General question about a DAWless setup.

3 years ago by Porphyry to c/dawless

Hey everyone, I've been using hardware synths to write music for a little while and I've heard of dawless setups around and I sort of get the gist of it. My question here is how do you/do you record songs to be able to post in some other way or is using a daw as just a recording step not mutually exclusive with a dawless setup?

I guess to sum up, does dawless only really refer to what is controlling everything or is it truly never using a daw?

ChappIO 6 points 3 years ago

Yeah dawless is kind of a misnomer, named after the thing people dislike: sitting at a computer.

As far as I can see, most dawless performances are still recorded into a daw. Some might even mix it in one.

Of course you should do what suits you. If you’re having fun, it’s good music. So if you set the mix before you perform and just record into a field recorder, all the power to you.

If your mixer has busses or multiple master outs you could even hook up your phone and record directly onto there. Easy sharing 👍

save

path: 0 119472, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 1

ebauche 1 point 3 years ago

I consider my studio setup to be effectively 'dawless' but I do actually use a daw, but mostly as a multitrack recorder. The big plus for me using the daw is that it allows me to record separate tracks for my three elektron boxes via overbridge, which wouldn't be possible otherwise (and also means I use 6 fewer analogue inputs on my audio interface).

I'd call it a hybrid workflow I guess - I also use my Faderport 16 to control levels/sends/etc and am definitely not averse to throwing a VST effect on one of my hardware tracks

save

path: 0 119472 160193, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0

carved_beats 3 points 3 years ago

I think it just refers to the way the music is composed or performed as this influences the song in a way.

The mixing and mastering stage is most likely not a good idea to do on a tascam harddisk recorder or sthg even if its doable. DAWs with plugins are just on a different level there.

save

path: 0 104513, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0

needssleep 3 points 3 years ago

For the most part, it's about performance. The idea is to get off a screen and into a more tactile workspace.

Your average person isn't going to have the financial capacity to afford equipment that can do mastering outside of a computer.

So, some folks use a stand alone recorder, some use their MPC. I happen to have a mixer that can record channels. I take my instrument outputs and put them into a DAW, eventually.

save

path: 0 115567, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 2

daguito81 2 points 3 years ago

Is that a tascam model 12 by any chance?

save

path: 0 115567 120772, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1

needssleep 1 point 3 years ago

It is!

save

path: 0 115567 120772 175361, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0