Looking at DAW's

[Denim n Leather]

Ben, I have to question the comment that cubase 'sounds better' than PT. All DAWs audio sounds identical: as good as your DACs, or more likely your room and monitors. You should know that mate ;).

Don't agree.

[MDV]

Its not really a matter of opinion. All DAWs noise floor is set by dacs, all of them are linear, uncolouring, and 32 if not 64 bit floating point makes playback of the same sound file the same in each. Effects are another matter, and workflow another yet again, preference or percieved superiority in either of which I do feel are matters of opinion and perfectly good reasons to choose one DAW over another and not expect anyone to question your decision (any more than choosing a les paul or strat).

But playing back the same raw file, they are the same.

Some did a study. The most interesting part to me is this

"Of those who did not complete the test successfully, over 60% could not tell when 2 sound files were exactly the same."

I took the test: I 'failed' it, in that I couldnt tell when it was reaper or PT (I did get it right when they were the same untreated file though)

http://www.airusersblog.com/home-page/2010/8/6/pro-tools-v-reaper-sound-test-the-results.html

The test http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=reaper-v-pro-tools-sound-test

Please note this is not a 'my DAW is better than yours' post or a 'Use reaper its just as good as protools/cubase 6/logic/sonar/studio one/etc etc' post. Maybe it is for me, but isnt for you. Substitute any DAW names in the place of PT and reaper, and the point is the same: I think the most important reason for choosing a DAW is that it does your bread and butter work in a fashion you like and has functions and capabilities you will make good use of and satisfies your needs, not because of a belief in its innate playback sound quality, which I think (and whatever evidence there is supports) is just psychoacoustics, expectation bias, or some other vagary of circumstance or perception.

Not having a go at you, just have to state that point as clearly as I can, for steves consideration agaist the view that one DAW does sound better than another (which is suprisingly common), since I somewhere between strongly believe and know it to be true, it would be remis of me not to :)

[FredD]

+1 +1 +1

Was going to comment on this in my first post on this subject.
Anyway, now it has been commented on by an expert  :D
So you don't need my 2 bobs worth !!!   8)

[MDV]

Cheers

Ben has considerable relevent experience and expertise too, y'know, though, but :)