I used to use Logic for about 8 years before it went mac only, then changed to Cubase. I used REAPER to do all my stage backtracks which were, back then, mainly General Midi, which it handled pretty well and it really has come on to become a good backup for me, particularly when I have had to do live recordings and don’t want to unplug the dongle(cos I’m stupid and will lose it!!), I just dow the multitrack recordiung and drag them into Cubase for editing and mixing. so…REAPER is my second DAW, but a distant second to Cubase which I use every day.
I don’t have a 2nd DAW, but I’ve long been impressed with PT; it seems to be able to do some common sense things, particularly routing moves, that Cubase doesn’t
tried Reason, sonar, ableton, logic but always went back to cubase for some reason or another ( think Midi capabilities if im honest), the only daw I would use a 2nd would be logic if they didnt make it Mac only!
I use presonus studio one on jobs that are vocals with backing track only. the integration with melodyne is superb and makes everything else seem slow and primitive! but Cubase 7 is still the main man for all jobs involving recording bands etc. ed
I have neither time nor desire for a 2nd DAW.
I suppose, under pressure (from others around me), I’d reluctantly switch to ProTools.
Otherwise, even if Cubase were discontinued, I think I’d still be using whatever version for quite some time.
I love Cubase and I’m using it since the great Atari days in the nineties.
I use Ableton Live as a second DAW. It’s my sketchbook for new ideas (quickly throwing in some loops) and I use it for live sequencing with my band. Although I’ve experienced that Cubase is live more stable, the scene play features of Ableton make it more suitable for live use. (And I don’t want to bother about a dongle playing live).
I’ve tried Logic, Cakewalk/Sonar and Fruity Loops, but it’s not for me. Don’t understand why ProTools is still an industry standard.
Personally, I wouldn’t bother having a second DAW. I use one DAW and one notation program. I’m looking forward to Steinberg’s notation stuff since they hired the Sibelius staff and their current notation in Cubase is completely unusable.