By Eshaan Sood; Edited by Oshin
Have you ever had a cool musical idea and wondered, “How on earth do I turn this into a song?”
I used to be in the same boat for a long time. I had a ton of voice memos on my phone with me humming a melody or some lyrics while playing guitar. The voice memos kept accumulating and I didn’t have a single song to show for it. This is when I discovered working with a Digital Audio Workstation or DAW for short.
Well, what exactly is a DAW? It is a software that lets you record, edit, and produce your own music.
Here are 5 reasons why you might want to use a DAW as a modern-day musician:
Having Everything IN One Place.
Like I said, if you have a lot of voice memos with small ideas and you decide to use three of them for the same song, a DAW can help you import all those voice memos into one project and then, you can start recording your instruments. This gives you a nice starting point to create various sections to your song. Some modern DAWs also let you stretch your audio files to be metronomically accurate so that you can start sketching your song before you even hit ‘record’.
Unlocking The Power of MIDI
Let’s say you recorded your vocals into the DAW but you do not know how to play bass or drums. Say hello to MIDI. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It was originally created for synthesizers but for the modern world, it means being able to play notes on a MIDI keyboard and have them turn into any sound you want. It is a little bit like digital music notation that then gets converted to sound. You can slowly play the bass and drum parts you want and then show that for reference to your friends or session musicians who could play the part for you. Alternatively, maybe you could just have an electronic bass and drum part. Having multiple instruments to support your initial idea can breathe new life into a song.
Creating Song Structures with Editing
So you put together some completely fleshed out sections… Now what? Well, thanks to the editing capabilities of a DAW, you can copy-paste your sections as many times as you’d like to create a structure for your whole song. Maybe after you put it together, you realize that a 2-bar break after the chorus might sound good. You can do that with a few clicks on your DAW. Oftentimes, arranging and composing do not go hand-in-hand and a DAW is the perfect tool to solidify arrangements.
Collaborating with People Across Borders
Maybe you have a friend in a different country or state. Maybe you want to hire a singer living across the globe. With a DAW, you can easily send them your demo/project files and have them record their part and simply import it into your project. Recently, I had a bass player friend send me some parts all the way from Canada while I was in India. The internet really makes the world a small place.
Getting Studio Ready
Okay now that you have used a DAW and written a song, maybe you are ready to go to the studio to record it. Having a demo can save you a lot of time and money. If you know exactly what is happening in the different sections of your songs. For example, if you know exactly what sections of the songs have vocal harmonies you can very quickly record them compared to coming up with the harmonies at the studio. If you know you need to record some doubled guitar parts you can easily have all of those ideas ready to go when you hit the studio. Since most studios either charge by the hour or day, this doesn’t only save you time but also money.
If you are convinced about why you should learn to work with a DAW, here are some great DAWs to choose from:
Logic Pro
A powerful and user-friendly DAW exclusively for macOS, offering a great balance of affordability and professional features.
Logic Pro X Tutorial – Everything You Need To Know For Beginners
Ableton Live
Renowned for its intuitive workflow and live performance capabilities, Ableton Live is a versatile choice for musicians and producers alike. It not only lets you shape your ideas but can also be used effectively to perform live!
Check out our in-house GMI review of the latest Ableton Live 12 Review by Ihtesham here!
Pro Tools
An industry standard for many years, Pro Tools offers unparalleled precision and a vast array of tools for professional-grade mixing and mastering.
Cubase
A great DAW for Windows users, providing comprehensive features and a strong focus on virtual instruments and MIDI sequencing.
Akin to learning an instrument, DAWs have their own learning curve and challenges. While it can be a little overwhelming at first, the investment in that particular skill set pays back for itself over time.
From putting together your own demos or crafting full-fledged, release-ready tracks, to collaborating with musicians worldwide, Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) have become indispensable tools for modern musicians.
Have you checked out GMI’s production course yet?
From beat-making to mixing, our Music Production & Audio Engineering Course (two-year artist diploma with a credit transfer pathway to Berklee College of Music, BIMM Institute, and JMC Academy) at Global Music Institute offers a comprehensive learning path.
Gain the skills to create your own unique sound, understand music theory, and produce professional-quality music, apply now!