Audio Recording

Out of curiosity, I went to investigate to find out what could be the best and most popular digital audio workstation software (DAW) of year 2010-2011. If you are not familiar about DAW. You can read this great post on what is a digital audio workstation.

Finding out the best DAW could not have been very difficult as you can simply ask this question in the top recording forums or even start a poll/survey. But potential problem could be that forum users can be paid by the software company to promote their products by answering polls and post in forums. Bear in mind those users in the home recording/audio forums are not true representative of the entire DAW user population so the result are not entirely accurate.

Therefore, to find out the reality aside from doing a survey/polls/asking a question is to get it from the most reliable data source – Google trends and searches tool. Google Inc. takes care in providing the most accurate data as possible. The results are also worldwide so it’s pretty a good representative of the entire DAW user population.

The first thing I did is to list all the known DAW commercial software available in the market. I came up with these lists:

1.) Ableton Live
2.) Acid Pro
3.) Adobe Audition
4.) Apple Garageband
5.) Apple Logic
6.) Cakewalk Sonar
7.) Cockos Reaper
8.) Cubase
9.) FL Studio
10.) Magix Samplitude
11.) Magix Sequoia
12.) Mixcraft
13.) Nuendo
14.) Pro Tools
15.) Propellerhead Reason
16.) Sony Sound Forge

The next thing is to get their search volume in Google using this tool:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

This shows how many users are actually looking for this DAW in Google search engine. This is a monthly figure and the higher this number, the more popular is the DAW. Below is the result:

It’s surprising and sometimes hard to believe that FL Studio is the most popular DAW based on popularity by search volume. It overtakes Cubase, Adobe Audition and Ableton Live in terms of popularity. Personally, I didn’t expect FL Studio to be this popular. I don’t know exactly the reason. Maybe it’s due to its price, features, ease of use and popularity among hip hop producers which of course one of most popular type of music genre today. I always thought either Cubase or Pro tools command the DAW popularity because they already been there in the business for some time already.

Bear in mind that only the following DAW software has been recommended by the Nashville members of the P&E Wing of The Recording Academy and Audio Engineering Society in this post on industry standard recording practices:
1.) Pro tools
2.) Nuendo
3.) Paris
4.) Cubase
5.) Digital Performer
6.) Emagic logic
7.) Sonic Solutions
8.) Pyramix
9.) Sadie
10.) Sony Sonoma

Personally I only know a very few of the above recommended DAW software. Looking back at the chart; it shows that the top 5 DAW hold approximately 80% of what the users are looking for (see the cumulative column).

So what happens basically in the past 7 years? How did this came to happen? You can take a look at the details by using Google trends: http://www.google.com/trends. Let’s plot and analyze the trend of the top 5 performing DAW (FL Studio, Cubase, Adobe Audition, Pro tools and Ableton Live):

JANUARY 29, 2012 update: There were some feedback from the commenter G. berg and Phil so consider the following changes in the analysis. For example:

1.) Sound forge is not a DAW software. It is only an audio editor. Audio editors cannot be used to perform a multitrack recording session.

2.) Cockos Reaper and Reaper Cockos are just the same. Personally I’m a Reaper user, you can read some of my Reaper DAW tutorials.

3.) These changes might be redo at the end of year 2013 (re-doing the analysis covering 2012 to 2013)

There are many DAW but most of them have very little user base and they are not included in this study.

Based on the data it clearly reveals that in the year 2004 to 2009, Cubase holds the DAW overall popularity and is the choice for most users. FL Studio at the time (in 2004) is still in the bottom of top 5. Protools and Cubase did hold a significant share in the popularity in year 2004 to 2009. But things happen really slowly, FL Studio continuously becoming popular starting in the year 2005 until now (as shown by the increasing popularity trend.).

Adobe Audition and Ableton Live has similar share in the user’s popularity. Sad to take note that Cubase popularity went down significantly in the last 7 years and it was overtaken by FL Studio and Protools sometime in the year 2010.

Conclusion and Recommendations: Does being popular also means it’s the best? It’s not true at all times. But another question is why FL Studio became so very popular? Why did Cubase popularity went down significantly in the last 7 years only to be overtaken by FL Studio? Some might answer because the price is lower which means it is very affordable.

Some might answer because it is relatively easy to use and some will say they have great documentation and manuals as well as community support. Some will also testify that the features are complete for the very low price they paid (best bang for your buck). Or some users might also answer that FL Studio is a very light program and take very little amount of system resources to operate. Does this imply that FL Studio is now the best DAW software? You decide. Wait; let’s see what will happen in the next couple of years.

Selecting a DAW should not be based on popularity alone. There are still a lot of great things you need to know when selecting DAW:

1.) Advantages of 64-bit DAW over 32-bit float Digital audio workstation- Importance of having a high mixing engine resolution in DAW software.

2.) How to Build a Recording Studio using Digital Audio Workstation Method – pairing your hardware with your DAW software for maximum compatibility.

3.) Secrets to Audio Mixing Success: Stick to one DAW and set of plugins -find out why sticking to a single DAW and a set of plugins increases your success in audio mixing.

Content last updated on March 18, 2012