROCK solid.

 

I also own Logic Platinum, Sonar and Vegas, and for me - by far, PT is the most stable.

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Digital Performer has been very stable for me. 2.72, where I came into it, was a bit of a problem I suppose. 4.11 and 4.12 have been very stable. I've used Logic, PTle and a little Cubase. I prefer DP.

 

I started with a Motu hardware set up as well. 2408mkII and 1224. Now it's 2 Metric Halo boxes.

All the best,

 

Henry Robinett

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Great topic!

 

Nuendo 1.61 on XP is damn solid for me. I just got back from an extended trip to the UK using Nu1.6 on a Dell Centrino 8600 laptop. I ran 55 tracks with plugs - ROCK solid.

 

Nu2 is a diffent story though. It still needs some updating IMO.

 

BTW Phil O' - just out of curiosity - why do you run PTLE? I would think a guy like you would be more at home on a HD system or something, considering what kind of room, mics, and other stuff I saw on your site...

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Originally posted by Soundscape Studios.:

BTW Phil O' - just out of curiosity - why do you run PTLE? I would think a guy like you would be more at home on a HD system or something, considering what kind of room, mics, and other stuff I saw on your site...

Because it does what I need it to do.

 

Sure, I suppose I could go out and buy a HD3 system... but I'd be dropping five figures for it... and I really don't see the need. What would it give me that I don't already have - and would need enough to justify the cost? Beat Detective? Well, I could probably use that occasionally. Better converters? Sure... but the ones in the 002 and my Yamaha don't suck. 192 KHz sample rate? Well, I'm still doing most things at 24 / 44.1 and have not even felt I "needed" to go out to 96 KHz for most things, yet alone 192 KHz. Other goodies? Sure, the HD systems are nice... but on the PC I have now, I can pretty much do whatever I want / need to do, and since I'm an ol' fart, limiting myself to "only" 32 active tracks at a time isn't a problem for the way I like to work. And I can always have more and just do some submixing if I feel I really need it.

 

Like I said - PT LE works for what I need. And I can't justify the price of a HD3 for the stuff it brings to the table. Maybe someday, but right now I just don't see the price / performance benefits.

 

BTW, thanks for the implied compliments on my room. :wave:

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DP 2.72

Bias PEAK 2.5+

Digidesign Masterlist CD

Emu-Eloader w/OMS

 

Mac G4 400 (it's very quiet!)

 

OS 9.2.2

 

Motu Boxes (2408 and 896 > no longer own, but they were stable)

 

Creamware Pulsar II + various external converters

 

very stable - no problems ever

Ed Mann
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