Look at the feature list of any DAW on the market, be it Pro Tools, Studio One, Logic Pro, Ableton, or Cubase (to name a few), and it's longer than the Great Wall of China. As each brand tries to grow its share of the DAW market, they work hard to stuff more bells and whistles into their software.

This features arms race is partly fuelled by the bombardment of comments they receive asking for MORE! (capitals and exclamation used for effect) Some of the requests are reasonable, others frankly mad and bordering on the narcissistic, in other words, 'make a DAW that's just for me.'

When you strip away all the features one can include in a DAW, we think there are three things every DAW manufacturer should be paying attention to in 2021. They are not new, but in the final analysis, the things that matter if you want a powerful Digital Audio Workstation fit for the 21st century and especially one that professionals will take seriously.

Latency

There's a reason you'll find Pro Tools in nearly every top studio and post-production facility on the planet, and the thing that makes it the industry standard. Pro Tools may not have all the bells and whistles of other DAWs, but what Pro Tools has done for over three decades is solved the number one problem in recording audio with computers, latency.

Love or hate Avid and Pro Tools, their solution to offer zero-latency using DSP has proved to make it the DAW of choice for professionals working in top studios. It didn't happen overnight but began in 1984 with Digidesign Sound Tools, a card coupled with a hardware interface and software running on Apple Mac, I used to sell the with an Apple IICX. Currently, Pro Tools HDX and HDX Hybrid, the mix of hardware and software has remained unbeaten on latency. For a more in-depth history of Pro Tools check out this excellent article.

This may be the point where you are reading this and thinking, 'I don't use Pro Tools HDX, and I don't have a problem with latency.' That is entirely possible and for several reasons. You may be using a software layer offered by many audio interface manufacturers that deals with latency, or you might be working old school and using your DAW like a tape machine and tracking via a mixing desk. However, what Pro Tools DSP offers is a seamless workflow; Pro Tools Expert Editor Julian Rodgers put it like this when reviewing the Avid Carbon interface;

"There will probably be some people reading this thinking that they track quite happily at 32 samples, and this sounds like a lot of money for not much benefit. All I can say is I have tracked quite happily at low buffer settings. It works. However, the difference between low latency and (effectively) no latency is like that moment when sitting in a quiet kitchen and the fridge stops buzzing. You didn't realise it was annoying you until it stopped, but when it went away, it was just so nice!"

Before we go down the Pro Tools rabbit hole, there's good news for users of other DAWs and interfaces. Hybrid Audio solutions. Hybrid audio seems to be the path more and more top audio brands are taking to ensure the best possible sound and user experience for tracking and mixing. For a long time, users have had to choose either investing in powerful computers, such as the new Apple Mac Pro to run a 'native' system powered by the host computer, or DSP powered solutions from brands like Avid and Universal Audio; these are powered by dedicated DSP chips on cards or built into the interface hardware.

Four leading brands, Apogee, Avid, PreSonus and Universal Audio, all have hybrid audio solutions. You can read more about Hybrid Audio and how it could change things in the future in our article Are Hybrid Audio Solutions The Future Of Pro Audio?

There are few things more annoying when recording and the audio coming back with an echo or slightly out of time. The more tracks you add, the worse it gets as buffer sizes get pushed up to stop the session grinding to a halt.

It has been the hope of many that as computers become more powerful, zero-latency would be a thing of the past; in theory, zero latency in native systems is possible, but in practice, incredibly hard to do.

Whatever solutions DAW manufacturers come up with, ignoring latency is a mistake. Getting it down to zero is the target that wins the prize.

Power

To reduce latency, DAWs offer the user a workaround to set smaller buffer sizes. There's a problem with small buffer sizes in native systems; as more tracks, plugins and virtual instruments are added to the session, the computer grinds to a halt or even worse, it crashes the session.

Smart solutions are offered to deal with complex sessions, for example, the use of track freeze. Track freeze is simple, it takes the live track and freezes it as audio, this uses far less CPU power.

Another solution used by many composers is the ability to offload some of the processing to another computer using software like Vienna Ensemble Pro or VEP for short. VEP offers a connection to a second computer that hosts your virtual instruments and then includes them in the main session via a link plugin. VEP is an intelligent solution, but again it's a workaround.

Another solution for reducing the load on the primary system is the Universal Audio UAD platform. UAD powered plugins use DSP chips on either cards inside your computer or UAD powered boxes that connect to your computer via Thunderbolt. UAD is perhaps the most popular DSP based plugin solution in the recording industry. It is of itself somewhat of an industry standard. Plugins appear in a session as if native but use the power of the UAD chips to reduce the load on the main computer, thus freeing up more processing power for the main session. Again the solution like any DSP solution like Pro Tools HDX, is limited by the amount of chips the cards have. Outside of HDX, the UAD solution is the option that feels least like a workaround, the workflow when mixing is seamless.

