• The table below rates 7 of the most popular Digital Audio Workstation software products. Two metrics are used to measure value: an overall Functional Rating and a Value Ratio.
• For the Functional Rating this table is a summary of 130 factors that were considered in the analysis. Each factor was rated on a scale of 0 to 5 — 5 being best. You can click on the 4 summary categories of the functional rating categories to see the details of the analysis.
• The Value Ratio is ratio of the Functional Rating divided by the Representative Dealer Price. It measures the relative value that each product provides for the money.
• Please see the notes below for some general comments about how the analysis was performed as well as the changes from the previous version of this analysis.
• We also address some of the more common questions about these shootouts in two of our music blogs: DAW Shootout 10 and DAW Shootout 8

Updates

Version 11 of this analysis is an update for the changes in Sonar 8. The Sonar 8 upgrade mainly featured additional FX and virtual instruments which did not affect this analysis since it is based primarily on Digital Audio Workstation functionality. The following changes for Sonar 8 are included:

• Sonar 8 adds separate channel panning (Channel Tool plug-in)
• Sonar 8 adds a combined MIDI and audio Instrument Track
• Sonar 8 includes a REX library (Beatscape).

Ratings for all of the other products were included in the prior version of the analysis. However, they may have changed slightly due to the addition or redefinition of categories. This version of the analysis added a category for channel panning which was not included previously.

Organization

The detail factors consist of three sections:

• The ratings themselves
• An explanation of the ratings
• An explanation of what the factor is and why it is important.

You can navigate to these sections by clicking on the navigation bar in each section heading:

Products Included

Our goal is to include the most popular general music production software products in a similar price range.

• The Pro Tools ratings are based on Pro Tools LE and M-Powered. Except for the audio interfaces supported, the two products are the same with minor differences as noted. Pro Tools TDM software is not included because it is only available with Pro Tools HD Systems (dedicated hardware) which have an entry-level price in the $10,000 range.
• Sonar Producer and Cubase represent the top-of-the-line products in this price range from both manufacturers. "Studio" editions of both of these products are also available at lower cost and with less functionality.

Prices

“Representative Dealer Prices” for most products are prices from Sweetwater Sound and Musicians Friend available at the time of the study and generally represent the Minimum Advertised Price specified by the manufacturer.

• The Pro Tools price is based on M-Powered.
• The Live price is the Ableton list price.
• The price shown for Logic Pro 8 is the price for Logic Studio which contains several other software products and loop collections. While this means that the Value Ratio is probably understated, Logic Pro is not sold separately.
• The price for FL Studio is based on the Producer Edition rather than the XXL edition since the XXL edition primarily consists of additional virtual instruments.

Rating Methodology

Each separately identified factor has an equal weight. So we are implicitly making a judgment about the importance of a function simply by creating a separate factor for it. Each factor is averaged into the subcategories that you see on the summary. These subcategories are averaged, again with equal weight, into the final four categories.

A particular function or category may or may not be important to you depending on how you intend to use the product. For example, one big hole in several products is the lack of support for surround sound mixing, but you may not care about that function at all. Unless there is an obvious difference we have not made any judgments about the quality of a function. We do not, for example, try to judge who has the best reverb. Also many products add value to their offering by bundling third-party synthesizers, FX or sample libraries. We give a product credit for having these extra functions but do not attempt to evaluate them.

Terminology

Products use different terminology for the same thing. When describing a product we use the product terminology. However, in our explanations of categories, we simply pick one name. For example, segments of audio or MIDI are called clips in Sonar, events or parts in Cubase, loops in Acid, and regions in Pro Tools. We use clips.

Accuracy

While are opinions are our own, we want to make sure this analysis is factually accurate. The content of either current or previous versions of this analysis has been reviewed by representatives from DigiDesign, Cakewalk, Steinberg, Ableton, Image Line, and Sony for accuracy. All manufacturers represented are invited to review the content each time an update is published.