I know DAW questions get asked a lot, but with this thread I wanted to ask you how your experience with the DAW that you use on a regular basis was. Things you like about it in comparison to the stuff you've tried that for some reason didn't work out for you.
The reason I asked is because I've been trying out the latest demos to Ableton and Reaper, kind of comparing them to FL Studio which is what I've been using forever. I think the DSP/VST engine in Ableton and Reaper is better (less cpu load, less glitches) than FL Studio, but with Ableton I'm not too thrilled with the MIDI editor. With Reaper I love everything about it so far except how it handles recording audio into clips that have dedicated mixer channels in the arrangement window. With FL Studio the arrangement is abstracted so that you can move anything around anywhere and mute / unmute things without effecting the mixer. Its also frustrating with Reaper trying to record in different instrument parts through the same input, say you have one good external preamp, you have to add a new mixer channel and setup the recording inputs and everything every time you record a new external instrument. With FL Studio the mixer settings and the actual recorded takes are separate so you don't have to mess with the mixer input settings, you just record the input then give it the new instrument recording its new name and your ready to record another instrument through the same input.
Its kind of a shame because I'm really impressed by Reaper, I'm impressed with all the details that have been put into it.
Another thing I have problems with in FL Studio is its latency and recording. Firstly its MIDI latency is tied to the audio driver latency, at least in 10, I'm pretty sure 11 is the same. So I usually use ASIO at 7ms, thats the norm for my work. But still I find that I have to nudge audio recordings over a little to get it relined with the grid. This latency also causes problems when trying to use internal samples or recorded tracks, then having external drum machines play along. I end up having to push forward the MIDI sequence for the external drum machine to get it to line up to the recorded audio when monitoring.
I've been trying to work with Reaper to get a feel for how it handles recording and latency and it seems pretty good so far, but I know the buffers and everything in Reaper are adjustable so I'll have to learn more about the options related to get the best MIDI out / recording in performance.
Another thing thats kind of annoying with FLS is that when you load a project it doesn't draw all the waveforms, you have to manually scroll through the project, look at all the waveforms, FLS stumbles a little and then after thats all buffered, then the track will playback without stuttering.
One last thing I really appreciate about Reaper is its like way less straining on the eyes. I was disappointed when FLS started limiting the colors you could select, and some of FLS plugins like the directwave, while a really awesome sampler, is almost impossible to use because of the GUI and small as possible pixel fonts used. I kind of feel the same way about FLS grid and numbering, I prefer a sequencer to look like a traditional PC application rather than a demoscene flyer.