As with tracking, it may be the case that DSP solutions are also the only real way of offering the kind of power needed for large mixing sessions in modern recording. It’s certainly the case for post mixers who have to deal with enormous sessions and latency in mixing is a no-no when working to picture.

If DAW users aren't complaining about latency, then their second gripe is running out of power. Some modern plugins and virtual instruments are CPU hungry, so manufacturers who find ways to maximise the power of their DAW are going to be loved by those wanting to run large sessions.

Workflow

Perhaps the most overlooked area of development by DAW manufacturers right now is workflow.

A British comedian called Kerry Godliman tells a funny story of the time she went to buy a washing machine. As the salesperson showed her all the features, he pointed to a button and said, "this model has a no-iron button." Kerry said she thought to herself, "who the f*ck wouldn't press that button?" She has a point, who wouldn't use an easier way to do the same thing if it was offered?

Many manufacturers and developers seem to have forgotten this fact, DAWs and all their associated paraphernalia are a necessary evil of modern recording. In the old days we used to have engineers, tape ops and tech support to leave us to be creative. We want to be creative, to make records or mix movies or TV. We don't want to be computer engineers or networking specialists or spend half of the working day learning stuff just to get a task done, we do it because we have no choice!

We're not asking for more complicated tools when we ask for better tools, which is often what we get. We are asking for tools to help us do a job. Professionals, in particular, don't have the time to learn new stuff. We have work to do, and every hour spent figuring out a new product is an hour we are not making money. I talk more about this in my article Has The Home Studio Dream Become A Nightmare?

I think there's a genuine concern that by making workflows easier, some professionals will be put off by what could be perceived as the dumbing down of the industry. Simplification of complex workflows is not dumbing down. What we want are better workflows, the ability to do some of the jobs we do a hundred times a day fast, or to have the computer do the thinking using AI to make choices for us. There are so many part of the set-up process of modern DAWs that are an unnecessary pain in the ass. Naming no names but I tried to use one DAW and gave up before I’d even set the thing up, it was so painfully complex.

Just recently, there's been some great examples of how workflow can be transformative. Revoice Pro 4.3 is, in my opinion, a different product than the previous iterations. In reality, it has all the same features and the same sound processing under the hood, but the new ARA, AudioSuite and SmartAlign features are, though I hate to use the word, game-changing. I'll repeat that; it's the same product with a better workflow. It's the difference to me smiling when I use it; it's so easy, to me previously thinking what a ball ache it was to use and avoiding it like the plague.

Secondly, we recently featured some very cool tech called Studio Sound from Descript that removes noise and reverb from dialogue; it's impressive. You can read about it here and hear examples of it in use here. The incredible thing about it isn't the results, which are, as I've stated, very good, but it does it when I click one button. I love iZotope RX; it's one of my most used tools when working with audio, but why not give me a one-click button option? Remember the no-iron button on the washing machine… who wouldn't press that button? Yes give those who want to spend all day tinkering with settings the opportunity to do so, but give some of us the option to let the software offer us its best guess. If I want to make adjustments then make that an option, not compulsory.

Check out our article showing how three different DAWs, Pro Tools, Studio One and Logic tempo map audio. Look at how Studio One does it… one click and drag, and it's done. That’s what a good workflow looks like.

If you make software and want professionals to use them, then print this out or tattoo it on your forehead TIME IS MONEY. Make great products with smart workflows, and we'll use them. In fact, we'll love them and are likely to choose them over the competitors. Most of the time, we're not using our brains as we should, for creativity, but for figuring complicated workflows. This needs to change!

The issue of workflow brings this article almost full circle to why so many professionals pay so much money to use Pro Tools HDX systems. HDX just sorts out the complex issue of latency without them having to waste time figuring it out.

I can't be the only person who uses these tools and is tired of how complicated it is to do simple tasks. I don't think most modern DAWs lack features; in fact, many of them have features most of us will never use. I recall a few years ago someone joking how people bought computers for thousands of pounds and installed the Microsoft Office Suite just to send a letter to Grandma once a month. DAWs are pretty much heading in the same direction, able to do everything but not able to do the simplest tasks with ease.

I know it must be hard to develop software and hardware when there's a cacophony of voices saying, 'give me more!' If you want to win professionals, then here's an equally important request; make things easier. Give us our headspace back so we can be better creatives, not rocket scientists.

Summary

You'll often see polls naming the best DAW; it's frankly silly and pointless. After all, the best DAW is the one that works best for you.

The perfect DAW? That’s the DAW that does the best job of solving the issues of latency, power and workflow… in the final analysis, all the other stuff is window dressing.