Recommend me a DAW with a good, easy to use midi sequencer.

[MikeViper]

Hey, MikeViper here. I'm looking for a DAW that's cheap; but has an easy to use midi sequencer. I tried the midi sequencer in Reaper; but I just didn't like it.

I like the piano roll sequencer in Anvil Studio though. So something similar to that would be good.

[timaeus222]

Piano roll that's easy to use? I'll refer you to FL Studio. http://www.image-line.com/support/FLHelp/html/pianoroll.htm

I personally find it very intuitive and fluid.

Edited December 27, 2014 by timaeus222

[MikeViper]

Piano roll that's easy to use? I'll refer you to FL Studio. http://www.image-line.com/support/FLHelp/html/pianoroll.htm

I personally find it very intuitive and fluid.

Thanks; I'll try out the demo for FL Studio.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Studio One is also really good and is more linear. Lets you do lane superimposing really easily, so you can see all the tracks of your song as ghost notes without getting caught up on FL's pattern system, which is more appropriate for electronic music.

I'm an 8 year FL user and switching to Studio One took absolutely minimal effort, so they're really similar. They each have strengths according to the type of music. Studio One is linear, and better at recording and automation, as well as its stronger MIDI handling; FL is better at electronic manipulation, audio clip editing, beat slicing, internal parameter routing, sound design, etc.

I see FL more of as a DAW that already has its musical capability pre-programmed in (and can obviously be expanded with VST's) and is strong with electronic and groove-based music whereas with Studio One and other DAW's, they're more of a framework and spent appropriate time getting the base functionality down so it simplifies functionality for acoustic and sample based music.

In FL, you have to use individual MIDI Outs to send MIDI to your VST's (super annoying to set up, I made templates but was still trapped when I wanted to add more), and in Studio One, you can batch generate any number of auto-colored , auto-numbered MIDI tracks for something like Kontakt in a matter of three clicks. I'm serious, it takes me about 30 seconds to go from empty project to MIDI tracks on channels 1-16 sent to Kontakt, with all the Kontakt audio outputs sent to their own mixer tracks.

The reason people use FL for sample-based music as well is because of its great piano roll, however, Studio One 2's piano roll is fairly similar even if it has minute differences. You can absorb those differences with 5 minutes of practice.

Edited December 27, 2014 by Neblix