cm AWARDS 2019
2019 was certainly what you can call a vintage year for music production, with groundbreaking new software releases, plugins-aplenty and major DAW updates. In short, there has never been a more exciting time to make incredible music with a PC or Mac (or with a multitude of mobile devices, while you are at it). So, in what we can now call our traditional, end-of-year roundup, we are celebrating the best software releases and the most fulsome updates of the last year in our annual Computer Music awards. (Think of it as our equivalent of the Oscars, only ours are more important, albeit a little less lavish…) )
As last year, we have nine (slightly tweaked) award categories covering everything from mixing and mastering plugins right up to complete DAWs to run them; from innovations and bargains to essential studio hardware, we are covering everything your computer music studio requires.
Judging has been straightforward: basically a product needs to have been tested by over the last 12 issues – so there are a few DAWs missing as many only mustered the odd point update – and all nominations had to score at least 8/10 to be considered. Then it was a simply case of all the experts fighting it out to decide on a winner for each category, along with taking on board your feedback on what has and has not worked for you in your own recording setups.
So without further ado, raise your glasses for the winners of the best software and hardware of 2019!
DAW of the Year
Bitwig Studio 3 Professional €379
Web bitwig.com
Format Mac/PC
The ‘Best DAW of the year’ award is rather like ‘Best Film’ – it’s the one everyone wants, because we are talking about the very heart of your music production system. It’s the software you choose to get creative with, and whatever you choose is therefore almost like an extension of your personality. Logic? You’re logical. Ableton? You’re lively. Fruity Loops? Well…
Traditionally, the big guns always seem to walk away with the best DAW award but we’re no strangers to controversy here at Computer Music and would rather our gongs go to the best in show, rather than just the most popular. With that in mind, we’ve simply honoured the finest example of Digital Audio Workstation that graced our computers in 2019, so that honour goes to not the most widely used DAW, but perhaps the most elegant: Bitwig Studio.
Version 3 of the DAW finally delivers a long-promised goal of modular device design, so that users can build their own instruments and effects within the DAW. This new feature is called The Grid, sadly not quite a Tron-level futuristic data highway, more an area that allows you to construct devices from some 154 modules. There’s a Poly Grid for instruments and FX Grid for effects. Putting devices together is largely intuitive as you pick from 16 module categories (including Oscillator, Filter, Shaper, Delay and LFO) with plenty of options within each.
Overall, The Grid really does raise the bar in both DAW creativity and software modular synthesis stakes. As we concluded: “It’s by far the friendliest, most approachable and intuitive modular system we’ve ever come across, yet it manages to achieve that level of usability without making any compromises in terms of power and versatility,” and it certainly helps elevate Bitwig Studio 3 to the star DAW award.
cm275 » 10/10
Steinberg Cubase Pro 10 $559
Web steinberg.net
Format Mac/PC
You’d think a DAW as old as Cubase would have pretty much everything nailed
