DAW for secondary school - replacing Logic Pro

[Maus]

Hi everyone. I've got that same old story- Macs were bought as part of a secondary school music dept newbuild and after 9 years of use are EoL. We're not looking to stay in the ecosystem because of cost.

 

The thing I'm struggling with is a concensus as to what is a suitable replacement to Logic Pro is in schools- I'm pretty sure the answer is Cubase (far from our head of music's favourite), but it seems that Ableton, FL Studio, Studio One.. maybe Reaper.. all have some popularity too. Which do your schools use and why? Anyone out there sticking with Logic?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Jcx500]

We don't use it in school, but i can say from personal experience fl studio is a good daw.

[DeGrimmy]

On our Music PCs, we have Mixcraft. I've not extensively used it, but our (also very Mac / Logic Pro minded) head of Music seemed to be okay with it.

[Reverend_Dan]

ours uses mulab https://www.mutools.com/mulab-product.html, as it does everything he needs for free

[dhicks]

Hi everyone. I've got that same old story- Macs were bought as part of a secondary school music dept newbuild and after 9 years of use are EoL. We're not looking to stay in the ecosystem because of cost.

 

We've used Soundtrap in the past, although we don't have a current subscription (we're a prep school, the current music teacher doesn't do much with computer-based music at the moment, and with younger children the need hasn't come up again yet). They are currently exhibiting at BETT or, as their system is web-based, you can start trialing it straight away. GSuite integration is good, so pupils can just log in with their GSuite accounts and start working, and they support using USB music keyboards from the web browser.

[Maus]

Thanks everyone so far, definitely gives some more options to look into.

 

I probably should add that in addition to a mac suite (all with keyboards and audio interfaces), we've also got a sound studio setup with it's own booth as part of the original build and it's well used. We'd be tending more towards pro-level software as for our students to be well prepared for the recording industry. Anyone with any experience of that kind of setup would be equally appreciated.

[DeGrimmy]

I probably should add that in addition to a mac suite (all with keyboards and audio interfaces), we've also got a sound studio setup with it's own booth as part of the original build and it's well used. We'd be tending more towards pro-level software as for our students to be well prepared for the recording industry. Anyone with any experience of that kind of setup would be equally appreciated.

Pro Tools would be my pick for the studio, although it's designed for recorded audio more than sampled instruments. I'm also only speaking from personal experience, so I don't know what licensing is like for education. If you're only installing it on the studio PC, then in my opinion, Pro Tools is the best out there.

[3s-gtech]

Pro Tools is a highly regarded DAW, despite the Avid association. It's not a direct replacement - not so much of the easy drop-in of loops like GB and Logic. The licensing can be interesting, but we've only done that on Macs with the stupid USB keys up to now.

[synaesthesia]

Cubase is popular in music teaching but very, very, very unpopular with regards to just about anything else for good reason - performance, reliability and licensing issues are nightmares. We trialled a few and personally liked Reaper a lot.

[mrstrong]

I've used studio one personally and quite like it. Not sure on pricing for a school. Think it was written from the ground up

by one of the original cubase guys.